莫札特(1756～1791年)

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus，原名Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart。

奥地利作曲家。小提琴家和作曲家利奥波德.莫札特（1719～1787）之子，诞生於父亲出版小提琴演奏法畅销论着的那一年。他与姊姊玛丽亚.安娜.娜内尔（1751～1829）都是神童；莫札特四岁时，在无人指导的情况下演奏娜内尔的键盘课程。五岁时，他开始作曲，并第一次公开演出。1762年起，利奥波德带着他们旅行全欧，炫耀着「上帝赐予在萨尔斯堡出生的奇蹟」。他们在第一轮巡回表演（1762～1769）来到法国和英国，莫札特在那里，遇到巴哈，并写下第一首交响曲（1764）。接着是义大利之旅（1769～1774），他在那里首次见识到海顿的弦乐四重奏，并写下自己的第一部义大利歌剧。1775～1777年写出小提琴协奏曲和第一批钢琴奏鸣曲。1777年他遇到韦伯一家人，即未来妻子的家庭。他的母亲死於1779年，莫札特後来回到萨尔斯堡担任大教堂的风琴师，1781年写出连环歌剧《克里特王伊多梅尼奥》。由於不满大主教的统治，1781年离职搬到韦伯家（当时在维也纳），开始他的独立生涯。他娶康斯坦策.韦伯为妻，教授钢琴课程，还写下《後宫诱逃》（1782）和多首伟大的钢琴协奏曲。1780年代晚期成就达到颠峰，而他把弦乐四重奏献给海顿（他称莫札特是现世最伟大的作曲家），《费加洛婚礼》（1786）、《唐.乔凡尼》（1787）、《女人心》（1790）三部伟大的歌剧则采用达.蓬特的脚本，还有卓越的晚期交响曲。晚年他写作歌剧《魔笛》和最伟大的《安魂曲》（未完成）。尽管事业成功，他却总是缺钱（可能是赌债和喜爱华服的缘故），必须向朋友大举借款。他在三十五岁去世，病因可能是肾脏感染。没有其他作曲家像他一样在短短一生留下如此不寻常的遗产。

English version：

1756～1791年

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Austrian composer. Son of the violinist and composer Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), he was born the year of the publication of Leopold's best-selling treatise on violin playing. He and his older sister, Maria Anna (1751-1829), were prodigies; by age 4, Wolfgang was playing Nannerl's keyboard lessons without instruction. At 5 he began to compose and gave his first public performance. From 1762 Leopold toured throughout Europe with them, showing off the “miracle that God allowed to be born in Salzburg.” The first round of touring (1762-69) took them as far as France and England, where Wolfgang met J.C. Bach and wrote his first symphonies (1764). Tours of Italy followed (1769-74); there he first saw the string quartets of F.J. Haydn and wrote his own first Italian opera. In 1775-77 he composed his violin concertos and his first piano sonatas. In 1777 he met the Webers, the family of his future wife. His mother died in 1779. He returned to Salzburg as cathedral organist and in 1781 wrote his opera seria Idomeneo. Chafing under the archbishop's rule, he was released from his position in 1781 and moved in with the Webers, now in Vienna, to begin his independent career. He married Constanze Weber, gave piano lessons, and wrote The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782) and many of his great piano concertos. The later 1780s saw the height of his success, with the string quartets dedicated to Haydn (who called Mozart the greatest living composer), the three great operas on L. Da Ponte's librettos—The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790)—and his superb late symphonies. In his last year he composed the opera The Magic Flute and his great Requiem (left unfinished). Despite his success, he always lacked money (possibly because of gambling debts and a fondness for fine clothes) and had to borrow heavily from friends. His death at 35 may have resulted from a kidney infection. No other composer left such an extraordinary legacy in so short a lifetime.