My Year with Mozart

Lawrence Toppman spends a year listening to every note of his 200 CD set of works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and shares weekly musings of his journey with history’s most versatile composer.

My Year with MozartJanuary 23, 2020

Five Things I Learned from My Year with Mozart

Thoughts on spending a year with the prolific composer

My Year with MozartJanuary 16, 2020

Lorenzo Da Ponte: Mozart’s other half

By Lawrence Toppman According to legend, the wife of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II heard a guy at a

My Year with MozartJanuary 9, 2020

Genius: Neither brains nor sweat

By Lawrence Toppman You know the quotation attributed to Thomas Edison, right? “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and

My Year with MozartJanuary 2, 2020

Mozart and Masons

By Lawrence Toppman You cannot fully appreciate Mozart without knowing something about his connection to Freemasonry. He entered

My Year with MozartDecember 26, 2019

10 Mozart pieces you need to hear

By Lawrence Toppman A friend familiar with this blog suggested a post titled “The Best of Mozart.” Those

My Year with MozartDecember 19, 2019

Separating the Artist from the Art

Lawrence Topman Critics have no harder job than distinguishing between the thing they’re watching or hearing and the

My Year with MozartDecember 12, 2019

No Top 40 for Wolfgang!

By Lawrence Toppman Pop songwriters have pillaged classical music for 80 years. Big bands first turned memorable tunes

My Year with MozartDecember 5, 2019

The myth of the pauper’s grave

By Lawrence Toppman You’ll occasionally hear that Mozart was ignored at the end of his life, dumped into