During a large European concert tour when he was seven, Mozart and his sister (who was also a child prodigy) displayed their talents to audiences in Germany, in Paris, at court in Versailles, and in London, where Wolfgang wrote his first symphonies, and was befriended by Johann Bach, whose musical influence on Wolfgang was profound.
Mozart published his first works, four sonatas for clavier with accompanying violin, when he was eight years old.
Further visits to Vienna and Italy helped to mould the young musician's style; he wrote for the opera, and produced sacred vocal pieces and instrumental works. By 1772 he had written about 25 symphonies, and his first quartets. Further quartets and symphonies followed during and after a visit to Vienna in 1773, when he first encountered the music of another composer, Haydn.
Between 1775 and 1776 he composed two operas, five violin concertos, and various masses (church music) for the Salzburg Court Chapel. He continued to be inspired by the composers Bach and Haydn, as well as Handel.
After several years employed in various positions around Europe, none particularly to his liking, Mozart in 1781 returned to Vienna to stay. Marrying in 1782 at the age of 26, Wolfgang supplemented his income by teaching music, but he continued to write, producing twelve piano concertos in the space of four years, along with symphonies, quartets, and many other pieces. By 1788 he had produced many of the works for which he was to become most famous; in these last years of his life, he also wrote 'The Magic Flute', one of his better known pieces.
Despite his prolific output, Mozart was unable to secure a prominent position that paid well, and he also was unable to make much money from his works.
In 1791 he was commissioned by an unknown stranger to compose the Requiem Mass. Mozart became obsessed with the idea that it was for his own death, and in fact he died before the work was finished, after a three-week fever. He had always had poor health; it is presumed that he died of kidney failure.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35. Deeply in debt at the time of his death, Mozart did not live long enough to enjoy the financial rewards from the success of The Magic Flute, and was buried in a pauper's grave.
Mozart excelled in every form of music in which he composed. In his short life, he perfected the grand forms of symphony, opera, string quartet, and concerto, that marked the classical period in music. Unappreciated by his peers, it was later generations of musicians, composers, and critical audiences that eventually recognized the genius of his music.