Tristan Arts: Music Education & Recordings for the Ages

In the academy award winning movie Amadeus from 1984, Mozart is portrayed as a fun-loving musical genius dash ribald prankster who stirs up the jealousy of rival composer Antonio Salieri in the Viennese court of Josef II. The movie takes historical liberties in a dramatic scene showing Salieri assisting Mozart with scoring the Requiem Mass while Mozart lay struggling to stay alive following a performance of The Magic Flute. While no historical evidence suggests Salieri helped Mozart write the Requiem Mass, scholars believe Mozart notated a climactic theme of the Lacrimosa just moments before his death. The Requiem was later completed by his pupil Franz Sussmayr and a posthumous performance of the Requiem and several of Mozart's works was conducted.by his former rival Salieri. 

Ragtime composer Scott Joplin was a gifted pianist as a child whose talents were noted as early as age 11 by a Julius Weiss, a German Jewish musician who taught Joplin music free of charge until the age of 16. Joplin continued to send money to his mentor during his own years of success. Maple Leaf Rag was perhaps his most successful composition. Joplin wrote an Opera, Treemonisha, that was completed but never performed in his lifetime. The opera was recorded in 1972 and released by Deutches Grammaphon.

Purcell was an organist for Westminster Abby, and he wrote one of the earliest English operas, Dido and Aeneas, one of Purcell's most famous works. Although Dido and Aeneas is currently in the operatic repertoire, performances during Purcell's lifetime were limited to non-staged ensembles. Today, no manuscript of Dido and Aeneas in Purcell's hand is extant, and the earliest copy from circa 1750 is held in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. Several parts of the original score are believed to be lost including the Prologue and several dance numbers.