Child Prodigies
A "little Mozart"! Highly musical children are often compared to that archetypal genius from Salzburg. But far fewer actually survive the transition from budding talent to mature artist, to become the musicians, singers and conductors whom we admire on stage today.
Read more…Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in 1756, was already learning to play piano and violin at the tender age of four, and it wasn't long after that he started composing too. There are no recordings, of course, from that time, but we can at least listen to many artists – with similarly prodigious beginnings – who followed his footsteps.
We can only imagine what went through their minds when the stepped up onto the stage as youngsters while their contemporaries were out playing with their friends. Do they then later feel, when they transition to adulthood, that they missed out? It's difficult to know, but, as the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, "Without music, life would be a mistake".
In this playlist you can hear music by Mozart, followed by a series of artists who made the transition from wunderkind to musical wonder: exceptional pianists like Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Evgeny Kissin, Yuja Wang and Kit Armstrong, the soprano Beverly Sills, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma or violin miracles like Yehudi Menuhin, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sarah Chang and Anne Akiko Meyers.
Playlist curated by Corina Kolbe.