Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Life and Works of Mozart
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Nicholas Boulton, Edward de Souza, Teresa Gallagher, Elaine Claxton, Steve Hodson, Jacob Moriarty
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
The Life and Works of Mozart
Buy Now for £17.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the most astonishing child prodigy in the history of music, is felt by many people to be the greatest composer who ever lived. Dominated and shaped by a highly intelligent but frustrated and ambitious father, his story sees the development of a unique genius, from precocious and often endearing childhood to liberated fulfillment, unexpected poverty, and a tragically early death. Generously illustrated by Mozart’s music, from his fifth to his final year, this portrait-in-sound reveals a fascinating yet elusive character, drawing richly on the words of the composer himself and those who knew him. This is the ideal way to understand more about Mozart the man, and his music. Throughout his life, he wrote numerous letters - to his father and his friends and pupils - and his musical colleagues wrote about him. On this entertaining recording, with parts read by various actors, Mozart himself comes to life - with his sublime music ever-present as his career unfolds.
Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Life and Works of Mozart
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-06-22
Brilliant
Only Audible can give the listener the experience of hearing the story and listening to the music. Thank you Jeremy Siepmann
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- ThomasOConnor
- 13-04-13
Mozart the man, Mozart the music in one audiobook
This is audio books at their best! It is a lively engaging biography beginning with played samples of the boy genius' work while he travelled Europe with his father and equally gifted sister. Then develops through his challenging young adulthood, composing and travelling in Italy and Germany and producing a wide variety of music, samples of which are well knitted into the story. And his short life ends in Vienna, still composing, as we hear, wonderful music. Audio truly at its best.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Peter Smith
- 21-03-13
Good but could have been much better......
If you come to this recording knowing nothing about Mozart or, worse than that, you have been exposed to Mozart as the giggly idiot portrayed in the play and film "Amadeus", this worthy recording will give you the basic facts about Mozart, his true personality, his life, struggles and triumphs, in a straightforward chronological biography, with some lengthy musical examples. It will debunk the "giggly idiot" image whilst showing that Mozart did have an idiosyncratic and somewhat scatalogical sense of humour but this was allied to a profound perception of all facets of human life and psychology, based on acute powers of observation and empathy.Perceptions that his great genius enshrined in his sublime music and in the superb operas.
The recording is particularly good at exploring Mozart's very difficult relationship with Leopold, his intensely controlling father, teacher, mentor,whose influence he had to break away from to achieve his destiny. There are some engaging stories about Mozart in Paris, Mannheim,Ausberg and Vienna, mentioning many of the friends and performers he encountered plus a good account of his marriage to Constanze Weber. His key musical works are mentioned,some illustrated.
However, my principal criticism of this recording is that it needed either to be an hour longer, or the pace of the narrative needed to have been quicker. The recording is nearly two-thirds over before we get Mozart permanently domiciled in Vienna. So the last nine years of his life, which most would regard as the pinnacle of his career, are dealt with in a more cursory manner than they deserve.The "Jupiter" symphony, his great Italian operas, his final opera "The Magic Flute", his "Requiem",get short shrift and the opera "La Clemenza di Tito" isn't even mentioned. There are no musical illustrations from "Don Giovanni" but we are given the whole finale of the Flute and Harp Concerto and a movement from the "Coronation Mass", neither of which are major works.
Good otherwise.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful