Books about Mozart

"Mozart and his operas" by David Cairns

This is something I picked up in my favorite bookshop in Amsterdam - it was second hand (which I liked), inexpensive and it turned out very interesting although my copy somehow got wet & slightly damaged with all my traveling and moving around from one ship to another. So here it is, a cute, fabulous little book and all tattered and worn out, like it survived centuries. David Cairns is a respected music critic, professor and scholar, educated and cultured man who obviously live for music (he had also published biography of Berlioz) and this was clearly labour of love. Contrary to what I expected, the book was not only about Mozart's operas but it actually covered his life as well - it is a part chronological biography, part explanation how his famous operas came to be and what were circumstances in which he created them. As we all know by now, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had spend most of his tragically short life (he died only 35 years old) in search of money, better employment and benefactors but along the way he did travel a lot, enjoyed life to a full and even if he failed to get protection from some wealthy benefactor, he created for himself quite a loyal and loving following in Vienna and Prague. Cairns naturally focuses more on music than on private life and here he explains to a detail all the little ornamentations, from "Idomeneo" to "The Magic Flute' - it is far more exciting and interesting than my description and in fact I read it with greatest pleasure. Naturally it sent me back to Mozart's music immediately and I absolutely agree with Cairns who says that Mozart's music seems to move above the earth as airborne, touching the ground only momentarily.

Constanze Mozart : after the Requiem by Heinz Gärtner

Very interesting book that suggested itself as natural sequel to previous one. When Mozart died, his widow Constanze found herself with unfinished "Requiem" that was already commissioned and paid for, so she had to even return the money or to somehow deliver promised work, which she promptly did with a little outside help. Outpour of love, admiration and grief for sadly departed young composer somehow created this particular work his best-known creation (it was published and printed continuously) but the real truth about its unfinished state was kept from public until much, much later in order not to hurt widow Mozart's financial prospects. Author goes into detail description of the times and atmosphere around Mozart's death, how publishers circled around Constanze and cunning ways she basically outwitted them all, lots of funny characters and even more interestingly we also have chapters about composers sons who both lived sadly unfulfilled lives as constantly overshadowed by the immense genius of their father. Frau Mozart comes as manipulative and business-minded at first (which one would never expect from the way she was described while her husband was alive) but slowly emerges as little warmer person (though very bourgeois and proper to outside), her sons are real tragic characters here because they seems to have been shifted between relatives and never got warmth or parents love to nurture them into life. Absolutely fascinating.