A disappointing biography if one is looking to learn about the composer’s life. It is more suitable for music lovers or scholars of the Salzburg composer’s music, as it attempts to explain Mozart’s life through some of his works. Therefore, if one is not well acquainted with the compositions, the book is difficult to follow.
The author sets out to find in Mozart’s compositions a biographical reflection of their creator, integrated with the political, cultural, and social developments of his time. The result is a mass of information that lacks biographical continuity.
Mozart is a musical myth, a figure full of light and shadow who lived a difficult personal life. He escaped from the authority of the Archbishop of Salzburg and from an organizing father who, as a musician, believed himself capable of controlling a genius. Married to Constanze, although he was initially in love with her sister, a famous singer, he traveled through various European courts, experiencing periods of great earnings and even greater debts, in Habsburg Vienna, which failed to recognize his talent and brought him closer to Enlightenment circles, many of them gathered in Masonic lodges.
Mackie’s study offers a wealth of data; some of it is repeated and some is not fully explained, wrapped in a tangle of supplementary information that does not make the book easy to read.