Leopold - Father

Kate Molleson tells Mozart’s story through five of the relationships that shaped the composer and his music – from his friends and family to a mentor and a supposed rival. In today’s programme, Kate looks at Mozart’s relationship with his father Leopold. A devoted dad who essentially abandoned his own career to focus on his son’s, Leopold could also be a dominating and oppressive figure, who said ‘I will give the children my heart’s blood, and when they have found their triumph and the time comes, they will give me theirs in return.’ Leopold saw it as his duty to proclaim Wolfgang’s miraculous gifts to the world and saw them as something to be exploited on gruelling European tours. He sat on the fortune he made out of his children until the end of his life, while always insisting he was in debt, and the pressure he put on Wolfgang would push them both to breaking point.

Symphony no. 35, K385 ‘Haffner’
IV. Presto
Orchestra Mozart
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat, K207
II. Adagio
Isabelle Faust, violin
Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini, conductor

Concerto for Flute Harp and orchestra in C, K299
II. Andantino
Kenneth Smith, flute
Bryn Lewis, harp
Philharmonia Orchestra
Giuseppe Sinopoli, conductor

Symphony no. 31 D major, K297 'Paris'
I. Allegro assai
Concertgebouw Orchestra
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

Idomeneo (excerpt)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466
III. Rondo
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano
Manchester Camerata
Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor