Austria and the world celebrate Mozart's 250th birthday

Jan 27, 2006, 18:31 GMT

Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts during a concert on the occasion of the ceremonial act that marks the beginning of the \'Mozart Year\' at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Friday 27 January 2006. Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on January 27, 1756. EPA/ROLAND SCHLAGER

Vienna - Austria and the world celebrated the 250th birthday on Friday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the greatest composers of all time who was born on January 27, 1756.

There were open-air concerts, fireworks, church bells, TV specials, front-page newspaper headlines, and tributes in the internet.

On the schedule in Vienna were performances - some televised internationally - of Mozart's 'Kroenungsmesse' with the Vienna Boys Choir in St. Stephan's Cathedral, the 'Magic Flute' in the State Opera, and a premiere of 'Idomeneo' in the Theater an der Wien.

In Mozart's birthplace, the city of Salzburg, two of the world's foremost conductors, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Riccardo Muti, were to conduct a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic.

Among guests were expected to be international politicians, intellectuals and personalities in culture and the arts taking part in a Salzburg conference on European identity and values, 'The Sound of Europe'.

Scheduled in Prague was a gala concert in the 'Staendetheater', the site of the original premiere of Mozart's 'Don Giovanni'.

In Paris, the same opera had a premiere in a version by Austrian film director Michael Haneke. In the Berlin State Opera Under den Linden, the Staatskapelle was to have a gala evening conducted by Daniel Barenboim. In Brussels, the city's most famous statue 'Manneken Pis' was resplendent in a Mozart costume.

The Austrian TV channel TW1, in parallel with a large number of worldwide TV stations, carried a programme '24 Hours Mozart'. In Vienna, a new 'Mozart House' was opened in one of the apartments the composer lived in. The city's Mayor, Michael Haeupl, said Mozart was a world citizen 'who belongs to all people who love his music'.

In the 'Neues Residenz Salzburg', an exhibition 'Viva!MOZART' was opened. In the city's Mozarteum', a there was a festival opening of 'Mozart Year' with a speech by internationally renowned conductor Harnoncourt.

'We will never know the truth about Mozart', said Harnoncourt: 'It's our self-made image we think of - only the works bring the truth.'

'Mozart is the essence, intangible and inexplicable, he evades all judgement. If we want to grasp him, we must realize with shame that our haste does not fit in his scale of measurement - he comes from another star.'

'Like all other great artists, Mozart as a person is mysterious, almost uncanny. One thinks one knows everything about him - his life is very well documented - but when we want to say anything about him, we see that we don't know him at all.'