BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS AQUARIUS: WOLFGANG MOZART

Composer, born in Salzburg, C Austria, the son of the violinist and composer Leopold Mozart (1719–87). A child prodigy, he made his first professional tour (as a pianist) through Europe when he was six. He was a prolific composer, and travelled widely, but failed to find a permanent position. After some years in Salzburg as Konzertmeister to the archbishop, he resigned (1781) and settled in Vienna. His operas The Marriage of Figaro (1786) and Don Giovanni (1787) made it impossible for the court still to overlook the composer, and he was appointed court composer to Joseph II in 1787. His compositions, numbering over 600 in Köchel's catalogue, include several other operas - notably Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782, The Abduction from the Harem), Così fan tutte (1790) and The Magic Flute (1791) - 41 symphonies, and many concertos, chamber works, and sonatas. In writing the Requiem Mass commissioned for Count Walsegg, he felt he was writing his own requiem; he died before it was finished. A statue of the composer in Salzburg commemorates his life. Celebrations marking his 250th birthday in 2006 were held around the world, many of the events centring on his birthplace in Salzburg, and Vienna, where he made his home and died at the age of 35.