The Assassination of Mozart

by David Weiss

David Weiss concentrates on the death of the composer, and the general mystery surrounding it.

Genres: Novels, Music

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Trained as a theologian. David thinks about God… all the time. Whether as a father or grandfather, college instructor or Sunday School teacher, poet or writer, he seeks to imagine God in ways that are helpful and hopeful. In this book he brings insights from seminary and graduate school into a story that is deceptively simple and simply profound.

Reviews

[Viktoriya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't quite what I wanted it to be. I read his Sacred and Profane: A Novel of the Life and Times of Mozart a very long time ago (in my teenage years) and I still remember how much I enjoyed it. So, I was ready to get that same feeling from The Assassination Of Mozart. Unfortunately, David Weiss missed a mark this one. While I still loved reading about Mozart and the people who knew him (I mean, I would probably kill or give my right arm for a chance to have dinner with Beethoven, even a grumpy Beethoven), the whole plot of the novel didn't really make a lot of sense to me. It was still unclear as to why Jason Otis was soo damn determined to figure out the truth of his death, why, after so many years after his death, supposedly the Austrian police and the government are so against him even talking to people who knew Mozart. It just didn't make sense.

[Arpano · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is about a young American who marries a wealthier bride to spend her money on the European trip with the purpose of investigating Mozart's death - more precisely, to find proof of Salieri's guilt. The male lead, and the overall narrative, is completely certain that Salieri poisoned him. Salieri is still alive but institutionalised and doesn't tell anything coherent. The story is rife with hints that it was a political murder and the government and the police were complicit, i.e. Salieri was a hired hand, but why did they poison a musician? The story provides no answer. The male lead has no motivation and doesn't gain anything from that investigation; he exists purely as a device to push the agenda. Some KGB assets, guardians of Soviet/Russian school curriculum (Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri" is being learned in school and kids write essays about Salieri poisoning Mozart), use this book as a proof of Salieri's guilt "because of artist's intuition". Likely, Weiss was commissioned to write it so that the KGB could say "in the West they blame Salieri too!"

[Sreyashi Ghosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poignant story... A tragic ending...

[Tahoora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it years ago when i was truly obsessed with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I still am