What was Mozart really like? Wild? Sublime? Responsible? Fun-loving? Bright? Foul-mouthed? Reading these sparkling new translations of Mozart's letters, we learn in his own words that he was all of these and much more. Here is the composer at his most intimate and unguarded, expressing his feelings about life, love, music and the world around him.

"Mozart's honesty, his awareness of his own genius and his contempt for authority all shine out from these letters." "Sunday Times" (London). " In "Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life," Robert Spaethling presents "Mozart in all the rawness of his driving energies" ("Spectator"), preserved in the "zany, often angry effervescence" of his writing ("Observer"). Where other translators have ignored Mozart's atrocious spelling and tempered his foul language, "Robert Spaethling's new translations are lively and racy, and do justice to Mozart's restlessly inventive mind" ("Daily Mail"). Carefully selected and meticulously annotated, this collection of letters "should be on the shelves of every music lover" ("BBC Music Magazine")."