Mozart - Portrait of a Genius (Paperback, New edition)

"Mozart "is a new and brilliant study of the great composer's life and creative genius, written by one of the most important social thinkers of our time.

As Elias shows, Mozart grew up in the tradition of court music, in a society which viewed musicians as manual workers who were expected to produce entertainment for a court audience. Throughout his short life he was constantly in search of work; the only job he was able to find was as an organist at the small court in Salzburg.

Elias describes how the composer tried to live in Vienna as a freelance musician. It was not, however, until the next generation - that of Beethoven - that the necessary conditions were created for such an existence. Mozart failed, he argues, because he took a step towards independence in a society which was not then ready for it. With the aristocracy of Vienna having turned its back on him, with mounting debts, no work and no prospect of fulfilling his innermost desires, Mozart died with the feeling that his social existence had completely foundered, that his life had become empty of meaning.

In "Mozart, "Elias brings his enormous powers of insight to bear on this case of tragic conflict between personal creativity and the tastes of a society which sought to control it.