I read this biography of Mozart after attempting the one recommended as definitive, a monster heavyweight of close to 1000 pages that was actually interesting but just overwhelming. Mr. Gay's book could snuggle inside one of the larger book's chapters, yet to me it captured the most interesting parts of Mozart.
As I interpret the thesis of this book, the film Amadeus did a very creditable job of capturing his spirit. Of course the Salieri device has almost no basis in fact, but the tone of the rest of the feels right. He was a coarse man in his humor and yet unfathomably refined in his understanding of music and in many ways of human nature as he expressed it through music and his operas. He was tormented by his father while attempting to stay dutiful. He had unending money troubles that he brought about by his inability to control his spending. And through almost every event of his life he poured out music of ever-increasing complexity and innovation.
The one thing that really surprised me in reading this was finding that he and Constanza had six children in 10 years of which only two survived. One has heard nothing of these children and of course Amadeus left them almost out to simplify the story.
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