Synopsis
Exploding the myth of Mozart as the "eternal child" and revealing unknown aspects of his family relationships, a definitive biography utilizes bold interpretations and insights, as well as modern analysis to examine Mozart's personality in a new light.
Reviews
Beethoven biographer Solomon here presents a revisionist biography of Mozart, which his publisher claims is the first full-scale biography in nearly 40 years. Certainly it is a major work in terms of heft and range. Solomon will have none of the "divine child" approach, limning instead a man growing up under the shadow of an impossibly demanding father who was at once overprotective and jealous of his son's vast gifts. There is a great deal of psychological probing into the agonies of their relationship, much of it sensible; and Solomon paints an indelible portrait of Mozart's last years, begging for money, guilty about his deprived wife Constanze, resentful of being virtually cut out of his father's will, yet still heroically forging a new musical aesthetic. He also clears up much of the mystery about the bizarre Requiem commission, and the burial in the "pauper's grave." He is convinced that Mozart and his cousin "the Basle," recipient of many of the infamous smutty letters, were lovers for a time; and the portrait of the composer that emerges is of an extraordinarily sensitive, liberal-minded (the Masonic material is superb), extravagant but responsible person who has been much belittled by biographers beginning almost immediately after his death. Solomon also writes acutely about what was daringly new, and wonderfully enduring, about Mozart's music. Only a certain lack of flow between the chapters suggests the origin of much of this material in lectures. Illustrations. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Solomon writes three kinds of book about Mozart: a chronicle of his life and compositions, a psychoanalysis, and a study of his music. Wolfgang's father, Leopold, depended on his son's musical skills to provide for the family. But Wolfgang rebelled, leaving Salzburg for Vienna, where he lived--somewhat beyond his means--teaching, composing, and performing for the elite. Leopold never forgave him. Wolfgang, however, needed the love of his family more than anything else to overcome recurring melancholia. The family of Constanze Weber, his wife, provided this love during the last decade of his life. Mozart generally chose to compose innovative instead of popular music, and his fortunes waxed and waned as he pursued elusive court appointments and commissions. His last major operas were the most successful financially, and they contain his yearning for approval. "His melancholia . . . a despairing cry for love," Solomon says, was never dispelled, and "in the end, music remained Mozart's primary talisman against corruption, fear, and death." Ultimately, Solomon's chronicling and psychoanalyzing are competent enough, but his musical analysis, competent or not, is tedious. Alan Hirsch
Solomon (music, Stonybrook Univ. and Harvard) follows up his well-received Beethoven (LJ 11/15/77) with another ambitious biography. The author explores Mozart's life and works with a wealth of facts that were culled from 18th-century sources as well as from the most recent scholarship. Mozart and his family emerge in a new light from this mass of well-chosen detail through Solomon's own convincing interpretation of events and relationships. Appropriate musical and pictorial examples, which will appeal to both scholarly and casual readers, accompany the text. The author closes the book with an impressive, well-annotated bibliography and indexes of Mozart's compositions by Kochel number and by common name. Recommended for music collections in both academic and public libraries. [BOMC main selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/94.]-James E. Ross, Seattle P.L.
--James E. Ross, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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