family stopped in Linz, where Wolfgang gave his first public concert.
By this time, Wolfgang was not only a virtuoso harpsichord player but
he had also mastered the violin. The audience at Linz was stunned by
the six-year-old, and word of his genius soon traveled to Vienna. In a
much-anticipated concert, the children appeared at the Schönbrunn
Palace on October 13, 1762. They utterly charmed the emperor and
empress.
Following this success, Leopold was inundated with invitations for
the children to play, for a fee. Leopold seized the opportunity and
booked as many concerts as possible at courts throughout Europe.
After the children performed at the major court in a region, other
nobles competed to have the “miracle children of Salzburg” play a pri-
vate concert in their homes. A concert could last three hours, and the
children played at least two a day. Today, Leopold might be considered
the worst kind of stage parent, but at the time it was not uncommon
for prodigies to make extensive concert tours. Even so, it was an
exhausting schedule for a child who was just past the age of needing
an afternoon nap.
Wolfgang fell ill on tour, and when the family returned to Salzburg
on January 5, 1763, Wolfgang spent his first week at home in bed with
acute rheumatoid arthritis. In June, Leopold accepted an invitation for
the children to play at Versailles, the lavish palace built by Loius XIV,
king of France. Wolfgang did not see his home in Salzburg for another
three years. When they weren’t performing, the Mozart children were
likely to be found bumping along the rutted roads in an unheated car-
riage. Wolfgang passed the long uncomfortable hours in the imaginary
Kingdom of Back, of which he was king. He became so engrossed in
the intricacies of his make-believe court that he persuaded a family
servant to make a map showing all the cities, villages, and towns over
which he reigned.
The king of Back was also busy composing. Wolfgang completed
his first symphony at age nine and published his first sonatas that same
year. Before the family returned to Salzburg, Wolfgang had played for,
and amazed, the heads of the French and British royal families. He had
also been plagued with numerous illnesses. Despite Wolfgang and
Nannerl’s arduous schedule and international renown, the family’s
finances were often strained. The pattern established in his childhood
would be the template for the rest of his short life. Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart toiled constantly, was lauded for his genius, suffered from ill-
ness, and struggled financially, until he died at age 35. The remarkable
child prodigy who more than fulfilled his potential was buried in an
unmarked grave, as was the custom at the time, in a Vienna suburb.(20)
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