Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

String Quintets Vol. 3
String Quintet in D major, K.593
String Quintet in E flat major, K.614

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756, the son of a musician who, in the year of his youngest child's birth, published an initial book on violin-playing. Leopold Mozart rose to occupy the position of Vice-Kapellmeister to the Archbishop of Salzburg, but sacrificed own creative career to that of his son, in whom he detected early signs of precocious genius. With the indulgence of his patron, he was able to undertake extended concert tours of Europe in which his son and his elder daughter Nannerl were able to astonish audiences. The boy played both the keyboard and the violin and could improvise and soon write down his own compositions.

Childhood that had brought Mozart signal success was followed by a less satisfactory period of adolescence largely in Salzburg, under the patronage new and less sympathetic