Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Musical Genius

this video is brought to you by  nordvpn give yourself options   online go to nordvpn.com forward slash bio  to get a two-year plan with a huge discount   plus a bonus month and a free  gift more on them in just a bit today's protagonist was called the highest and  the culminating point that beauty has attained   in the sphere of music or even the musical christ  these options do not come from just any classical   music enthusiast but some guy called tchaikovsky  who knew a thing or two about composition he was   preferring to wolfgang amadeus mozart possibly  the greatest musical genius to ever grace our   ears and souls here at biographics we admit that  we don't necessarily have the knowledge to analyze   in-depth mozart's compositions we will do  our best however to cover his short yet   incredibly eventful life and we'll also  debunk a couple of myths along the way wolfgang amadeus mozart was born in salzburg  on january 27 1756. he was the seventh child   of anna maria and leopold composer for the local  prince archbishop count schrattenbach since burst   his parents and siblings called him woolfer  the princess bishopric of salzburg was one   of many small sovereign states within the holy  roman empire and an extremely wealthy one the   environment may have been provincial compared to  other large european capitals but arts and music   enjoyed the patronage of the court leopold  soon realized that wolfel was endowed with   an extraordinary musical talent at the age of  three he could play his first pieces on the piano   at four the violin woolfell's sister nanil  displayed similar abilities soon leopold was   dedicating most of his energies to developing  their natural skills the boy appeared to be   the most gifted of the two absorbing musical  theory with much appetite and little effort   under leopold's loving but inflexible guidance  woolfell composed his first piano concerto age   four followed by a minuet and a trio for keyboard  at six in between these two accomplishments the   young mozart discovered the joys of singing and  performing live in 1761 the five-year-old had a   minor role in the musical drama sigismund  king of hungary this first experience of   the theatrical stage may have influenced his  love of opera in later life around this time   leopold realized that salzburg was too small for  wolferl and nanelle the dad became an impresario   and planned a trip to the imperial court in  vienna in october of 1762. emperor francis   the first and empress maria theresa welcomed  the tiny performers at their lavish shamroom   palace maria theresa was astonished at wolfgang's  skills spoiling him with compliments and presence   to express his gratitude the boy jumped on the  empress's lap and kissed her but the emperor   wanted to challenge the boy even further he asked  him to play the piano keys covered by a screen   and then to play using only one finger wolfgang  accepted and won the challenge now a celebrity   the boy became a sort of mascot for the ladies  it caught one day he slipped to the floor while   at courts and an archdust just lifted woolfell to  his feet and he told her you are a dear good lady   and you shall be my wife the good lady was  marie antoinette the future queen of france leopold had hit upon a winning idea courts  around europe would pay good money to see his   children perform the mozart's continued their  triumville albeit exhausting tour of europe   leopold's tactics may appear akin to exploitation  of child labor but it appears that his children   and especially wolfgang greatly enjoyed their  travels and their performances for the future   composer they were also an occasion to hone  his skills and explore new musical genres   in april 1764 leopold warfare and nana toured  london where the boy prodigy was challenged by   lawyer danes barrington to improvise two arias  in the popular style of italian opera after a   short moment of reflection wolfgang hammered  at the harpsichord delivering both a love song   and a song of rage the anecdote proves how the  young talent could effectively internalize and   reproduce the standard conventions of popular  genres at the time the tour resumed with stops   in flanders france switzerland and salzburg  before the mozart's return to vienna in 1768.   the new emperor joseph ii commissioned the  12-year-old mozart to compose an opera la finta   semleche which attracted the brave italian master  pietro matatacio not bad for a pre-teen but the   hype around the opera attracted the envy of the  imperial entourage due to their scheming the opera   did not reach the stage but leopold and  wolfgang and set their minds on conquering   the operatic world to do so they had to take  by storm the cradle of lyrical theatre italy in december of 1769 they crossed the alps for a  tour of northern italy where wolfgang continued to   impress audiences with his operatic improvisations  according to a newspaper published in vienna four   verses were submitted to him on which he composed  on the spot on aria in the best taste in the very   act of singing it eventually wolfgang received  another commission for an opera at the age of   14 he saw his mithridates king of ponto opening  in milan to rave reviews the success was quickly   followed by another milanese debut aschiano and  alba the italian tour continued from strength to   strength while in bologna he attended the lessons  of gian batista martini mastering counterpoint or   the art of combining different melodic lines and  musical composition martini was impressed and   he encouraged mozart to take the entrance  exam for the philharmonic society he was   given a musical theme and was instructed to  build a fugue for four instruments around   it a fugue is a composition where a theme is  introduced at the beginning and then repeated   at different pitches half an hour later wolfgang  had completed the composition performed it and   bagged his diploma next stage of the tour rome and  the vatican where wolfgang performed another stunt   he attended a performance of choral work misery  by alegri no printed copies of the composition   existed and the pope himself had forbidden it  from being transcribed but he memorized the   entire score and put it a paper in secret after  the performance the next day he played and sang   it flawlessly to an audience of gasping musicians  he was now the talk of rome although some envious   souls gossip that his talents lay in a magical  ring a sort of talisman that he wore all the time   however our genius simply removed the ring and  proved that he could still rock those ivory keys   no magic involved what a surprise the triumph  was now complete young mozart was granted an   audience with pope clement xiv who appointed  him knight of the order of the golden spur   in the spring of 1772 mozart returned to  salzburg looking for permanent employment   he founded at the court of the new prince  archbishop count colorado who hired him as a   concert master with a rather low salary of 150  gilders the composer was not over the moon yet   these were productive years the musician penned  further operas and his first piano concerto he   also perfected his technique as he studied the  works of joseph hayden and the imperial court   composer antonio celieri now let's take a quick  break here antonio celieri is remembered by most   as the patron saint of mediocrity a fashionable  composer whose work did not stand the test of   time consumed by jealousy who was embroiled in  a bit of rivalry against mozart a feud which   resulted in salieri accelerating mozart's  death at least that's the plot of the film   amadeus by milosh forman which is based on the  play by peter schaefer inspired by a previous   work of alexander pushkin and it was all based  on unfounded gossip i'll get to this later but   rest assured that the two composers largely  respected each other and that our friend antonio   never killed anybody in 1777 the only one who had  a beef with mozart was his employer count colorado   unappreciative of his compositions and operating  on a tight budget the prince of salzburg laid   off his constant master now age 21 mozart set off  on a new voyage in search of patronage this time   his father had to stay and work in salzburg  so mum anna maria was to accompany the musical   marvel so how would wolfgang fare without  leopold's invasive yet steadying influence in 1777 and 1778 wolfgang and mum saw work  in augsburg munich and mannheim but work   remained elusive there are many reasons for  this first wolfgang had grown into a playful   yet overconfident young man a confidence which  bordered on arrogance he lacked the diplomacy to   function in an aristocratic court and spoke his  mind to wealthy patrons this resulted in being   snubbed in favor of more accommodating rivals  the second reason is the mozart was going through   a massive composer's block in 1777 and 1778  he wrote to his father that he was working on   numerous projects and that he and anna maria were  living like royalty to the point that he had grown   slightly fat but not as fat as the fib he was  telling his dad the musician was going through   exceptional difficulties in writing new pieces for  example in late 1777 mozart had been commissioned   for three flute concertos by a dutch patron he  soon got stuck urged by his father to honour the   contract mozart simply retrieved a previous  work and oboe concerto and changed the solo   part to that of a flute but he delivered only two  out of the three concertos and he had to forfeit   the payment of 200 guilders mozart's flute gate  debunks the myth that the composer could crank   out new music easily and could devise new works in  his head before transcribing them without revision   or afterthought the myth originates from a letter  attributed to mozart published by magazine editor   johann roschlitz decades after his death the whole  piece though it be long stands almost finished and   completed my mind so that i can survey it like  a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance   so mozart's music came from a higher plane and  reached his mind fully formed through a stroke   of divine inspiration except no it didn't the  letter was a forgery the secret to mozart's genius   was constant practice study revision more study  and more practice even if he conceived as main   themes in his head mozart still had to sit at the  keyboard to refine them work out their variations   and orchestrations a long mind-shattering process  which day after day was bound to cause mental   fatigue by his own admission mozart struggled  the most with string quartets when writing an   orchestral piece for example he would first create  the main theme for the main treble instrument   next he nailed the bass lines and finally the  inner parts and orchestrations but when tackling   a quartet he wrote the four parts at the same time  baa baa baar placing a great deal of effort in   building a complex counterpoint this is what made  him sweat the most wolfgang amadeus mozart was an   exceptionally talented and hardworking human but  he was a human after all and as any other 21 year   old he was prone to another source of distraction  after germany anna maria and wolfgang were due to   visit versailles the trip was thwarted when mozart  met the first great love of his life the young and   beautiful singer aloisia weber he followed her in  a tour to the hague and even supported her family   financially to leopold's concern dad sent anamaria  to retrieve him and finally the two set off for   paris but their french experience was a terrible  one they were expecting to be welcomed at court   but all mozart could find were some teaching jobs  and he could only afford a rather sleazy hotel   as they spiraled into poverty anna maria fell ill  and eventually died on the third of july 1778. all   right we'll get back to our video in just a second  but first here's a word from today's video sponsor   nordvpn look everybody uses the internet slightly  differently and that's totally fine but you don't   want to do is use the internet unprotected you may  have heard me talk about what nordvpn can do for   you previously encrypt your internet data and move  your online activity to another location with just   a single click either for security or streaming  all that is still true nor vpn has more than 5   000 servers throughout 60 countries but vpns give  you access to so much more than just new tv shows   like what if you want to buy a video game that's  cheaper somewhere else or maybe not even available   in your country well use nordvpn having trouble  connecting to social media nor vpn want to root   your connection through multiple servers just for  double layered security yes totally possible with   nordvpn right now as a special deal you guys can  get a two-year plan at a huge discount plus one a bonus gift on top of that or just follow  the link below and now back to today's video as if the death of his mother was not enough  mozart was rebuffed by alicia whose career was   on an upward trajectory this period was one of the  composer's darkest hours but it also contributed   to developing his maturity on a personal and  professional level for the moment though the   composer needed immediate help thankfully leopold  came to the rescue he secured mozart another post   at the salzburg court in 1779 which in turn  earned him new work in 1718 mozart composed   his best opera so far edomineo king of crete  which attracted the attention of the court in   vienna wolfgang returned to the austrian capital  in 1781 and to save on rent money he lodged with   the webers it was at their home that he met  alessia's sister constans the composer was   smitten he simply had to marry the girl on the one  hand he didn't dare inform his father as leopold   considered the webers below his standing on the  other hand constanza's mother pressured them   to formalize their affair but before tying the  knot moat sad had business to do in july of 1782   he completed one of his most famous operas the  abduction from the cereglio this exotic work set   in the ottoman empire is the first opera in which  mozart left his mark on the plot and characters   he established certain recurring elements such as  the complexity of the female characters who were   better developed than their male counterparts and  the dramatic action never resolving into a fully   positive outcome even offstage the outcome was  not as positive as expected despite the success   in rave reviews mozart received a fee of just 100  guilders not enough to grant financial security   nonetheless wolfgang and constans got married on  the 4th of august in saint stephen's cathedral in june of 1783 the mozart's welcomed their first  child raymond leopold sadly he died in august the   couple went on to have five more children but  only two survived infancy the grief of losing so   many children weighed on constance already beset  by chronic ulcerated varicose veins wolfgang was   in constant need of cash to pay medical bills  sure but also to sustain a dissolute lifestyle   of partying and drinking that was well beyond  his means thus he plunged into one of his most   productive periods earning 460 guilders in a year  but mozart was still not satisfied he was craving   for new material to compose his next opera  but the narrative of musical conventions at   the time did not provide any exciting inspiration  librettists of the time also complained about the   fact that the musician wanted to meddle in  their realm criticizing and rewriting their   scripts the right occasion arrived when mozart met  lorenzo de ponte librettis who had already worked   for salier the italian court composer may have  held some grudge against the younger rival for   poaching his star librettist but that grudge never  developed into the homicidal hatred portrayed   in theater and film actually solari had a very  good chance to get back at mozart and deponte   in 1786 joseph ii challenged mozart and salieri to  knock their opratic socks off at a special event   a double feature show in which two one-act operas  would be performed back-to-back the audience would   crown their favorite performance mozart's piece  was the impresario a musical comedy about the   production of a musical comedy salieri composed  a more ambitious piece in opera set in the world   of opera so it was all rather meta at the end  of the evening salieri was crowned the winner   by the emperor and the audience so why would he  hold a grudge beyond that in any case salieri was   the most successful and better enumerated of the  two rivals the two respected each other's music   salieri frequently directed mozart's compositions  and was even happy to hand over projects to   wolfgang when he was too busy so mozart and  daponto really needn't worry about salieri   scheming in the shadows the first  collaboration of this dream team is   in our humble opinion mozart's finest work  the marriage of figaro the source material   was a comedy by french playwright beaumarshay  it had a revolutionary subtext as it pits the   commoner figaro against the lustful count of  alma viva mozart and deponte toned down the   anti-aristocratic themes to avoid censorship  but their work was still revolutionary   at least in musical terms and yet the viennese  premiere on may 1 1786 left the audience puzzled   the work was too complex too ahead of its time  but mozart was invited to perform the opera   in prague here the success was phenomenal  the piece remained on stage for three weeks   and mozart was rewarded with a thousand gilders  the prague scene commissioned another opera from   mozart and dupont the don giovanni before it was  completed the earpod mozart died on may 28 1787 throughout his life leopold had been a constant  presence in wolfgang's life he had been his   teacher his manager and even his friend and  confidant it was evident that leopold's influence   was always at risk of becoming overbearing  the father worried genuinely that his son   would squander his talents in later years leopold  was more worried that wolfgang simply squandered   his own fortune as he lived well beyond his means  while wolfgang appreciated leopold's advice he had   actively kept him at a distance to protect his  independence the caboza poured his grief and   unresolved issues into new composition the  unrepentant seducer don juan can be considered   as a proxy for wolfgang the libertine is  eventually dragged to hell by an authoritative   paternal figure the murdered father of one  of his conquests who returns as a ghost   again the reception was terrific and the  play was very good but not good enough   to relieve wolfgang and constance from their  mounting pile of debts not even the long-covered   deployment as an imperial court composer in  december 1787 could help him balancing the books   in 1788 and 1789 the struggling mozart accepted  the help of fellow freemason prince liknowski the   prince organized a tour in dresden and berlin but  the german-speaking world was less appreciative   than czech audiences eventually the prussian  court offered a lucrative fee for a series of   string quartets but as we know these did not come  easy to mozart and he never completed the work the   composer returned to vienna and to constance in  july of 1789 the couple welcomed their fifth child   but the baby girl survived only a  few hours constance fell ill again   and the cost of treatments further  weighed down on the family finances during these difficult days mozart finally  had a break the emperor himself joseph ii had   commissioned a new opera from him and deponte  cos fantute or thus do they all it premiered   on the 26th of january 1790 but the emperor  was ill with tuberculosis and didn't attend   he died shortly there afterwards succeeded by  his brother leopold ii the pneumonic was less   musically inclined in 1791 mozart could not hope  for patronage from the court with constance being   treated in barden he felt depressed and lonely but  he still had some friends one of them was singer   and freemason brother emmanuel shakineda mozart  and shikoneda thought of dabbling in a popular   genre of the time the magical opera in the german  language the result was the magic flute the opera   outwardly presents itself as a fairy tale but  it is imbued with free masonic symbolism and   humanistic ideals the magic flute premiered on  september 30th 1791 it became a huge success   one alas mozart could not fully enjoy his health  was deteriorating due to rheumatism swelling   fevers and persistent depression moreover it  was just overworked while composing the magic   flute he had to accept the commission for another  opera la clemenza de tito required by leopold ii   for his coronation ceremony mozart took on  a further request by an anonymous messenger   a masked cloaked stranger required mozart  to compose a requiem the music to a funeral   mass wolfgang interpreted this as a sign of  approaching doom he was seriously convinced   he was being poisoned as he wrote in a letter i  know i have to die i write the requiem for myself   by the way the mysterious patron was not antonio  celieri as portrayed in the amadeus play and film   he was an amateur composer count walzeg stupak  who intended to present the requiem as his own   composition and nobody was poisoning mozart to  date there are more than 130 theories and what   exactly was the composer's illness ranging  from mercury poisoning to syphilis a 2009   study found that the mortality of young males in  vienna was well above average in 1791 and 1792.   this may be linked to an epidemic of streptococcal  infection which caused kidney failure so that may   be the cause and it is compatible with mozart's  symptoms by november of 1791 he was confined to   bed feverish swollen and drained of energy his  condition worsened on the evening of december the   4th and he called for the doctor when the position  drew some blood the composer lost consciousness   at 1am on the 5th of december wolfgang amadeus  mozart died age 35 a life cut short too soon   he left behind an unfinished requiem as per  funeral regulations of the time he was buried   with very little ceremony in a grave shared  with four other bodies his final resting place   has never been identified now we feel today that  discussing mozart's legacy is a bit superfluous   what i'd like to do instead is stress again  how wolfgang amadeus mozart achieved apparent   effortless purity and beauty in his music as  albert einstein put it one feels he merely found   it that it has always existed as part of the inner  beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed but   what he achieved he did from a state of constant  practice in a struggle and personal turmoil

Channel: Biographics

Views: 158,029

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: YjlA2cixtkM

Length: 21min 16sec (1276 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2022