Bradford-based supermarket giant Morrisons hoped Mozart would help people with their 'Chopin' as it piped the composer's music into its stores to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth yesterday.

Shoppers were played excerpts from The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute and the 40th Symphony instead of the usual contemporary tunes.

And despite being penned more than two centuries ago, customers at the Girlington store called for an encore of the maestro's work.

Kaiser Orlos, 60, of Neath, South Wales, said he much preferred the classical strains of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to the "normal rubbish" played in many shops.

Mr Orlos, in Bradford to visit his daughter Donna in Thornbury, said: "Mozart is proper music. It is very soothing and relaxes you as you walk around the store.

"It was fantastic to walk in here and hear it.

"Older people do most of the shopping, so it is about time music which caters for us was played in shops!"

Steve Hall, manager of the store, said it had provided a relaxing atmosphere in the store. He said: "It has been very enjoyable to work with Mozart in the background.

"I do not know if it encourages customers to spend more money though!"

The composer's work on a satellite feed to about 1.5 million people throughout the UK.

Mozart, born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1756 was a child prodigy who he wrote his first piece of music at the age of five and completed his first symphony aged eight.

He produced a prolific body of work, including piano concertos, string quartets and opera, but died at the age of 35, from rheumatic fever and was buried in an unmarked grave in Vienna.

Scott Gilbert, deputy manager in Girlington, admitted he was a fan: "I have got a bit of Mozart playing in my car. It is certainly very relaxing.

"All the staff noticed that the music had changed and many came up to me to ask what it was. They have been very favourable towards it."

Groups throughout the district are set to mark the anniversary with productions of some of his most famous work.

The Bradford Chorale will perform the Mass in C Minor and Vesparae Solennes de Confessore, on Saturday, April 1, at Bradford Cathedral at 7.30pm.

The Aire Valley Singers will including a celebratory Mozart piece at St Paul's Church, Shipley, on Saturday, March 11.

Otley Choral Society is putting on an evening of Mozart including his Coronation mass, on Saturday, March 25, at Otley Parish Church.

And last weekend, fledgling orchestra Skipton Camerata performed Cosi Fan Tutte, one of Mozart's greatest operas, in English at Skipton Cattle Market.

e-mail: dan.webber

@bradford.newsquest.co.uk