Mozart [Hardcover]

"An exceptional book. Rushton's Mozart is a practical guide for both the general reader and scholar. The biography is fluent, easy to understand, and supplies many updated resources. He offers a concise and up-to-date biography while meeting his objective of supplying an introduction and guide to the works.This is a well researched book that will serve as a practical guide for both the general reader and scholar."--Jonathan Ng, Choral Journal

"Crisp, learned."--Alex Ross, The New Yorker

"Rushton's account is succinct yet thorough, covering key areas such as the composer's relationship with freemasonry and his attitudes toward his contemporaries."--Andrew Farach-Colton

"A valuable addition to the ever-growing literature on Mozart."--Library Journal

"The finest short biography of Mozart that I know--incisive, insightful, and elegantly written. If I had to recommend one book that explained the man and his music, this would be it."--Cliff Eisen, Department of Music, King's College London

"A crisp account of the composer's career, with many musical examples.... Rushton is direct, impersonal and authoritative, as befits a brief but learned introductory life. Not that he doesn't offer anecdotal material to keep the more casual reader entertained."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post

"Always sensitive, judicious, and stimulating. It is too short--not too short for Mozart but for Rushton, who has certainly much more to say that would be of interest."--Charles Rosen, The New York Review of Books

"Rushton has pulled off something as brilliant as it is implausible: a perfectly judicious account of the life of the composer." --Bookpage

"A splendid introduction to Mozart's life and works--carefully organized, sensibly argued, and lucidly written. Rushton brings his vast knowledge of Mozart into the biographical arena and succeeds admirably in writing for both the layman and the connoisseur of Mozart's music." --Simon P. Keefe, Professor of Music at City University London, and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Mozart and The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia

'Elegantly straightforward, engaging and informative, thought-provoking and enlightening, and informed by a lifetime's scholarship and love, this is perhaps the finest concise study of Mozart and his music yet written.' --Piano Magazine

14 halftones, 50 music examples