Mozart's Vienna Years (1781 - 1791)

A List of Mozart's Best Composition in the Vienna Years

     1781 - 1791   -    Mozart lives the last 11 years of his life in Vienna, Austria.  This is the era of 
                                 his greatest operas, masses, symphonies, piano concertos and more.

     1781              -   Mozart's first year in Vienna is very successful.  He plays the best salons in the city.  
                                A set of six violin sonatas, four of  them new (nos. 24, 25, 27, 28), dedicated to his 
                                piano student Josepha von Auernhammer, sell very well.

                           -    Mozart plays in a piano competition against virtuoso Muzio Clementi.


     1782              -    The opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) premiers 
                                on July 16.  It is a hit.

                           -    Mozart marries Constanze Weber on Aug 4 in St. Stephen's cathedral.  Only two of 
                                their six children will survive childhood. 

                                            Raimund Leopold (17 June – 19 August 1783)
                                            Karl Thomas Mozart (21 September 1784 – 31 October 1858)
                                            Johann Thomas Leopold (18 October – 15 November 1786)
                                            Theresia Constanzia Adelheid Friedericke Maria Anna (27 Dec 1787 – 29 June 1788)
                                             Anna Maria (b/d 16 November 1789)
                                             Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (26 July 1791 – 29 July 1844)


     1782 - 1783   -   Mozart does an in-depth study of the music of Handel and J.S. Bach.

     1783              -    Mozart returns to Salzburg with Constanze hoping his father would accept her.  
                                He had written a large part of his Great Mass in C minor K. 477 with a solo
                                part for Constanze to try to impress Leopold.  It doesn't work.

     1784              -    Haydn and Mozart meet and become friends.  The next year Mozart dedicates
                                six new string quartets to Haydn, inspired by Haydn's 1781 Opus 33 "Russian Quartets".

                           -    Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor

                           -    Mozart, free-lancing, plays a series of new piano concertos (Nos. 14 - 19) in public 
                                in Vienna.  He has his greatest financial success, but it does not last long.  His lavish 
                                spending soon sinks him into debt. 

     1785               -   Leopold visits Vienna in February.  Constanze's family give him the royal treatment 
                                to mend things between him and Wolfgang.  

                            -   Leopold attends the premier of Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor and hears the 
                                emperor call out "Bravo, Mozart."

                            -   Leopold attends a concert of three of Wolfgang's "Haydn Quartets."  Haydn is present 
                                and says to Leopold:       

                                      "I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest 
                                        composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what 
                                        is more the greatest skill in composition."

                           -    Piano Concertos Nos. 21 in C major & 22 in Eb major.

     1786              -    Mozart sets aside piano composing, begins his famous association with librettist 
                                Lorenzo Da Ponte, and writes The Marriage of Figaro, the first of his last five operas.

                           -    Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, Piano Trio No 2,

                                Symphony No. 38 in D "Prague"

                           -   Mozart's personal problems worsen over the next three years; his debt's grow and he 
                                has to move several times for cheaper living accomodations, he and Constanza lose 
                                three infants, Constanza suffers poor health.


     1787              -   April:  The supposed meeting with 16 year old Beethoven.

                           -   Leopold Mozart dies on May 28, age 68.

                           -   Mozart and Ponte write Don Giovanni. It premiers in October in Prague to great applause.  
                               It is received with less enthusiasm in Vienna.

                           -   Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, String Quintet No. 3 in C major, String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, 

                                Rondo in A minor, K.511, Clarinet Quintet, K.Anh.91

     1788              -   Mozart writes his final three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41) that summer.   

     1789              -   The French Revolution begins.

     1790              -   Joseph II of Austria dies. 

     1791              -   Mozart turns down an offer to accompany Joseph Haydn to London.  They will 
                               never see each other again.   

                           -   Mozart composes heavily, producing many of his most admired works: 
                                the opera The Magic Flute, the final piano concerto (No. 27), the Clarinet Concerto,
                                the last in his great series of 6 string quintets, the motet Ave verum corpus. 

                                Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart is born on July 26 (d. July 1844).  He will become 

                                a professional pianist and composer.

                                Mozart gets sick on November 20, dies on December 5,  seven weeks before his 36th 
                                birthday, leaving his Requiem Mass unfinished.

     1792               -   Beethoven, just turning 22, moves from Bonn to Vienna in December.