Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1756–1791
626 works. 35 years.
Buried in an unmarked grave.
I tell you before God and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute. He has taste and, what is more, the greatest knowledge of composition. Joseph Haydn to Leopold Mozart, 1785

The Numbers

Works completed by age 35
Mozart
626
died at 35
Bach
200
died at 65
Beethoven
200
died at 56
Vivaldi
150
died at 63
Tchaikovsky
94
died at 53
Works per year of life
Mozart
17.9
Bach
17.4
Beethoven
12.9
Vivaldi
12.7
Tchaikovsky
2.9

The Timeline

A life measured in creation.

Age 5 · 1761
First compositions
Andante in C and Allegro in C — written down by his father Leopold.
Age 8 · 1764
First symphony
Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K. 16 — composed in London during the family's grand tour of Europe.
Age 12 · 1768
First opera
Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50 — a one-act singspiel. He was twelve years old.
Age 25 · 1781
Idomeneo
His first operatic masterpiece. Written for Munich, it announced a new kind of dramatic ambition.
Age 30 · 1786
The Marriage of Figaro
An opera so politically charged it was nearly banned.
Age 31 · 1787
Don Giovanni
The overture was written the night before the premiere, ink still wet on the pages as the orchestra sight-read it.
Age 32 · 1788
Symphonies 39, 40, and 41
Three of the greatest symphonies ever written, composed in six weeks and commissioned by no one.
Age 33 · 1789
Così fan tutte
A comedy of deception that conceals real anguish.
Age 35 · 1791
The Magic Flute, the Requiem, death
He premiered The Magic Flute in September. He died on 5 December. In between, he worked on the Requiem until he could no longer hold a pen. The Requiem was left unfinished.

The Music

Stop reading. Start listening.

Symphony No. 25 — 1st movement

Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183, 1773
Seventeen years old. A dark, urgent opening that announces a composer with no business being this good, this young.

Piano Concerto No. 21 — 2nd movement

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, 1785
Pure, unadorned beauty. The piano sings over muted strings in a melody so simple it hurts. Twenty-nine years old, six years left.

Sull'aria — Letter Duet

The Marriage of Figaro, 1786
The most beautiful three minutes in all of opera. Thirty years old.

Overture to Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni, 1787
The night before the premiere, Mozart hadn't finished the overture. He composed it overnight, his wife keeping him awake with stories and punch. The orchestra sight-read it the next evening. It's terrifying and also perfect.

Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Serenade No. 13 in G major, 1787
One of the most recognised pieces of classical music on earth. He knocked it out in a week, background music for a party.

Symphony No. 41 'Jupiter' — 4th movement

Symphony No. 41 in C major, 1788
The finale of his final symphony. Five themes combined simultaneously in a fugal coda of impossible complexity. Many consider it the greatest single movement in all symphonic music.

Queen of the Night — Der Hölle Rache

The Magic Flute, 1791
Hell's vengeance boils in my heart. The Queen of the Night demands her daughter commit murder and the music is as terrifying as the words. Some of the notes should be impossible, but Mozart wrote them anyway.

Clarinet Concerto — 2nd movement (Adagio)

Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622, 1791
His second-to-last completed work, written for his friend Anton Stadler. He had weeks to live.

The Words

I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute.
Joseph Haydn — composer, Mozart's friend and elder, to Leopold Mozart in 1785
Cramer, Cramer! We shall never be able to do anything like that!
Ludwig van Beethoven — composer, Mozart's successor, upon hearing The Magic Flute
I find consolation and rest in Mozart's music, wherein he gives expression to that joyousness of life which was part of his healthy artistic nature.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 19th century
Mozart's music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.
Albert Einstein — theoretical physicist, amateur violinist

The End

On 5 December 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna. He was thirty-five years old. He had been working on a Requiem he would never finish.

He was buried in a common grave at St Marx Cemetery. There was no headstone and no mourners at the graveside. The exact location of his remains is unknown.

In his thirty-five years he composed 626 catalogued works: operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, sonatas, masses and a requiem that stops mid-bar.

Now go. Listen.

The last music Mozart ever wrote. He died with the Lacrimosa incomplete — only eight bars in his hand.