A Musical Genius Turns 254 Today!

Born in Salzburg, Austria, on this day in 1756, he spent most of his adult life in Vienna. A child prodigy, he could perform difficult pieces on both piano and violin and when he was a teenager he wrote and composed some of the most popular operas of all time, including The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and The Magic Flute (1791). He lived less than three dozen years but left a legend and a legacy of more than 600 musical compositions. Happy Birthday Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart!

In 2006, I had the pleasure of traveling with Collette to Austria on an Alpine Countries tour visiting the picturesque cities of Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna. It was the 250^th anniversary of the birth of Mozart and his genius was being celebrated around the globe, but most especially in Salzburg who lauded its favorite son with a series of birthday bashes. It seemed everywhere you looked the little man with the small head and prominent eyes was staring back at you. His visage was in the shop windows of Salzburg’s well-preserved Old Town and on the wrappers of chocolate candy.

My plan that day was to fly solo and visit the third floor of No. 9 Getreidegasse (Grain Alley), a narrow but famous street lined with shops in Salzburg. Here I would see the violin he learned on as a child and a copy of a composition he wrote in his own hand at age 8. The Salzburg house where the seventh and last child (only two survived) of the court musician Leopold Mozart and his wife Anna Maria was born serves as a museum and I remember an eclectic mix of items like a lock of hair, a mother of pearl button from his waistcoat, playing cards and a violin string—objects that a fourth grader today might put in a classroom time capsule.   

Before setting out, I fortified myself with a cup of strong coffee in Café Tomaselli which is located just a few steps from the Salzburg Cathedral and the famous Getreidegasse. Café Tomaselli, with its splendid inlayed wood paneling, marble tables, silver trays, classic newspaper stands, Tuxedo-clad waiters and “kitchen maids”, is the ideal venue to transport you back in time. Billed as Austria’s oldest “Viennese coffee house” having been established in 1705, it is reputed to be the popular gathering place for many personalities including – you guessed it – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Here’s a bit of trivia for Mozart fans:

Mozart was an avid traveler and spent more than 10 of his not quite 36 years traveling to more than 200 European cities!

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posted by Melissa McKee

Collette Vacations

Tags: 2010, Arts & Culture, Current Events, Music Cities

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