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Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Dates
1756–1791
Era
Classical (1750–1820)
Recognition
essential popular
Wikipedia

Where to start with Mozart

Essential works to know this composer by — spread across their styles
  1. Orchestral
    Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, K.299
  2. Keyboard
    Fantasia in D minor, K.397
  3. Chamber
    Piano Quartet no. 1 in G minor, K.478
  4. Vocal
    Requiem in D minor, K.626
  5. Stage
    The Magic Flute, K.620 — Opera
  6. Orchestral
    Piano Concerto no. 20 in D minor, K.466
  7. Orchestral
    Piano Concerto no. 21 in C major, K.467
  8. Keyboard
    Piano Sonata no. 11 in A major, K.331, "Alla turca"
  9. Orchestral
    Sinfonia concertante in E flat major, K.364 — For violin, viola and orchestra
  10. Chamber
    String Quartet no. 19 in C major, K.465, "Dissonance"
  11. Orchestral
    Symphony no. 25 in G minor, K.183
  12. Orchestral
    Symphony no. 40 in G minor, K.550
  13. Keyboard
    Piano Sonata no. 16 in C major, K.545, "Facile"
  14. Orchestral
    Serenade in G major, K.525, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
  15. Vocal
    Ave verum corpus, K.618 — Motet for choir, organ and strings

Listening guide

Hand-curated paths into Mozart's catalogue
  1. Symphony No. 40 in G minor
  2. Piano Concerto No. 21 in C
  3. Requiem in D minor
  4. Clarinet Concerto in A major
  5. Piano Sonata No. 11 ”Alla Turca”

Most Acclaimed

  1. String Quintet in G minor K516
  2. Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat
  3. Don Giovanni (opera)
  4. String Quartet K465 ”Dissonance”
  5. The Magic Flute (opera)

Most Weird

  1. String Quartet K465 ”Dissonance”
    the slow introduction is so harmonically strange that early listeners suspected a printing error; Haydn confirmed it was correct
  2. Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor K491
    his darkest concerto — tragic key; Beethoven said he would never have written this
  3. A Musical Joke K522
    a parody of bad composition — wrong notes, bad transitions, a finale that ends in four different keys simultaneously
  4. Requiem K626
    left unfinished at his death; the circumstances — mysterious commissioner, his decline, the completed/unfinished question — remain unresolved
  5. Piano Sonata K310 in A minor
    written while his mother was dying in Paris — his most violent sonata

Similar composers

Same era, overlapping styles — by genre & period affinity

Works 557