„…his compositions are clear, melodious, skilfully made…the concert was one of the best we‘ve heard in a long time, but the concert hall was only half full…“ Leipziger Allgemeine Musikzeitung on a concert of W.Mozart jr.
This must be, in a way, the ultimate unknown composer. Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791-1844) was the sixth child of Wolfgang Amadeus and Constanze, and the second one to survive early childhood. (In fact, the infant death-rate of the times was so high that parents were recommended not to form any close emotional bond with a child before it was two years old.) His father died only a few months later.
His mother decided he should become a composer, and he received tuition by Antonio Salieri and Nepomuk Hummel; colleagues of his father. He started composing at an early age, played the piano and the violin, and made his début at the „Theater an der Wien“ at the age of thirteen.
He was a teacher and performer, and a Kapellmeister at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
He struggled with the weight of his father’s music his entire life, was often depressed, and underrated his own talent. Making a name for himself must have been very difficult, as he actually didn‘t have one.