Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Child Prodigy Who Became Music's Greatest Genius
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a musical prodigy whose compositions reshaped classical music. Writing symphonies operas and chamber works with emotional depth and technical brilliance he combined elegance with innovation influencing Western music for centuries despite dying young and often struggling financially.
- 18 min listen
- Composer
- 600+ works
- The Requiem
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s full 18 min audio biography, The Child Prodigy Who Became Music's Greatest Genius, is available on Lyfestori for iOS. Listen to a free preview below.
A life in brief
The shape of a life.
He was picking out melodies at three, taking lessons at four, and composing at five. By six his father had him on the road performing for Empress Maria Theresa and Louis XV — sight-reading anything put in front of him, transposing on the spot, playing with the keyboard covered. The prodigy years made Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart famous and left him managed, exploited, and without a childhood. He broke free at twenty-five, wrote over six hundred works, and was buried in a common grave at thirty-five.
- 1756
Born in Salzburg
Born 27 January to Leopold, a respected composer and violinist serving as deputy kapellmeister to the Archbishop of Salzburg, and Anna Maria. His older sister Maria Anna — Nannerl — is already musically gifted.
- 1761
Composing at five
He has been picking out melodies since three and taking formal lessons from his father since four. He can memorise a complex piece after hearing it once, and has perfect pitch. His first compositions show an intuitive grasp of structure that astonishes Leopold.
- 1762
On the road at six
Leopold takes the children to Munich and then Vienna to perform at court. The grand tour of 1763-1766 follows, through Paris and London. Wolfgang plays for Maria Theresa, Louis XV at Versailles and George III.
- 1764
London and J.C. Bach
During the 1764-65 stay he meets Johann Christian Bach, son of Johann Sebastian, who mentors him. Under Bach's influence his harmony and melodic development grow markedly more sophisticated.
- 1770
An opera at fourteen
Mitridate, re di Ponto premieres in Milan and succeeds — proof that the prodigy can sustain a work of real length and complexity, not just dazzle a drawing room.
- 1778
His mother dies in Paris
Travelling with him in search of employment, Anna Maria falls ill and dies on 3 July, leaving him alone in a foreign city. It ends his sheltered youth.
- 1781
Breaking with the Archbishop
The Archbishop treats his musicians as servants — eating with the domestic staff, barred from outside performances. After a heated confrontation he quits at twenty-five and goes independent in Vienna, free of both his employer and his father.
- 1782
Constanze
He marries Constanze Weber over Leopold's strong objection; his father had wanted a match with money and rank. The marriage is happy and permanently short of money. Of six children, two survive to adulthood.
- 1786
The Marriage of Figaro
Based on a Beaumarchais play banned in Vienna; he and Da Ponte win imperial approval by softening the politics. It succeeds anyway. Don Giovanni follows in 1787, The Magic Flute in 1791.
- 1788
Three symphonies in six weeks
His final three symphonies, written in a single burst, stand as the summit of classical symphonic writing. Meanwhile Viennese taste is moving on and his income is falling.
- 1791
The Requiem, and death
An anonymous commission — Count Franz von Walsegg, who means to pass the work off as his own — occupies his last months. He dies on 5 December at thirty-five with it unfinished, and is buried in a common grave at St. Marx Cemetery.
Major achievements
What Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave the world.
- 01
Over six hundred compositions
Written in thirty-five years of life, across opera, symphony, concerto and chamber music — a body of work still performed daily in concert halls worldwide.
- 02
The three great operas
The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787) and The Magic Flute (1791). Each fuses sophisticated musical writing with characters drawn sharply enough to carry a drama.
- 03
The last three symphonies
Composed in about six weeks in 1788, at a point when his finances were collapsing and the Viennese public was losing interest in him.
- 04
The piano concertos
His Vienna concertos hold soloist and orchestra in an even conversation, neither subordinate — the form's benchmark ever since.
- 05
The Requiem
Left unfinished at his death and completed by his student Franz Süssmayr from sketches and verbal instructions at Constanze's request. It became one of his most loved works.
- 06
The composer who came after
Beethoven revered him and built on his innovations; Chopin and Liszt drew on his piano writing. Composers still study how he held technical brilliance and emotional expression in the same bar.
Turning points
The moments that decided it.
- 1762–1766
The exhibition years
Leopold showed his children to the courts of Europe: Vienna, Paris, London. It built the reputation and the education — J.C. Bach among the returns. It also meant constant performance in uncomfortable conditions, a father managing every shilling, and no childhood to speak of.
- 1778
Paris, alone
He set out with his mother to find work. She died there on 3 July and he was left in a foreign city with neither the job nor her. The sheltered part of his life ended at twenty-two.
- 1781
Walking out on the Archbishop
Being made to eat with the servants was intolerable for a musician of his standing, and he ended it with a confrontation. Independence in Vienna gave him the freedom that produced the operas and the late symphonies — and the money worries that never left him again.
- 1788–1791
The falling away
Viennese fashion moved on. He borrowed to cover doctors and rent, and his letters turn desperate. He wrote the last three symphonies, The Magic Flute and most of the Requiem during exactly this stretch.
What you’ll take away
Lessons that outlast the headlines.
- 01
Freedom has a price and it is worth paying
Leaving the Archbishop meant losing a salary he never replaced, and he was in debt for the rest of his life. It also meant Figaro, Don Giovanni, the concertos and the last symphonies — none of which the job would have permitted.
- 02
The gift is not the career
He could transpose at sight and play a covered keyboard at six, and none of it secured him a living. The talent made him a curiosity for nobility; what he built after twenty-five he built as a working professional with no patron.
- 03
Write for the people in the room
The Magic Flute was commissioned by a suburban theatre for middle-class audiences, not a court. He wrote something ordinary people could follow without lowering the standard — and it became his most popular opera.
Did you know
Fun facts.
- 01
Did you know that Mozart composed his first piece of music at age five and wrote his first full symphony when he was only eight years old?
- 02
Did you know that Mozart had an incredible memory and reportedly wrote down Gregorio Allegri's 'Miserere' in its entirety after hearing it just once at the Vatican?
- 03
Did you know that despite his immense talent and fame, Mozart struggled with finances and died with very little money, eventually being buried in a common grave?
Questions
Good to know.
There is no evidence for it. The theory is one of several that grew around a death whose cause was never established. Contemporary accounts describe fever, swelling and vomiting; modern medical analysis suggests he most likely died of an acute infection, possibly streptococcal, that his weakened body could not fight.
Not exactly. He was buried in a common grave at Vienna's St. Marx Cemetery in line with Emperor Joseph II's funerary regulations for most citizens — standard practice at the time, not a mark of destitution. The grave had only a temporary marker and no detailed plot records were kept, so the exact location was lost.
Franz Süssmayr, Mozart's student, commissioned by Constanze after his death to complete it from his sketches and verbal instructions. The original commission had come anonymously from Count Franz von Walsegg, who intended to present the work as his own in memory of his wife.
Over six hundred compositions in thirty-five years — operas, symphonies, concertos and chamber music. He composed his first pieces at five and his final three symphonies in roughly six weeks in 1788.
Maria Anna was a brilliant musician who toured with him as a child and astonished the same audiences. As they grew up, the social expectations placed on women of her time confined her playing to the private sphere while his career went on.
18 min · one sitting