Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) showed such a prodigious talent
for music in his early childhood that his father,
also a composer,
dropped all other ambitions and devoted himself to educating the boy
and exhibiting his accomplishments.
Between ages six and fifteen, Mozart was on tour over half the time.
By 1762, he was a virtuoso on the clavier
- an early keyboard instrument and predecessor of the piano
- and soon became a good organist and violinist as well.
He produced his first minuets at the age of six,
and his first symphony just before his ninth birthday,
his first oratorio at eleven,
and his first opera at twelve.
His final output would total more than 600 compositions.
Much has already been said and studied in the popular media about Mozart's
roguish lifestyle and apprehension of conformity.
It was this aspect of his personality that never won him the support
of royalty or the church,
which, at that time,
was critical to any composer's survival.
As such, Mozart died young, ill, poor, and relatively unappreciated...
only to become the most widely acknowledged orchestral composer in history.
La Clemenza di Tito, an opera seria in two acts
is one of the commonly overlooked Mozart works.
The libretto, by Caterino Mazzolà, is an abridgment and adaptation
of one by Pietro Metastasio, and tells the tale of Titus, set in ancient Rome.
There is also some dispute about the simple recitatives, which may or may not
have been composed by Mozart's student Franz Xaver Süssmayr.
The work was first produced in Prague in 1791 at the coronation of
Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia.
Being Mozart's last opera, the overture represents the arrival point of
Mozart's lifelong exploration of the operatic overture.
Mozart's last three symphonies appeared in quick succession
during the summer of 1788.
Mozart was in dire financial straits at the time.
Four years previously he had still been a fashionable celebrity,
both as a composer and a pianist, but in the meantime Viennese society
as "dropped" him completely.
The last three symphonies may perhaps have been Mozart's last vain attempt
to gain another foothold in the cultural life of Vienna.
Mozart completed his Symphony No.41 in C Major, K.551
on the 10th of August 1788.
Soon after the composer's death, Peter Salomon, the London violinist and
concert manager, nicknamed the symphony the "Jupiter," and the name stuck.
This particular symphony is clearly the point where the pre-Beethoven classical
symphony reaches its highest peak, and is exceptional for two reasons.
First, there is a persistent "cantus firmus" formula throughout the work,
though not strictly adhered to, the formula being made up of the following
notes: c-d-f-e-a-g-f-e-d-c.
Secondly, the Finale, with its elaborate polyphony, is given unusual emphasis
by Mozart, clearly breaking with Classical tradition by emphasizing the last
movement of the symphony instead of the first.
This latter move would have a profound effect on the early symphonies of
Beethoven.
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