King Haddock’s Reviews > Mozart > Status Update

"The beautifully curled scroll can improve the tone of the violin just as little as a fancifully curled wig can improve the intelligence of its living wig stand." - Leopold Mozart

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

While obviously Solomon is interpreting text of people he's never met, I find his treatment more plausible than someone calling the Mozarts a perfect family. I'd love to do my own in-depth reading of the Mozart family correspondences. But to this day, when you see a child music prodigy, you're best to squint and wonder what crap the parents are doing in private. Because there's usually sketchy pressure on the kid.

Mozart wrote, frustrated, that people regarded him still as a child. His father shamed Mozart for acting out; whereas as a child he was humble, quiet, serious. Solomon notes Mozart's dramatic actions could be tinged with irony, a borderline rebellious, "Oh? You think I'm a child? SURE! I'll ACT like a child!" Per Solomon: today, we keep treating Mozart like a child-like his father Leopold wanted Mozart to be treated.

The previous Mozart bio I read lauded Leopold, which made me squint. Solomon's approach seems grounded in vaster amounts of data and scrutiny. He examines Leopold as instilling pressured control, using epistolic evidence of a heavy hand, guilt tripping, interference with travels and relationships, etc. He points to Mozart's responses making sense in that framework. You? You, my dude? Keep talking.

I finished "Mozart: A Life" so now I'm starting "Mozart: A Life." Ahahaha!