Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on 27 January 1756. The son of a composer and violin pedagogue, he was one of the prime movers in helping to establish an elegant new Classical style in music. Mozart began his career as a touring child prodigy, amazing onlookers with his prodigious feats of virtuosity, memory and extemporisation. Following several years working in Salzburg, he moved to Vienna where his creative genius burned with a blinding incandescence. He died tragically young but left behind him a priceless series of exquisite masterpieces. FLUTE AND HARP CONCERTO (1778) While on tour during the spring of 1778, Mozart made the acquaintance in Paris of a certain Comte de Guînes his flute playing was incomparable according to Mozart and his daughter Marie s harp-playing was magnifique . The Count subsequently expressed an urgent desire to have some new music written for himself and his daughter to play, and the resulting double concerto was scored for both instruments which Mozart loathed equally in order to avoid having to compose two separate pieces for them! Despite his misgivings, it developed into one of the Mozart s longest concertos and one for which he retained a special affection. A MUSICAL JOKE (1787) Ein musikalischer Spaß ( A Musical Joke ) was completed within days of the deaths of both Mozart s father and his beloved pet starling in June 1787, although much of the music predates those sombre events. The deliberately clumsy writing, wild horn parts and wrong notes created a sensation with Vienna s music-loving middle classes. SIX GERMAN DANCES K.567 (1788) The 6 German Dances K567 were amongst the first of a series of dance sets composed by Mozart following his appointment as Royal Imperial Chamber Composer in December 1787. They were written specifically for carnival time at the Redoutensaal, the famous Hofburg Palace ballroom in Vienna (which survives to this day), where fashionable society folk used to gather and let their hair down. THREE GERMAN DANCES K.605 (1791) Mozart took social dance music to an entirely new level, anticipating the waltz revolution of the Strauss family just half a century later. Composed just a few months before his untimely death, K605 is principally celebrated for its enchanting depiction of a sleigh ride ( Die Schlittenfahrt ) in the trio section of No.3.