Even after two centuries since his death, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart remains as one of the most famous and highly influential composers the world has ever seen. His enormous output of Classical music spans over six hundred compositions, including several works that have become seminal pieces of symphonic, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Today, there are many Mozart compositions that are still a staple of standard concert repertoire.
Mozart is also unique in the sense that it is rare among composers to have their lives celebrated outside the boundaries of their art. But Mozarts own life was the subject of many myths and controversies, some of them so colorful that they have become the subject matter of countless biographies and even stage plays and films.
Some say Mozarts life was so colorful because none of his biographers knew him personally and, as such, had to resort to supposition and fabrication in the absence of real fact. Historians have pointed out the fact that many of the myths surrounding Mozart actually started after his death. There is the belief that Mozart composed his Requiem for himself, but that has neither been confirmed nor denied by...