The correspondence with his father at the time was devastating. Leopold was especially suspicious of girlfriends and potential lovers who might interfere in the commercial and personal bond of father and son.Īt age 25, Mozart somehow summoned the strength to leave his father in Salzburg and move to Vienna. For all his life Mozart loved dressing smartly, spending lavishly, and working hard for the attention of others.Īs Mozart grew older, his father grew even more controlling. At eight, in Paris, Wolfgang stood by the queen, repeatedly kissed her hands, and had her feed him tidbits. Wolferl came to crave the attention, and we are told that at six he jumped into the Hapsburg empress’s lap and kissed her. Mozart was an endearing hit, and Leopold was showered with gifts and money by the aristocracy. There was a family grand tour across western Europe for three years, from 1763 to 1766. Father and son toured Munich when Mozart was five. His father nurtured and educated – and capitalized - Wolferl from the start. “Wolferl” was the prodigy of all prodigies – he composed piano pieces at age five, he wrote violin sonatas at seven, and he wrote his first symphony at nine. His father Leopold Mozart was well-educated, and a fine violinist in the employ of the prince-archbishop of Salzburg. He was born in Salzburg in 1756 to a musical family. We are all familiar with the outlines of the achingly short life of Joannes Christostomos Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart. They do not, by and large, sustain their genius into adulthood.

“It’s what modern experts would call developmentally appropriate.” Second, most prodigies grow up to be thoroughly unremarkable on paper. “After all, no matter how richly collaborative a bond children forge with grown-up guides, some version of divorce is inevitable,” Hulbert writes. But they have a couple of things in common, as Ann Hulbert’s meticulous new book, “Off the Charts,” makes clear: First, most wunderkinds eventually experience some kind of schism with a devoted and sometimes domineering parent.

I recall being struck at the time by the statement:Ĭhild prodigies are exotic creatures, each unique and inexplicable. Instead, this account is my realization that, setting aside his musical legacy, Mozart was the rarest of birds - he successfully emerged as a fully-functioning adult from a life as a child prodigy raised by a controlling parent.Įarlier this year, Amanda Ripley reviewed Off the Charts, The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies, by Ann Hulbert, for the NY Times Book Review. This is actually not a review of Peter Gay’s Mozart, which is a very nice, short, well-organized Mozart biography. I picked up a Penguin Lives biography of Wolfgang Mozart at the local library. To prepare for an upcoming trip to Vienna, I’ve begun to read of music.

Mozart by Peter Gay