Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Divine Inspiration of Coffee

Right up until the point of his death Mozart was a lover of two favorite pastimes: playing a game of billiards with his good friend, the Irish tenor Michael Kelly, and sharing copious amounts of black coffee whilst playing

his game under the candlelight. It is said that his greatest operatic work: The Magic Flute was completed under the Divine inspiration of this revered dark and aromatic beverage. The famous opera premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneder's theatre in Vienna. So successful did the opera become that it even celebrated its 100th performance in November 1792 in a short year! But Mozart did not have the personal satisfaction to watch his own redemption as he had died on 5 December 1791 at the age of just 35 years.

That the consummation of the noble beverage would be come the nectar of the composers later genius is undisputed. Given the history of Mozart's precocious talent it is equally indisputable that the sheer volume of work produced required a source of inspiration for that innate genius to flower upon. Mozart was a genius by birth but even at times a genius needs to find the spark that could drive the mind to new loftier heights.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart b.1756 d. 1791 was the full name of this remarkable composer. who lived such a short life but composed such magical pieces that would be remembered for eternity.

Such was the prodigious talent that the young Mozart composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty still as a child.

In 1762 the father Herr Mozart and his family took the child prodigy on his first European trip to an exhibition at the court of the Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich and then the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague.

For the next three and a half years the family of Mozart took the child on a very long promotional concert tour to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again then back to Paris, and then back home to Austria via Zurich to Donaueschingen, and then Munich.

For interest Mozart actually wrote his first whole symphony when he was eight years old but it is very likely that his father, who was also musically inclined, had transcribed most of the key notes into writing. During his tender youth, Mozart met a number of famous musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other distinguished composers,  particularly Johann Christian Bach,whom Mozart visited in London in 1764 and 1765 and quite simply adored.

After some time back at home in Austria and in particular in Salzburg, after the child had acquired more musical direction, Mozart set off for Italy in 1769 to reach fame and fortune. In 1771 Mozart was distinguishably welcomed as a

member of the world famous Accademia Filarmonica. There in Rome, Mozart listened twice to performance of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere in the Sistine Chapel and was so profoundly moved that he actually wrote a replica out from memory, and thus producing the first ever copy of a work belonging to the Vatican. Thereafter in 1770 Mozart wrote the opera Mitridate, re di Ponto, which was performed with such success in Milan and which led to further enquirers and operatic  commissions. At the age of 17, Mozart was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg to the court of its ruler, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. But the young musician grew tired and restless and gravitated towards Vienna, in spite of a great many number of new friends and admirers the young musician established in Salzburg. 

In Salzburg Mozart was a frequent customer of the cafe Tomaselli founded in 1703.

Having left Salzburg Mozart's new career in Vienna began very well and he quickly found acclaim. In 1782 mozart married  Constanze and the couple had six children, of whom only two survived infancy. In Vienna Mozart developed a new penchant for luxury and style to impress his new wife Constanze. As a result Mozart would find that his income from concerts would not match his expenditure and plush lifestyle and so in Vienna he would sink into a spiral of debt that would depress him until the point of his early death. It could be said that the financial pressures more than social dictates drove Mozart to find peace and contentment  through Billiards and the pleasure of drinking coffee as a stimulant to newly invigorate the mind.

Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna around 1784, and the two composers quicklybecame friends. From 1782 to 1785 Mozart presented many concerts with himself as the soloist and introducing three or four new piano concertos in each season. The concerts were so popular, but again the income earned would waste very quickly on fine dining, clothes, hairstyling and all the requisites for social success in Viennese society of the day.

In 1787 Mozart finally obtained a steady post with steady income under  Emperor Joseph II who appointed Mozart as his "chamber composer". Also in the same year Mozart met the young Ludwig van Beethoven who spent several

weeks in Vienna. Eventually, Mozart died after years of financial distress and debt unable to afford the lifestyle he craved that started with his marriage to Constanze and all her social aspirations. In 1791, aged a mere 35 years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart succumbed.

Mozart was interred in a common grave in the city he adored, Vienna that was the contemporary Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside the city itself. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had composed over 600 works that remain a source of inspiration to this day.

Reflections on Mozart and coffee by Pieter Bergli

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