28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully written... but not the best biography, September 26, 2002
Marcia Davenport's "Mozart" is indeed wonderfully written and truly was a labor of love. She has a gift for drawing the reader into the book; her wit (and, on occasion, biases) can be noted throughout the book. Davenport doesn't get you to know ABOUT Mozart; she gets the reader to KNOW him.
The reader will find himself emotionally attached to Mozart. He or she will rejoice when he rejoices and will feel sorrow when the Austrian prodigy felt sorrow (which, sadly, was not uncommon.) I truly enjoyed reading this book...
...which is why I'm sorry to say that it is not the best biography.
The work is contains many myths and legends that were masqueraded (often by musicologists) as facts in the past. The author makes use of a letter ("Letter to Baron B.") that was proven fraudulent. This particular letter, concocted by a Friedrich Rochlitz in the early 19th century, was dubbed a forgery even before Davenport's time. (Mozart's first reliable biographer, Otto Jahn, acknowledged this.)
This is not to discredit Davenport; she researched all she could. Again, many otherwise reliable musicologists of Davenport's day regarded the above, as well as other myths and legends found in the Davenport biography, as bona fide information. Many other biographers fell victim to this: Alfred Einstein and Maynard Solomon included. It wasn't until the 1980's that further research revealed that many so-called facts about Mozart were nothing more than myth, and that musicologists and biographers alike put a stop to myth-propagation.
I recommend the reader study this book alongside a biography written within the last decade or so... or better yet, obtain a copy of "The Mozart Myths: a Critical Reassessment" by William Stafford. It will allow the reader to filter the fiction from the fact in "Mozart".
With all this said, "Mozart" truly is a wonderful book, even though it isn't an excellent biography. If you're willing to study "Mozart" and compare it to more authoritative works as you're reading it, you should definitely purchase it. I think you'll find that, despite its shortcomings, it is a charming work.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Journey into the Mind and Heart of a Genius, February 5, 2001
"No biographer, no commentator, critic, or interpreter can ever reveal Wolfgang Mozart entirely. Every attempt to know him truly, to relive his life, is incomplete without his own musical revelations."
Although that sentiment could not be more accurate, this biography by Marcia Davenport, simply entitled Mozart, brings us about as close as we can get to knowing and understanding this musical genius solely through a 400-page biographical account. In preparing for the writing of this biography, Davenport retraced every journey Mozart made, saw every dwelling in which he had lived, every theatre in which audiences first heard his works performed, and every library and museum that possessed useful manuscripts. In the foreword, she asserts, "I think I know what he looked like, how he spoke, what he did day by day."
Throughout the book, we too get a sense for Mozart the composer and Mozart the man. His great musical works did not emerge from a vacuum; rather, they are the products of a man deeply affected by a unique combination of experiences spanning from his prodigious childhood days of touring throughout Europe to his last days in which he wrote his great Requiem (K. 626), a piece he knew he was composing for his own death. We worry with him through his difficulties with debt and the constant onslaught of disgruntled creditors, and we delight with him when he glows with amorousness for some new love interest. We rejoice with him at the success in Prague of his great operas Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, and we mourn with him as Wolfgang attempts fruitlessly to receive a much-desired court appointment and recognition worthy of his talent. We carouse with him when he lightheartedly indulges in time with good friends; we are spectators at the heart-wrenching deaths of his mother, father, and a number of children who could not survive infancy.
The book is thorough, accurate, and engagingly informative in its narrative of Mozart's life. Though sometimes bland, the language Davenport uses is appropriately simple; quite admirably, she resists the impulse to indulge in the romanticized and flowery rhetoric with which many authors approach Mozart's miraculous genius. Her graceful writing style lets the characters speak for themselves rather than overpowering them with her own bravura.
Davenport also frequently quotes letters written to and from Mozart, thus providing internal proof for her assertions, as well as supplying additional insight into Wolfgang's personality and wit. Davenport quotes from a letter written by Mozart to his wife, Constanze, in which Wolfgang bemoans his ever-growing debt, then adds a post-script: "Tears rained upon the paper as I wrote the foregoing page, but now let us cheer up! Catch!-an astonishing number of kisses are flying about! The devil!-I see a whole crowd of them, too. Ha, ha! I have just grabbed three-they are delicious!" Such blithely clever passages are not uncommon in Mozart's letters, even when he is at his most miserable. Davenport's numerous references to such letters greatly enhance the lucidity of our perception of Mozart.
One weakness in the biography's articulation, however, occurs in Davenport's copious use of foreign words and phrases, for which she offers no translation. Those who are not moderately proficient in German, Italian, and French will miss some of the book's sly humor and more vivid descriptions, although the use of foreign phrases is not significant enough to diminish substantially a reader's understanding of the book.
For those interested in Mozart's life but who have not done much reading on him, this book is a lovely resource filled with such an abundance of information so as to transform such a novice into an expert. For those who are already Mozart aficionados, this book may not offer much new insight, but the depth and detail with which Davenport describes events may give such readers fresh perspective and heightened understanding. For the musician who enjoys Mozart's works, this biography is particularly intriguing, not only for the reasons noted above but also because the book mentions most of Mozart's great compositions while describing the time during which he produced them. For a performer or an analyst, such information as Mozart's present circumstances and frame of mind while composing a specific piece can be extremely helpful in interpreting his music.
This meticulously complete and factual account of Mozart's life is a valuable resource for lovers of Mozart and of his music, whether reading for study or for pleasure.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Davenport's Mozart is a Miracle, August 24, 1999
By A Customer
From an avid reader in general, and of biographies and history in particular, I found this book remarkably hard to put down after the very first page. I agree with Barnes & Nobel when the wrote "The result is a biography of such commanding stature that it has remained unassailable since its publication in 1932." What makes this book so special is that it doesn't tell you about Mozart, it is Mozart. You feel as if you are living your life along side Mozart's. Davenport's writing, woven throughout the scores of quotations from letters written by Mozart and those around him, is so vivid that you can actually see Mozart's life unfold in your imagination from the beginning until the end. And what about the subject of the book - Mozart. In my opinion, Mozart is one of the most spectacular individuals the World has ever known. If you are not a Mozart fan now, you most assuredly will be after reading this book. He seems to have been not only an ungodly genius, but a generous individual with an incredible sense of humor as well. This book should be studied at the high school level. I really believe teenagers would not only comprehend Mozart, but would also find him similar to themselves from a social point of view. I bet it would be real eye-opener to many of these students that such an apparently laid-back, rebellious and "party animal" type of person could create such serious and Ingenious work. This book is a must read for all!
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