The Mozart Phenomenon

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in 1756 and deceased in 1791, was (17) .......... the most prolific and consequential composer of the (18) .......... era. His catalogue encompasses twenty-five piano concertos, twenty-three string quartets, thirty-five violin sonatas and upwards of forty symphonies — the cumulative (19) .......... of a mind whose extraordinary breadth of (20) .......... was compressed into a tragically abbreviated lifespan. Shaped in part by the influence of Haydn, Mozart's output demonstrates an unwavering (21) .......... to the structural conventions of classicism, distinguished above all by an ineffable (22) .......... of form and melodic line. He has served as a wellspring of (23) .......... for successive generations of composers, and his works continue to rank among the most commercially successful recordings in the classical repertoire. Who, after all, could fail to experience an immediate, visceral (24) .......... upon hearing the opening bars of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik — to say nothing of the celebrated arias that animate his operatic masterworks?