Bridget Jones, eat your heart out ... A detail from Mozart's musical diary, just put online by the British Library
Many happy returns to the world's favourite wunderkind, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who would - if he hadn't written an unfortunately timed Requiem, fallen in with a bad lot of Masons, etc, etc - be a majestical 250 years old this year.
Two weeks today, January 27, is the great man's birthday, and we'll be marking the event with all sorts of goodies, so keep your browser peeled (as if you'd do anything else) and pointed in our direction.
We've got things under way early by cracking the champagne against the hull of our Mozart special report, which slips down the gangway and into cyberspace today. Some excellent articles in it, among them a new piece from Ian Bostridge on why tenors get a raw deal; Anthony Holden and Michael Billington on two of Mozart's favourite wordsters, Lorenzo da Ponte and Pierre de Beaumarchais; and conductor Janet Glover's revealing take on his much-loved but much-suffering wife Constanze.
Back in the physical world, all sorts of things are going on in all sorts of places, although Salzburg, understandably proud of its status as Mozart capital, is the self-pronounced epicentre. The city has ploughed huge amounts of cash into a network of events and concerts, somewhat head-frying in their number and scope (you can find out more at their slightly over-exuberant website). If the celebrations are anything like as large as the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death in 1991, they'll be absolutely top-notch. I still have a very nice limited-edition mug from that. Wonder where I put it. Hmm.
Before I get too distracted, though, I should point out that we are far from ignoring things in this country. The LSO is doing a celebratory series, linked in with the Barbican, and Classic FM is also pitching in (though don't let the prospect of Mozart for Babies or the ultimate Mozart top 40 put you off. I've heard tell some of his music is actually quite good.)
Radio 3, seemingly exhausted from Bach- and Beethoven-a-thons, isn't planning to do the same for Mozart, and controller Roger Wright unguardedly let slip just after Christmas that he thought such a festival would be too "chocolate-boxy" and "detrimental to the music" - a statement that had the Times, for one, in fine harrumphing form. What would an anniversary be like without a sniff of purposeless scandal, eh?
Finally, at least for the moment, it's worth mentioning that the British Library have been doing their bit too, announcing yesterday that they've succeeded in reuniting two long-lost halves of a Mozart manuscript, scissored by the composer's widow some 44 years after his death (two fees better than one, it seems, and entirely forgiveable for a woman who outlived her first spouse by an astonishing 51 years).
And they've also launched an extraordinarily lush Turning the Pages website, showcasing the composer's own catalogue of his works, donated in 1986. The 3D exhibition is visually gorgeous, features sound excerpts and is a delight to thumb through - you literally turn the pages in order to view it - though Mac devotees or those on narrowband connections might have trouble, particularly as the servers are reportedly going crazy at the moment. This being the right time of year for all of us to begin diaries, it seems an appropriate sort of tribute. Though if only more of us had Mozart's stamina - he made his last entry just three months before his death.
