2006 Austria €5 Silver Coin "Mozart"

• Mint: Austrian Mint
• Denomination: €5
• Quality: BU/Uncirculated
• Issue limit: 125,000/375,000 pcs.
• Alloy: 80% Silver
• Diameter: 28.5 mm
• Weight: 8 grams
• Packaging: BU in Blister Pack, UNC in baggie.
• Certificates: No

Issued on May 10, this issue celebrates the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth in Salzburg, Austria. He is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music, and was a prolific composer who wrote in almost every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music, keyboard sonatas, and a great deal of religious music such as masses. The piano concerto was almost single-handedly developed and popularized by Mozart, and he is commonly named as having a gift for pure, simple, and memorable melody, and to many listeners this is his most definitive characteristic.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756 and received musical training from his father. His sensational musical ability became apparent when he was three years old, and Mozart soon gained fame as a boy genius in the European courts, capable of such feats as playing blindfolded, competently improvising at length on difficult passages, and composing a number of piano pieces at a very early age.

During his formative years, Mozart traveled throughout Europe constantly. He made three legendary trips to Italy, where he heard a performance of Allegri's "Miserere" at the Sistine Chapel then wrote it out in its entirety from memory. In 1781 Mozart chose to settle and develop his career in Vienna after its aristocracy began to take an interest in him.

On August 4, 1782, against his father's wishes, he married Constanze Weber (1762-1842). Only two of the couple's six children survived infancy, and neither of them married or had children.

In 1782, Mozart's first opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio" was a great success and he began a series of concerts at which he premiered his own piano concertos as conductor and soloist. He also became closely acquainted with the work of Bach and Händel, which led to a number of works imitating Baroque style. In 1783, one of his best known works, the "Mass in C Minor", premiered in Salzburg.

In his early Vienna years, Mozart met Joseph Haydn and the two composers became friends. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn date from 1782-85, and are often judged to be his response to Haydn's Opus 33 set from 1781. In 1786 he composed "Le Nozze di Figaro", and in 1787 followed one of his greatest works, "Don Giovanni".

Mozart's life was fraught with financial difficulty and illness. Often he received no payment for his work, and what sums he did receive were quickly consumed by his extravagant lifestyle. In fact, he had a well-paid job at the court in Vienna and received commissions from more distant parts of Europe, Prague in particular. Many of his begging letters are evidence not so much of poverty as of his habit of spending more than he earned.

Mozart's final illness and death are debated topics. The romantic view holds that Mozart declined gradually and that his compositions paralleled his decline. In opposition to this, some contemporary scholars point out that Mozart's death was sudden and a shock to his family and friends. Mozart died on December 5, 1791 in Vienna, while working on his final composition, the Requiem. His death record listed "severe military fever" as the cause although trichinosis, mercury poisoning and rheumatic fever have been suggested as causes. He was buried at St. Marx Cematery in a regular communal grave.