Lviv is the only Ukrainian city closely associated with the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whose youngest son Franz Xaver lived in the capital of Halychyna for 30 years.
The celebrations in Lviv commemorating Mozart’s anniversary will not be as ostentatious as in Vienna, but the scope will be impressive by local standards, reports channel UT-1. Mozart’s popular as well as some of his little known compositions will be performed by musicians from Donetsk, Kyiv, and Donetsk at the philharmonic society and the Lviv Opera.
“Mozart is the alphabet book,” says Ihor Pylypiuk, rector of Lviv’s Music Academy, “it is like the Lord’s Prayer; Mozart was, is, and will be. His truth is ultimate, and it is one of the postulates on which we base our teaching.”
Music historian Liubov Kyianovska says that “Mozart’s youngest son Franz Xaver came to our city when he was 18 (in 1808) on the invitation of the noted Polish aristocrat, Count Victor Bywarowski. Mozart’s youngest son was an enigmatic figure. He was born six months before his father’s death, in the summer of 1791. He was taught by his father’s favorite pupil Johann Hummel and his rival Antonio Salieri.”
Lviv’s music community held the young Mozart in great esteem. He popularized his father’s creative legacy and was a composer in his own right. Halychyna must thank Mozart Jr. for establishing Ukraine’s first musical society: the Saint Cecilia Male Choir. The works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will thus be performed in Lviv together with those of his son.
