Mozart: The life of an icon

Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756 and died in Vienna less than 36 years later. During his short but productive life, he composed more than 600 works and performed before royalty and nobility in much of Europe.

Renowned early on as the darling of Imperial Austria, he had problems later. Although often disdained in his adult years and distrusted by the powerful clergy and royalty for his association with the then-heretical Freemasons, he nevertheless performed continually and composed sonatas, piano concertos, string quartets, sacred music, symphonies, and operas.

The modest Salzburg apartment where Mozart was born has long been a museum, but only a plaque on a Vienna department store commemorates the site where he died.

Austria affixes commemorative plaques and markers on buildings where someone famous was born, died, lived, worked, dined, and so forth. Red-and-white banners mark the most significant so that passersby can't possibly miss them.

Salzburg is in north-central Austria near the German border. Festung Hohensalzburg, a foreboding medieval fortress, guards the oldest section. Begun in 1077, the fortress was already nearly seven centuries old when Mozart was a baby.

In the old district's narrow streets, Mozart's face is everywhere. As you wander, you will run a gauntlet of street vendors and souvenir shops displaying an abundance of a local marzipan-nougat-chocolate confection called Mozartkugeln, Mozart puppets, and other memorabilia.

Narrow lanes spill out onto Residenzplatz, which is surrounded by glorious examples of Renaissance dwellings.

On one side of the square is the magnificent Residenz (begun about 1600). This palace was home to the prince-archbishops of Salzburg, who oversaw both the city's spiritual and temporal life. Young Mozart performed there. Visit the state apartments, see art exhibitions, or attend a concert or lecture in its opulent public rooms.

Across the way is the Residenz Neubau, a late 16th-century building that is new only in the context of such an old city. It is now the home of the Salzburg Museum, recently relocated there.

There will be music everywhere, of course. Even the Marionette Theatre, renowned for clever puppet shows set to opera recordings, highlights Mozart throughout 2006.

To learn more about the composer's background, head for the nearby village of St. Gilgen, where Mozart's maternal grandparents were married and where his mother was born. Her birthplace is now a small museum.

Stop at the Konditorei Dallmann for a slice of Mozart's Reisetorte, a duplicate of the treat his mother baked for him when he went on performance tours. In the time before trains, Mozart is known to have spent 10 years, eight months, and two days - nearly one-third of his life - in stagecoaches. The preservative-free cake, which stays fresh for two months, sustained him during his travels.

Wolfgang and his wife, Constanza, lived in a dozen places in Vienna. The only building still standing is at Domgasse 5. Once a small museum in an upper-floor apartment of minimal interest, it has been expanded to a three-story museum called the Mozarthaus.

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