Mozart was not an alcoholic
The renowned British surgeon Jonathan Noble wants to dispel the legends surrounding alleged musical illnesses. He is convinced that there is no real evidence that Mozart was an alcoholic, for example, or that Ravel suffered from syphilis.
Noble is convinced that Mozart did not indulge in alcohol excessively, as later biographers have suggested. Assumptions about alcoholism in the case of Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Brahms or Beethoven are similarly unfounded.
The only source for the claim that Ravel suffered from syphilis was merely the report of a nurse who claimed to have had access to Ravel's blood tests three years after the composer's death. Claims that Britten had syphilis were also made up out of thin air. Medical records available to Noble, on the other hand, showed that Britten had suffered from a heart valve problem.
Original article:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/05/17/mozart-not-alcoholic-british-surgeon-claims
