Here are 100 books that Mozart fans have personally recommended if you like
Mozart.
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I am J.R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and current President of the Royal Musical Association, and I have been writing about Mozart’s life and music for more than 25 years. Across five monographs, my interests have broadened from Mozart’s piano concertos, to stylistic issues in his Viennese instrumental music, to biographical, philological, reception- and performance-related topics in the Requiem and the last decade of his life in general, and (most recently) to a comparative study of his and contemporary Joseph Haydn’s reception in the long nineteenth century.
There are many editions of Mozart’s letters, translated into a number of languages. While Emily Anderson’s Mozart writes more properly and formally than the composer himself actually did, the great value of her book is that it is the most comprehensive among English editions.
It includes all of Mozart’s own letters interwoven with hundreds from his correspondents–above all father Leopold. The ebb and flow of so much of Mozart’s remarkable life is captured in the volume: his views on music, musicians, styles and aesthetics; his dealings with the practicalities of life, including in wide-ranging musical and non-musical interactions with his father; and his emotions and personal and professional relationships. Above all, Mozart–and his correspondents–speak to us directly through their correspondence.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
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A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I am J.R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and current President of the Royal Musical Association, and I have been writing about Mozart’s life and music for more than 25 years. Across five monographs, my interests have broadened from Mozart’s piano concertos, to stylistic issues in his Viennese instrumental music, to biographical, philological, reception- and performance-related topics in the Requiem and the last decade of his life in general, and (most recently) to a comparative study of his and contemporary Joseph Haydn’s reception in the long nineteenth century.
This thoroughly researched and engaging biography starts before the beginning of Mozart’s life and ends long after it. In short–and as indicated in the book’s subtitle–it is not simply about Mozart, but about how his life intersects with the lives of those closest to him, namely father Leopold, sister Nannerl, and wife Constanze.
Leopold emerges as central to Mozart’s story until his death in 1787, and Constanze too from their courtship in 1781, through Mozart’s death a decade later and beyond it as well, when she tirelessly developed his legacy and reputation.
The family into which Mozart was born has never received a rigorous contextual study which does justice to the complexity of its relationships or to its interactions with colleagues, friends, and neighbours in Mozart's native city, Salzburg. Most biographies of Mozart have undervalued the many passages in the rich family correspondence which do not bear directly on him. This book draws on the neglected material, most of which has never been translated into English. At the heart of the work is a detailed examination of the letters, supplemented by little-known archival material from the papers of the Berchtold family, into…
I am J.R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and current President of the Royal Musical Association, and I have been writing about Mozart’s life and music for more than 25 years. Across five monographs, my interests have broadened from Mozart’s piano concertos, to stylistic issues in his Viennese instrumental music, to biographical, philological, reception- and performance-related topics in the Requiem and the last decade of his life in general, and (most recently) to a comparative study of his and contemporary Joseph Haydn’s reception in the long nineteenth century.
This is the first substantial biography of Mozart, published in 1798. It was written by a Czech author, Franz Niemetschek, who probably knew Mozart personally and who certainly attended musical events at which Mozart participated in Prague in 1787 and 1791.
While its tone is hagiographical, it contains important insights on Mozartian aesthetics, as well as invaluable recollections of Mozart in action.
Franz Xaver Niemetschek was born in 1766 in what is now the Czech Republic and came from a musical family, which gave him a deep appreciation and admiration for Mozart's genius. In 1798 he published his biography on Mozart, with a touching dedication to Haydn, the only one written by an eyewitness, and authorized by Mozart's widow Constanze. It is one of the earliest specimens of musical biography which, compared with other branches of biography, was still in its infancy even in the later part of the 19th century. In this sense, it is an important document of music history.…
This book is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station in the Svalbard archipelago when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to…
I am J.R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and current President of the Royal Musical Association, and I have been writing about Mozart’s life and music for more than 25 years. Across five monographs, my interests have broadened from Mozart’s piano concertos, to stylistic issues in his Viennese instrumental music, to biographical, philological, reception- and performance-related topics in the Requiem and the last decade of his life in general, and (most recently) to a comparative study of his and contemporary Joseph Haydn’s reception in the long nineteenth century.
This is without doubt the greatest Mozart biography of the twentieth century, building directly on the foundation of the nineteenth century’s most important biography (by Otto Jahn).
Abert’s momentous work, exhaustive, incisive, well informed and opinionated in turn, is expertly translated and edited in this eminently readable volume.
Hermann Abert's classic biography, first published in German more than eighty years ago and itself based on the definitive mid-nineteenth century study by Otto Jahn, remains the most informed and substantial biography of Mozart in any language. The book is both the fullest account of the composer's life and a deeply skilled analysis of his music. Proceeding chronologically from 1756 to 1791, the book interrogates every aspect of Mozart's life, influences, and experience; his personality; his religious and secular dimensions; and the social context of the time. In "a book within a book," Abert also provides close scrutiny of the…
Growing up as a total tomboy in the early 90s, I naturally gravitated toward traditionally male-dominated sports, jobs, and hobbies throughout my life. Despite encountering instances of sexual harassment and sexism along the way, I had strong role models and books with fierce main characters to turn to for support. I have always been passionate about women claiming their power, which is why I love writing about and reading stories that center on this theme.
I enjoy books where relationships go beyond romance and delve into themes of friendship and family. I also love a story that takes historical figures and plays with reality, blending fantasy and historical fiction. This book covers both.
What I adored most about this book was the portrayal of Nannerl’s (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sister) struggle for recognition against the patriarchal constraints of her time. This story beautifully blends themes of familial love, gendered expectations, and the power of imagination.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu comes a historical YA fantasy about a musical prodigy and the dangerous lengths she'll go to make history remember her. Now in paperback.
Two siblings. Two brilliant talents. But only one Mozart.
Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish--to be remembered forever. But even as she delights audiences with her masterful playing, she has little hope she'll ever become the acclaimed composer she longs to be. She is a young woman in 18th century Europe, and that means composing is forbidden to her. She will perform…
I’ve been a reader and writer of historical fiction for as long as I remember. As a writer, my goal is to bring these figures from the past alive again. These were real people and I want my readers to see that they are not just photos or stories in a history book.
I loved this book. I adore Mozart and reading about him through the eyes of his wife, was so well done in this book. We see Mozart brought to life from his early days as a young child to his struggles with his father as an adult. Waldron captured Mozart’s brilliance, his silliness, and his all-around personality with his family. She also shows the reader that behind this man, was a woman who supported her husband despite his frivolous spending and disregard for authority. This novel was well done, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Mozart behind his music.
Giddy sugarplum or calculating bitch? Pretty Konstanze aroused strong feelings among her contemporaries. Her in-law's loathed her. Mozart's friends, more than forty years after his death, remained eager to gossip about her "failures" as wife to the world's first superstar.
Maturing from child, to wife, to hard-headed widow, Konstanze would pay Mozart's debts, provide for their children, and relentlessly market and mythologize her brilliant husband.
Mozart's letters attest to his affection for Konstanze as well as to their powerful sexual bond. Nevertheless, prominent among the many mysteries surrounding the composer's untimely death: why did his much beloved Konstanze never mark…
Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away, leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion.
Laurie grew up in a rural community and had the good fortune of working with kind and dedicated teachers who were both skillful pedagogues and encouraging mentors. Their passion for quality teaching and high-level musicianship instilled in Laurie the powerful relationship between teaching and artistic performance. Cornelia dreamed of playing the cello beautifully but didn’t have a real teacher until she was twenty. While the work required relearning almost everything she thought she knew, she was old enough to observe her own transformation, guided by a thoughtful and dedicated teacher, and teaching and performing became the inseparable “two sides of the same coin.”They've worked together ever since, writing, teaching, presenting, and sharing great ideas.
Booth wrote this book to be a complete guide for musicians seeking to expand their careers by offering educational concerts and in-school residencies, but the unusual title is likely a subtle reference to “lessons” that challenge widely accepted assumptions in the world…of music performance.
Open to any chapter to read important, focused information on designing a compelling educational concert, but it doesn’t take long to come shocking statements like “being a teaching artist makes you a better artist” (is it possible?) or a demand that we answer the question “why an inner-city fifth grader should give a damn about Mozart” (you mean they don’t?).
Whether Booth is astutely defining the difference between entertainment and art, exploring the importance of good questioning, or reminding us how play is essential to learning and growth, the nuggets of teaching wisdom embedded in these pages are worth their weight in gold.
When the artist moves into the classroom or community to educate and inspire students and audience members, this is Teaching Artistry. It is a proven means for practicing professional musicians to create a successful career in music, providing not only necessary income but deep and lasting satisfaction through engaging people in learning experiences about the arts. Filled with practical advice on the most critical issues facing the music teaching artist today-from economic and time-management issues of being a musician and teacher to communicating effectively with students-The Music Teaching Artist's Bible uncovers the essentials that every musician needs in order to…
I’ve spent a lifetime as a professional classical musician and a mystery reader. Starting with Hardy Boys adventures at the same time I started playing the violin, my intertwined love affairs with music and the mystery genre continue to this day. As a long-time member of major American symphony orchestras, I’ve heard and experienced so many stories about the dark corners of the classical music world that they could fill a library. It gives me endless pleasure to read other mystery authors’ take on this fascinating, semi-cloistered world and to share some of my own tales with the lay public in my Daniel Jacobus mystery series.
If Canone Inverso is your main course, The Murder of Figaro is the perfect dessert. It is light, frothy, and witty as a Mozart comic opera. As it should be, since the main characters are Mozart and his wife Constanze. Together, the frolicking pair must speedily solve the backstage murder of the government censor; otherwise, Mozart’s new opera, The Marriage of Figaro, will never see the light of day. Larson herself was an accomplished opera singer and has thorough insight into the opera world: the music, the business, and the backstage backstabbing. Written as a delightful opera buffa, this book is an absolutely fun read.
It's 1786, and "The Marriage of Figaro," a new comic opera by Amadé Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte, has just begun its first onstage rehearsal when a corpse makes an appearance in the wings: it's the Imperial Censor, whom everybody wanted to kill at one time or other. Mozart and his clever wife Constanze are commanded to solve this deadly mystery. If they fail, "Figaro" will never play in Vienna!
The book is structured like an opera libretto, in four acts. There is even an overture, followed by two more overtures, just for fun. The plot follows that of "The…
I took an early plunge into literature because of my very smart, highly literate parents, and it shaped my young brain. When my brilliant mother came down with Alzheimer’s, I had been a professional published writer for years, with a penchant for the non-pollyanna side of life. Here was the perfect subject matter. My aim was to take on her disintegration and downfall and turn it into art, to produce something as pitiless and unladylike as the disease itself. If people learn something about Alzheimer’s by reading it, that’s fine. But my larger purpose was to do her (and my) ordeal justice via the powers she bestowed on me.
Mary Durant was my mother. This was her first novel, published in 1963. When I read it, the proverbial light bulb popped to life in my very young head: I recognized the real-life people and events upon whom the characters and plot were based, and because of that familiarity, saw the way my mother had changed things around, invented circumstances, conversations and fashioned composite characters to create a story. It was a behind-the-scenes crash course in the art of fiction-writing, the marvelous synthesis by which the novelist spins fact and invention into literature. And I understood that really good fiction, though technically a "made up" story, is always imbued with Truth with a capital "T," and that great writing and Truth are inextricably intertangled.
My mother was a first-rate writer and reader, and because of her, I was initiated into the quasi-secret bandwidth of real literature. The key: it’s all…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
I am a freelance journalist who started writing about animals after getting and falling in love with a flock of chickens. Animals are fascinating in their own right but the way we talk about them, and our relationships, shine a fascinating light on humans and what we value. My work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Country Living, and many others.
Starlings are everywhere and yet I hadn’t properly seen them until I picked up this book.
The author combines the history of our relationship with the starling, a reviled bird that is nevertheless so much like us, with an up-close view of the species through a pet starling named Carmen. This book will leave you enchanted by the chatty birds.
On May 27th, 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met a flirtatious little starling who sang (an improved version of!) the theme from his Piano Concerto Number 17 in G to him. Knowing a kindred spirit when he met one, Mozart wrote "That was wonderful" in his journal and took the bird home to be his pet. For three years Mozart and his family enjoyed the uniquely delightful company of the starling until one April morning when the bird passed away.
In 2013, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Crow Planet, rescued her own starling, Carmen, who has become a part of her…
