Mozart

Mozart in a new light: this unusual portrayal offers not just another biography of one of the greatest composers in musical history, but also shows Mozart as a child of his times. This inquiry into his intellectual environment becomes an exciting hunt for clues in the world of the Enlightenment and illuminates how Mozart incorporated contemporary debates into his music, reflected them, in order to set the stage for the reception of his music and himself. Marked by various experiences from his travels as a “wunderkind,” Mozart discovers in 1780s Vienna—in an atmosphere of radical reforms, boundless tolerance, and lively intellectual exchange—the ideal showroom for his self-actualization. He erases the boundaries between private and public live, bourgeois and courtly audiences, and through his music makes himself the main protagonist in a Vienna that was reinventing itself. In his works, he moves the discussions about the role of music among the arts, its moral qualities or its ability to portray reality to a new artistic level and pushes them towards their apex. Using numerous examples from Mozart’s instrumental and opera works, internationally renowned musicologist Laurenz Lütteken provides an unusual portrait of Mozart in this passionate “intellectual biography.” Laurenz Lütteken teaches as the chair of Musicology at the University of Zürich. He has been recognized many times for his contributions to research and in 2013/14 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg of Berlin. He is the editor in chief of the MGG Online Encyclopedia.