Biographers have largely not been kind to Leopold, but in his time he was recognised as a passionate and innovative teacher. A jobbing court musician and composer, he sacrificed his own career to promote the incredible musical talents of his children, Maria Anna (Nannerl) and Wolfgang, although the former was forced to retire when she reached marriageable age.

Leopold tirelessly promoted his son, setting up introductions at many European courts. Denounced by some as controlling, it was inevitable, at any rate, that the wilful Mozart would eventually cut loose.

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His methods may have been controversial, but Leopold got results.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven’s treatment at the hands of his alcoholic and pushy musician father was nothing short of abuse. Johann Beethoven – a tenor at the court of the Archbishop of Cologne at Bonn – recognised his son’s talents early on. Aware of Leopold Mozart’s success, Johann allegedly kept Beethoven up all night practising, pulling him out of bed to perform and beating him if he did not play to his alcohol-fuelled standards.

Greedy, too, he deliberately cast confusion over Beethoven’s birth date to make his prodigy son appear younger than he really was. Ludwig, aged 17, eventually obtained a court order to procure half his father’s salary to look after his long-suffering family. 

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Alcohol, abuse: it’s hard to find much good in Beethoven’s upbringing. 

Fanny Mendelssohn

Sister of Felix Mendelssohn and dazzling child prodigy in her own right, Fanny Mendelssohn was taught to play the piano by her mother, Lea, who had herself been trained by a student of Bach, and supported, at first, by her father Abraham.

Fanny excelled at both the piano and composition, and yet societal constraints fell hard on her, as they had on Nannerl Mozart. ‘Music will perhaps become his (Felix’s) profession, whereas for you it can and must be only an ornament,’ said her father, devastatingly, of her prospects, shortly before she attained that ominous marriageable age. Luckily, her new husband did not take the same view.

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Mixed messages from the Mendelssohns for their talented daughter.

We named Fanny Mendelssohn one of the best female composers of all time

Johann Strauss II

Strauss’s famous dad, Johann I, might have been the feted father of the Viennese Waltz but he was determined not to foster any musicians. Strict and domineering, he mapped out the future careers of all seven of his legitimate children, with Johann marked down as a banker.

Strauss Jnr had other ideas, secretly taking violin lessons with the leader of his father’s orchestra, but was apparently whipped to ‘beat the music out of him’. Luckily for Strauss, his philandering father subsequently had seven more children with his long-term mistress. The heat now off, Strauss pursued his musical leanings, aided – very keenly – by his jilted mother, Anna.

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No stopping that Strauss family waltz gene, despite Father’s best efforts. 

Clara Schumann

Clara Wieck’s outstanding talent led her driven father, Friedrich, to make her an example of his intensive teaching method, with daily theory, harmony and counterpoint, plus two hours practice.

His requirement to learn pieces from memory made Clara a sensation. If there wasn’t much love shown, he at least exempted her from onerous domestic chores to allow her to concentrate on composition – something which her future husband, Robert Schumann, did not. 

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A rock-solid training for Clara but a cosy childhood was but a dream.

César Franck

César Franck was the classic example of a wunderkind suffering from the exertions of an over-ambitious father. Bank clerk Nicholas-Joseph Franck doggedly flogged his young son around the salon circuit as a pianist-composer, but pushed him onto the Paris public too soon.

Reception was muted, even scornful, his father’s blatant commercial instinct alienating critics. Franck eventually rebelled and married the girl who was the dedicatee of a song that his overbearing father had torn up on account of the fact that her parents were ‘mere’ theatre actors. 

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The public spotted a gimmick when Franck senior tried to cash in.

Camille Saint-Saëns

Acclaimed by one critic as ‘the most remarkable child prodigy in history’, Camille Saint-Saëns grew up under the formidable tutelage of his mother Clémence and his great aunt, Charlotte Masson.

Yet, unusually, Clémence held him back from the limelight, realising that Paris faced prodigy overload. When he finally debuted at the Salle Pleyel, aged ten, he offered an encore of any Beethoven sonata requested – from memory.

Clémence continued to critique his compositions rigorously, even opening his post for him every day of his adult life. Beleaguered Tiger Mothers of the world, note: he adored her.

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A tough life, but it was happy families all along in this musical household.

Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber was obssessed with music, a fact that his parents looked upon with benign dismay, even though his mother, Margaret McLeod, was a pianist.

Hoping to produce the archetypal all-American youth, Samuel was raised on athletics and football. Barber, aged 9, confided in his mother his ‘worrying secret’. ‘Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault… I was not meant to be an athlet [sic]. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I’m sure….’ Needless to say, football was kicked into touch.

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Despite attempts to make him a jock, Barber stuck firmly to music.

Scott Joplin