While Mozart was working under Emperor Joseph II in 1787, a young Ludwig van Beethoven spent several weeks in Vienna, hoping to study under Mozart. According to at least one account, Beethoven had a few lessons from Mozart, but no one is sure whether this in fact occurred or even if the two famous composers ever met.
In 1767, the 11-year-old composer was struck by smallpox. Although he survived, Mozart was left with facial scars that he carried the rest of his life.
The Ring of the Nibelung is a cycle of four German-language operas composed by Richard Wagner.
Some historians claim that, when The Feigned Simpleton was finished, the performers apparently disliked it. The "failure" of this opera in Vienna, which went through rehearsals, but didn't reach full performance, has been the object of similar hazy and cursory descriptions by other scholars.
After the production of The Magic Flute, Mozart worked feverishly on his Requiem, with the foreboding that it would commemorate his own death. He died at the age of 35 without finishing it; the work was completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayr at the request of Mozart's wife, Constanze, after Joseph Eybler, another pupil whom she had asked to complete it, failed to follow through.
The Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna was founded as an association of musicians in Bologna in 1666 by Vincenzo Maria Carrati. In 1770, during a trip to Italy, Mozart was accepted as a member.
Ludwig Ritter von Köchel was an Austrian musicologist best known for cataloguing the works of Mozart.
SHARE THIS PAGE!