In Search of Mozart

ROCK ME, AMADEUS Sine Budgaard, left, and Topi Lehtipuu do a duet.

Mozart’s music still speaks to us, but the ingenuity and effortless grace that stood out to his contemporaries don’t strike us as forcefully. The best thing about this doc is hearing musicians explain in straightforward English exactly why a teasing minuet is so revelatory. That, and the chance to see and hear many of the greatest musicians of our time playing both Mozart’s greatest hits and lesser-known works.

With historians providing the background and musicians giving voice and sound to the music, the film lightly traces Mozart’s biography. His boyhood tour of Europe, when he delighted the nobility with his piano and violin playing, is fully covered, as is his death at age 35, overburdened with debt and scratching out an existence. Grabsky lets the music tell the story, with performances of the works presented in chronological order. The myths of his poisoning by Salieri and the Requiem’s commission, both perpetuated by Amadeus, are thoroughly debunked.

A small problem is that the word amazing crops up disconcertingly often from the lips of musicians. Too few can tell us why Mozart’s work was amazing. Baritone Gerald Finley can, though, and easily describes the characters in The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. Mozart’s piano works and symphonies gain much from the awed yet knowledgeable dissections of Ronald Brautigam and Louis Langrée.

Despite interviewing a small army of English, German and Italian historians and many, many musicians, the doc moves swiftly and surely to its tragic, too-soon conclusion. (Opens Fri; Gene Siskel Film Center.)—Marc Geelhoed