Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky
the news: Its party time. Music lovers around the world are
celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Austrian composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
While most of us
wont have to journey farther than our nearest big-city recital hall
to party hardy in honor of Mozarts immortal music, the real revelry
is happening in Salzburg, Austria, where operas such as Cosi Fan
Tutte and Don Giovanni are drowning out other music; in the
industrial city of Linz, whose traditional Linzer tortes are now
improbably adorned with birthday candles; and in Vienna, where the
Habsburgs once ruled an empire but where the late, great Mozart is
unquestionably king.
All three cities
lay legitimate claim to the composer, who was born in Salzburg on
Jan. 27, 1756; as a musical prodigy wrote a minuet and trio at age
5; and led the court orchestra at age 14.
In Linz, a young
Mozart performed as a dancer and ultimately wrote a symphony at
breakneck speed during a brief visit there in 1783. Later, Mozart
composed many of his greatest works, including his last three
symphonies, in Vienna, where he died at age 35 and was buried in a
common grave in 1791.
While
performances of Mozarts compositions are scheduled in Salzburg,
Linz and Vienna (see story, below), the composers saga is perhaps
best told in the museums and exhibitions dedicated to honor his
memory. A rundown follows:
Salzburg
Mozart spent 25
years in Salzburg, where he composed nearly all of his 41
symphonies and almost half of his sacred works. These achievements
are captured in a yearlong exhibition called Viva Mozart at the
renovated Nieu Residenze in the Carolino Augusteum Museum. In the
heart of Salzburgs Old City, Viva Mozart is designed as an
interactive birthday celebration for the composer, who accompanies
visitors on an acoustical and visual tour of the way stations of
his life.
Another must is
Mozarts birthplace, at Getreidegasse 9 in the Old City. Today, it
is a three-story museum housing memorabilia such as the violin
Mozart played as a prodigy; his clavichord and pianoforte; family
portraits; and period furniture.
In 1773, the
family crossed the Salzbach River to larger and grander digs at
Marktplatz 8 known as the Tanzmeisterhaus, or dance masters house.
Nearly destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II, the
Tanzmeisterhaus today is a museum that details the history of the
house and the Mozart family. An audio narration system guides
visitors from room to room.
Linz
Mozart visited
Linz in 1762 for a performance in what is now Renaissance Hall. It
was the first of several visits, which culminated in a 1783 stay at
the home of Count Joseph von Thun, now the Mozart House, where he
composed the Linz Symphony and the Linz Sonata. A plaque, bronze
bust and automated device that plays the symphonys first notes mark
the spot.
Two walking
tours, Amadeus, Amadeus, on Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., and
Mozart in Linz, on Fridays at 3 p.m., capture the essence of
Mozarts connection with the city, which named a street,
Mozartstrasse, after him in 1862.
Vienna
The same concert
tour that took Mozart to Linz in 1762 saw him captivate the
imperial court in Vienna when he played for Empress Maria Theresa
and subsequently, so the story goes, climbed on her lap.
The starting
point for any Mozart-themed visit is the Mozart House, 
one of 12 apartments in which the
composer lived in the Austrian capital. During a three-year stay at
Domgasse No. 5, Mozart wrote The Marriage of Figaro. Renovated from
top to bottom, the Mozart House focuses on its namesakes 10 years
in Vienna.
The third floor
of the exhibition space, for example, depicts important people in
the composers life, such as the emperor, his clients, patrons,
collaborators and friends, while the second floor centers around
three operas -- The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi Fan Tutte and Don
Giovanni -- as well as Requiem, his last major work.
Mozart lived with
his wife, Constanze, his children, servants and pet dog and bird in
the first-floor apartment, which had two large rooms, two smaller
ones and a kitchen.
Meanwhile, at
Viennas House of Music, children -- and adults, too -- will get a
kick out of learning conducting techniques from a video animation
and then guiding the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra through A Little
Night Music, courtesy of an interactive display.
Not only that:
Visitors can mix The Magic Flute with their own creation and take
it home on a CD. And shadows of CSI Vienna: Check out a police
Identikit to find out what Mozart really looked like.
Other special
events for the Mozart Year at the House of Music attraction: Mozart
in the Czech Republic, April 5, 12 and 19, as well as Cooking and
Eating During Mozarts Time, through March 31.
The Da Ponte
Institute -- named for Mozart librettist Lorenzo da Ponte -- is
laying on a more traditional display at the Albertina, the recently
renovated, neoclassical Habsburg Palace art gallery.
In a setting of
sumptuously decorated staterooms, Mozarts life is traced through
artworks, the composers musical scores and cultural and historical
artifacts.
An exhibition at
the Jewish Museum examines the period following the Nazi takeover
of Austria in 1938 and the subsequent aryanization of the works of
Da Ponte, who was a former Catholic priest of Jewish descent.
Finally, the exhibition traces the musicians and musicologists who
fled before the war and how they, in the words of the museum, took
their Viennese view of Mozart out in the world.
For more on
Mozart 2006 celebrations in Austria, visit www.mozart2006.com.
To contact
reporter Joe Rosen, send e-mail to [email protected].