Genius

250 years ago, on January 27th. 1756, Joannes Chrisostomos Wolfgang Gotlieb was born in Salzburg, Austria. The name Gotlieb, the one loved by god, later became Amadeus and as a grown man he wrote Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, or just Mozart.
The fact that he wrote a huge amount of letters throughout his (short) life, letters the recipients treasured and kept, means that we know a lot about the man, not only his music. Many of these letters have been published. The book I have (in Danish), also contains a list of his compositions.
Mozart died on December 5th. 1791, only 35 years old.
For those that have seen the film 'Amadeus', please remember that the script is written in Hollywood. Mozart's wife Constanze was not a simpleton, not at all and Salieri was a completely different person than the one portrayed in the film.
I visited Salzburg in August 2002, this is the house Mozart was born in.