Mozart: The Reign of Love

Mozart is regularly regarded as one of the all time best composers. He was a child prodigy with perfect pitch driven by his musician father. Despite passing away in his 30s, he left behind a significant body of work.

Mozart: The Reign of Love goes through the basic biographical timeline of Mozart's life. However, it also delves deeply into the analysis of his key works. (It would be great to have an accompanying Spotify playlist.) I found myself sometimes consulting Wikipedia as I got lost in the music details and wanted a quick rundown of life history. On the history side, Mozart is portrayed as no so much of the playboy he was made out to be in Amadeus. (Interestingly, Amadeus was not a name he frequently used. Mozart was multilingual, and this was merely a translation of one of his middle names. It only became part of his canonical name after later biographers latched on to it.) Wolfgang did delight in scatological joke-making. However, he was also extremely dedicated to his work. He tended to write music more for his own pleasure than purely for commercial reasons. (However, he loved to live to good life, and was often desperate for more money.) He was well respected in his time as a brilliant musician and composer. However, he also was prone to overwork, and often got sick. The medical system was often a hinderance more than a help, thus was not able to prevent his early death.