Did Mozart die of kidney failure?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was one of the most prolific and influential composers of the Classical period.
Sadly, he died towards the end of his thirty-fifth year, at his rented apartment in Vienna, in 1791. There has been no agreement as to the cause of his death, and it is inevitable that doubts will persist.
Consistent amongst the impressive literature trying to determine the cause of the young composer’s death are reports of his having massive oedema (possible secondary to nephrotic syndrome or CKD) at the time of his death.
Whilst there are multiple causes of oedema, the fact that he was allegedly able to sing lines from his famous ‘Requiem’ on his deathbed (above) suggests that he was neither encephalopathic nor short of breath; favouring a renal cause of nephrotic syndrome/CKD rather than a hepatic or cardiac one.
Theories of what caused his fatal illness are wide ranging and include:
- Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (he apparently had a serious febrile illness as a child)
- A congenital urinary tract malformation (he had a history of recurrent UTIs and also had an ear malformation; sometimes associated with congenital renal anomalies)
- Henoch-Schonlein purpura (he had a concurrent rash during his fatal illness)
- Renal tuberculosis (TB was a major cause of disease in this era, both pulmonary and otherwise)
- Heavy metal poisoning (there are rumours that his competitor Salieri once admitted to poisoning Mozart out of jealousy)
- Other causes of primary nephrotic syndrome.
Obviously this differential diagnosis is broad and we are unlikely to answer this question definitively. But it is tempting to speculate not only on the nature of his disease, but also on the further musical works he might have written had he been born in the modern era of CKD-protective medication, dialysis and transplantation.
Here is further information about Mozarts medical illnesses.
Last Reviewed on 26 October 2023