The literature on Mozart is almost as diverse, though surely not quite so glorious, as Mozart's own output. These three books are a case in point: a freewheeling analysis of Mozart the opera composer in the Enlightenment, a thoroughly documented survey of Mozart's last year, and a technical study of Mozart's manuscripts. Together, they give us a sense that we are closing in on the real Mozart, stripping away as they do myth after myth and replacing impressionistic conjectures by precise information. It is good news, if hardly astonishing, that Mozart's stature is in no way diminished by such microscopic examination.

LRB 7 July 1988 | PDF Download