Composer of the Week: Mozart's Grand Tour

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Mozart's Grand Tour: A rocky road to Paris

A rocky road to Paris

Mozart's Grand Tour

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Mozart's Grand Tour, A rocky road to Paris

Donald Macleod joins Mozart and his family on an ambitious European adventure.

The Mozart family have barely started their epic European adventure, and already their plans are going awry. With Donald Macleod.

The Mozart family have barely started their European adventure, and already their plans are going awry. With Donald Macleod.

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was just seven years old, he and his family set out on an epic journey.  Their goal: to travel through Europe and become famous; bringing their awesomely talented children to concert halls, homes and royal palaces across Germany, Belgium, France, Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland.  At the start of their trip, young Wolfgang could already perform and improvise better than most adults.  By the time they returned home, three and a half years later, he’d grown into a fully fledged composer of sonatas, symphonies and arias.  This week, Donald Macleod accompanies the Mozart family on their musical marathon and invites us to follow their many scrapes and adventures.

Today, the Mozarts' plans to enthral wealthy royals in Mainz and Bonn are scuppered when they arrive to discover the princes are either absent or ill.  Bad weather ruins a river voyage down the Rhine and they are kept waiting for six weeks by Prince Karl Alexander of Belgium.  Young Wolfgang is homesick and the family coffers are emptying fast.

Symphony in C, K 208/102, 1. Molto allegro
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

Allegro in C Major, K 6
Florian Birsak, clavichord

Piano Concerto No 17 in G major, K 453: II. Andante
Lang Lang, piano
Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Mass in C, K 317 'Coronation Mass': Credo & Agnus Dei
Barbara Bonney, soprano
Catherine Wyn-Rogers, contralto
Jamie MacDougall, tenor
Stephen Gadd, bass
The English Concert Choir
The English Concert, directed by Trevor Pinnock

Violin Sonata No 1 in C Major, K 6
Rachel Podger, baroque violin
Gary Cooper, fortepiano

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod follows the young Mozart and his family on an ambitious European adventure.

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was just seven years old, he and his family set out on an epic journey. Donald Macleod follows them on their ambitious European adventure.

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