Vienna in the 1780s was an irresistible draw to the 25-year-old Mozart. Centre of the Habsburg Empire, with an Emperor who was a keen supporter of the arts, Vienna had a population of 200,000, and limitless opportunities for public concerts and private musical patronage. Against the backdrop of the sumptuous architecture of the city, captured in the paintings of Bernardo Bellotto, nephew of Canaletto, Peter Hill tells the story of Mozart’s decade in the city, from his unceremonious dismissal from the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg (‘with a kick up the backside’) to Mozart’s untimely death in December 1791 while still at the height of his powers.

The portrait of Mozart that emerges is very different to the prattling genius of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, as we follow Mozart’s early efforts to win aristocratic supporters and his success in navigating the intrigues of the operatic world – which led to the trio of comic operas created with the court librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte. Freed from the stifling influence of his father Leopold, and happily married to Constanze, Mozart’s operas owed much to his keen observation of Vienna’s social scene, while his music was enriched by his study of the string quartets of Haydn, and by the fugues of Bach and oratorios of Handel (to which Mozart was introduced by the musical connoisseur Gottfried van Swieten) which were to colour the masterpieces of his final year, The Magic Flute and the Requiem. With his financial worries easing and the post of Kapellmeister at St Stephen’s cathedral in his sights, where Mozart might then have taken his music remains one of music history’s big ifs, which tragically he never lived to realise.