Mozart on Tour

This episode covers one of Mozart's childhood visit to the British capital (1764-1765), where he and his family were idolized by the royal court and encountered some of the foremost musicians of that time.

The Manzuoli style of virtuoso singing, the Italian school of composition, and the pianoforte had a profound impact on Mozart' s creativity.

The illustrious Bologna conservatory has educated the world's greatest composers and musicians. Although Mozart was too young to study at the conservatory, he still took the entrance examination to prove his talent.

During his stay in Mannheim, from 1777 to 1778, Mozart made several decisive encounters for his musical development. He discovered the Mannheim Orchestra and his school of composition, which have had a significant influence on his work.

Not only was Mozart unlucky in love in Mannheim, but he also failed to achieve his ambition of becoming a court composer. Yet, he continued with music in order to simply make some money.

The city of Salzburg, Mozart's birthplace influenced his peripatetic life. He hated the city and despised working for the Archbishop of Salzburg as a servant, a musical servant writing only for the pleasure of the Archbishop.

Travelling in the retinue of his ecclesiastical employer, Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, Wolfgang was fired from his job.

With Wolfgang and Constanze comfortably ensconced in Vienna, Mozart enhanced his artistic position as the focal point of several musical academies and large-scale concert presentations.

Mozart's `Le nozze di Figaro' asks basic questions about the relationships of men and women, the aristocracy and their servants, and is, to this day, the most mature and genuine human operatic composition ever written. With sublimely beautiful music that supports, intensifies, and enhances the dr...

In 1786, Mozart was invited to conduct his `Le nozze di Figaro', an opera more controversial than successful at its Viennese premiere earlier that year. The composition took the Czech capital completely by storm and resulted in the commission of a new opera, `Don Giovanni'.

When Austria's Emperor, Leopold II, went to the congress city of Frankfurt to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1790, Mozart hoped to be honoured with a commission for a coronation work.

The Bavarian capital of Munich was always one of Mozart's favourite places and it saw important performances of many of his major instrumental works and hosted the world premiere of his monumental opera series `Idomeneo, re di Creta'. The first edition of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.

In 1791, with his life cruelly and rapidly ending, Mozart once again turned to the compositional style which reflected his personality, the concerto for piano and orchestra. His last piano concerto, which turned out to be an uplifting composition, regales its audience with a lyrical children's so...