Mozart in Italy by Jane Glover review – the making of a master

An account of the teenage Mozart’s operatic awakening is packed with humanising detail

In brief: Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop; Birdgirl; Mozart in Italy – reviews

The tale of a divorcee embraces its sentimentality; a young birdwatcher proves a gifted memoirist; and Mozart’s Italian job sparkles with detail

The big idea: does practice make perfect?

Prodigies such as Emma Raducanu spend thousands of hours honing their skills, but could anyone deliver a world-class performance with enough dedication?

The Snow Ball by Brigid Brophy review – a swirling, sensual feast

This timely reissue of Brophy’s 1964 masterpiece transports us to a New Year’s Eve masquerade ball full of romance and eroticism

Can a 10-year-old be a genius? What Hemingway’s first short story tells us

A newly discovered piece of fiction by the US author joins humbling examples of juvenilia by other great artists, from Jane Austen to Pablo Picasso

Christopher Hogwood obituary

Leading figure of the early music revival as conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music, keyboard player and musicologist

Boy wonder

Hermann Abert's biography WA Mozart is finally available in English, says Stephen Pritchard.

Unbearable lightness

Despite the magnificent music, it is easy to dismiss Così fan tutte as a heedless romp. In fact, argued Edward Said, in an essay written shortly before his death, it is one of the most complex and unexpectedly dark of all Mozart's operas.

Rock me Amadeus

Don Giovanni in a New York ghetto, Zaide in a sweatshop - Peter Sellars's outlandish Mozart productions have shocked opera traditionalists and made him a star. Interview by Lucasta Miller.