“For one moment in the history of music all opposites were reconciled; all tensions resolved; that luminous moment was Mozart” (Phil Goulding)
“We cannot despair about mankind knowing that Mozart was a man” (Albert Einstein)
“I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart, and shall remain so until my last breath” (Ludwig van Beethoven)
“If we cannot write with the beauty of Mozart, let us at least try to write with his purity” (Johannes Brahms)
“The most tremendous genius raised Mozart above all masters, in all centuries and in all the arts” (Richard Wagner)
“Mozart is the greatest composer of all. Beethoven created his music, but the music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely found it – that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed” (Albert Einstein)
“Mozart’s joy is made of serenity, and a phrase of his music is like a calm thought; his simplicity is merely purity. It is a crystalline thing in which all the emotions play a role, but as if already celestially transposed. Moderation consists in feeling emotions as the angels do” (Andre Gide)
“Mozart’s music is the mysterious language of a distant spiritual kingdom, whose marvelous accents echo in our inner being and arouse a higher, intensive life” (E.T.A. Hoffmann)
“A phenomenon like Mozart remains an inexplicable thing” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
“Mozart has the classic purity of light and the red ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal piaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both.” (Henri-Frédéric Amiel)
"Mozart is the musical Christ. Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has attained in the sphere of music. I find consolation and rest in Mozart's music, wherein he gives expression to that joy of life which was part of his sane and wholesome temperament" (Pyotr Ilyici Tchaikovsky)
"A light, bright, fine day this will remain throughout my whole life. As from afar, the magic notes of Mozart's music still gently haunt me. A world that has produced a Mozart is a world worth saving. What a picture of a better world you have given us, Mozart!" (Franz Schubert)
Mozart in Lacrimosa... On the steps of air that reach to a heavenly height, the German vocalizations of Divinity... (Claudiu Iordache)
"The Mozartian legacy, in brief, is as good an excuse for mankind's existence as we shall ever encounter and is perhaps, after all, a still small hope for our ultimate survival." (H.C. Robbins Landon)
“Ten million views. The human race is slowly making me believe in them again...” (online comment on Mozart’s Symphony 40 in G minor)
... Mozart had simply written down music already finished in his head. And music finished as no music has ever finished. Displace one note and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase and the structure would fall. I was staring through the cage of those meticulous ink strokes at an absolute beauty… (Peter Shaffer - 'Amadeus')
"Whenever I despair about the human race I listen to music like this and it gives me hope. No species that can produce Mozart can be all bad." (online comment on Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro')
“There are three things in the world I love most: the sea, Hamlet and Don Giovanni” (Gustave Flaubert)
"Mozart’s music is on the one hand so accessible, so beautiful and so apparently simple that it can be grasped and enjoyed on its first hearing. But at the same time it is so deep, so profound, so perfect that one can spend a lifetime in it and continue to be fascinated with it, even if it’s the hundreth time you’ve performed it…" (James Conlon)
"Mozart has reached the boundary gate of music and leaped over it, leaving behind the old masters and moderns, and posterity itself" (A. Hyatt King)
All the texts published here belong to Mozart's Children, unless stated otherwise. No reproduction, transmission and adaption of content for commercial use may be made without written permission from author. For non-commercial use, please credit accordingly. Thank you.
“Each year around the time of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s birth in January, the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburghosts the Mozart Week with opera performances and orchestral, chamber, and soloist concerts. World-renowned Mozart interpreters, orchestras, and ensembles are responsible for the unparalleled reputation of this unique event. This week of concerts, which was first held in 1956, invites visitors from around the world to rediscover Mozart’s works from ever-changing perspectives and to hear them afresh.”
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 the heart of the Salzburg historic district, next to the Residenzplatz and in front of the Salzburg Museum, you will find Mozartplatz, Mozart Square. The Mozart statue standing there is dedicated to the city’s most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Designed by German sculptor Ludwig Schwanthaler, the Mozart monument stands in the middle of the square. Bavaria’s King Ludwig I was one of the driving forces behind the installation of a statue in honor of Mozart. He personally invested a significant sum of money and also financed a marble base, which is today one of the holdings of the Salzburg Museum. The monument was built in 1842, more than 50 years after the death of the great composer.
In Makartplatz there is Mozart-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.
The fascinating history of how Mozart Residence was saved and reconstructed can be read on the page of The Mozarteum Foundation from the anniversary year 2016 (20 years since the official opening of the rebuilt Mozart Residence).
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).
It is said that Mozart once played the organ of Trinity Church on Makartplatz. In a new concert series known as “Musica Sacra Trinitatis“, every Saturday works by important composers are performed on the organ with instrumental or vocal accompaniment.
The programme of the Mozart Week 2019 is beautiful, with concerts taking place in the Grosser Saal Mozarteum, Grosses Festspielhaus, Wiener Saal Mozarteum, Universitaet Mozarteum, Mozart-Wohnung. Mozart’s Birthday is celebrated, on January 27, with Specials in Mozart’s Birthplace and other events!
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 !
On 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 are treasured and respected!
Images: credits specified there where available,
or images from the internet assumed to be in the public domain.
DISCLAIMER – I don’t claim credit or ownership on the images taken from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain, used here. The owners retain their copyrights to their works. I am sharing the images exclusively for educational and artistic purposes – this blog is not monetized, and has no commercial profit whatsoever. Whenever I find the credits to internet images I am happy to add them. If you are the artist or the owner of original photos/images presented on this blog and you wish your works to be removed from here, or edited to include the proper credits, please send me a message and they will either be removed or edited. Thank you!
Thoughts and feelings have their own way of growing, blooming, weaving a story in your soul…
You open a book in an antique bookshop and your eyes see M. DCC. XLII. Then you jump to the last page and realize you can afford it! After that you take the book next to it and read MDCCLXXX, and the last page shows a price comparable to that of a book published in 2016! You call for help in your mind, and come across some memories left by your high school teacher’s insistence on the Roman numerals. You wonder which of the two would explain it: the antiquarian had had a drink too much the night before pricing the book, or he cannot read Roman numerals… the second seems less likely, so it’s probably the first. Whatever the reason, this is a “buy and run” moment!
Sadly, the same antiquarian seems to have been one hundred percent sober when he priced a MDCCLXIII book printed in Augsburg, with marvelous Gothic writing on the rough paper…
In 1763 Leopold Mozart, born in Augsburg in 1719 as the eldest son of a master bookbinder, had been living in Salzburg for 27 years. The year when this book was manufactured he was travelling with his little Wolfgang and Maria Anna to make their extraordinary musical talents known to the world, and Augsburg was their second stop – Leopold was returning to his birthplace as a proud father of two wonderfully gifted children, and the three concerts given by the music prodigies in Augsburg, end of June-beginning of July 1763, were part of the Mozart Family Grand Tour, which would last over three years, from 9 June 1763 to 29 November 1766.
Augsburg, 1763. A beautiful book is printed in a workshop. Leopold Mozart returns to his birthplace with his son and daughter.The first public concert is given by the Mozart Children on 28 June. The second on 30 June. The third, and last one, on 4 July. The book that you are holding in your hands is a bridge between you and the past…
Whenever I visit an antiquaire I can close the door to the outside world, travel in time, dwell into the past, into its infinite worlds to which I feel connected through the magic of old books, with their rough paper and magnificent writing and ornaments…
I left the 1763 book on the shelf, with a sigh. She will be waiting there for someone who can afford to buy her, and, through her, delight in the feeling of connecting with a moment in the past when an Augsburg workshop sent her on a long journey through time, a travel of 255 years, until she reached the shelf of an antique bookshop in my town…
“Each year around the time of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s birth in January, the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg hosts the Mozart Week with opera performances and orchestral, chamber, and soloist concerts. World-renowned Mozart interpreters, orchestras, and ensembles are responsible for the unparalleled reputation of this unique event. This week of concerts, which was first held in 1956, invites visitors from around the world to rediscover Mozart’s works from ever-changing perspectives and to hear them afresh.”
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 the heart of the Salzburg historic district, next to the Residenzplatz and in front of the Salzburg Museum, you will find Mozartplatz – Mozart Square. The Mozart statue standing there is dedicated to the city’s most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Designed by German sculptor Ludwig Schwanthaler, the Mozart monument stands in the middle of the square. Bavaria’s King Ludwig I was one of the driving forces behind the installation of a statue in honor of Mozart. He personally invested a significant sum of money and also financed a marble base, which is today one of the holdings of the Salzburg Museum. The monument was built in 1842, more than 50 years after the death of the great composer.
In Makartplatzthere is Mozart-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.
The fascinating history of how Mozart Residence was saved and reconstructed can be read on the page of The Mozarteum Foundation from the anniversary year 2016 (20 years since the official opening of the rebuilt Mozart Residence).
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).
It is said that Mozart once played the organ of Trinity Church on Makartplatz. In a new concert series known as “Musica Sacra Trinitatis”, every Saturday works by important composers are performed on the organ with instrumental or vocal accompaniment.
The programme of the Mozart Week 2018 is beautiful, with concerts taking place in the Grosser Saal Mozarteum, Grosses Festspielhaus, Wiener Saal Mozarteum, Universitaet Mozarteum, Mozart-Wohnung. Mozart’s Birthday is celebrated, on January 27, in the Grosser Saal Mozarteum, in the morning (Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor K.491, Sir Andras Schiff with Cappella Andrea Barca performing), in the Tanzmeistersaal in Mozart’s Residence, at noon: concert on Mozart’s instruments (Fritz Kircher and Werner Neugebauer on Mozart’s violin, Herbert Lindsberger on Mozart’s viola, Josetxu Obregon on Violoncello), in the Grosses Festspeilhaus, in the evening (Mozart’s Symphony in C major K.551, the Wiener Philharmoniker with Robin Ticciati conducting). Among other wonderful concerts in the Mozart Week: on January 28, in the Grosses Festspielhaus, an evening of Mozart symphonies, Sir John Eliot Gardiner with the English Baroque Soloists performing; on January 29 in the Grosser Saal Mozarteum Daniel Barenboim playing Debussy; on January 29 in the Tanzmeistersaal in Mozart’s Residence a “Fugue workshop”: Florian birsak on Mozart’s fortepiano playing fantasies and fugues by Mozart, J.S. Bach, J.C. Bach, W.F. Bach, G.F. Handel, J.E. Eberlin, G. Muffat and J.J. Froberger, with a presentation by musicologist Ulrich Leisinger, addressing the question of the circumstances surrounding Mozart’s fugues; on the 1st of February in the Wiener Saal Mozarteum Robert Levin playing Mozart piano sonatas; on the 2nd of February in the Grosser Saal Mozarteum David Fray playing Mozart and Bach… and many others!
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 !
On 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!
Images: credits specified there where available,
or images from the internet assumed to be in the public domain.
DISCLAIMER – I don’t claim credit or ownership on the images taken from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain, used here. The owners retain their copyrights to their works. I am sharing the images exclusively for educational and artistic purposes – this blog is not monetized, and has no commercial profit whatsoever. Whenever I find the credits to internet images I am happy to add them. If you are the artist or the owner of original photos/images presented on this blog and you wish your works to be removed from here, or edited to include the proper credits, please send me a message and they will either be removed or edited. Thank you!
In May 1775 Emperor Joseph II had opened Vienna’s Augarten to the public. He dedicated this beautiful place “to all people”, for their amusement, so dance halls, dining and billiard rooms, refreshment places were established, and restaurateur Ignaz Jahn was put in charge as traiteur. Ignaz Jahn had been appointed Imperial Caterer for Schonbrunn Palace in 1772. In 1775 he started running a restaurant in the Augarten (it was said that nowhere in the world you could drink any better coffee than at Jahn’s, in the Augarten), and later opened a Concert Hall adjacent to his other restaurant, in the main part of the city (now Himmelpfortgasse 6), a Concert Hall which would turn into a performance venue for famous musicians and composers in the years to come: among them, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” was performed at Jahn’s Hall in November 1788. His last appearance in public is said to have been the one of 4 March 1791. The first public performance of his “Requiem” would take place at Jahn’s Hall on 2 January 1793 – a benefit concert on behalf of his widow, Constanze, organized by Gottfried van Swieten in support of Mozart’s wife and sons.
If we look for Jahns Traiteurie today, on Himmelpfortgasse, we will find Café Frauenhuber– presumably Vienna’s oldest coffee house!
The coffeehouse changed names for a few times since 1824, then settled for CaféFrauenhuber in 1891. In this building, two centuries ago guests were treated with musical entertainment by Mozart and Beethoven! Could any name have been more suitable for this street than “Heaven’s Gate” (Himmelpfort)?
And yes, the waiter did address me with “gnädige Frau“, like I had read on the Welcomepage of Café Frauenhuber!
I recall the quiet time spent at this coffeehouse, savoring a hot chocolate in its intimate, refined, charming atmosphere, then outside, on the street, letting my eyes explore all the details of the building and its surroundings… It was late in the evening, and few people were passing by, and there was so much peace, like time had stood still, and you felt you could just close your eyes and start walking in Mozart’s footsteps… on the same street… on a 4th of March 1791…
As a child swelled the world’s wonders with the strings of his lyre;
As a man, he surpassed Orpheus himself.
Go hence!
And pray earnestly for his soul!
K.
This epitaph was published in two newspapers in December 1791 and January 1792: The Wiener Zeitung of 31 December 1791 and the Grazer Burgerzeitung of 3 January 1792.
Had this been inscribed on a commemorative plaque at that time, the place where he was buried might have not been lost.
No commemorative plaque for Mozart was ever found.
The Mozart Memorial in the St Marx Cemetery was erected where his grave is supposed to have been. Somewhere in that holy ground his mortal remains have found eternal rest.
“Each year around the time of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s birth in January, the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg hosts the Mozart Week with opera performances and orchestral, chamber, and soloist concerts. World-renowned Mozart interpreters, orchestras, and ensembles are responsible for the unparalleled reputation of this unique event. This week of concerts, which was first held in 1956, invites visitors from around the world to rediscover Mozart’s works from ever-changing perspectives and to hear them afresh.”
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 Mozart-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.
The fascinating history of how Mozart Residence was saved and reconstructed can be read on the page of The Mozarteum Foundation from the anniversary year 2016 (20 years since the official opening of the rebuilt Mozart Residence).
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).
The programme of the Mozart Week 2017 is beautiful, with concerts taking place in the Grosser Saal Mozarteum, Grosses Festspielhaus, Wiener Saal Mozarteum, Universitaet Mozarteum, Mozart-Wohnung. Among them Mozart’s D minor Piano Concerto no 20, K.466 (on 28 January in the Grosses Festspielhaus, with the Wiener Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Lengelbrock and Leif Ove Andsnes playing the piano) and the B-flat Major Piano Concerto no 27, K.595 (on 31 January in the Grosser Saal Mozarteum, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Robin Ticciati and Maria Joao Pires playing the piano). K.595 has only recently appeared in the online program of the Mozart Week, having replaced the C Major Piano Concerto no 21, K.467, which is in both the printed and pdf form of the 2017 Program – a replacement that is not good news for those who bought a ticket especially for the C Major Piano Concerto no 21…
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 ❤
On 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!
Images: credits specified there where available,
or images from the internet assumed to be in the public domain.
DISCLAIMER – I don’t claim credit or ownership on the images taken from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain, used here. The owners retain their copyrights to their works. I am sharing the images exclusively for educational and artistic purposes – this blog is not monetized, and has no commercial profit whatsoever. Whenever I find the credits to internet images I am happy to add them. If you are the artist or the owner of original photos/images presented on this blog and you wish your works to be removed from here, or edited to include the proper credits, please send me a message and they will either be removed or edited. Thank you!
– în acest moment am primit o veste care mă întristează foarte mult – cu atât mai mult cu cât din ultima dumitale scrisoare am putut să presupun că te simți, slavă Domnului, foarte bine; – Dar acum aflu că ești cu adevărat bolnav! nu trebuie să-ți mai spun cât de mult tânjesc să primesc o veste consolatoare din partea dumitale; și o sper cu putere – deși mi-am făcut obiceiul să-mi imaginez întotdeauna și în toate privințele tot ceea ce poate fi mai rău – din moment ce moartea (când o luăm în considerare îndeaproape) este adevăratul scop al vieții noastre, mie de câțiva ani într-atât mi-a devenit de cunoscut acest sincer și foarte bun prieten al oamenilor, încât chipul lui nu mai are nimic înfricoșător pentru mine, ci mai degrabă îmi aduce liniște și consolare! și îi mulțumesc dumnezeului meu că mi-a acordat prilejul (dumneata știi ce vreau să spun) de a înțelege că moartea este cheia care deschide ușa spre adevărata noastră fericire. – nu mă culc niciodată în patul meu fără a cugeta că aș putea (oricât de tânăr sunt) să nu mai fiu a doua zi – și nu există nici un om dintre cei ce mă cunosc care să poată spune că aș fi posac sau trist în relațiile mele – și pentru această binecuvântare îi mulțumesc zilnic Creatorului meu și o doresc din inimă fiecărui seamăn al meu…”
Viena, 4 aprilie 1787
“Mon tres cher père!
– diesen augenblick höre ich eine Nachricht, die mich sehr niederschlägt – um so mehr als ich aus ihrem lezten vermuthen konnte, daß sie sich gottlob recht wohl befinden; – Nun höre aber daß sie wirklich krank seÿen! wie sehnlich ich einer Tröstenden Nachricht von ihnen selbst entgegen sehe, brauche ich ihnen doch wohl nicht zu sagen; und ich hoffe es auch gewis – obwohlen ich es mir zur gewohnheit gemacht habe mir immer in allen Dingen das schlimste vorzustellen – da der Tod |: genau zu nemen : | der wahre Endzweck unsers Lebens ist, so habe ich mich seit ein Paar Jahren mit diesem wahren, besten Freunde des Menschen so bekannt gemacht, daß sein Bild nicht allein nichts schreckendes mehr für mich hat, sondern recht viel beruhigendes und tröstendes! und ich danke meinem gott, daß er mir das glück gegönnt hat mir die gelegenheit |: sie verstehen mich : | zu verschaffen, ihn als den schlüssel zu unserer wahren Glückseligkeit kennen zu lernen. – ich lege mich nie zu bette ohne zu bedenken, daß ich vielleicht |: so Jung als ich bin : | den andern Tag nicht mehr seÿn werde – und es wird doch kein Mensch von allen die mich kennen sagn können daß ich im Umgange mürrisch oder traurig wäre – und für diese glückseeligkeit danke ich alle Tage meinem Schöpfer u wünsche sie vom Herzen Jedem meiner Mitmenschen…”
Wien 4. April 1787
“Dearest father!
This very moment I have received some news which greatly distresses me – the more so as I gathered from your last letter that, thank God, you were very well; – But now I hear that you are really ill! I hardly need to tell you how eagerly I look forward to some reassuring news from you; and I hope for it – although I have now made a habit of being prepared for the worst in all affairs of life – as death (when we come to consider it closely) is the true goal of our existence, I have during the last few years come so know so well this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is rather very calming and consoling! and I thank my God for granting me the opportunity (you know what I mean) of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness. – I never lie down at night without reflecting that (young as I am) I may not live to see another day – and there is no one of those who know me who could say that in company I am sullen or sad – and for this blessing I thank my Creator every day and wish it from my heart to each one of my fellow men…”
Vienna, 4 April 1787
Source of German transcription: Ludwig Nohl Source of English translation: Emily Anderson (slightly modified)
Source of image of excerpts from Mozart’s letter: The Berlin Staatsbibliothek.
Many thanks to Dr Michael Lorenz for the information that the digitized document is actually a copy dating from around 1850, in the handwriting of Ludwig von Köchel!
Wolfgang Amadè Mozart was buried in theSankt Marx Cemetery on the 7th of December 1791. The burial depicted in Amadeus was a poetic license: profoundly moving and emotional, but not loyal to reality.
“The historical facts can be summarized as follows:”, says Dr Michael Lorenz.
1. Mozart was not buried in a linen bag without a coffin, because such burials were never obligatory in Vienna.
2. Mozart was not buried in a mass grave, but in a customary “allgemeines Grab” (the usual common grave).”
In a fascinating research article, Dr Michael Lorenz takes us back in time, in Josephine Vienna, and proves through archival sources, historic facts, in-depth and extensive knowledge and brilliant analysis, that Mozart was most likely buried in a coffin, in a customary grave.
On what happened after that day of 7 December 1791, history left us only bits and pieces. The customs of the time decided the future: no tombstone, no flower arrangements, no visits on Sunday mornings, no memory of the place where Mozart was buried. When, after many years, Constanze Mozart eventually thought of identifying the exact place where her husband had been buried, it was too late. The Mozart Memorial in the Sankt Marx Cemetery doesn’t mark the grave where Mozart’s body found eternal rest.
His mortal remains may have disappeared forever, or may still lie somewhere in the holy grounds of St Marx. But his soul, his heart, his spirit live on, through his divine Music!
AMADEUS
Mozart’s only mention as Wolfgang Amadeus in an official document made during his lifetime was found in 1998 by Mozart scholarMichael Lorenzin the registers of the Lower Austrian Governorship, where in May 1787 “Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus” is referred to as having applied for the return of his written surety for his friend Franz Jacob Freystadtler.
“Actele de divorț dintre lume și geniu au fost depuse în groapa comună a cimitirului din Viena unde, spre gloria ei, lumea
l-a aruncat pe Mozart
sub varul septic
al uitării din urmă.
Și de atunci scena
se tot repetă.
Scriind pentru lume a sfârșit prin a scrie pentru îngeri. Ca să înspăimânți mediocritatea e destul să rostești: “Mozart!”
Între dionisiac și apolinic, Flautul și Recviemul, ultimul fruct depus în coșul culegătorului. Viața alege dintotdeauna parfumul opusului ei. Raiul îndoliat la care bate Mozart tânăr ținând în mâna sa de dantele tremurânde ultima Operă.
A sosit noaptea, Mozart…”
Claudiu Iordache Volumul de poezie “Nervurile transparenței”, 2012
Lacrimosa dies illa
Qua resurget ex favilla
Judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:
Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem.
Amen.
“Este 5 decembrie. De 225 de ani omenirea așteaptă să te întorci. Muzica ta a supraviețuit și va supraviețui. Dar ne e dor de inima ta vie, de sufletul luminat de un sentiment dumnezeiesc al armoniei! Căci ai fost darul Lui, și puțini dintre noi au înțeles…
Tu, Mozart, sfâșietoare lumină a întunericului ce ne înconjoară! În parcul tău cernit frunzele iernii îți șoptesc numele. Este 5 decembrie. O liniște senină care a înnoptat pe cer până când lumea a aflat cu disperare că te-a pierdut pentru totdeauna! Dacă am putea învia prin dragostea noastră ființa ta fragilă, pentru a ne surâde din nou, o, Mozart care dormi regal în sufletul nostru! Dacă ne-ai putea auzi durerea de a te ști chemat pentru totdeauna acolo unde numai îngerii te mai ascultă, înfiorați! O, Mozart, e noapte, deplina noapte înaltă într-o zi de 5 decembrie! Zi în care și tu și noi am murit puțin…
Mozart… Mozart… Mozart… ecou ceresc al fiului omenirii…”
“the 26th. A Song – Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte” It is Mozart’s entry in his hand-written Catalogue of Works, on a 26th of May 1787.
On the score, in his handwriting: “The 26th of May 1787 Landstrasse”, on the top left-hand corner of the first page – in the top right-hand corner he signed with “W.A. Mozart / in Herr Gottfried von Jacquin’s room”.
Happiness is… to hear your own mezzo voice singing ‘Als Luise’ in the Tanzmeistersaal, on a 27 January 2016… ❤
Erzeugt von heisser Phantasie…
Erzeugt von heißer Phantasie, In einer schwärmerischen Stunde Zur Welt gebrachte! Geht zu Grunde! Ihr Kinder der Melancholie!
Ihr danket Flammen euer Sein, Ich geb’ euch nun den Flammen wieder, Und all’ die schwärmerischen Lieder; Denn ach! – er sang nicht mir allein.
Ihr brennet nun, und bald, ihr Lieben, Ist keine Spur von euch mehr hier: Doch ach! der Mann, der euch geschrieben, Brennt lange noch vielleicht in mir.
(Gabriele von Baumberg)
Conceived of fervent fantasy, Brought into the world in an hour of rapture! Perish! You, children of melancholy!
You owe to passion’s flames your being: To the flames I now return you with all the songs of ecstasy, for alas! not to me alone he sang them.
You burn now, and soon, my loves, no trace of you will remain: but alas! the man who wrote you may long still burn within me.
“Mozart allowed himself to be inspired by poems he came across by chance or to which friends drew his attention or which seemed appropriate for a particular occasion. Thje text of the song ‘Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte’ beginning with the words ‘Erzeugt von heisser Phantasie’ is by Gabriele von Baumberg (1766-1839). who was regarded as the ‘Sappho of Vienna’ and as the most importaant Austrian poetess of her time. She frequented the circle surrounding the author Karoline Pichler (1769-1843) who also knew Jacquin and Mozart. Pichler refers to Baumberg’s poems as a ‘beautiful legacy left to her fatherland and one would only wish that they were better known and more vivid in the memory of today’s world, as they deserve.’ Gabriele von Baumberg’s poetry, which was published in Blumauer-Ratschky’s ‘Almanac of the Muses’ as early as 1786, has, in Mozart’s setting, achieved immortality.”
Johanna Senigl, Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg (translated by Elizabeth Mortimer) – W.A. MOZART ‘Als Luise’, Faksimile mit Edition
A place where each moment of the day is marked with, and holds within it, the feeling of Mozart… A time when the dream becomes the life… In Mozart’s places of the heart. His, and mine.
There are times when dreams come true!
On a 27 January, in Salzburg…
… wake up in the early morning and open the windows to the view of the Hohensalzburg Fortress, and breathe the fresh, crisp air of the mountainous hill…
… look down on a narrow Salzburgstreet still asleep… and rejoice in the feeling of history wisely and wonderfully preserved for so many years…
… walk through the Altstadthotel Kasererbraeu, a very fine hotel located in a 1342 building, with fresco decorated halls and gilded mirrors…
… have a special breakfast in a lovely space, intimate and warm as one’s home…
… go out and discover that in the morning of 27 January the clouds are giving place to the blue sky…
… start the journey in the city with a walk around the Salzburger Dom, feeling its magnificence in the quiet hours of the morning …
… step inside the Cathedral for a few moments of peace…
… then walk to the left, to the baptismal font where little Wolfgang was baptised on 28 January 1756, the day after his birth, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, in honor of Saint John Chrysostom(the feast was universally kept in the West on 27 January until the calendar reform of 1969 – nowadays the feast day of Saint Chrysostom is celebrated on 27 January by the Eastern Orthodox Church, while the Roman Catholic Church commemorates him on 13 September) …
… pass by Mozart’s statue in Mozartplatzand greet him Good Morning on his Birthday 🙂 …
… cross the bridge over the peaceful water of the Salzach River…
… reach the Mozart Wohnhaus, Mozart’s Residence, at Makartplatz 8 (Hannibalplatz in Mozart’s time), and just stay on the street for a while, immersed in the feeling of joy for being there…
… spend a few moments looking at this special house in the Anniversary Year 2016, remembering its stormy history…
… pass through the open door and go to the garden, to the Mozarteum offices to greet two lovely ladies, Mag. Elke Tontsch and Mag. Stephanie Krenner, whom you have met one day before to offer the Mozart discs of baritone Dan Iordachescu to the Mozarteum Foundation, to be part of the great Mozart Audio-Visual Collection …
… before embarking on the special tour guided by Dr. Johanna Senigl: the visit in the Autograph Vault, a place that holds and guards precious pieces of paper bearing the signs of time and the writing of Wolfgang Mozart and his family…
No photos from the Manuscripts Room, only precious memories inside your heart and mind.
The joy of visiting the Mozart Wohnhaus right on this special day ❤ …
Memories of a time when we enjoyed writing letters…
This is how tall you would have seen him if you had passed him by on the street 🙂 ❤
And then the emotion of finding yourself in the Tanzmeistersaal, the place where Wolfgang Mozart made music with his family and his friends…
… the feeling of pure bliss, of overwhelming joy, for sitting down in front of Mozart’s fortepiano, touching its keys, delighting in its sweet, magical sound…
… Happiness is… to touch Mozart’s fortepiano in the Tanzmeistersaal, in Mozart’s Residence in Salzburg, on a 27 January 2016…
And then…
… take a last look around, in the Tanzmeistersaal, where everything is quiet now, before the concert…
… and a last look outside…
… leave the house and look to your right, then to your left, as if you could have a glimpse of what Mozart saw when he left the house…
… then turn around and enter the house again – because it is a good time to visit the Mozart Shop before returning to the hotel, to change into an appropriate dress for the afternoon recital…
… take the road back with a look in the windows of a Music Shop, right after the corner – Mozart and The Mozart Week are everywhere…
(… those outfits are so beautiful! …)
… then cross the Salzach River again, rejoicing in the view of the blue skies and beautiful Salzburg, on a day of 27 January 2016…
… pass by the Mozart Statue, again…
(smiling to a beautiful day of 27 January in just the perfect place to do this 🙂 )
… stop for a few moments at Mozart’s Birthplace at Getreidegasse 9 – Mozart Geburtshaus, or Hagenauerhaus, on a day of 27 January 2016…
… pass by Cafe Tomaselli, Salzburg’s oldest coffee house, and stop for a while just to picture Leopold Mozart and his son Wolfgang coming here to have a coffee and a talk with friends, more than 200 years ago…
… pass by the Dom again, then continue to the hotel, enjoying the indescribable charm of those narrow streets and old buildings in Salzburg’sOld Town, some of them almost 600 years old…
… prepare for the concert, then proceed on the way back to Mozart Residence… with a stop on the bridge for a photo where your face is lighted by the rays of a wonderful 27 January Salzburg sun, and by the joy of being there! ❤ …
… reach the Mozart Wohnhaus again, to attend the Fortepiano recital of Nicolas Altstaedt playing the cello, Andreas Staier and Alexander Melnikov playing Mozart’s Walter-Flügel, in Mozart’s Tanzmeistersaal, in Mozart’s Residence, on a 27 January 2016…
… wait patiently until almost all the people have left… then, overwhelmed by emotion, sit down at Mozart’s fortepiano again… and touch it, and hear its sweet sound, again…
… and because it is a time in your life when the dream is truly becoming the life, you would ask if you can sing, there, in Mozart’s music room, and you hear “permission granted”… and then you start to sing ‘Als Luise‘, a cappella… and hear your mezzo voice filling the Tanzmeistersaal, and you feel overwhelmed by the magnificent resonance, by the vibration, by the feeling and emotion of singing in the same place where Mozart used to make music…
… Happiness is… to hear your own voice singing Mozart’s ‘Als Luise‘ in Mozart’s Tanzmeistersaal, in the Mozart Residence, on a 27 January 2016 …
The Tanzmeistersaal is now quiet, after a beautiful evening of music, on a 27 January 2016 …
… and it’s time to say goodbye to Mozart Wohnhaus …
… The lights of the house will soon go down… so you leave…
… what delight in the charming view over the Salzach River, on the way to the evening’s Festive Cake at Mozart’s Geburtshaus, Mozart’s Birthplace, on a 27 January …
And you find yourself on Getreidegasse, mingling with Mozart admirers, or just passers-by…
And here comes the cake! 🙂 A delicate, exquisite, sweet oeuvre d’art! …
I got the “adé” from “Amadé”! 😉
It is now time to go up to the third floor apartment where Wolfgang Mozart was born, on a 27 January 1756, at 8 in the evening… Mozarts Geburtshaus, Mozart’s Birthplace, on Getreidegasse 9 🙂
At the door, the symbol of Asklepios, on Hagenauerhaus…
These stairs he would climb, these corridors he would walk, every day, when he lived here: from his birth in 1756 to 1773, when the Mozart family moved to the house on Hannibalplatz – now Makartplatz (Mozarts Wohnaus). I don’t know how much of what I am seeing he used to see, too, when he would leave home, or return… how were the walls painted? what ornaments and objects were on the stairs and corridors and doors?… I am not a historian (I would have loved to be!), and some things may be difficult to tell even for a historian… so I am left with only my imagination to fill in the blanks… and with the emotion of climbing these stairs, and walking these corridors …
… Dreaming? or really looking down from the window where Wolfgang Mozart would look at Salzburg himself?…
“… 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.”
Leopold Mozart from Salzburg, 9 February 1756
At 8 in the evening, the hour of his birth, a choir of children started to sing below his windows! 🙂
The lights go down in Mozart’s Birthplace, and the door is now closed… The streets are quiet… You can breathe the magic of the Salzburg night…
Old door bells on the outside of the Hagenauerhaus… would the magic work if you pulled a bell?
Cafe Tomaselli, in the evening of a 27 January…
Mozart’s statue and a glimpse of the moon…
… and then, again, the magic of this beautiful city…
Back to the hotel…
Window open to the Salzburg fortress…
In the Old City, the streets are quiet… it is almost midnight, on a day of 27 January 2016…
Monday, 15 March 1784, Vienna: Mozart performs for Count Esterházy and dates the Piano Concerto in B-flat K. 450.
The entry in Mozart’s hand-written catalogue of works reads:
“the 15th of March
A Piano concerto. Accompaniment: 2 violins, 2 violas, 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and bass.”
The Spring of 1784 was busy and exceptionally fulfilling for Mozart in Vienna. In his letters from March and April 1784, Mozart asks for his father’s understanding for not having the time to write to him because of the numerous engagements: 22 between the end of February and the beginning of April. Among them, three concerts in a subscription series at the Trattnerhof, two at the Burgtheater and others in the salons of Count Johann Esterhazy and Prince Galitsin. Mozart tells his father how wonderfully his performances were received: he won extraordinary applause, the hall was “crammed full”, and he was praised repeatedly for the first concert on 17 March. He proudly presents his father the list of subscribers to the Trattnerhof concerts: 174 names from the highest levels of society, all of whom attended his successful performances. Among them, Prince Kaunitz, Prince Galitsin, Therese von Trattner, Baroness Martha Elisabeth von Waldstatten, Count and Countess Thun, Princess Lichnowsky, Prince Lobkowitz, Prince Liechtenstein, Count Zichy, Count Esterházy, Count Nostitz, Baron van Swieten, Councillor Greiner, Countess Waldstein, Count Zinzendorf, Baron Wetzlar, Princess Auersperg, Count Banffi, Ignatz von Born, Count Czernin, Prince Schwartzenberg, Countess Hatzfeld, and many others, all people of importance and position in the Viennese society.
“On 20 March 1784 Mozart sent his father the famous list of subscribers who paid an entrance of six gulden for three concerts at the Trattnerhof. In his commentary to this letter Joseph Heinz Eibl gives a number of 176 subscribers, but actually the list contains 174 people, yielding Mozart a gross profit of at least 1,044 gulden. The concerts, at which Mozart played the concertos K.449, 450 and 451 took place on 17th, 24th and 31 March 1784. Nothing is known about the other pieces that were certainly part of the three programs.
Right below the list of subscribers Mozart writes:
‘Here you have the list of all my subscribers; I have 30 subscribers more than Richter and Fischer combined. The first concert on the 17th went well; the hall was crammed full and the new concerto that I played was very well received; wherever you go people are praising this concert.’
In a letter to his father on 10 April 1784 Mozart again addresses his three concerts at the Trattnerhof:
‘I beg you, don’t be angry that I have not written for such a long time; you know how much I had to do in the meantime! My three subscription concerts brought me great honor. – My concert at the theater also went very well. […] To tell the truth, I recently grew tired of all the playing, and it gives me no small credit that my audience never grew tired of it.’ “
The “Graben” in Vienna, 1781. Mozart lived in the house Graben no.17 from Sept 1781 to July 1782 and later in the house called “Trattnerhof” in 1784.
Monday, 15 March 1784, Mozart gave the first performance of a piano concerto, either K.449 in E-flat Major, or K.450 in B-flat Major, at Count Esterházy’s residence in Vienna. And Wednesday, 17 March 1784, Mozart gave his first subscription concert in the Trattner Hall.
Johann Thomas von Trattner was the leading music publisher and retailer in Vienna between 1770 and 1790. He became court bookseller in 1751 and court printer in 1754. His business flourished, so in 1773 he bought the Freisingerhofon the Graben and the houses around it, took them down and built the Trattnerhofthere in 1777. Mozart lived in the Trattnerhof from 23 January to 29 September 1784, and gave piano lessons to Thérèse, Trattner’s second wife. He gave three concerts in Trattner’s concert hall. To Thérèse von Trattner he dedicated his Sonata in C minor, K. 457 composed in 1784 and the Fantasy in C minor, K. 475 written in 1785, both works published in 1785 as his Op. 11 by Artaria, the leading Viennese music publisher.
The story of Mozart’s Trattnerhof is best told by Dr Michael Lorenz in his fascinating article: “Mozart in the Trattnerhof”. Michael Lorenz has a great gift for bringing history to life! To read through his extraordinary work, so masterly researched and written, is to embark in a travel through time, with history coming alive at each step. So… visit his blog to read about Mozart’s Trattnerhof, how he lived there, how he performed there, to read the documented history of that special building, to see images of the place (most of them never before published), the plan of Mozart’s apartment, and also of Trattner’s apartment (where Mozart played in a private concert for Therese von Trattner in May 1784), the list of subscribers to his concerts as he sent it to father Leopold, the earliest existing photograph of the Trattnerhof, taken in 1875, the second entrance of the Trattnerhof at Graben 29A in 1910 (the door that Mozart had to pass to get to his apartment), and many other fascinating images and documents, History will come alive as you read, as you look at the images, so prepare for a wonderful Travel in Time!
The breathtakingly beautiful ‘Andante‘ from Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B-flat Major No 15, K.450
Mozart – Piano Concerto in B-flat Major No 15, K.450 – III Allegro
The sound of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B-flat Major (No 15, K.450)
Mozart – Piano Concerto in E-flat Major no 14, K.449 – Andantino
Mozart – Piano Concerto in E-flat Major no 14, K.449
The E-flat Major no 14 is the first composition Mozart entered into his hand-written catalogue of works, which he started in Vienna in 1784 and kept for seven years, until his death, marking down main themes, dates of completion, and other important information. The entry about the D-flat Major Piano Concerto is that he finished it on 9 February 1784.
Mozart – ‘Andante’ from Piano Concerto in D Major no 16, K.451
other images from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain.
DISCLAIMER – I don’t claim credit or ownership on the images taken from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain, used here. The owners retain their copyrights to their works. I am sharing the images exclusively for educational and artistic purposes – this blog is not monetized, and has no commercial profit whatsoever. Whenever I find the credits to internet images I am happy to add them. If you are the artist or the owner of original photos/images presented on this blog and you wish your works to be removed from here, or edited to include the proper credits, please send me a message and they will either be removed or edited. Thank you!
A Piano concerto. Accompaniment: 2 violins, 2 violas, 1 flute, 2 oboes. 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 clarinets, timpani and bass.”
It is the entry in Mozart’s hand-written catalogue of works, anouncing the splendid Piano Concerto in C Major, no 21, K.467!
On the 10th of March 1785, less than one month after the premiere of the stormy, moving, dramatic D minor, Mozart was presenting another piano concerto to the Viennese audience: calm, brilliant, full of light and joy, majestic in its great beauty!
As with the Piano Concerto in D minor, the C Major Piano Concerto was composed for the series of Lenten subscription concerts that Mozart was giving in 1785. Leopold Mozart, who had come to visit his son just in time to witness the premiere of Mozart’s sublime D minor Piano Concerto, would write to Nannerl: “We never get to bed before one o’clock and I never get up before nine. We lunch at two or half past. The weather is terrible. Every day there are concerts; and the whole time is given up to teaching music, composing and so forth. I feel rather out of it. If only all the concerts were over! It is impossible for me to describe the rush and bustle. Since my arrival your brother’s fortepiano has been taken at least a dozen times to the theater or to some other house…” Father and son went out together, to eat of attend musical or social events, or received friends in Mozart’s apartment, where they would spend hours making music; in the same time the composer went on with the lessons with his pupils, took part in various public and private concerts and, above all, composed!
Mozart entered the C Major Piano Concerto in his catalogue on 9 March 1785 (although on the autograph score he writes “in February 1785” – “Concerto di Wolfgango Amadeo Mozart, nel Febraio 1785”), and premiered it on 10 March 1785 at the Burgtheater – The National Court Theater, in a concert for his own benefit.
A handbill for the concert announced that it would include “a new, just finished Fortepiano Concerto”, in addition to Mozart playing improvisations employing “an especially large Fortepiano pedal”.
“On Thursday, March 10, 1785, Kapellmeister Mozart will have the honor of giving in the Imperial and Royal Court Theater a Grand Musical Concert for his own benefit including not only a new, just finished fortepiano concerto to be played by him, but also an especially large fortepiano pedale in improvising will be used. The remaining pieces will be announced by a large poster on the day of the concert.”
A letter from Johann Samuel Liedemann, a merchant in Vienna, from 18 February 1785, states that “…the Fortepiano maker Walther had augmented his Fortepiano with a Pedal. Mozart played the instrument and it produced a wonderful effect” (he is referring to the premiere of the D minor Piano Concerto of 11 February 1785). Leopold’s letter to Nannerl and the announcement for the Burgtheater concert of March 10 indicate Mozart also played the C Major Piano Concerto on a piano which had a special pedal attachment: “He has had a large fortepiano pedal made, which stands under the instrument and is about two feet longer and extremely heavy”. The success of the concert and the receipts of 559 florins were reported by Leopold with satisfaction and pride to his daughter, in the letter of 12 March 1785.
“This concerto followed the last at four weeks interval. Between the two there is absolute contrast. On one hand, passion, conflict, storm of the spirit; on the other, calm and majesty. We have already noted how, more than once, Mozart produces, one after the other, two first-rate works of highly contrasted inspiration: the autumn before, with the concerto in B flat, K.456, and the sonata in C minor; in 1786, with the concertos in A and C minor; and again in 1787 and 1788 with the quintets and symphonies in G minor and C. We said that it was but one manifestation of his very mobile nature, ready to leap without transition from one aspect of reality to another, from one mood to its opposite. Sometimes the sorrowful work precedes the joyful one; sometimes the contrary. In February and March, 1785, the order is optimistic: the song of peace comes after the tempest; the luminous C major exorcises the sombre and daimonisch D minor. Nevertheless, the concerto in C is not a blithe work; it is powerful and motionless rather than joyful, and in its immobility we recognize, albeit frozen, the billows of the D minor. (Cuthbert Girdlestone)
The C Major’s first movement, the ‘Allegro’, is (not in the autograph but in all editions), “Maestoso” in its design and essence! The second movement, ‘Andante’, breathtakingly beautiful! The last movement, ‘Allegro vivace assai’, light, airy, wonderful! On the 10th of March, 1785, at the Burgtheater, could this have been the sound that the musicians and audience delighted in?
“The first movement is headed maestoso, a mark which should be observed and not replaced in practice by brillante, as is done by some musicians who consider they know what Mozart wanted better than Mozart himself. But the first subject, as we hear it in the first eleven bars, belies this indication. It is a march like so many first subjects in concertos of the period, but a tiptoed march, in stocking feet, and even when woodwind, brass and drums interrupt the stringgs, it does not rise above piano. It is almost a comedy motif and we should not be surprised to see Leporello emerge from it. But this impression is soon rectified. Conforming to the plan of the quiet beginning followed by a forte, Mozart repeats the theme with all the resources of his orchestra, modulates at once with unusual freedom and, passing quickly through A minor and C minor, settles a while in G major on a tonic pedal. (…) After giving out these two themes, it would seem that the tutti had but to conclude and admit the solo. But this concerto does not act like its predecessors. Instead of a closing figure, the march begins again, first in imitations in the strings, piano, then, when all the orchestra has joined in, forte, and the music launches forth into a working-out whose progress, led with a steady step and insistent in its regularity, reminds us of the straining and pitiless vigour of the D minor. There is no modulating; everything comes down, in the last resort, to rises and falls of one octave, repeated several times, without haste, now with the whole orchestra, now antiphonally, with strings and woodwind. Such calm perseverance is irresistible; its strength is in its mass, not in its fire or speed (on condition, once again, that the movement is taken at a moderate speed and even heavily, maestoso, and not brillante. Played swiftly and lightly, this passage becomes a kind of breathless race that keeps on coming back to its starting-point, which is nonsense); the music looks neither right nor left; its progress is due to singleness of will. No passage demonstrates better than this both the kinship and the ontrast which unite and separate the twin concertos; in one, vehemence and wrath; in the other, self-assurance; in both, a will firm and inexorable.” (Cuthbert Girdlestone)
“In neither of Mozart’s earlier works do we find the contrapuntal potential of the opening so fully realized on the larger structural level as it is in K.567, where various polyphonic settings of the opening theme produce some of the main structural blocks of the ritornello. (…) Charles Rosen has described K.467 as “Mozart’s first true essay in orchestral grandeur” and has commented on the block-like nature of its construction…”
And the ‘Andante’ that follows… Mozart’s fragile, beautiful soul, transfigured into Music!
“The world of the andante is that of the “dream” andantes, a family which comprises some of Mozart’s most beautiful slow movements in earlier years and in the long successions of which it is the last; but its form is unique. It is a piano cantilena preceded by a tutti prelude and sumptuously sustained and adorned by the murmur of the strings and the multi-coloured raiment of the wind. The tune winds from key to key, smooth and closely blended; it passes through various moods, some dreamy, some full of anguish, some serene, but the themes hardly stand out; it is a river, moving slowly but unceasingly, and only from time to time does an eddy in the current announce a freshy subject. Yet it is not a fantasia. There is directions and progress in its emotion and its form. The stream advances, turns back, passes on again, and though its structure be free, it is never loose. (…) And all the time it never stops singing; one feels that its chief contribution here is its tone colour, the pale, delicate colour of the 1780 piano, whose beauty Mozart never set forth more felicitously than in this nocturne. We say, nocturne, and in truth the rapprochement with Chopin can hardly be avoided. he hazy atmosphere of the mutes, the quivering calm of the ceaseless triplets, the slow, sustained song of the piano—more than all this, the veiled and sorrowfully passionate soul which this music expresses with such immediacy, do we not find them in the work of Chopin and especially in those nocturnes of which the “dream” of Mozart’s reminds us? This Andante, so placid at first hearing, betrays on further acquaintance an agitated mood. Its perpetual instability, to which its constant modulating and its unsatisfied quest for new places bears witness; its morbid disquiet, thinly concealed now and again under an appearance of calm, breaking forth with heart-rending pathos in the chromaticisms and the discreet yet pungent hues of ex.270 are unquestionably fundamental elements of Mozart’s nature, but they are elements which he shares with Chopin.” (Cuthbert Girdlestone)
To our ears, to our heart, the ‘Andante’ of Mozart’s C Major Piano Concerto no 21 is perfect beauty as it is: a ‘simple’ melody that moves us to tears whenever we listen to it. We don’t even want to imagine it changed in any way – and the only way in which we would probably accept it changed would be to listen to Mozart himself playing it. Philipp Karl, an amateur-musician who had heard Mozart perform two of his piano concertos in Frankurt, in October 1790, later reported that when Mozart played the slow movements of his piano concertos he embellished them “tenderly and tastefully once one way, once differently, following the momentary inspiration of his genius”. In 1803 Phillip Karl published embellished versions of six Mozart piano concerto slow movements (K.467, K.482, K.488, K.491, K.503 and K.595), presumably inspired by his contact with Mozart, but not imitative of the composer’s own improvisations.”
“The andante occupies a world apart, a sonic dream world evoked by the magical effect of muted and pizzicato strings. It offers moments of sublime beauty and ends in a state of bliss, but its surface serenity cannot conceal the turmoil that lies beneath. At every turn there is a poignant reminder that happiness is transient, its promise easily revoked. And the escape to a dream world is consummated only in the imagination.” (David Grayson)
How might that evening of 10 March 1785 have looked like? Here’s what David Grayson tells us in his book “Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21”:
“Iconographic evidence suggests that in “halls” like the Mehlgrube the players would probably have occupied a low platform situated not at the end of the room, but against one of the long walls. The seating plan for K.466 would probably have been similar to the one recommended in 1802 by the piano-maker and Mozart pupil Nannette Stein Streicher:
“In performing concertos, especially Mozart’s, one should move the fortepiano several feet nearer (the audience) than the orchestra is. Directly behind the piano leave just the violins. The bass-line and wind instruments should be further back, the latter more than the former.”
Adalbert Gyrowetz, one of whose symphonies was programmed in Mozart’s Mehlgrube series, noted in his presumed autobiography that Mozart had hired a “full theater orchestra” for these concerts. This was most likely the orchestra of the Burgtheater, where, four days later, on 15 February 1785, Mozart again played the D-minor Piano Concerto, in a concert given by the singer Elisabeth Distler.
The Burgtheater, representing the third category of concert venue, was also the site of the premiere of the Piano Concerto in C, K.467, less than a month later, on 10 March 1785. Located on the Michaelerplatz, the Burgtheater was built in 1741 and renovated numerous times before its closing in 1888. Plans reflecting the state of the building during the 1780s show an oval-shaped house, with seating on the floor divided into two sections, ostensibly according to the social rank of the spectators: the Noble Parquet in front, and behind it the slightly elevated Second Parquet, with rows of benches and standing rooms at the rear. (Social segregation was not complete, however, as individuals connected to the theater, including composers and performers, could obtain passes granting admission to the NobleParquet.) Four balconies surrounded the floor. The lower two held the boxes rented on an annual basis by the nobility, plus, in the first tier, one box overlooking the stage, reserved for the director, and three “Imperial loges” (one in the center and two on the right) overlooking the orchestra, which occupied the floor at the front of the stage. The upper two balconies were galleries with benches and standing room. When jam-packed, the Burgtheater may have accomodated as many as 1800 spectators, but most estimates of the audience capacity are much lower, ranging from around 1000 to 1350.
According to a Vienna theater almanac of 1782, the Burgtheater orchestra comprised 35 players: six first and six second violins, four violas, three cellos, three basses, pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, and one timpanist. Assuming that these figures are also reliable for 1785, that the full theater orchestra participated in Mozart’s concerts in both the Burgtheater and the Mehlgrube, and that the entire ensemble was used for the concerto accompaniments, we can conclude that the orchestra for the first performances of K.466 and 467 consisted of around 32 players (one of the flutes and the two clarinets not being needed). (…)
Richard Maunder has speculated that, when Mozart performed his piano concertos in the theater, the orchestra may hav been in the pit, while he alone occupied the stage. Putting the soloist in this privileged position, Maunder reasoned, would have helped solve potential balance problems between the fortepiano and the orchestra, whose players would have been seated facing the stage, with their backs to the audience. Such a “theatrical staging” of the concerto moreover made manifest the genre’s affinity with the operatic aria. Daniel Heartz, however, has offered evidence that it was customary for Lenten concert and oratorio performances at the Burgtheater to follow the Italian practice and have all of the musicians on stage: the orchestra, soloists and chorus. He speculated, though, that the arrangement described by maunder might have been a practical necessity at other times of year, when theater rehearsals and stage sets might have made it difficult to rearrange the stage for an orchestra. Mary Sue Morrow has challenged this reasoning, arguing that rehearsals were often held elsewhere and that the theater’s repertory system would have required that the sets be struck after each performance anyway. Maunder’s theory seems unlikely from a purely logistical point of view, given th mixed nature of Mozart’s typical concert programs. For example, his concert of 23 march 1782 at the Burgtheater began and ended with movements of the “Haffner” Symphony, with arias, concertos, concertante movements, and solo piano works interspersed in between. It would have seeed odd for the orchestra to start the program on stage, then repair to the pit, only to re-ascend at the end of the concert for the “haffner” finale. Even odder would have been for the orchestra to remain in the pit throughout, leaving the audience to face an empty stage at the start and conclusion of the evening. For performances of Mozart’s concertos in the theater, then, we may imagine all of the performers on stage, arranged according to the seating plan recommended above by nannette Stein Stricher.” (David Grayson – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21 – “Performance practice issues”)
A look at the Burgtheater through time – that Burgtheater where Mozart premiered his piano concertos and operas:
In 1888 the “old” Burgtheater was demolished, and a new building with the same name was built on the Ringstrasse: the new Burgtheater. The theater where Mozart premiered his masterpieces had to make space for… space… Almost all the places where he had lived and composed were torn down without the smallest thought that those were not just buildings, they were places of history which should have been preserved with love and respect. Instead of them we now have super-stores, or… more space…
other images from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain.
DISCLAIMER – I don’t claim credit or ownership on the images taken from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain, used here. The owners retain their copyrights to their works. I am sharing the images exclusively for educational and artistic purposes – this blog is not monetized, and has no commercial profit whatsoever. Whenever I find the credits to internet images I am happy to add them. If you are the artist or the owner of original photos/images presented on this blog and you wish your works to be removed from here, or edited to include the proper credits, please send me a message and they will either be removed or edited. Thank you!
Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B-flat Major No 27, K.595, was entered in his Thematic Catalogue on the 5th of January 1791.
The premiere of the Concerto is supposed to have taken place on 4 March 1791, in a concert in Jahn’s Hall.
The actual period of time when he composed the concerto is in controversy, as is the date when it was premiered. Alan Tyson and Simon Keefe place the composition of the B-flat Major Piano Concerto between 1788-1789. Wolfgang Rehm says it was composed late 1790 – early 1791.
The autograph score of The B-flat Major Piano Concerto, No 27, along with more than 100 Mozart works, was evacuated to the East during the Second World War, and after the war it was considered lost. In the 1970’s the autograph score was discovered in Poland, and it is now held by the Jagiellonian Library in Cracovia.
Otto Erich Deutsch states the B-flat Major Piano Concerto may have been premiered by Mozart himself in an academy concert by clarinettist Joseph Bähr, which took place in Jahn’s Hall on the 4th of March, 1791. In his essay “Mozart’s Reception in Vienna 1787–1791“, Dexter Edge is of the opinion that the B-flat Major may have been premiered by Mozart’s pupil Barbara Ployer in January 1791, in a public concert at Palais Auersperg in Vienna. Dr Michael Lorenz says: “K. 595 has no proven connection with Jahn’s hall. We don’t know which concerto Mozart performed there in March 1791”.
Maybe the B-flat Major Piano Concerto was the one Mozart played in Jahn’s Hall on the 4th of March 1791, or maybe Mozart played another concerto. In either case, the evening of 4 March 1791 is said to have been Mozart’s last appearance in a public concert.
In May 1775 Emperor Joseph II had opened Vienna’s Augarten to the public. He dedicated this beautiful place “to all people”, for their amusement, so dance halls, dining and billiard rooms, refreshment places were established, and restaurateur Ignaz Jahn was put in charge as traiteur. Ignaz Jahn had been appointed Imperial Caterer for Schonbrunn Palace in 1772. In 1775 he started running a restaurant in the Augarten (it was said that nowhere in the world you could drink any better coffee than at Jahn’s, in the Augarten), and later opened a Concert Hall adjacent to his other restaurant, in the main part of the city (now Himmelpfortgasse 6), a Concert Hall which would turn into a performance venue for famous musicians and composers in the years to come: among them, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” was performed at Jahn’s Hall in November 1788. His last appearance in public is said to have been the one of 4 March 1791. The first public performance of his “Requiem” would take place at Jahn’s Hall on 2 January 1793 – a benefit concert on behalf of his widow, Constanze, organized by Gottfried van Swieten in support of Mozart’s wife and sons.
If we look for Jahns Traiteurie today, on Himmelpfortgasse, we will find Café Frauenhuber– presumably Vienna’s oldest coffee house!
The coffeehouse changed names for a few times since 1824, then settled for CaféFrauenhuber in 1891. Is there any other coffeehouse in the world which can pride itself on being placed in a building where, two centuries ago, guest would have been treated with musical entertainment by Mozart and Beethoven? Could any name have been more suitable for this street than “Heaven’s Gate” (Himmelpfort)?
And yes, the waiter did address me with “gnädige Frau“, like I had read on the Welcomepage of Café Frauenhuber!
I recall the quiet time spent at this coffeehouse, savoring a hot chocolate in its intimate, refined, charming atmosphere, then outside, on the street, letting my eyes explore all the details of the building and its surroundings… It was late in the evening, and few people were passing by, and there was so much peace, like time had stood still, and you felt you could just close your eyes and start walking in Mozart’s footsteps… on the same street… on a 4th of March 1791…
It was almost midnight when I reached Kärntnerstrasse, on the way back to Stephansdom. I had let myself wander for hours without target, without map, immersed in the sights and sounds of the majestic city, enjoying the wonderful sensation of being back in Vienna! Having delighted for three days in the magic of Salzburg’s Old City, with its quiet streets and peaceful life, I was now trying to find “my” Vienna, somewhere in the noise and crowds which assaulted the streets even at that late hour. I had been in the city since the early morning, on the streets of the Innere Stadt… Domgasse, Blutgasse, Schulerstrasse, Annagasse, Himmelpfortgasse, Griechengasse… and now I was on my way back to the hotel, not because I wished to, not because I was tired, but because it was almost midnight, and there was a tomorrow waiting to be discovered. I had stopped on Kärntnerstrasse without knowing why, I remember I hadn’t looked around me, neither to the right, nor to the left… and yet there was something in that place… a feeling… a resonance… there was something calling me… so I turned left and started to walk…
And then I saw the fountain, and recognized it… not like you recognize an image you have seen in an album, or on the internet, or in a previous voyage, but like you recognize a place that you have known… like your feelings are whispering you have returned to a place that once was so familiar…
I felt the vibrations, and heard the unspoken words… I turned my head to the left, slowly, somehow fearing it won’t be there when my eyes reach it… and I saw The Ambassador… I raised my head and followed its imposing shape from the ground to the sky…
And then I closed my eyes and saw the Mehlgrube…
… and felt the emotion of that moment when my beloved concert premiered there, on a night of 11 February 1785…
I call to you, Music,
I close my eyes and see
the Mehlgrube,
the guests have arrived,
the hall is filled with their murmur,
impatient as they are for
the concert to start,
the musicians are holding their instruments,
their eyes on the precious score
lighted by the golden glow of candles,
and then He appears…
231 years ago, at the Mehlgrube, this is how it might have sounded like…
And this is how it sounds today…
Neuer Markt with the old Mehlgrube on the right – still there in 1902, when the photo was taken (source of info: Dr Michael Lorenz, image from bildarchivaustria.at)
other images credits specified there where available,
other images from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain.
DISCLAIMER – I don’t claim credit or ownership on the images taken from the internet, assumed to be in the public domain, used here. The owners retain their copyrights to their works. I am sharing the images exclusively for educational and artistic purposes – this blog is not monetized, and has no commercial profit whatsoever. Whenever I find the credits to internet images I am happy to add them. If you are the artist or the owner of original photos/images presented on this blog and you wish your works to be removed from here, or edited to include the proper credits, please send me a message and they will either be removed or edited. Thank you!
"There is nothing perfect in this world except Mozart's music" (Thomas Love Peacock)
"Mozart's music is so beautiful as to entice angels down to earth" (Franz Alexander von Kleist)
“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)
“In my dreams of heaven, I always see the great Masters gathered in a huge hall in which they all reside. Only Mozart has his own suite” (Victor Borge)
“Mozart makes you believe in God” (Georg Solti)
Mozart is Music.
“Mozart is happiness before it has gotten defined” (Arthur Miller)
“Mozart exists, and will exist, eternally; divine Mozart – less a name, more a soul descending to us from the heavens…” (Charles Gounod)
Mozart's Children 