Autoretrat de Mozart

Throughout his 35 years of life (from 1756 to 1791) Mozart relentlessly produced – with unfathomable plenitude – two well-defined types of manuscripts: scores and letters. Over time, the scores made him one of the few truly universal composers in the history of music. The letters, certainly less well-known, form the only verbal documentation to have reached us from his own hand. However, it is first-rate documentation owing to its extensiveness and extraordinary eloquence. Over this lengthy epistolary exchange, Mozart painted a complete portrait of his personality that, born from the most carefree spontaneity, became the most authentic of any possible self-portrait. Thus, his letters become the most direct path to what lies hidden behind his creative activity, in other words, the human background from which his music emerged.
The purpose of this book is to approach this background, and to examine, discover and relate each of its aspects to each other, from the most visceral character traits (such as the exultant comical and clownish humour that Mozart displayed throughout his whole life) to the more thoughtful traits (especially those relating to the way he lived out his religious and Masonic beliefs), to ultimately demonstrate the nature of his identification with musical art.