It Is A Mistake To Think

The letter's recipient and precise date are not firmly established in the primary sources, and some scholars treat the wording as of uncertain provenance. Mozart expressed the substance of the idea more clearly in documented letters: he wrote to his father on multiple occasions about the constant labor of composition, and in a letter of 1778 declared that he could not "bury his gift for composing." His output — over 600 works completed before his death at 35, including symphonies, operas, chamber music, and piano concertos written from childhood — testifies to the relentlessness of his musical practice.