Who was it who said that two of the most fascinating things in life are sex and the 18th century? Certainly for lovers of classical music it is a century of quite extraordinary riches: beginning with the late baroque joys of Bach and Handel, overseeing the rise of opera, the sonata, string quartet and symphony, witnessing the entire classical movement, and ending with a bang with Beethoven.
Born smack in the middle of that century, in 1756, was one of the most intriguing and mysterious of all those marvellous composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A child genius of extraordinary powers, he lived to write more than 600 works in all the possible genres before his tragically early death at 35. If Joseph Haydn led the march into the classical period, it was Mozart who for us perhaps most typifies it. His music’s extraordinary blend of courtly grandeur, impish humour and sheer beauty takes our breath away. The unending flow of melody, the total command of atmosphere, character, structure, counterpoint and orchestral colour take command equally of our emotions and our minds. We are in the world of the sublime.
