On this the 250th aniversary of the birth of the much revered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, I have compiled a (hyperlink annotated) list of The Mozart Facts

• Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria
• Died December 5, 1791 at the age of 35
• He was born to Father Leopold and Mother Maria Anna Pertl
• He was baptized at St. Rupert’s Cathedral
• On August 4, 1782 he married Constanze Weber
• He was buried in a peasant’s grave in Vienna at St. Marx Cemetery
• His full legal name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart
• Wrote of 626 unique works.
• He composed his first symphony at the age of 8
• Haydn once said Mozart is ‘the greatest composer known to me in person or by name; he has taste and, what is more, the greatest knowledge of composition’
• Mozart had a special relationship with Prague - He premiered the opera Don Giovanni there on October 29, 1787, and supported himself for many years through commissions originating from the city.
• He was a Freemason, and belonged to the same Masonic Lodge as Haydn

More to come

Looks like things are getting ridiculous now in Salzburg as local merchants attempt to capitalize on the $8.8 billion Mozart Marketing Machine. With no descendants to protect the family name, the market follows the path of least resistance - so from Mozart schnapps to Mozart jogging pants there is something for all on streets of Mozart’s city.

Fortunately there is more on offer than Mozart branded bras and golf balls. For example the Cambridge University Press has published a new Mozart Encyclopedia, director Phil Grabsky has released a new documentary, “In Search of Mozart”, and critic Anthony Holden published “THE MAN WHO WROTE MOZART: The Extraordinary Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte”. For more information Hugh Canning from The Sunday Times has a more detailed look at some of this Mozart literature.

[From: Newsweek]

Classical sales statistics are begining to roll in for 2005 and the numbers are very encouraging. Reuters is reporting a number of artists with digital sales making up 10 - 20 percent of overall sales (73 percent in the case of Janine Jansen), and even though traditional sales are down 15 percent in the US, digital sales are up almost 94 percent. This represents an unexpected and exciting growth for the classical genre in the digital marketplace. Let’s hope this trend will continue in the coming years.

[From: Reuters]

Over the past number of years I have been in the market for a new piano. During this time I have likely tried over 500 pianos at various outlets in a 400km radius, each unique and in some way unacceptable. Buying a piano is a strange business, in fact it may be one of the most difficult items to purchase period.

The most important thing is to play the instrument, listen to it, spend some quality time with it… Sounds easy right? Unfortunately this may not be possible. I can guarantee with 100% certainty there will be some kid pounding the keys of another piano on display, or some sales person making a massacre of Fur Elise or worse, rocking out to his/her version of Memory from Cats. Next, once it has been established that you can play the instrument, (impossible to avoid since you can’t get to know a piano by playing chopsticks) two divergent paths emerge that will either increase your ability to evaluate the piano or will affect your prompt exit from the store. Path 1 - The sales person realizes that since you can play you are a serious buyer, a person requiring a certain environment in which to test the available pianos before making a decision - he/she quickly proceeds to enforce the one piano at-a-time rule, and answers questions while offering tidbits of sporadically useful information. Path 2 - The sales person realizes that since you can play you are a serious buyer, and proceeds to bombard you with useless information to make any piano in the place out to be the best piano in the place often contradicting previous statements depending on your perceived enjoyment of the current instrument. Of course no salesperson good or bad can make a piano sound better, and no salesperson can tell you one piano sounds better than another.

Regardless of the process I finally found a suitable piano and had the guts to spend the money both at the same time. I now have a Yamaha U1, and am very happy with every aspect of its sound and action. Perhaps I will add a piano buying guide for mid-range pianos to the site.

2006 is here, and after a year of anticipation, the celebration of the 250th aniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) birth is upon us. As stated this is “Post 1″ of what is likely to be many leading up to January 27th (Mozart’s birthday), and likely an entire year of Mozart Mania, all Mozart all the time.

I am not a Mozart fanboy by any stretch, in fact at one time I may have been somewhat dismissive of his music before I gave it fair play. Now that there is so much hype, perhaps more than there has been for any classical composer ever(?), this may be the chance for other dismissive types to get on board. So I can deal with a year of WAM overkill (and because I would be complaining if there was no hype).

Fair warning