Mozart：The man and the legend

I think there's an intimacy that people have with Mozart. They feel like they know him, they love his music, they cherish it. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most renowned figures in classical music, is now center stage at New York's Morgan Library and Museum. The exhibit is a collaboration with the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, where the Austrian composer was born in 1756. The story I most wanted to tell was that bridge between Mozart, the human being, and Mozart, the icon or the legend. Robin McClellan is curator of the show, which includes a symphony of treasures, like Mozart's earliest musical works, some created when he was just five years old. Which his father lovingly noted down for him, because Mozart was still too young to even write them himself. Mozart wasn't the only prodigy in his family. The exhibit also highlights his lesser known older sister, Maria Anna, nicknamed Nannerl. It's the final measure of music in the only known composition that she wrote, and so it's tiny but incredibly meaningful. Leopold Mozart, his father, was an entrepreneur in a sense, touring the children around Europe, making a big impression. And he even had the idea to sell what we might call merch nowadays. This was sold as a souvenir to anyone who was lucky enough to come and hear the Mozart children perform. The exhibit even shares details about the young composer's romantic life. Here's a flirtatious letter written at age 21 to his first cousin. Back then that sort of relationship was not uncommon. His letters are famous for bathroom humor and sexual innuendo. So toward the end of the letter he says to her, I sign with such affection and love, I kiss you on your face, on your hands, on your knees, and anywhere else you'll let me kiss you. Also on display on this side of the Atlantic for the very first time, Mozart's childhood violin. And the clavichord he used to compose some of his most acclaimed operas. Here you see ink spots where Mozart spilled ink as he was composing, probably in a hurry, you know, composing multiple pieces at once. One of the most lovely aspects of this actually is this note that was placed into the clavichord by his wife Constanza after his death, where she attests to its authenticity and says, This was the instrument my husband used to compose the Magic Flute, the Requiem, and many other of his most famous pieces. Mozart was working on his famous Requiem when he died in 1791. He was just 35. He died young. People began to realize more and more what a rare and incredible composer he was, and that became the legend that we know today. A legend burnished by other classical music greats, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven, all helped enhance Mozart's legacy. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a short life in many acts, with a body of work that resonates to this day.