Mozart in London

What the eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart must have thought of London during his first and only visit to the English capital between 1764-1765. Neither he, nor his 12-year-old sister Nannerl, nor his father Leopold, nor his mother Anna Maria, had even seen the ocean before, when they set out from Calais. But everyone during their Grand Tour of Europe insisted they must visit London, and the 15-month stay was in some ways to be the making of Mozart, musically speaking.

Not only was Mozart to meet the great JC Bach – ‘the London Bach’ – who would have such an influence on his style, and who would remain a close friend for the rest of...