The Mozart Question

by Michael Morpurgo Narrated by Michael Morpurgo, Alison Read

Overview

“The time has come, I think, not to lie any more.”

This beautiful recording features solo performances by various classical musicians.

When cub reporter Lesley is sent to Venice to interview a world-renowned violinist, the journalist is told she can ask Paolo Levi anything about his life and career as a musician, but on no account must she ask him the Mozart question; never the Mozart question.

Paolo, however, has realised he must finally reveal the truth.

This historical adventure, penned by the Sunday Times bestselling author, explores the power of performing arts amidst the backdrop of the Holocaust. The Mozart Question is a short fiction masterpiece that has earned its place as a bestseller.

For fans of Katherine Rundell (Rooftoppers), Philip Pullman (The Secret Commonwealth), Michelle Magorian (Goodnight Mister Tom), Dick King-Smith (Martin's Mice), and Louis Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger).

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

A distinguished British pair brings on the violins for this sentimental story built atop the Holocaust. A young journalist is to interview world-famous but idiosyncratic violinist Paolo Levi, and all she knows is not to ask "the Mozart question"-but not what, exactly, that question is. When she artlessly mentions this to him, the book turns into a sequence of flashbacks involving a Venice boyhood of stealing outside in the moonlight to hear a street musician, who later secretly teaches Paolo to play the violin. Eventually the musician meets Paolo's parents, only to discover that the three already know one another from their incarceration in a WWII camp, where all three were made to play in a camp orchestra and where Paolo's parents were known as "the lovebirds." Scarred, Paolo's father has since forsworn music and asks Paolo never to perform the Germans' favorite composer, Mozart, in public. Foreman obliges this text with nostalgic scenes of canals, quaintly dressed gondoliers, women and children carrying baguettes; his appropriately subdued watercolors of the death camp depict structures like those at Auschwitz. The story's foundation, unfortunately, is flawed: men and women prisoners did not mix in concentration camps, and orchestras were not exceptions. Why ask readers to honor history (much less a history that undergoes very public challenges) if the author reinvents the record? Ages 8-12. (Feb.)

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School Library Journal

Gr 4-6- Set in Venice in the 1960s, this tale intertwines a famous violinist's boyhood reminiscences with the story of his parents' Holocaust experiences. Usually reticent Paolo Levi gives an interview to a young reporter and the story's narrator, answering the long-standing "Mozart question." When he was nine, Paolo badgered his mother into showing him the violin that was hidden away atop a cupboard, and she made him promise not to tell his father. The boy knew that Papa had once been a violinist, though he'd never heard him play. Soon after, Paolo became mesmerized by the music of Benjamin, a street performer. Longing to play himself, he secretly took the violin to Benjamin, who repaired it and gave him lessons. When the youngster finally confessed to his parents, they shared their own secrets: during World War II, the three adults were in the same concentration camp where they were forced to play music-mostly Mozart-for incoming prisoners to divert them from the horror that awaited them. After liberation, Papa vowed to never play again; however, Mama and Benjamin felt that music had saved them. When Paolo's parents heard how talented he was, they forgave his secrecy. The adult Paolo refused to play Mozart until after his father's death. Morpurgo breathes life into this touching tale, which is conveyed with compassion and honesty. Foreman's watercolors enrich the narrative, capturing both Venice's beauty and the camp's misery. This fine selection offers another view of the Holocaust and music's potential to heal.-Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170299294
Publisher:	HarperCollins UK
Publication date:	05/27/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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