Mozart in Prague


Book Description

Dismissed in Vienna as a composer of excessively complicated music with little popular appeal, Mozart found complete recognition for his talents in Prague, likely as a byproduct of the exceptional musical literacy of the general population. Accounts of the affection lavished on Mozart by the people of Prague can be deeply moving for those acquainted with his bleak struggles for recognition in Vienna. Indeed, he was manhandled like a rock star at the concert in 1787 that featured the first performance of the "Prague" Symphony in a way that he never experienced anywhere else. And in contrast to the tawdry ceremonies that accompanied Mozart's burial in Vienna in 1791, his funeral in Prague, attended by thousands of mourners, brought life there to a standstill. It was the residents of Prague, not Vienna, who took responsibility to provide for Mozart's widow and children. Mozart in Prague tells the story of the amazing civic revival that was responsible for Mozart's unique personal and musical relationship with this beautiful city and the colorful characters who helped shape it, including Marie Antoinette and Giacomo Casanova.




Mozart's Journey to Prague


Book Description

While on a journey to Prague with his wife for the opening night of Don Giovanni, Mozart is caught picking an orange on the grounds of a stately home. But when the resident family finds out who they are dealing with, they are delighted to be in the presence of the celebrated composer and invite him to their daughter's wedding. This vivid and imaginative depiction captures both the humorous and the more pensive side of the genius composer.




Performing Operas for Mozart


Book Description

A study of the Prague Italian opera company and its role in performing Mozart's works in the late eighteenth-century.




Mozart in Prague


Book Description




The Mozart Code


Book Description

No matter how you might try to hide in a war to escape your past, it is always close at hand. Lady Sophia Huntington Villiers is no stranger to intrigue, as her work with Alan Turing’s Bombe Machines at Bletchley Park during the war attests. Now, as part of Simon Barre’s covert team in post-war Vienna, she uses her inimitable charm and code name Starling to infiltrate the world of relics: uncovering vital information that could tilt the stakes of the mounting Cold War. When several influential men charge her with finding the death mask of Mozart, Sophie wonders if there is more than the composer’s legacy at stake and finds herself drawn to potential answers in Prague. Simon Barrington, the illegitimate heir of one of Sussex’s oldest estates, used the previous war to hide his insecurities about his past. Now, he uses his high breeding to gain access to all four allied quarters of the ruined city in an attempt to slow the fall of the Iron Curtain. He has been in love with Sophie Villiers since the moment he met her, and a marriage of convenience to save Simon’s estate has always kept her close. Until now, when Sophie’s mysterious client in Prague forces him to wonder if her allegiance to him—and their cause—is in question. Torn between his loyalty to his cause and his heart, Simon seeks answers about Sophie only to learn that everything he thought he knew about his involvement in both wars is based on a lie. “Murky espionage and burgeoning passion twine beautifully together in The Mozart Code’s superbly evocative prose—an enchanting read!” —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code “Vienna is the new Paris in The Mozart Code, a World War II spy novel with deft, chess-like plotting, and plenty of old-fashioned romance.” —Susan Elia MacNeal, New York Times bestselling author of the Maggie Hope novels and Mother Daughter Traitor Spy “The Mozart Code is a smart, luscious romance, a thrilling suspense, and a thunderously good read. McMillan is a rising star in historical fiction.” —Aimie K. Runyan, bestselling author of The School for German Brides “Rife with secret codes, haunting melodies, betrayal and sacrifice, at its heart this is a story about the courage it takes to love and be loved. Highly recommended!” —Kimberly Brock, author of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare “Beautifully lush and atmospheric, The Mozart Code is a novel full of nuances and brimming with danger, romance, and intrigue.” —Jenni L. Walsh, author of Becoming Bonnie and The Call of the Wrens “The Mozart Code left me breathless.” —Joy Callaway, international bestselling author of The Fifth Avenue Artists Society and The Greenbrier Resort Post World War II historical romance Stand-alone novel (features characters from The London Restoration) Book length: 95,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs




Mozart


Book Description

From the acclaimed composer and biographer Jan Swafford comes the definitive biography of one of the most lauded musical geniuses in history, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At the earliest ages it was apparent that Wolfgang Mozart’s singular imagination was at work in every direction. He hated to be bored and hated to be idle, and through his life he responded to these threats with a repertoire of antidotes mental and physical. Whether in his rabidly obscene mode or not, Mozart was always hilarious. He went at every piece of his life, and perhaps most notably his social life, with tremendous gusto. His circle of friends and patrons was wide, encompassing anyone who appealed to his boundless appetites for music and all things pleasurable and fun. Mozart was known to be an inexplicable force of nature who could rise from a luminous improvisation at the keyboard to a leap over the furniture. He was forever drumming on things, tapping his feet, jabbering away, but who could grasp your hand and look at you with a profound, searching, and melancholy look in his blue eyes. Even in company there was often an air about Mozart of being not quite there. It was as if he lived onstage and off simultaneously, a character in life’s tragicomedy but also outside of it watching, studying, gathering material for the fabric of his art. Like Jan Swafford’s biographies Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, Mozart is the complete exhumation of a genius in his life and ours: a man who would enrich the world with his talent for centuries to come and who would immeasurably shape classical music. As Swafford reveals, it’s nearly impossible to understand classical music’s origins and indeed its evolutions, as well as the Baroque period, without studying the man himself.




The Mozart Myths


Book Description

This is an ambitious attempt to separate what is actually known (and can be known) about Mozart from the many myths and legends that have grown up about his life and character, notably the circumstances of his death and his alleged immaturity, drinking, extravagance, womanizing, unreliability, and professional failure.




The Mozart Family


Book Description

The family into which Mozart was born has never received a rigorous contextual study which does justice to the complexity of its relationships or to its interactions with colleagues, friends, and neighbours in Mozarts native city, Salzburg. Most biographies of Mozart have undervalued the manypassages in the rich family correspondence which do not bear directly on him. This book draws on the neglected material, most of which has never been translated into English. At the heart of the work is a detailed examination of the letters, supplemented by little-known archival material from thepapers of the Berchtold family, into which Mozarts sister Nannerl married. Additional information concerning Salzburg's local history, especially the working conditions at court and the provision for dependants of court employees, enables the hopes, expectations, and fears of the Mozarts to belocated in the context of the social conditions there. As well as providing a sympathetic account of the other members of the family, all of whom were profoundly affected by the experience of sharing their lives with Mozart, this approach gives new significance to the events of Mozart's life; notonly are they set against the background of his familys expectations of him, but the ways in which the source material has to be used for this purpose necessarily involves fundamental improvements in its interpretation. Ruth Halliwell challenges most previous views of the characters in Mozart's family (especially of his father, Leopold), and of the relationships within it. She also introduces a wealth of characters from the Mozarts's circle in Salzburg, from chambermaids to princes, and demonstrates the relevanceof the gossip stories the Mozarts told about them to the larger outlook of the members of the family. In an important final section, Halliwell traces the roles of Nannerl and Mozart's wife Constanze in using, controlling, and handing on the biographical source material after Mozarts death. She discusses their dealings with publishers such as Breitkopf and Hartel, and with the authors of theearliest biographies of Mozart. This complex topic here receives an account which not only illuminates the characters of both women and the relations between them, but also addresses the question of how myths were able to creep into the Mozartian biography at so early a stage and take tenacioushold.




Mozart in Context


Book Description

The vibrant intellectual, social and political climate of mid eighteenth-century Europe presented opportunities and challenges for artists and musicians alike. This book focuses on Mozart the man and musician as he responds to different aspects of that world. It reveals his views on music, aesthetics and other matters; on places in Austria and across Europe that shaped his life; on career contexts and environments, including patronage, activities as an impresario, publishing, theatrical culture and financial matters; on engagement with performers and performance, focusing on Mozart's experiences as a practicing musician; and on reception and legacy from his own time through to the present day. Probing diverse Mozartian contexts in a variety of ways, the contributors reflect the vitality of existing scholarship and point towards areas primed for further study. This volume is essential reading for students and scholars of late eighteenth-century music and for Mozart aficionados and music lovers in general.




Mozart


Book Description

Franz Xaver Niemetschek was born in 1766 in what is now the Czech Republic and came from a musical family, which gave him a deep appreciation and admiration for Mozart's genius. In 1798 he published his biography on Mozart, with a touching dedication to Haydn, the only one written by an eyewitness, and authorized by Mozart's widow Constanze. It is one of the earliest specimens of musical biography which, compared with other branches of biography, was still in its infancy even in the later part of the 19th century. In this sense, it is an important document of music history. However, this loving and intimate portrait of Mozart, based on documents, letters and other original sources, also conveys a vivid picture of the social and especially courtly life that formed the background of Mozart's sheer magical talents as composer and virtuoso.