Mozart in Vienna - Hardcover

Braunbehrens, Volkmar

4.13

67 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 023398559X ISBN 13: 9780233985596

Publisher: Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1990

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The life of Mozart has long been obscured by legend, and the vast international success of Amadeus on stage and screen has only contributed to a distorted image of this most sublime and beloved of composers, whose story is dramatic enough without questionable embellishments. Now Volkmar Braunbehrens has done for Mozart's final decade - the period of his greatest creativity - what H. C. Robbins Landon did in his best-selling 1791: Mozart's Last Year. He has stripped away the sentimental myths and accretions to provide an honest, richly factual account of the mature Mozart against the cultural, social and political background of the times. Braunbehrens reveals a new multidimensional Mozart by plunging us into the everyday life of Vienna in the 1780s, during the reign of the reforming emperor Joseph II. What sights and sounds greeted Mozart when he stepped outside his door? How much were the rents, and what was the cost of living? What did musicians and composers generally earn and how did Mozart's income compare? What was the impact of the emperor's policies on the texture of civic and cultural life in the city? Following Braunbehrens into Mozart's home, we see the household furnishings, inspect Mozart's wardrobe and smile over his vanity about clothes. We watch the composer at work amidst the bustle of a full family and social life. We learn that Mozart on horseback was probably a common sight in the streets of Vienna. We are introduced to the much-maligned Constanze, who appears here as a warm, loving wife and an intelligent partner in Mozart's musical and financial affairs. Braunbehrens never loses sight of the political and intellectual currents that coursed through Vienna in the late eighteenth century. He paints a sharp portrait of the interaction among church, court, artistocracy, and the rising bourgeoisie, with specific attention to its impact on musical patronage

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