in Paris looking for a music position. He was thoroughly disenchanted with the French and their music”(Goes 56). From 1768 to 1775, between stays in Salzburg, he and Leopold made three further forays to Italy and Germany. Wolfgang evolved from a prodigy into a serious composer. Public Successes A self-confident Mozart assured his father in 1782 that he would be able to support a wife and family in Vienna, As a result which he called “Clavierland. Of its earlier devastation, the dominant architectural style in Vienna is Baroque, aided in the 1700s by an influx of Italian sculptors, stucco workers, and painters. The dominant architect and architectural historian was Italian-trained Johann Fischer Von Erlach (Hutchings 34), whose densely decorated structures still stand out today.” He planned to achieve this by writing music for the public: operas, symphonies, and concertos featuring himself as pianist. Although public performances were less frequent than today, they were for that reason on a more lavish scale. Of a set of piano concertos, Mozart commented “There are passages here and there from which the connoisseurs alone can derive sattisfaction; but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased,though without knowing why"(Goes 55). In spite of intrigues raised against him, Mozart managed to present The Abduction from the Seraglio in 1782. Of its success, he wrote proudly to his father: “People are crazy about this opera, and it does me good to hear such applause.” For the first few seasons, Mozart enjoyed an intoxicating popularity among the Viennese. In a series of academies attended by almost 300 supporters and patrons, he unveiled a string of masterful piano concertos. Emboldened by his success, he moved his family to the best part of town. Mozart tried to take advantage of the emerging entrepreneurial opportunities in Vienna. Four of his operas—Th...
