Great Masters: Mozart: His Life and Music , 8 CD's - 8 Lectures
The Teaching Company | English | ISBN: 1565853776 | 2000 | MP3 | 145 Mb
You learn about Mozart's:
* journey from youthful prodigy to posthumous deification
* vexing relationship with his father
* tours to London and Paris
* struggles for a successful career
* marriage to Constanze Weber
* triumphs and disappointments in Vienna
* relationships with key figures such as Haydn, Emperor Joseph II, and Lorenzo da Ponte.
"Much of today's Mozart scholarship is about debunking myths," says Professor Greenberg. "One of the reasons for the Mozart mythology is the fact that few responsible accounts of Mozart's life and personality were written during his lifetime. Much was written years after his death.
"Mozart's extraordinary, prodigious talent also fueled the notion that he was some kind of freak. At the heart of the Mozart mythology is the otherworldliness of his music. His middle name, Amadeus, 'loved of God,' also helped to imbue him with a God-like image.
"The goal of these lectures is to show Mozart to be a person: a talented, hard-working, ambitious man who had friends and enemies and whose music was subject to criticism in his own day."
In 1790 Mozart's health began to deteriorate and he became depressed. That year, he wrote very little of significance. His creative recovery in early 1791 was inexplicable. The compositions of that year culminated in the great Masonic opera, The Magic Flute.
By the end of the year, he was working on a Requiem Mass, anonymously commissioned by a nobleman who liked to pass off others' compositions as his own. The Requiem remained unfinished at Mozart's death on December 5, 1791.
Myths and speculation ,surround the cause of Mozart's death. The most famous myth is that he was poisoned by the Italian composer Antonio Salieri who, while a patient in an insane asylum decades later, claimed that he had done the dastardly deed. The most likely theory is that Mozart died from acute rheumatic fever and a stroke brought on by excessive bloodletting—at the age of 35.
A Wide Selection of Excerpts from The Great Masters
Mozart wrote more than 600 compositions, whose standard numbering comes from the catalogue listing first published in 1862 by Ludwig von Köchel. Among those excerpted:
Eine kleine Nachtmusick, K.525 (1787)
Don Giovanni, K. 527 (1787)
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 (1785)
String Quartet in C, K. 465 ["Dissonant"] (1785)
The Magic Flute, K. 620 (1791)
Serenade in D Major, K. 320 ["Posthorn"] (1779)
Così fan tutte, K. 588 (1789)
Flute Concerto in D, K. 314/320d (1777)
Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat, K. 456 (1785)
Ein Musikalischer Spass, K. 522 (1787)
Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra, K. 364/320d (1779)
The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492 (1786)
String Quintet in C Major, K. 515 (1787)
Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550 (1788)
Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543 (1788)
Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 ["Jupiter"] (1788)
Requiem Mass, K. 626 (1791)
