cover image Mozart: Lost Treasures Series

Mozart: Lost Treasures Series

Annette Kolb. Trafalgar Square Publishing, $17.99 (340pp) ISBN 978-1-85375-285-8

Originally published in Germany in 1937, this biography by German novelist Kolb is filled with the charms of exuberance rather than critical substance. In his 1938 introduction, Jean Girardoux rightly regarded the book as a work of literature that fits within the context of Kolb's novels. Mozart's life seems almost an arbitrary beginning for Kolb's ruminations on German society and the inner life of a genius misunderstood in his time. This is not a work for historians, as there is as much psychological reconstruction as documentary fact, though Kolb does draw heavily on Mozart's correspondence. The emphasis is on personal speculation, Kolb's wish to depict Mozart's career against concurrent political and personal intrigues and what the author feels the music itself reveals about the composer. Although the rhetorical questions and exclamations seem forced to the contemporary ear, Kolb's imaginative interpretation of the interior Mozart will reward those who want to experience rather than study the past. (Dec.)