Peter von
Winter (1754-1825)
Gary Smith
German
dramatic composer. Born at Mannheim in
Germany in 1754, he was the son of a
brigadier serving in the Elector’s
Palatine regiment. As a pupil of the
music grammar school, Winter discovered
music at an early age. Various court
musicians gave him instructions and he
is reputed to have performed on occasion
in the orchestra of Mannheim Court by
the age of 10 and had a permanent post
at age 12. As well, he is also mentioned
playing the doublebass. Winter received
some compositional instruction from the
vice-Kapellmeister Abbe G. J. Vogler,
reports of this time mentioning that he
was the only intimate friend the Abbe
had. However, in the end he was
practically self-taught at composition,
and in fact in later years he objected
to being called Vogler’s pupil at all.
Early on at Mannheim, he primarily
composed instrumental music. However, in
the mid-1770’s he (and the musical
establishment in Mannheim as a whole)
came into contact with the opera seria
of J. C. Bach, Ignatz Holzbaurer’s
breakthrough opera Günther von
Schwarzburg and Georg Benda’s
melodramas. All of these were exciting a
lot of attention, which may have been
the catalyst for Winter to take up
opera.
In 1778, on the ascension of Karl
Theodor as Elector of Bavaria, the
electoral court moved to Munich, taking
along the bulk of the musical
establishment. Winter moved with the
orchestra and became in 1778 director of
the court orchestra. As well, he was
responsible, in particular, for
conducting the opera comiques
that the Marchand theater troupe gave in
German translation. Mozart at this time
was on the long tour of 1777-78, which
eventually wound up in Paris, and
ultimately home without any secure job
offers and no profits to show for the
time invested. He and his mother arrived
in Mannheim on 30 October 1777 and set
about to meet old friends and make new
ones, all with an eye to spending the
winter in Mannheim. While there,
Wolfgang would be attempting to gain a
post with the Elector, or as a fallback
position to compose for money and teach
in order to defray costs. He would
probably have sought out the leaders of
the orchestra on his own in order to
promote himself, but no doubt the
urgings of Leopold to do so would not
have been far behind had he not done so.
It is very likely that he met Winter at
this time.
There in Munich, with further exposure
to opera and singspiel, Winter began to
compose stage works; melodramas and
ballets. When Mozart produced his
Idomeneo at Munich in 1781, Winter
was supposedly annoyed at his success
and hence is suspected of conceiving a
violent dislike for him at this time. As
well, it is reported that Winter could
not play keyboard instruments at all,
even going so far as to say he “…could
not abide such jingling noises.” Perhaps
there was a double taste of jealousy
here? A concert tour in conjunction with
the clarinetist Franz Tausch saw both of
them end up in Vienna in 1780-1. While
there, Winter oversaw production of
three ballets, for which he had composed
the music. As well, Winter took lessons
from Antonio Salieri in bel canto
writing, something he was able to later
master with near-perfection. He also
came back into Mozart’s life in a way
which has marked him ever since.
Mozart at this point in time was in the
process of convincing his family (i.e.
Leopold, his father) that marrying
Constanze Weber was the best thing in
the world for him. Apparently, Winter
had spread stories (for whatever reason)
that Mozart was detested at Court and by
the aristocracy. Further, Mozart claims
that Winter described Constanze as a
“slut”. How Winter passed along his
“information” has been a source of
speculation; it is generally assumed
that he passed through Salzburg to or
from Munich and disclosed this material
in Mozart’s home city. It is unlikely he
wrote Leopold directly, as we know of no
friendship or other contact between
those two. Wolfgang tells his father
that on account of the Abbe Vogler,
Winter had always been his worst enemy.
One would think that, had Winter
declared himself as such to Mozart at
some point, that this fact would have
gotten transmitted to Leopold, as the
letters do on occasion cover the
supposed jealousies and envies of the
declared rivals of the Mozart families.
However, Otto Jahn writes in a footnote
the following concerning Winter and
Mozart:
Winter was avowedly hostile to Mozart
(Biedenfeld, Kom. Oper, p.86); he used
to reproach him with stealing from
Handel (A.M.Z., XXVIII., p. 468), with
forcing up soprano voices (Biedenfeld,
Kom. Oper, p.212); and his scorn at
piano-playing opera composers (A.M.Z.,
XXVIII., p.467) was especially directed
against Mozart. It is generally
acknowledged that Winter was not the
simple, unsophisticated being he
appeared (cf. Biedenfeld, p.212), and I
have been assured by those who knew him
well that he was quite capable of
spiteful intrigue.
The final words that have come down
through the years concerning Winter are
given by Mozart in a letter to his
father dated 22 December 1781 which
read: “There is one more thing I must
tell you about Winter. Among the other
things he once said to me: ‘You are a
fool to get married. Keep a mistress.
You are earning enough money, you can
afford it. What prevents you from doing
so? Some damned religious scruple?’ Now
believe what you will.” These sentences
have colored all perceptions of Peter
von Winter down to the present. It
should be noted that the composers Spohr,
Carl Maria von Weber, and Meyerbeer also
write unfavorable opinions of Winter, at
various points in time, so we can safely
assume that he was a difficult and
perhaps unstable person under certain
circumstances.
Upon returning to Munich in 1782, Winter
began composing operas, but with small
initial success. He did advance to the
post of vice-Kapellmeister in 1787 due
to his efforts. He took extended leave
from Munich between 1791 and 1794
(traveling to Naples and Venice), and
again from 1795-1798 (Prague and Vienna)
in order to compose operas. It was in
Vienna with the opera Das
unterbrochene Opferfest (1796) that
he achieved a great success. From this
point on, Winter was to enjoy a high
reputation and many more commissions.
Later on in Vienna (1797-1798) he
composed the operas Die Pyramiden von
Babylon and Das Labyrinth (a
continuation of the story of Mozart’s
Die Zauberflöte), both written for
him by Schickaneder. Both are listed as
“heroic comedies” and did very well,
both monetarily and by reputation. It
might be pointed out that another 1798
work Belisa, ossia La fedelta
riconosciuta, was translated and
edited by K. L. Gieseke, who has a claim
in producing at least part of Mozart’s
Die Zauberflöte libretto.
Winter returned to Munich in 1798, where
he now became Court Kapellmeister. Five
years later he visited London, where he
produced La Grotta di Calypso in
1803, Il trionfo dell’ amor fraterno
in 1804, Il ratto di Proserpina
as well in 1804, and Zaire in
1805, all with libretti by none other
than Lorenzo da Ponte. Michael Kelly, in
his autobiography, records that Winter
composed Prosperina in just three
weeks. Further travels led him to
produce operas in Paris and various
cities in the German states with varying
degrees of success. After 1796 he had
few out-and-out failures, but he was
particularly troubled by the lack of
success of his heroic opera Colmal
from 1809.
For his 50 years of court service in
1814, he was granted the personal title
of nobility, allowing him to use “von”
in his name. His last opera was
Sanger und der Schneider, which was
produced in 1820 at Munich. In his later
years, he composed more religious works
and gave voice lessons. He published his
teaching methods under the title of
Vollständige Singschule. Peter von
Winter died on the 17th of October 1825.
Besides his dramatic works he composed
some effective sacred music, including
twenty-six masses. His purely
instrumental works date for the most
part from early in his career.
Of the forty or so operas written by
Winter between 1778 and 1820, very few
were considered unsuccessful. There are
many reminders of Mozart within his
better works, but no trace of genius in
selecting what he needed from such
phrases and phrasings and then
impressing his own stamp of personality
on them. Gluck’s influence can be felt
with the choruses he employs. Winter was
able to very deftly utilize features
from German, French and Italian operatic
traditions, held together by his
consistently attractive melodic style.
He was, in the end, a composer of great
facility; tunes flowed easily from his
pen to the paper. Over time, he wrote
large-scale, through-composed complexes
of scenes, employing a bold, chromatic
harmonic style, linked with a fine sense
of sonority. All this heralds the
beginnings of German Romantic opera,
something that Carl Maria von Weber was
to vastly expand upon.
Works: (A selected Listing)
40 operas; 8 ballets (5 others
doubtful); 24 masses; 2 Requiems (one
for Joseph II); numerous offertories,
motets, hymns; 7 concerti for various
instruments; 4 symphonies; 3 sinfonie
concertantes; 13 divertimenti, 3
sonatas; at least 17 various chamber
works; and numerous choral works, duets,
lieder and canzonets.
Sources:
Anderson, Emily The Letters of Mozart &
His Family MacMillan and Co. London 1938
3 volume set. Letter of 22 December 1781
to Leopold.
Gutman, Robert W. Mozart: A Cultural
Biography Harcourt Brace & Company New
York 1999
Pgs. 600, 601, 606
Jahn, Otto Life of Mozart Novello, Ewer
& Co. London 1891 I. 386, 389; II. 257
Sadie, Stanley (Ed.) The New Groves
Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd
Edition Groves Dictionaries, New York
2000 Article on Peter von Winter.
