TWO GREAT MUSICIANS

The Vienna（维也纳）years were the happiest of Mozart’s（奥地利作曲家莫扎特）life. There he composed（作曲）the operas The Abduction from the Seraglio《后宫诱拐》，The Marriage of Figaro《费加罗的婚礼》. There，too，he wrote his famous last three symphonies（交响乐），his finest piano concertos，and many other masterpieces（杰作）. He became a friend of Haydn’s（奥地利作曲家海顿）and dedicated（奉献）six string quartets to him. The Viennese flocked（聚集）to Mozart’s concerts to hear him play his concertos. He made several trips to Prague（布拉格），where his opera Don Giovanni《唐•乔万尼》and the Prague Symphony were first performed.

About 1788 Mozart began falling seriously into debt. People found his latest music difficult and stayed away from his concerts.

In the summer of 1791 Mozart began suffering from fever and severe headaches.

On December 4 Mozart fell into a coma（昏迷）；he died the following day at the age of 35. Because he was so poor，Mozart’s coffin（棺材）was dumped（抛弃）into an unmarked pauper’s grave（贫民墓）.To this day no one knows where this great and unique（非凡的）composer lies buried.

Robert Schumann（德作曲家舒曼1810-1856）did for piano music what Schubert（舒伯特）had done for the song. Schumann wanted to become a professional pianist，but his ambition（抱负）was cut short. He had devised（计划）a foolish exercise to develop and strengthen his fingers. A permanent（持久的） stiffness of the middle finger was the result. This made a career（职业）as a pianist impossible，but Schumann’s love for the piano remained.

Schumann liked to write little piano pieces describing（描述） people he knew. He usually gave them titles that made it easy for the listener to guess what the composer had in mind. Some of them were self-portraits；others were portraits of the girl who became his wife. He also portrayed the great composer Chopin（萧邦）and the famous Italian violinist Paganini（帕格尼尼）. Schumann grouped several pieces of this kind into sets，or suites. These are among his most popular works. He also amused himself by writing pieces based on the letters of a name. In his Abegg Variations for piano he used the five letters of a girl friend’s name. The note A-B-E-G-G for the basis of the whole work.