Mozart in Motion

'A dazzling celebration and recalibration of Mozart's genius, written with an energy to match its subject' - Ian Bostridge

Mozart in Motion by Patrick Mackie explores one of the most familiar and beloved icons of our culture. Yet, how much do we really understand about his music, and what does it reveal about the great composer? With exhilarating and transformative prose, Mackie combines biographical storytelling with deep dives into the experience of listening to Mozart's music. This approach unveils a musician engaging with culture at a time of sweeping progressiveness, when Europe was caught between two historical worlds.

Follow Mozart from his adolescence in Salzburg to his early death; from his close, rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments; and from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard. Mackie guides the reader through major and lesser-known events in Mozart's life, bringing alive the bustling, swivelling modernity of eighteenth-century Europe. In an era of rococo painting, surrealist aesthetics, and political turbulence, Mozart grappled with a searing talent that threatened to overwhelm him, yet also propelled him to extraordinary feats of musicianship.

In returning to the volatility of the eighteenth century, we hear Mozart's music in all its audacious vividness, gaining fresh perspectives on why his works still resonate so intensely today. We continue to search for the modernity he imagined into being.