Historical February 1985 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Mozart by Wolfgang Hildesheimer, translated from German by Marion Faber, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, N.Y. 1982. Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756 and died Dec. 5, 1791, at age 35.
During this brief time, he created some of the most exceptional music ever composed.
It is truly a personal pleasure to review this book about Mozart because Hildsheimer has helped me to see him as a flesh and blood person.
It is a sympathetic yet unsentimental approach since we can see the little man who was always in motion—always drumming his fingers on any surface near him and who wrote outrageous letters. People did not know what to make of him since he had a constant itch to break the laws of convention; yet, he was described as playing “very simply without stretching the rhythm, without rubati, without extravagant dynamics; he sat calmly, hardly moving his body, showing no feelings.
These must have been the moments when he reveled in blissful forgetfulness.” The book is rich in glimpses of Mozart’s physical appearance which the author reconstructs in many ways.
One description comes from tenor Michael O’Kelly at a Figero rehearsal: “All the original performers had the advantage of the instruction of the composer, who transfused into their minds his inspired meaning. I shall never forget his little countenance when lighted up with the glowing rays of genius; it is as impossible to describe it, as it would be to paint a sunbeam.” Mozart was a small, slight man and making a mental composite of him from the various portraits of him I imagine he might have looked something like the actor, Dustin Hoffman.
He had a tenor voice and his nose was outsized; it is well-documented that his appearance was unassuming.
It was hard to read about the terrible neglect that Mozart suffered.
It must have saddened and demoralized him when lesser men were preferred over him. Yet, despite these tragedies of his life, he still wrote The Requem before he died. Imagine the shabby proposal of the wealthy Count Walsegg-Stuooach to have commissioned this work from the poor dying man so that the count could pass it off as his own work. Mozart did not marry well: Constanze Weber was unfaithful, a haphazard housekeeper, and she had a limited appreciation of music.
The youngest son is said not to be Mozart’s.
The book is not a chronological approach to Mozart’s life.
The author describes other biographies expressing an attitude which is romantic, naive, and pious which make Mozart an object of worship.
An example is Einstein’s description that “Mozart comes from Heaven and is just a visitor on this Earth.” This is an interesting and enlightening book that brought Mozart closer since it plowed through the mythology of Mozart and brought me a substantial picture.
The book was an immediate best seller when it came out in Germany.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February 1985.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1985_02.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
