In the history of European music there is no author
who would achieve so much in so many branches of musical composition as Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). He excelled in all types of music - his music
production covers secular as well as religious music, chamber as well as symphonic music,
and still further - concert, operatic, oratorio, and other types of music.It is generally known that Prague was the first one in Europe to show - during the composer�s life already - exceptional understanding for his work. The Prague audience was the first after Vienna to hear Le Nozze di Figaro and Entf�hrung aus dem Serail, and welcomed Mozart in 1787 and in his further visits as a special friend.
It is certain that Klementinum was among the many Prague places which Mozart visited. He visited Klementinum on January 13, 1787, and described his impressions and admiration in a letter to friend in Vienna. It is no accident that Mozart�s memorial, which the people from Prague set up to express the esteem and admiration they felt for their beloved composer - the first one of its kind in the whole world, was housed right here in what then was the University Library and today is the National Library of the Czech Republic. And there is still one more crucial primacy to be proud of: Mozart�s Prague memorial has not - totally in line with the intentions of its founders and of the strong and lively Prague Mozartian tradition - been assigned the role of mere historical monument; it gathers all Mozart�s works then available and opens it to all who want to learn about his work.
Mozart also composed some pieces for Prague, and we are honoured by the fact that Prague witnessed some of the peaks of Mozart�s career and work which is due not only to the opera of operas: Don Giovanni whose world-wide famous first night was staged here in Prague on October 29, 1787.
On November 3, 1787, for his dear friend, Prague singer Josefina Du�kov�, Mozart composed the legendary scene with the aria Bella mia fiamma, addio! From the excited music of the whole piece, especially from the passionate stretta, the very author of Don Giovanni speaks with a personal and intimate touch.
The coloratura Alleluja is the climax of Mozart�s brilliant motet Exsultate, jubilate which was written in 1773 during his stay in Milano for the Italian castrato, a soprano Venanzio Rauzzini.
Mozart has got a number of exquisite operas and operatic overtures. The one which leaves the most immediate and temperamental impression is probably the most popular of them - the electrifying and graceful overture to Le Nozze di Figaro. Today it will be performed in a modification for strings.
The adagio and fugue from 1788 is another of Mozart�s minor pieces, which, in this case, symbolizes author�s firm resolution.
Religious pieces composed by W.A.Mozart have often been overshadowed by his other famous large compositions - his symphonies, serenatas, quartettes, and operas. Thus we fail to give the religious compositions their due, for they should be given equal standing among the fruits of the composers talent, as their inventiveness and structure is comparable to that of his other works. Religious sonatas for two violins, a bass, and organs which were performed at the mass between Gloria and Credo form, essentially, independent instrumental chamber compositions whose inventiveness is congenial to that of other secular works displaying similar temperament.
Apparently, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is today the most popular classical composer and the impact of his music is - more than two hundred years after his death - unique and unrivalled.