MOZART

A & E has produced an extensive list of celebrity biographies for TV and video and is now transferring some to audio. The script for Mozart, in fact, has been lifted from the video. This means that comments from the composer's biographers and well-known musicians must now be verbally attributed, but narrator Jack Perkins does a smooth job of it. Mozart's brilliant and mature musical achievements are contrasted with his childlike personal shortcomings. Fragments of music illustrate, but do not overpower, the story, told partly in Mozart's own words. Entertaining and educational, if hardly exhaustive, this tape is well worth the 45 minutes spent with it. Others covered in this series include Thomas Jefferson, Nostradamus and Amelia Earhart. J.B.G. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 98]