Under [his father Leonardo’s] guidance Mozart began playing the piano at age four, was a skilled musician at age six, and was subsequently propelled through Europe, visiting Vienna at six in 1762,  Paris in 1763, London in 1764, and Italy in 1769 at the old age of thirteen. As a young child in Rome, he wrote out the entire score of a nine-voice religious work after hearing it twice. He played the piano brilliantly, he read concertos  at sight, he improvised, and he composed from the age of six; his first symphony came at eight, his first oratorio at eleven, his first opera at twelve. At fourteen he conducted twenty performances of that opera. The Pope decorated him, Empress Maria Theresa took note of him, he heard Haydn’s string quartets in 1773 and wrote his own first six that same year, at age 17. (Classical Music: The 50 Greatest Composers and their 1,000 Greatest Works, Phil G. Goulding, P121

That all sounds a little Elon Musky, if you ask me, a contrived ‘great’ man, a product of publicity and deception.

Continue reading “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: An early version of Elon Musk?” →