Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus was born on the 27th of January in 1756

· Died: Vienna, 5 December 1791

Along with Haydn, one of the first classical composers. Wrote music of many different genres. Major works would include his Requiem, the operas Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte, the clarinet concerto, the string quartets, the later piano concerti (nos. 20 onwards) and the later symphonies (numbers 36, 38, 39, 40 and 41).

There does seem to be a tendency among some people to label Mozart as nothing more than the composer of ``pretty tunes'' or little twiddles. I couldn't disagree more. In particular, I think his religious music exhibits a great deal of feeling, and transcends mere ``twiddles''. In my opinion, the problem is probably that people tend to know things like Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and because this particular piece is eminently hummable, not particularly ``deep'', and played to death in Muzak-like environments, people assume that all of Mozart's music is like that.

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