At a concert and supper-party in Vienna in 1783, Irish tenor Michael Kelly met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the two musicians fell into conversation. Mozart made a point of telling him about his friend Thomas Linley, who had died some five years earlier, and lamented the loss of such a talent at the age of just twenty-two.

Kelly went on to give a pen-portrait of Mozart, who had just turned twenty-seven, as a man of slight build who was a little fussy about his hair and outrageously talented, surpassing everyone as a musician, a dancer and even on the billards table. The great composer had a weakness for punch, but was always kindhearted and anxious to please.

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