Saint Cecilia’s Feast Day

Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of the musicians and her Feast Day is celebrated on November 22. Born in 2nd Century Rome, the story says she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married, and at the end of her short life, as she lay dying a martyr’s death, she praised God, singing to Him. It is the reason for which Christian Churches celebrate her as the patroness of musicians and Church music. John Dryden and Alexander Pope, Henry Purcell, George Frideric Handel and Benjamin Britten have dedicated music and poems to Saint Cecilia, and their works were presented in musical concerts and festivals held on her Feast Day. 

Remembering Franz Schubert

A devout thought to the delicate composer whose sensible, beautiful music moves, delights, touches our souls so deeply… 

God bless you, Franz Schubert. Rest in peace. 

31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828 

Happy Birthday, Herr Leopold Mozart!

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was born on 14 November 1719 in Augsburg and spent the largest part of his life in Salzburg. He was a talented and hard working composer, conductor, teacher and violinist. He received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy and wrote a comprehensive treatise on violin playing, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule - A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing, a work which was influential in its day and continues to serve as a scholarly source concerning 18th century performance practice.

But above all he was the father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  

“God, who has been far too good to me, a miserable sinner, has bestowed such talents on my children that, apart from my duty as a father, they alone would spur me on to sacrifice everything to their successful development. Every moment I lose is lost for ever. And if I ever guessed how precious for youth is time, I realize it now. You know that my children are accustomed to work. But if with the excuse that one thing prevents another they are to accustom themselves to hours of idleness, my whole plan would crumble to pieces. Habit is an iron shirt. And you yourself know how much my children and especially Wolfgang have to learn. But who knows what plans are being made for us after our return to Salzburg? Perhaps we shall be received in such a way that we shall be only too glad to shoulder our bundles and clear out. But at least, God willing, I am going to bring back my children to their native town. If they are not wanted, it is not my fault. But people shall not get them for nothing.”   

Leopold Mozart – Letter from Munich, November 15th, 1766    

His Princely Highness does not keep in his service liars or charlatans or cheaters of people, who would travel to all places with his Grace’s permission and deceive people, but honest men who, to honor the homeland and its Prince, are announcing to the world a miracle which God allowed to be born in Salzburg.

I owe this to God Almighty, otherwise I would be the most ungrateful creature. And if it would ever be my duty to convince the world of this miracle, then I would have to do it right now, when all that is called wonder is laughed at and every miracle is contradicted. So I will have to convince them! Wasn’t it a great joy and victory for me to hear a follower of Voltaire tell me in astonishment: “It is the first miracle I’ve seen in my life! 

Leopold Mozart – Letter from Vienna, July 13^th, 1768 

Leopold Mozart has brought to completion God’s Work. Without his attentive, meticulous and loving guidance, maybe Wolferl would not have become Mozart – the sublime musician! The family letters are priceless Moments stolen to Time. They let us have a glimpse into the life of Wolfgang and Nannerl, of Leopold and Anna Maria. And looking at Mozart as a child, we can see an exceptional educator-father beside him. Leopold Mozart was an advocate of the illuminist ideals of the time, attaching much value to high education, for both his son and his daughter. In modern terms we could say that Leopold Mozart is the first teacher to have applied the principles of non-formal education: that education in which the child learns through self-discovery, an education which privileges the child, his/her talent, natural inclinations and abilities, discovers and cultivates them.  

Leopold was the first to understand that in his family a miracle had been born, and that he owed it to the world to cultivate that miracle! Wolferl had a happy childhood, unlike Ludwig van Beethoven. Leopold Mozart instructed his son not only with professionalism and method, but most of all with affection and care. Nannerl confesses, in a letter written after her brother’s tragic death, that never in their childhood had Wolfgang been obliged to study, but on the contrary, he had to be taken away from the piano after many long hours in which he would not do anything but play or write music! It is clear that his children’s natural gifts could only make Leopold’s work more pleasurable, but even in this situation his qualities of a teacher remain extraordinary.   

Of this Leopold Mozart, as well as of Anna Maria and the environment of love and respect in which the Mozart children have grown up, Enrik Lauer speaks in a book written with tenderness and humour, Mozart und die Frauen.  

Years after having seen the two Mozart children perform in London, violinist Stephen Storace, impressed by “the Mozart Model”, would raise his own son and daughter in the light of the same principles and methods that Leopold Mozart had used. Stephen junior and Anna (who would become the famous singer Anna Storace, Mozart’s first Susanna) have learned to play the piano and read musical scores, in addition the son has had violin lessons and the daughter harp and guitar lessons, and has also learned napoletan songs and popular arias from italian operas, thus bringing into light her innate passion for singing, her greatest talent. The two Storace children have grown up in the musical and theatrical environment, they assisted in performances and rehearsals and have had social relations with the artists in their father’s circle of friends. After a few years they left for Italy, in order to continue the improvement of their artistic talent in the Naples Conservatory, where their father had also studied. 

Neither of the Storace children became “a second Mozart”. Since 1756 no second Mozart was born, and will never be again. But Mozart is alive in every human being who is guided to discover him! It is the way in which his spirit, his soul, his divine creation will be preserved for ever! 

Happy Birthday, Herr Leopold Mozart. Thank you! 

In loving memory of the wonderful Lucia Popp

She would have been 72 today, November 12. In our hearts she is alive. The miraculous beauty of her voice, the splendid artistry, the breathtaking Mozartian singing, the moving sensibility she expresses in each sound, in each word, in each gesture, she left them all to us, as her gift. 

When I hear her sing, I hear Mozart. They are together now.  

“Written by a man called Mozart, sung by a woman called Lucia Popp? Poor humans! Once heard, we know: written by God, sung by an Angel.”

“The ethereal beauty of her voice is still with us.”

“This woman was BORN to sing Mozart.”

“Absolutely beautiful in every way.”

“Lucia’s singing is magical. It is just too beautiful for mere words.”

“Now Lucia sings Christ’s praise with her fellow angels. God bless her!”  

29 October 1787, Prague: Don Giovanni

224 years ago, on October 29, 1787, Mozart was undergoing the last preparations for the Prague première of his opera Don Giovanni. Prague, the city so dear to him, had enthusiastically welcomed the great composer, who in turn had not hesitated to return their affection. “Meine Prager verstehen mich” – “My Praguers understand me” – this is how Mozart defined his relationship with the residents of the Bohemian city. The première of Le nozze di Figaro of January 1787 had been a triumph: weeks in a row the Praguers would whistle and sing, on the streets and in the cafés, Figaro’s wonderful melodies. After this success Mozart was commissioned to write a new work: director Pasquale Bondini asked him to write a new opera which would be premiered in Prague. Mozart accepted and by the end of September 1787 he returned to Prague with Don Giovanni, on which he continued to work until the day of the premiere. On this visit in Prague Mozart stayed both in the city, at the inn “Zu den drei goldene Löwen” (“At the Three Gold Lions”), and outside the city, at the Villa Bertramka, the beautiful property of Josefa and František Dušek. It was here that Mozart found the oasis of silence in which he would conclude Don Giovanni.  

The première of the opera took place in the splendid Estates Theatre, in that time named Nostitz National Theatre, honouring the aristocrate Antonion Nostitz Rieneck, whose illuminist vision and financial support had been the foundation of the theatre. Prague Estates Theatre is one of the few European theatres which were preserved almost untouched to this day – a sign of the Czechs’ respect and appreciation for their history and culture!   

It is a miraculous feeling to step into this theatre and realize you are in the same place in which Wolfgang Mozart has conducted his masterpieces! 224 years ago, those lodges were roaring in anticipation of the moment in which the composer would appear in front of the public, then, after a gracious bow, would turn to the orchestra and give the signal for the beginning of the opera on which the  great French composer Charles Gounod would later say: “It is an unequalled and immortal masterpiece, the apogee of the lyrical drama. The score of Don Giovanni has exercised the influence of a revelation upon my whole life; it has been and remains for me a kind of incarnation of dramatic and musical infailibility. I regard it as a work without blemish, of uninterrupted perfection!”  

224 years ago, in this very moment, Mozart’s Praguers were descending from their carriages in front of the theatre, first the gentlemen, dressed in splendid embroidered velvet costumes from which white lace shirts could be seen, then the ladies, clothed in elegant robes of brocade, from under which rustled sumptuous dresses of satin and taffeta, trimmed with silk and pearls. The gilded stucco of the lodges sparkled in the light of  hundreds of candles and the spectators’ voices filled the theatre with a murmur that would melt in the lively applauses with which the composer was greeted the moment he appeared in the hall.  

Provinzial Nachrichten of Vienna reported after this wonderful evening: “Herr Mozart conducted in person and was welcomed joyously and jubilantly by the numerous gathering”. And Prager Oberpostamtszeitung published a review on November 3, 1787: “Monday the 29th the Italian Opera Society presented the passionately awaited opera of the composer Mozart Don Giovanni, or the Stone Feast. Connoisseurs and musicians say that its equal has never been presented Prague. Herr Mozart himself conducted, and when he entered the orchestra, he was accorded a triple ovation; this occurred when he left the orchestra pit as well. As for the opera, it is extremely difficult to execute, and everyone admires, regardless, the good performance after such a short rehearsal period. Everything, theater and orchestra, offered its all to reward and thank Mozart with a good performance. Moreover, much expense was entailed by the several choruses and the decoration, all of which was splendidly arranged by Herr Guardasoni. The extraordinary number of spectators is evidence for the general approbation.”  

224 years have passed since that golden moment of Music and Don Giovanni has remained one of the greatest works of the universal creation. The miraculous music of Wolfgang Mozart, The One Loved by God, speaks to our soul as emotionally, as powerfully today as then.  

Words are useless, let us listen!   

The musical sequences in the movie Amadeus were filmed in the

Estates Theatre of Prague. 

224 years ago, in this place, in this moment, Mozart was conducting his opera! 

The Distribution of the Premiere of Don Giovanni, 

Prague, October 23, 1787  

Il Dissoluto Punito ossia il Don Giovanni  

Dramma giocoso in due atti  

Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte  

Conductor: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

Don Giovanni: Luigi Bassi  

Leporello: Felice Ponziani  

Il Commendatore: Giuseppe Lolli  

Donna Anna: Teresa Saporiti  

Don Ottavio: Antonio Baglioni  

Donna Elvira: Katherina Micelli  

Masetto: Giuseppe Lolli  

Zerlina: Caterina Bondini   

 

DON GIOVANNI PERFORMANCES IN THE ESTATES THEATRE OF PRAGUE 

starting today, 29 October 2011  

Happy Birthday, Dan Iordachescu!

Today, June 2nd 2011, Dan Iordachescu is 81 years old! Happy Birthday to the baritone with a velvet voice and song of gold, Happy Birthday to the wonderful artist Dan Iordachescu! May God give him health and a long life, may the joys he has offered to the souls in love with the Great Music return to him thousandfold!   

Dan Iordachescu, the baritone with a golden voice, extraordinary sensibility and exceptional musical intelligence, a thorough stylist and interpreter, the artist who has “one of the finest baritone voices in the world”, as Kenneth Wright from the BBC London said in 1967, while Hannoversche Presse wrote, on March 7th, 1968: “Dan Iordachescu, ours being, belongs to the world”.  

“With Dan Iordachescu, Mozart’s music doesn’t pass through Salzburg anymore, but through Bucharest”, so said Salzburger Nachrichten in september 1956, the year in which the Great MOZART Prize was awarded to baritone Dan Iordachescu.  

“In my opinion, Dan Iordachescu, in both the lyrical art and his type of voice, prevails today as the greatest mozartian singer in the world…”  ((Luigi Dallapiccola- Radio Talks, the Golden Library of the Romanian Radio)   

“Dan Iordachescu, the great baritone of the Bucharest Opera, is a phenomenon. His voice is immense, dark in colour, resonant, equal in the registers, indefatigable and capable of a wealth of vocal colours and dynamic nuances.” (Los Angeles Times – Music Revue, 28 mai 1974)  

“He was heard by Kenneth Wright – BBC Director, who stated that Dan Iordachescu has one of the finest baritone voices in the world today, a voice of unusual richness of timbre and expressiveness.” (B.B.C. Music News,Londra, 1959)    

“The art of Dan Iordachescu bestows him the laurels of the Great Art, which has no borders… Dan Iordachescu, ours being, belongs to everyone.”  (Hannoversche Presse – Hannover, 7 martie 1968) 

“The baritone’s yelding voice was becoming, in pianissimo, scented haze, the trembling of a wave heard in a dream… syllables round as the pearl evoked the foam of the small waves. All of Schumann’s emotivity appeared in the voice so powerful, tender and whispering, shaped in Heine’s wonderful poetry.” (Cella Delavrancea – 1 noiembrie 1972)  

Duparc – Soupir 

Schubert – Erlkonig 

 

Verdi – La Traviata 

Verdi – Un Ballo in Maschera 

Verdi – Don Carlo 

Schubert’s Ave Maria exquisitely sung by Dan Iordachescu on his page: www.daniordachescu.ro  

Schumann – Im wunderschonen Monat Mai

Schumann – Im wunderschonen Monat Mai,

together with the great pianist Valentin Gheorghiu 

Bizet – Carmen 

Denza – Occhi di fata 

Mozart – Cosi fan tutte: Terzettino –

together with  his daughters Irina and Cristina Iordachescu 

Donizetti – Il Matrimonio Segreto –

together with the great bass Constantin Gabor 

Giordano – Andrea Chenier 

On June 2^nd 2010 baritone Dan Iordachescu celebrated 80 years of life through singing! The great artist appeared on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum to celebrate together with the public so dear to his heart! The exceptional artistic longevity of Dan Iordachescu has allowed him the joy of singing in concerts, in the past years, together with his daughters, soprano Irina Iordachescu and mezzosoprano Cristina Iordachescu-Iordache.   

A lost world

A beautiful picture comes to my mind whenever I think of the perfect ambiance for listening to music: an elegant salon, concert or opera hall, sumptuous decorations of velvet and gold, the fascinating glow in the light of candles set in silver candlesticks, crystal chandeliers casting their rays upon the refined audience: men wearing embroidered jackets and white lace chemises, women wearing breathtakingly beautiful long dresses, all brocade and taffeta and silk, delicate jewellery sparkling on their skin as they leisurely move their feathered fans… A lost world, it seems… for which I long… Now it’s jeans and sports shoes in the concert halls, and no salons anymore. Music has survived, and will survive no matter what – but the magic of that ambiance, its special feeling is, alas, gone…  

iPod meet Mozart

I would never have thought that a commercial could convey such a special emotion. In fact, this video doesn’t seem to be a commercial. Maybe because it was made with a soul  

Christ is Risen!

Mozart believed in God. His Creation, his life, his letters bear witness to his faith. One source for his happiness was his religion, which was sound and free from all superstition – a firm, strong kind of faith which doubt had never injured though it may have touched it. It was also a calm and peaceful faith, without passion or mysticism: Credo quia verum. He believed from the depth of his being and he bestowed God the most precious offering of his spirit. He was in peace with the thought of eternity. And his happiness on earth was in the love of those who loved him and especially in his love for them. But Mozart’s true happiness was in his creation.  

There are times when Mozart’s soul soars higher still and attains sublime and quiet regions where the stirrings of human passion are unknown. At such times Mozart is above himself, deified human being expressing his greatness through God’s will. The Voice of God on earth.    

In Mozart’s work such heights were but a few, and Mozart’s faith seems only to find such expression when he wishes to reassure himself. Mozart was a believer from the first; his faith is firm and calm and knows no disquietudes, so he does not talk about it; rather does he speak of the gracious and ephemeral world about him, which he loves so well and which he wishes to love him. But when a dramatic subject opens a way to the expression of religious feeling, or, when grave cares and suffering or presentiments of death destroy the joy of life and turn his thoughts to God, then Mozart is himself no longer – that Mozart the world knows and loves. In such dramatic moments we can have a glimpse of what he might have become if death had not stopped him on the way! In three great works, particularly, has Mozart expressed the Divine: that is in the Requiem, in Don Giovanni and in Die Zauberflöte. The Requiem breathes of Christian faith in all its purity. Mozart there put worldly pleasure away from him, and kept only his heart, which came fearfully and in humble repentance to speak with God. Sorrowful fear and gentle contrition united with a noble faith run through all that work. The touching sadness and personal accent of certain phrases suggest that Mozart was thinking of himself when he asked eternal repose for others.   

In Mozart’s time the Christian had no representations of Divinity other than the ones offered by the Church in its rituals and temples. If Mozart could have watched Franco Zeffirelli’s movie Jesus of Nazareth he could have discovered the alive, human-like dimension of Jesus. I have the feeling that such experience would have moved him deeply…  

 

 

 

 

Il Compianto sul Cristo morto

Esiste un gruppo scultoreo di terracotta, Il Compianto sul Cristo morto, riparato nella chiesa Santa Maria della Vita di Bologna, dove, davanti al corpo di Cristo, la Vergine Maria grida amaramente alla divinita che gli ha rapito il figlio, come pronunciando il nome assoluto, e assurdo, della Morte irreversibile! Questo grido inumano, l’urlo pietrificato, espulso dal dolore diventato insopportabile, annunciando, apocalitticamente, la rottura della Madre dal Figlio, si trasfigura, all’inatteso, nel piu terribile hymnus dedicato alla Sofferenza! Non lo puoi piu sentire, non lo puoi piu guardare, non lo puoi piu capire! E oltre i sensi, oltre quello che potra piu soffrire l’anima o sopportare lo spirito… Altrimenti, perche non sorriderebbe la luttuosa Vergine se conoscesse che il frutto del Suo corpo immacolato segue il camino dell’ Ordine Divino, e non un annientamento deffinitivo?

L’URLO

La Deposizione dalla Croce

( © Text Claudiu Iordache – Homo Posteritas, ©Video Piasintei, © image Cristina Iordache – painting La Deposizione dalla Croce, private collection © All rights reserved )

Lacrimosa

Lacrimosa dies illa, 

qua resurget ex favilla 

judicandus homo reus. 

Huic ergo parce, Deus, 

pie Jesu Domine, 

dona eis requiem. 

Amen. 

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, 

et lux perpetua luceat eis. 

Kyrie, eleison. 

Christe, eleison. 

Dreams do come true!

I have been wishing for a long time to play a harpsichord or a fortepiano – Mozart’s, if possible… But Mozart’s fortepiano is with the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, there where it belongs… and until yesterday it seemed to me that a harpsichord would forever remain only a beautiful wish…

Today I look upon it, I touch its dark keys, I listen to its delicate, fragile sound, magical bridge between two centuries, between two worlds… and I understand that wishes do come true, faith and hope do lighten paths, miracles do happen… you only have to listen to the voice of your soul and step through the open gate!…  I’m grateful and I’m happy!

Happy Birthday, Music! Happy Birthday, Humanity! Mozart is born!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 and left our world on 5 December 1791. Thirty five years was the time on earth of this wonderful child of humanity. God loved him too much and called him back. The angel who lightened our life returned to heaven. His body rests in the peace of the St Marx Cemetery, but his kind and generous soul, his free spirit, his tremendous genius will live eternally through his divine Music…

Thank you, Mozart, for the gift of your uneven music!… Eternal gratitude, flowers and tears… a moving homage carrying within it all the loving thoughts which wend your way today and for ever…

Leopold Mozart from Salzburg, 9 February 1756

“… on January 27, at 8 pm, my wife fortunately gave birth to our son. Praise God, at this moment both mother and son are alright. We have named the boy Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb.”

 

Vienna, 16 October 1762

“The order to go to the Court arrived immediately after it was known we had arrived in Vienna. We were received with such extraordinary kindness by their majesties that if ever I tell them about it, people will say I have made it all up. Suffice it to say that Wolferl jumped up into the empress’ lap, grabbed her round the neck and kissed her right and proper. In short, we were with her from 3 till 6, and the emperor himself came in from the next room and took me to hear the infant play the violin.”

Paris, 1 February 1764

“You can easily imagine, then, how impressed and amazed were these French people, who are so infatuated with the customs of their court, when the king’s daughters stopped stock still not only in their apartments but in the public gallery when they say my children and approached them…  But the most extraordinary thing of all in the eyes of these French people was that at the grand couvert after nightfall on New Year’s Day, not only was it necessary to make room for us all to go up to high table, but my Herr Wolfgangus was privileged to stand next to the queen, speaking to her constantly, entertaining her, repeatedly kissing her hands and consuming the dishes that she handed him from the table.”

Paris, 1 February 1764

“4 sonatas by Monsieur Wolfgang Mozart are currently being engraved. Just imagine the stir that these sonatas will make in the world when it says on the title-page that they are the work of a 7-year-old child. You’ll hear in due course how good these sonatas are; one of them has an Andante in a very unusual style. And I can tell you that every day God works new wonders through this child. He is always accompanying other performers at public concerts. He even transposes the arias while accompanying them a prima vista; and everywhere people place Italian and French works before him that he has no difficulty in sight-reading.”

London, 28 May 1764

“The kindness with which both their majesties – the king as well as the queen – received us is indescribable. Their common touch and friendly manner allowed us to forget that they were the king and queen of England; we have been received at every court with extraordinary courtesy, but the welcome that we were given here surpasses all the others . All will be well as long as we stay healthy with God’s help and if He keeps our invincible Wolfgang in good health. The king gave him not only works by Wagenseil to play, but also Bach, Abel and Haendel, all of which  he rattled off prima vista. He played the king’s organ so well that everyone rates his organ playing far higher than his harpsichord playing. He then accompanied the queen in an aria that she sang and a flautist in a solo. Finally he took the violin part in some Haendel arias and played the most beautiful melody over the simple bass, so that everyone was utterly astonished. In a word, what he knew when we left Salzburg is a mere shadow of what he knows now. You can’t imagine it.”

Munchen, 15 November 1766

“God – who has been far too good to me, a miserable sinner – has bestowed such talents on my children that, apart from my duty as a father, they alone would spur me on to sacrifice everything to their decent education.Every moment I lose is lost for ever. And if I ever knew how valuable time is for young people, I know it now. You know that my children are used to work: if – on the excuse that one thing prevents another – they were to get used to hours of idleness, my entire edifice would collapse; custom is an iron shirt. And you yourself know how much my children, especially Wolfgangerl, have to learn. But who knows what’s being planned for us on our return to Salzburg? Perhaps we’ll be received in such a way that we’ll be only too pleased to shoulder our bundles and go on our way. But, God willing, I shall at least be bringing my children to their fatherland; if they are not wanted, it won’t be my fault; but people won’t get them for nothing.”

Vienna, 30 January 1768

“Now, in order to convince the public of what is involved here, I decided on a completely exceptional course of action, namely, to get him to write an opera for the theatre. And what kind of an uproar do you think immediately arose among these composers?… What? Today we are to see a Gluck and tomorrow a boy of 12 sitting at the harpsichord and conducting his own opera?… Yes, despite all those who envy him! I’ve even won Gluck over to our side…”

Vienna, 30 July 1768

“His Grace has no liars, charlatans and swindlers in his service who with his prior knowledge and gracious permission go to other towns and like conjurors throw dust in people’s eyes; no, they are honest men who to the honour of their prince and their country announce to the world a miracle that God allowed to see the light of day in Salzburg. I owe it to the Almighty God to see this through, otherwise I’d be the most thankless of creatures: and if it were ever my duty to convince the world of this miracle, it is now, when people are ridiculing all that is called a miracle and denying all such miracles. And so they have to be convinced: and was it not a great joy and a great triumph for me to hear a Voltairean say to me in amazement: ‘For once in my life I have seen a miracle; it is the first!’”

THE VOICE OF GOD

Mozart Week 2011

Every year in January, to celebrate the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg hosts the Mozart Week: a series of opera performances, orchestral, chamber and soloist concerts. World-renowned Mozart interpreters sustain the peerless reputation of this unique event. Between 21-30 January 2011, classical music lovers from all over the world are invited to rejoice in the everlasting beauty of the great composer’s music.

Mozarts Geburtshaus, the house in which Mozart was born on 27 January 1756, on Getreidegasse, is now one of the most frequently visited museums in the world. The exhibition, which spreads over three floors, carries the visitors into Wolfgang’s world, telling when he began to make music, who his friends and patrons were, how the relationship with his family looked like, how strong was his passion for the opera… Here can be seen portraits, original manuscripts and documents, as well as personal objects and musical instruments on which he has played: his childhood violin and the clavichord on which he composed a few of his wonderful works.

In Makartplatz there is Mozarts Wohnhaus, the residence where Mozart lived between 1773 and 1781 (the year when he left for Vienna). The building was severely damaged in the Second World War’s bombings, but it was faithfully reconstructed and today hosts the second important Mozart museum in Salzburg.

In the spacious rooms visitors can see portraits and original documents, manuscripts of Mozart’s works from the Salzburg years, Wolfgang’s original fortepiano, as well as the famous Family Portrait in the Master’s Dance Hall (Tanzmeistersaal).

Salzburg is a city of music: during the year extraordinary performances take place in churches, in palaces, in concert halls… Salzburger Schlosskonzerte is one of the biggest musical events in the world: the concerts take place in the marble hall of the Mirabell Palace, there where, in another time, young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played himself!

In the Mozart Week, or whenever you are in Salzburg, give yourself the joy of discovering the beauties of a city whose cultural, historical and memorial values have always been respected by its rulers and inhabitants!

The Morning of the New Year

The first morning of a new year… Light of commencement, hopes and dreams born in fireworks, thoughts of love for loved ones, wishes of good for those in whose soul good speaks and beauty sings…  A new year’s ephemeral morning, with Bach’s eternal music…

“It may be that when the angels go about their task praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille they play Mozart”. (Karl Barth)

Winter Wonderland

A Christmas morning dressed in the quietness of snow flakes… a little house adorned with snow… a snowfall from a fairy tale, gentle and pure… from the snowbound street, now and then, tinkling of bells and children’s merry laughter… inside the house scents of fir tree and vanilla, festive lights and Mozart’s music: of commencement and without end…