Mozart On Tour | Vienna: The Last Year (Episode 13)

- DOCUMENTARY SEGMENT: Between 1788 and 1790, Mozart and his wife Constanze suffered from precarious finances and the tragedy of the death of young children; only two of the five children born to them during their eight-year marriage lived to adulthood. With Constanze in fragile health from her pregnancies and taking the waters at Baden, Mozart spent 1791 – the final year of his short life – in Vienna, working to make ends meet. Spending on the arts there had declined, but Mozart earned enough to stabilize his family′s financial situation, although it remained precarious. With his own health in decline, visiting Constanze in Baden every weekend, Mozart wrote some solemn works during the year, such as the Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626, which he never finished; it was performed at his funeral. But he also wrote lighthearted music, such the fairy-tale opera The Magic Flute, and his final piano concerto, Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595, an uplifting work that used the same melody as a children's song about a little boy wishing for the coming of spring. Music performed during the documentary includes portions of The Magic Flute by László Polgár (as Papageno), Ibolya Verebics (as Pamina), and the Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television, Budpaest, conducted by Wilhelm Keitel; of the Quintet in A major for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, by Otokar Bretšneider (clarinet) and members of the Talich Quartet; and of Piano Concert No. 27 by Aleksandar Madžar.Show more

- CONCERT SEGMENT: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595, performed by Aleksandar Madžar with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by André Previn, recorded in the Grosse Galerie ("Great Gallery") at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria.