The Mozart Season is a surprisingly brief book about Allegra Leah Shapiro, an outstanding young violinist. She has been selected as a finalist for a competition where she must play a Mozart concerto, but this honor comes with great sacrifice. Allegra  must spend her entire summer studying the concerto, attempting to play its most accurate version to honor its composer, young Mozart.

During the summer, Allegra evolves not only into a more respected musician but also into a more sophisticated, mature, and confident individual. She experiences repercussions of her Jewish ancestry and its legacy on her, and struggles to commemorate a piece and its composer instead of overpowering them. She encounters an odd woman who helps her initiate her endless journey to find herself, as well as a lost man restlessly seeking his lost song.

Although I found this book thought-provoking, it was also tedious. I couldn’t stand Allegra and the slow progress made in both her music and the development of her thoughts. This book was hard to grasp, and I was easily distracted from it. I felt that Virginia Euwer Wolff lacked the strength and will to engage the reader in the story or the evolution of its plot and characters.

I take my hat off to Wolff for the clever way in which she plays with words, and the way she Capitalizes Some Words is rather amusing. I also relished her use of italics, and I must give credit to the author for taking her time to describe and define musical terms to help the reader keep up with Allegra’s advanced knowledge of music. This added polish to the story. But despite witty word choices and a great message to the reader, Wolff didn’t manage to thread these fine ideas into a captivating plot.

My verdict? The Mozart Season is a fine, thought-provoking book, but undeniably not one of my favorites.