We can get a pretty good impression of what this man was like from the way he was excellently portrayed in the popular movie Amadeus. It’s probably safe to say that, more than anything, it was his careful, intelligent nurturing of his son Mozart (1756-91) as a child prodigy that was responsible for providing the world the benefit of this supremely gifted composer's exquisite profound genius. The following laconic missive to his daughter just a few months before he died at 68 captures the practical essence of the man:
“You always want to hear that I am in excellent heath. You are not allowing for the difference between an old man and a young man. I don’t have time to write a long letter, suffice it to say that for an old man there is no such thing as excellent health. There is always something wrong, and an old man declines just as youth grows and prospers. In short, one must mend as long as there is something to mend” (24Feb1787).
“You always want to hear that I am in excellent heath. You are not allowing for the difference between an old man and a young man. I don’t have time to write a long letter, suffice it to say that for an old man there is no such thing as excellent health. There is always something wrong, and an old man declines just as youth grows and prospers. In short, one must mend as long as there is something to mend” (24Feb1787).
