Noted musicologist Landon builds on his earlier study, 1791: Mozart's Last Year (Macmillan, 1988), enlarging his scope to include Mozart's extremely productive last ten years. Whereas Volkmar Braunbehrens's recent Mozart in Vienna: 1781-1791 ( LJ 9/1/89) is a broad sociological study, Landon stays closer to the composer, his family, and his music. While there is some discussion of the music itself, the main interest is in the facts surrounding its creation and performance. Numerous interesting details cast a fresh new look at Mozart the person and his rapid success and eventual failure in Vienna. The result is a lavishly illustrated, informative, and very readable book. -Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
