To any music historian or anyone who knows a lot about it,
I am interested in reading a great biography of the beloved composer. I already know quite a bit about him, but have never been able to get my hands on a biography of him. I know there's a whole field of study out there surrounding his works and his life. However, most of the books I've seen are simply works of music history written with an eye mainly towards the forms and composition of his works, with an obligatory nod toward the events of his life. I was wondering if there are any works out there that are not one or the other, but rather a synthesis of the two? I know that you cannot fully appreciate the man without looking at the content of his compositions, but you also lose quite a bit of the beauty of understanding his compositions without knowing the man behind them, too. Thanks for any and all suggestions!
Disclaimer: I am into music and history, but not particularly into Mozart.
Get this one, that's the one I'd get first. You might also be interested in checking Volkmar Braunbehrens' work. Franz Xaver Niemetschek's is interesting as a historical document.
Have you read his letters? You can check archive.org. Also, there are several books with translations and commentaries, like this one.
If you want to read about both his life and his works, get The Cambridge Companion to Mozart.
A bit late... but another good one about this letters is Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life, once you've briefed yourself on his life a bit. It translates and then annotates/explains some of the correspondence he had with people in his life, most notably with his beating around the bush letters to his father about his marriage plans, heartfelt letters to his wife, playful silly letters to his cousin and furious letters about his treatment by superiors. etc. so it gives you an idea about how he was experiencing his own life, from teenage years to death. Not sure how it compares to /erus's A Life In Letters, I just can't recommend it enough. I think I might even read it again now!