01 Jan 2006
A musical genius? No, Mozart was just a hard-working boy
With the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth just weeks away, the source of his brilliance is being disputed. Alice O'Keeffe reports
With the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth just weeks away, the source of his brilliance is being disputed. Alice O'Keeffe reports
[The Observer, 1 January 2006]
It was Albert Einstein who said that 'as an artist, or a musician, Mozart was not a man of this world'. Certainly the composer's extraordinary talents have never been in doubt: he could master a minuet and trio on the piano in half an hour when he was just four years old, and he wrote his first opera at the age of 12.