[Illustration: Harp and cello logo]
NEW YORK
_Grosset & Dunlap_
PUBLISHERS
_Copyright 1951 by
The Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York_
Mozart’s earthly career was so poignantly short yet so filled with
incalculable achievement that the author of this booklet finds himself
confronted with an impossible task. He has, consequently, preferred to
outline as best he could in the space at his disposal a few successive
details of a life that was amazingly crowded with incident, early
triumphs, and subsequent crushing tragedies, rather than to consider
(let alone evaluate) the staggering creative abundances the master
bequeathed mankind.
It is scarcely necessary to disclaim for this thumbnail sketch any new
slant or original illumination. If it moves any reader to renew his
acquaintance with the standard biographies of the composer or, better
still, to deepen his artistic enrichment by a study of modern
interpretations of contemporary Mozart scholars like Alfred Einstein,
and Bernhard Paumgartner, its object will be more than achieved.