The Mozart Season

by: Virginia Euwer Wolff

Published by: Square Fish Publishing/Macmillan

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

Originally published in 1991 by Henry Holt & Company, this is a reissue.

I loved this book. Virginia Euwer Wolff created a wonderful story peopled with characters that are interesting and well developed. Allegra Leah Shapiro is a twelve-year-old violinist who spends the summer preparing to compete in a (fictitious) contest called the Ernest Bloch Young Musicians’ Competition in Portland, Oregon. She studies with Mr. Kaplan, a music teacher whose motto is “A teacher is someone who makes you believe you can do it.” He believes in Allegra and in her ability to get inside Mozart’s 4th Concerto for Violin in D Major.

While the book is about Allegra’s preparation for the competition, it is also a story of family love, friendship, cultural differences and traditions. Publisher’s Weekly is quoted as finding in this book “a pleasure to have a novel of ideas for your adults that describes the delicate dance between honoring traditions of the past and being your own person in the present.”

I too felt that the ideas presented in the book were such that they could be applied to young and old alike – and even to non-musicians. However, anyone who has ever studied music, especially the violin, will have a particular affinity for this book. Allegra’s approach to bridging the gap between Mozart, and what she has in her own heart, is warm and believable. Her parents are also classical musicians and the story underscores the kind of lifestyle that involves performing arts in the best possible way.

If there were any fault with The Mozart Season, it would be that it incorporates a great many musical terms and references to classical musicians and their works. This could be daunting to a reader with little or no musical background, but I don’t feel that it detracts from the book as a whole. Rather, it allows a good story to also be informative and intellectually stimulating.

Armchair Interviews says: Mozart, music and much more.