Tuesday, July 17, 2012


from the MFT webpage, used by permission
This week starts the second annual Mozart Festival Texas at UIW. Friday nights feature chamber music and Saturday nights are orchestral performances.
We thought we'd share some pieces by or facts about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart you might want to know.

1. Köchel catalogue number is number assigned in chronological order to every one of Mozart's known works. A work is referenced by the abbreviation "K." followed by this number. The first edition of the catalogue was completed in 1862 by Ludwig von Köchel.

2. Pushkin's play Mozart and Salieri is based on the "supposed rivalry" between Mozart and Antonio Salieri, especially the idea that it was poison received from the latter that caused Mozart's death. This idea is not supported by modern scholarship.

3. Mozart helped "create" the Piano Quartet! You can hear both his piano quartets this Friday!

4. His wife Constanza wrote that his voice "was a tenor, rather soft in speaking and delicate in singing, but when anything excited him, or it became necessary to exert it, it was both powerful and energetic".

5. He was born "Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart" but "In Italy, from 1770, Mozart called himself 'Wolfgango Amadeo', and from about 1777, 'Wolfgang Amadè'." No one really listened to his and either called him Wolfgang Amadeus or Wolfgang Gottlieb!

6. Mozart usually wrote his Piano Concerti for himself. The 21st Concerto is on tap this Saturday night.

7. Mozart not only played keyboard but violin as well. Very well. He was concertmaster of the Archbishop's orchestra.

8. Mozart never finished his Requiem Mass, but has been completed by several others, including his student Franz Xavier Sussmayer.

No comments: