Subject: Leopold Mozart - Paternal Pride and Prejudice
From: Gary Smith
To: All
Date Posted: 13:51:02 06/27/04 ()
Email Address: smithworld@earthlink.net
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LEOPOLD MOZART - PATERNAL PRIDE and PREJUDICE.
By Agnes Selby.
[Agnes has graciously allowed us to post this article on Leopold Mozart here at the Forum. We encourage everyone to supply material you believe of interest. if you have questions, or projects you'd like us to consider, please contact us via our email address. GES)
The early Mozart biographers proclaim the pivotal role Leopold Mozart played in his son, Wolfgang Mozart’s life. His influence was claimed to have been beneficial as far as Wolfgang’s musical development was concerned, as well as in the formation of his character. More recent writers have recognized, however, the elements of destructiveness in Leopold’s upbringing of his gifted son, pointing out the father’s need to manipulate Wolfgang for his own advantage. When finally Wolfgang rebelled against his father’s will he had only ten years of life left to him. Yet these were the glorious years when Wolfgang’s genius blossomed, having burst free from the confines imposed by the will of his father.
Curiously enough, the veneration of Leopold as the father of a genius began with the woman he most resented, his daughter-in-law, Constanze. When Constanze and her second husband, Nikolaus von Nissen embarked on the writing of Wolfgang Mozart’s monumental documentary biography, Constanze placed her stamp of approval on Leopold Mozart’s role in his son’s life. The biography was based on letters between father and son handed over to Nissen and Constanze by Leopold’s daughter, Nannerl. The letters revealed Leopold’s strict and unforgiving nature, which failed to lessen Constanze’s admiration for him as the man who grounded Wolfgang in the principles and the framework of musical composition.
As a child of the eighteenth century, she did not question Leopold Mozart’s motives. She would have seen in his actions a demonstration of a father’s love for his son. In her praise of Leopold Mozart, Constanze may also have been motivated by her respect for Nannerl who, after all, entrusted her father’s letters to her second husband, Nissen. Any reservations she may have had were kept to herself for, after all, Constanze had nothing to gain from expressing private criticism in Mozart’s biography and thereby hurting Leopold Mozart’s descendants - her own sons.
As early Mozartean writers tended to copy from each other, Leopold Mozart has emerged unscathed and untouched by the vagaries of literary fate, which so often reinvent the lives of famous people. Constanze’s tendency to agree with Leopold’s treatment of his son is nevertheless somewhat surprising as she herself had been a victim of his prejudice and severe and unforgiving attitude to life.
Leopold Mozart was a man of many contradictions. He thought of himself as a devoted father who gave unstintingly to the two prodigies he was privileged to bring into the world. In return, however, he extracted a price the burden of which lay heavily upon his children’s shoulders. He was openly generous in his praise of other musicians yet his sarcastic asides annulled the praise he proffered. For instance, his colleague, Michael Haydn, the brother of Joseph Haydn, who often filled Leopold’s shoes during his long absences from his Court duties was most frequently the butt of his sarcastic remarks. Leopold was possibly the most famous impresario of a child prodigy in musical history and yet his efforts fell short of their objective. Had he survived his son, he might have marveled at Constanze’s ability to market his son’s genius, as she did not miss a single opportunity to enhance her late husband’s name during the fifty years of her life after her husband’s death.
Leopold traveled all over Europe remorselessly seeking recognition for his children, in the process exposing them to every imaginable contagion in the disease-riddled capitals of the continent resulting in a legacy of ill-health for both Nannerl and Wolfgang and perhaps in the end helping to cost Wolfgang his life. Leopold’s many travels suggest a desire for self-promotion, a passionate desire to flee the monotony of his life at the Salzburg Court and an urge to mingle on an equal footing with the nobility he despised because he wasn’t one of them.
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was the son of Johann Georg Mozart, a bookbinder whose opportunity to become a Master of his trade came through marriage. He married Maria Banegger the widow of his late employer. The couple lived in the Frauentorstrasse in Augsburg and the house is preserved to this day as the Mozarthaus. When Maria Banegger died after only a few years of marriage, Johann Georg married the twenty-three-year-old daughter of a wealthy weaver. Leopold Mozart was the first of eight children born to Johann Georg Mozart and his young wife, Anna Maria Sulzer in 1719.
Anna Maria Mozart was a beautiful woman and Leopold inherited her Nordic good looks. His compulsive and obsessive nature may also have been inherited from his mother who in her old age dissipated the family fortune in lawsuits and divided her family with her continuous bickering. Near the end of her life she was restrained by the Augsburg authorities from creating further problems. Leopold Mozart fled from his mother and his siblings and severed his connections with all members of his family with the exception of his youngest brother, Alois, also a bookbinder and the father of Basle to whom Wolfgang’s “infamous” letters were later addressed. (These letters contain the kind of scatological humour, which was often expressed during those days, and it needs to be seen in the context of the period.)
As a youngster Leopold Mozart showed no scholastic ability. However, this all changed when he was enrolled at the Jesuit Grammar School in Augsburg, where he completed the formidable curriculum with distinction. This was an expensive school but Leopold’s school fees were discounted as his father bound the prayer books for the Augsburg Cathedral. When Leopold graduated he was proficient in Latin, Greek and French and had studied Logic, Physics, Mathematics and History.
As well, he was a gifted violinist who had often performed in school concerts and was also an outstanding organist. Leopold’s interest in music led him to correspond with the great J. S. Bach who was at the time a member of the Correspondence Society in Leipzig. Leopold studied music by correspondence with Meirand Spiess, the Music Director and Prior of the Benedictine Abbey at Irrsee.
After his father’s death Leopold moved to Salzburg and enrolled at the Benedictine University with the original intention of studying Theology. At the beginning of the first semester, however, he had enrolled to study Philosophy and Jurisprudence. He was an exemplary scholar during the first year but then his love of music and the application of all his time to the study of music earned him a dismissal from the University.
Leopold entered the service of Count Thurn-Valsassina und Taxis in Salzburg as a valet “with musical obligations”. Leopold seemed happy in the Count’s service and he dedicated his six trio sonatas, Opus I to the Count. Leopold’s words in his dedication liken the Count to a paternal sun (Paterno Sole). The wording is not much different from Wolfgang’s dedication of his six string quartets to “Papa” Haydn. He remained in the Count’s service for three years when in 1743 he was appointed fourth violinist to the court orchestra under Leopold Anton von Firmian, the last independently reigning archbishop of Salzburg. Archbishop Firmian is remembered for solving the centuries-old religious problems between Catholics and Protestants by expelling twenty-two thousand Protestants from his land. Leopold worked his way up to second violinist and Court Chamber Composer (1757). But the Archbishop who played the greatest role in Leopold Mozart’s life was Count Sigismund Christoph Schrattenbach. It was under his reign that Leopold attained the position of court composer and Vice-Kapellmeister in 1763.
Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo took office in 1772 and with his arrival the fulfillment of Leopold Mozart’s career aspirations at the Salzburg court vanished. In his desire to imitate the Viennese Court, the Archbishop appointed a Neapolitan composer, Domenico Fischietti as Kapellmeister of his orchestra thus by-passing Leopold Mozart. Leopold realized that his hopes of becoming Kapellmeister were forever blighted and the bitterness he felt at what he considered a betrayal never left him.
Wolfgang’s own disenchantment with Salzburg was influenced by his father, who never found in Salzburg the stimulus and professional satisfaction he craved for. It is, therefore, surprising to consider Leopold’s negative reaction to Wolfgang’s desire to escape from what he considered a professionally stagnant environment.
Leopold Mozart’s letters to his son after Wolfgang moved to Vienna are unfortunately not extant. Nissen, who with his wife Constanze stands accused by historians of having destroyed them, also decried their loss in his introduction to his Mozart biography. From Wolfgang’s replies, however, the picture of a bitter Leopold emerges. It is a forbidding portrait of a disappointed and frustrated man. A portrait of a man desperately trying to keep his son anchored in the very quagmire in which he considered himself to be captive.
At first his appointment to the Archbishop’s orchestra was a great blessing to Leopold. On November 21, 1747 he married Anna Maria Pertl who for some time had been his great love. He married above his station, as Anna Maria was the daughter of Nikolaus Pertl, a lawyer and the magistrate of the district of St. Gilgen. Nikolaus Pertl however died young and left his wife and daughter in poverty. Except for her good name, Anna Maria Pertl brought no material trappings to the marriage. There is no doubt that this was a marriage based on love and affection. Thus Wolfgang Mozart was born in 1756 into a loving family. He was the youngest of seven children of whom only two survived, Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl who had been born five years earlier on 30 July 1751.
In Salzburg the Mozarts lived in a small three-bedroom apartment on the top floor at No. 9 Getreidegasse. The house belonged to Lorenz Hagenauer, a rich merchant who became their true and trusted friend. Leopold earned extra money for his family by teaching the violin and piano. During the year of Wolfgang’s birth, Leopold published his Treatise on the Violin School, which, according to Goethe’s friend, Karl Friedrich Zelter was a book, which will be useful as long as the violin remains a violin, as indeed it has remained a book studied to this day by all serious interpreters of 18th century violin music. Leopold Mozart was a prolific composer and apart from church music, he composed orchestral suites and delightful pieces for toy instruments. The Toy Symphony earlier attributed to Joseph Haydn was in fact composed by Leopold Mozart. Some of Leopold’s music was also attributed to Wolfgang but it has now been established that the three songs Die Grossmutige Gelassenheit K. 149; Geheime Lied K. 150 and Die Zufriedenheit im Niedrigen Stande K. 151 are in fact all Leopold Mozart’s compositions. It is indeed a compliment to Leopold that these works were at first ascribed to his illustrious son.
Leopold’s early desire to see his son established as Court Composer at a German Court such as Mannheim or Munich, inspired Wolfgang’s and his mother’s ill-fated journey to Paris in 1777. Although Wolfgang was by now twenty-one years old, Leopold would not allow him to travel on his own and this restriction resulted in his mother’s death in Paris. The letters Leopold wrote to his son during the eighteen months Wolfgang was away from Salzburg are a study in musical politics and paternal commands. Any emotional needs Wolfgang may have had are dealt with swiftly by the father and without a single thought given to the effect such letters would have on his son. Mercilessly, Leopold was quick to blame the death of his wife in Paris on his son.
While in Mannheim, Wolfgang found his way along the cobblestone streets to the lottery office opposite, which resided the music copyist, Fridolin Weber. There he was welcomed by Weber’s four daughters who would influence the remainder of his life. Starved for love and suddenly free of the strictures imposed by his father, Wolfgang promptly fell in love with Aloysia, the second oldest and the most beautiful of the Weber girls. Barely seventeen years old, she was an accomplished pianist and linguist. When Wolfgang heard her perform his compositions, he found in them a new meaning that he himself had not been aware of. Most of all, this future prima donna of the Viennese Opera impressed Wolfgang with her voice. For the first time in his life Wolfgang no longer cared about his own career but wanted to dedicate his life to furthering Aloysia’s. Wolfgang planned to travel to Italy where Aloysia’s voice would be appreciated. He was going to take with him Fridolin Weber as chaperon and the eldest sister, Josepha, the future star of the Schikaneder Company, as cook so that he could continue to enjoy her culinary delicacies. In a letter to Leopold he likened his own family to the Weber’s, a faux pas his father would never forgive.
Needless to say, Leopold’s reaction was swift in his condemnation of his son’s plan. With an anger surely comparable to that of the Commandatore in Mozart’s later opera, Don Giovanni K.527, Leopold wrote to his son on 11 February, 1778: “As for your proposal (I can hardly write when I think of it), your proposal to travel about with Herr Weber and, be it noted, his two daughters - it has nearly made me lose my reason! My dearest son! How could you have allowed yourself to be bewitched even for an hour by such a horrible idea!” Wolfgang was so upset that he became sick but he had to accede to his father’s wishes and continue on his journey to Paris. After his mother’s death, he found his only solace in the hope that he would see his beloved Aloysia on his return journey. During all this drama Wolfgang barely noticed the little girl with the pretty eyes, the fourteen-year-old Constanze Weber who was to become his wife and the guardian of his posthumous fame. Wolfgang was loath to return to Salzburg and the suspicion arises that his plans to travel with Aloysia were also plans to liberate himself from his father. He drove his father to almost demented fury with his procrastination about his return journey.
Family problems were always resolved by Leopold alone, never allowing room for discussion. This may also have been due to parental attitudes to children during the 18th Century but Leopold sought and indeed continued to rule his children’s will well into their adulthood.
Leopold’s letters to his son during his Paris journey contain long litanies of his own financial woes. He always made sure that Wolfgang was aware of his obligation to support his family and repay the debt that his father had allegedly incurred on his behalf. In a letter to his son in February 1778 Leopold complained that he was as poor as Lazarus, his clothing as shabby and torn, and that he had to wear old socks and shoes to church, all this to impress upon Wolfgang his responsibility towards his father who was making so many sacrifices for him!!
As a result Wolfgang was torn between the desire to flee his father or return to the tyranny of Salzburg in order to help him. Wolfgang was bound to his family by ties stronger than blood; by his sense of guilt at having let his mother die in Paris and his responsibility for the debts incurred by his father to finance the ceaseless journeys undertaken by the whole family for Wolfgang’s benefit. It is a wonder that his talent survived the burdens lay upon him and did not shrivel up under his father’s severe and critical eye. Leopold convinced his son to return to Salzburg but when Wolfgang was commissioned to compose the opera Idomeneo for the Munich opera an opportunity presented itself for him to travel to Vienna. In early 1781 Archbishop Colloredo was visiting his ailing father in Vienna and required all his servants, cooks and musicians to accompany him. Wolfgang traveled to Vienna from Munich with only the clothes he was wearing but once there, he soon contrived to be dismissed from Colloredo’s service. Wolfgang remained in Vienna when all the other servants returned to Salzburg. Wolfgang’s act of insubordination against his employer finally ended the control his father had exercised over him.
Nannerl did not fare so well. She had been in love with a cavalry officer and when Leopold finally broke this liaison, Nannerl spent a year in total depression. Seemingly unconcerned, Leopold wedded her to an elderly nobleman, Baron Johann Baptist Berchtold von Sonnenburg, whose third wife she became, having to care for the children from her husband’s previous marriages. She gave birth to her first child, named after Leopold, on 27 July 1785 in her father’s home in Salzburg and returned to her husband in St. Gilgen without her baby, leaving him thereafter in Leopold’s care. Many Mozartean writers have applauded this deed as her supreme expression of love for her father. It is an unfathomable act of a totally oppressed woman unable to withstand her father’s entreaties. So convinced was Leopold that Wolfgang’s genius was due to his own efforts that he believed that another such genius was not entirely out of the question. His letters to Nannerl at St. Gilgen describe in detail the musical progress her baby was making. Little Leopold, however, had no apparent talent whatsoever, a fact that Leopold Mozart did not live to see. Little Leopold grew up to be a cavalry officer and later in life became a bureaucrat in the Austrian Taxation Department.
In 1786 Wolfgang made plans to travel to London. He did not like to be parted from Constanze for lengthy periods and so he turned to his father with the request that his two sons be placed in his father’s care. Leopold had at least two servants looking after Nannerl’s little boy; hence Wolfgang did not feel that his own two children would be an imposition.
Leopold promptly rejected his son’s request. He dashed off a letter to Nannerl, the tone of which reveals the coldness of his reply (not extant) to his son.
“You can easily imagine that I had to express myself very emphatically, as your brother actually suggested that I should take charge of his two children because he was proposing to undertake a journey through Germany to England in the middle of Carnival. I wrote therefore very fully and added that I would send him the continuation of my letter by the next post. Her Muller, the good and honest maker of silhouettes, had said a lot of nice things about little Leopold to your brother, who heard in this way that the child is living with me. I had never told your brother. So that is how the brilliant idea occurred to him or perhaps to his wife. Not at all a bad arrangement! They could go off and travel - they might even die - or remain in England - and I would have to run off after them with the children. As for payment he offers me for the children and for the maids to look after them - Basta! If he cares to do so, he will find my excuse very clear and instructive.”
One might wonder how Leopold’s letter affected Wolfgang and Constanze and whether the continuation of Leopold’s sermon was even read by them. The Mozarts’ little boy, also called Leopold, died of suffocation on 15 November, 1786 and was buried in St. Marx cemetery on the very day, 17 November, when Leopold penned his acrimonious letter to Nannerl.
Leopold Mozart’s relationship with Wolfgang deteriorated because of his inability to grant his son the freedom of an adult existence. Leopold’s blind hatred of Mozart’s wife, Constanze finally broke Wolfgang’s trust in his father. It is difficult to assess if this hatred of Constanze and her family stemmed from Leopold’s disappointment that his son did not marry into the nobility or that Wolfgang’s transference of his dependency from his father to Constanze deprived Leopold of his most vital link with his son. Leopold’s hatred of Constanze and her family had a continuing influence on Mozartean scholars. We find even so distinguished a scholar as Alfred Einstein hurling insults at Mozart’s beloved wife and her accomplished family of musicians and singers.
Yet it is interesting to note that Leopold’s letters to Nannerl, when in January 1785 he visited his son in Vienna, actually express his approbation of his daughter-in-law whom he praised for running an economical household and her mother and sisters for entertaining him regally. These comments were ignored by writers who preferred his earlier reference to Constanze when he called his son’s new bride a slut. This slur inspired writers to pick up pencil and paper to recount the apocryphal stories of Constanze’s sisters parading in front of the army barracks in Vienna with a view to picking up prospective husbands.
Where this scurrilous information came from is not known. All the while Constanze’s sister, Aloysia was married to Joseph Lange, a celebrated Shakespearean actor and painter and was herself the highest paid prima donna of the German Opera. Constanze’s eldest sister, Josepha was studying singing in Graz on an Imperial scholarship. On her return from Graz, Josepha joined the Schikaneder company and was the first Queen of the Night in Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. Constanze’s youngest sister, Sophie, fourteen years old at the time of Constanze’s marriage to Mozart, is well known in Mozartean history as the young maiden who suffered Leopold Mozart’s company while he lay sick during his visit to his son’s home in Vienna. Later she witnessed Wolfgang’s death and according to her report to Nissen, her brother-in-law expired in her arms.
After Nannerl gave birth to her first child, she returned to her husband’s household in St. Gilgen, letting Leopold dedicate the rest of his life to his grandson. He occasionally attended Archbishop Colloredo’s court and looked forward to the occasional theatre productions that took place in Salzburg. He became ill and died of heart failure on 28 May 1787 and had the final say even in death.
Leopold voiced his displeasure with his son by leaving his whole estate to his daughter with the exception of his personal items. These were to be auctioned and the proceeds were to be divided between his two children. There were 579 items to be auctioned but only 314 were sold, Nannerl retaining the most valuable objects. All the valuable gifts given to the young Wolfgang during his many travels were retained by Nannerl. Wolfgang’s scores which had remained in Salzburg when he so swiftly departed to Vienna from Munich took until December 1787 to be returned to him.
Maynard Solomon in his Mozart - A Life has estimated that Nannerl received from her father somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 florins. In her old age, when out of pity Constanze organized a collection for “Mozart’s impoverished sister” among London’s music lovers, Nannerl was actually in possession of more than 6,000 florins, left at the time of her death to her only remaining child, Leopold. When his father died, Wolfgang only received a settlement of 1,000 florins.
Nannerl may have been gratified by her father’s will, considering it a final proof that she was, after all, her father’s most beloved child. There is no doubt that her early youth was spent in the shadow of her brother and that she harbored a hidden resentment against him for the rest of her life.
Interestingly, the grandson Leopold Mozart never knew, Wolfgang’s youngest child, Franz Xaver Wolfgang, bore the closest resemblance to his grandfather. He had more than an average musical talent and became a music teacher in Lemberg, Poland. Like his grandfather, he was a man of romantic and lofty ideas but could never quite bring them to fruition. In his portrait he looks like Leopold. In appearance and bearing the two men are so similar that they could be mistaken for the portrait of the same man painted at different stages of life.
It is an irony that Leopold Mozart was destined to share his final resting place with his detested daughter-in-law, Constanze and her second husband Nikolaus von Nissen. The grave also houses the final remains of Constanze’s aunt, Genevieva Weber, the mother of Carl Maria von Weber, the father of the German Romantic Movement.
The musical heritage of the Mozart family ended with the death of Franz Xaver Mozart (Wolfgang Mozart’s son) on July 19, 1844 at Karlovy Vary
(Karlsbad) at the age of 53. Neither of Mozart’s sons married and there were no descendants. Nannerl’s great- granddaughter, Bertha Forschter, died in 1917 and Leopold Mozart’s great-great grandniece, Karoline Grau, died in 1965. I have not been able to confirm the story of a descendant of “Basle” Mozart, a milliner who was taken from a mental asylum in Germany with the rest of the asylum’s inmates to the ovens of a concentration camp in Hitler’s Germany.
Copyright: Agnes Selby (Courtesy “Quadrant”).
Subject: Violin Concerto In C K271a
From: dennis
To: All
Date Posted: 05:03:32 06/19/04 ()
Email Address:
Message:
The Violin Concerto in D K271a is handed down in two copies that
apparently originated independent of each other:
1) as a full score copy from the collection of Aloys Fuchs (now in
Prussian State Library, Berlin); and
2) in a set of parts in Paris that Eugene Sauzay (a Paris Violinist)
made in 1837 for his teacher and father-in-law Pierre Baillot, from
the autograph that must have been found in the possession of
Francois Antonie Habeneck (a famous Paris conductor and Violinist
in the 19th Century and also a student of Baillot).
It is unclear from what model Fuchs prepared his copy. Fuchs
remarked in one of his catalogues "Violin Concerto--with
orchestra which in Salzburg in autograph score shall be found?
The authenticity is first of all yet to establish". The most unusual
aspect of the Fuchs copy is that its layout does not correspond to
any other copy of a Mozart work. The solo Violin is not entered on
the topmost, but lowest staff of the score.
In the Paris set of parts Baillot wrote on the finale page "Concerto
for Violin, Composed by Wolfgang Amadee Mozart, in Salzburg, on
July 16, 1777. Copied by Euguene Sauzay from the full score
manuscript of this author belonging to Mr. Habeneck in 1837".
Robert Levin pointed out that contrary to Fuchs' layout, a scrap of
paper pasted in this source lists the instruments in the exact order
used by Mozart and with the horn solmisation found, e.g., in
Mozart's other Violin Concertos. Since none of Mozart's other
Violin Concertos were published at this time, this coincidence
cannot be explained away easily. The Concerto was first published
in 1907 by Albert Kopfermann, after Fuchs' copy.
How and why did Sauzay obtain and copy Mozart's autograph (if it
was the autograph)? In his "Memoires" Sauzay wrote of reviving
Mozart Concertos with his wife in their apartments. As Augustine
Sauzay was a distinguished pianist, these were probably Piano
Concertos, but it seems likely the copy of this Violin Concerto in D
was made for these occasions, perhaps in chamber form. How the
Violin Concerto manuscript would have got to Paris is unclear. One
thought is that Mozart sold the autograph directly to someone in
Paris; a second is the connection of the pianist Marie Bigot de
Moragues' (a friend of Sauzay) husband to music publishers in
Vienna. Sauzay or Baillot perhaps played the solo part in Paris. As
a matter of fact 2 Cadenzas are found pasted to the Paris music
pages that might originate from Baillot. A third Cadenza pasted
inside could originate from Sauzay. According to the French
custom of the time the wind parts are transcribed on separate
sheets for the piano, probably by the composer/violinist
Alexander Boëly. The Sauzay and Fuchs copies have small
deviations in addition to a 37 measure longer closing section of
the 3rd movement in the Fuchs copy. Fuchs' copy also contained
cadenzas to all movements, certainly not Mozart's according to
Kopfermann, who did not print them. That Mozart himself revised
these 37 measures with another of 7 measures is seen by some as
being authentic, according to his September 11, 1778, letter in
which he writes "If I have time, I shall rearrange some of my Violin
Concertos, and shorten them".
Köchel did not know the Concerto, so it was not listed in K1. In K2
(1905) Walderese listed the Concerto as K271a, dating it July 16,
1777, and stating the lost autograph had been in the possession
of Habeneck in Paris in 1837. After its publication in 1907 (and
first performance on November 4, 1907, in Dresden) scholars
lined up for and against its authenticity. St. Foix, for one, did not
doubt its authenticity, but believed this version was a later
revision by Mozart himself around 1779 or 1780. Still others took
the course that Mozart supplied the "rough and kernel" of the
work and someone else finished it. Rudolf Gerber published
another edition in April 1934, placing no doubts on his
authenticity and briefly discussed the Finale's epilogue theme
similarity to the Gavotte in Les Petits Riens (first reported A. Heuss
in 1907) as well as the first movement's thematic relation to K211.
In 1932 Yehudi Menuhin recorded the Concerto with Cadenzas by
George Enesco.
Einstein kept the Concerto in the main part of K3 (renumbering it
K271i--not because the date changed but because he had
renumbered other works from 271b to 271h), believing Mozart
wrote out a hasty sketch of a Violin Concerto, but stating the
original form of the work of 1777 could not be clearly
reconstructed. Many scholars felt the Violin required too much
playing in the high register. Others remained uncomfortable with
the pizzicato playing in the slow movement, and double stopping
in tenths of the Violin. Einstein maintained these were
embellishments added in the 19th Century. Friedrich Blume came
out strongly in favor of authenticity, writing "not one passage
allows of any room for doubt in regard to themes, harmony,
rhythm, construction and orchestration". He stated there were
analogies in the Violin movements of Mozart's Divertimenti and
Serenades, and the entire Concerto should not be questioned
because of some peculiarities of Violin technique. Blume attached
Einstein's hasty sketch theory and criticized Einstein on other
ideas on the Concerto.
In 1963 Carl Bär published a paper that firmly believed in Mozart's
authorship of the piece. Citing the quotation in Joachim von
Schiedenhofen's diary of July 25, 1777, that at Gusset's Mozart
works were rehearsed consisting of a Symphony, a Violin
Concerto--played by young Mozart--and a Flute Concerto, Bär
believed K271a was composed for this occasion. Bär also believed
the Violin Concerto Leopold Mozart referred to in a letter of
September 18, 1777, that "Herr Kolb" played was also K271a.
Leopold again refers to "the Concerto you wrote for Kolb" on
August 3, 1778, and identifies this as referring to K271a. As
Leopold stated in a letter of April 13, 1778, that Count Czernin--
who had been in Salzburg since April 1775--had never heard Kolb
play the Violin, Bär rules out any of the 5 Violin Concertos of 1775
as being the "Kolb Concerto".
It is not all that sure who Kolb was. Franz Xavier Kolb (1731-1782)
was first thought to be the Violinist. However Bär believes it is
more likely to be one of his sons--Joachim (born 1752) or Johann
Andreas Kolb, 5 years older. Bär leans toward Johann Andreas.
"Herr Kolb", being an amateur, could not have had a large
repertoire and played Mozart's Concerto (which Bär hypothesizes
Mozart gave him just prior to leaving Salzburg). Bär believed the
Concerto was thus composed between June 16--the performance
of the second Lodron Nachtmusik K287/271H--and Nannerl's
Name Day, July 26, 1777. Bär also believed the dating on the
manuscript helped show its authenticity. The Italian heading
"Salisburgo li 16 di Luglio 1777" is similar to numerous
autographs of the time, and in a time period that whoever placed
the heading there could not know a Violin Concerto had probably
been written.
However Ernest Hess believed the large number of compositional
errors, unMozartian phrases, instrumentation weaknesses,
meaningless sequences, such as Mozart had parodied in his
"Musical Joke", certainly spoke against Mozart's authorship.
K6 kept the Concerto in the main part of the catalogue, mostly
copying the K3 remarks section, but eluded to Hess' doubts on its
authenticity.
Christoph-Hellmut Mahling in 1978 briefly raised the question if
the Concerto could not be the work of another master that Mozart
copied for his own use. He concludes that after all considerations
are in, that there are more questions open than answered. "One
thing is however rather clear: The riddle of the Violin Concerto
K271i is yet to be solved". In 1980 the NMA (edited by Mahling)
placed the Concerto in Works of Doubtful Authenticity. All the
Cadenzas mentioned above are printed in the Appendix of NMA.
Manfred Hermann Schmid [Mozart Studien 1999] on basic of
formal and technical aspects of the Concerto expressed more
than doubt on the Concerto: "I find in the entire Concerto K271i
no music which I in earnest would put in a claim for Mozart".
Schmid thought the composition appears to belong to the 1780's,
but with different techniques and forms than Mozart used.
Mahling in the 2001 Mozart-Jahrbuch again published some
considerations on the Violin Concerto K271a. In reviewing much of
what had been published earlier he gave updated information and
opinions. In considering if the work was an arrangement, who
could it be? Comparing the Concerto with Concertos of Baillot,
Mahling found the violin solos are structured entirely different.
Mahling found the Violin Concerto K271a to be much closer in
style to the Violin Concertos of Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766 - 1831),
and gives an example of his Violon Concerto Nr. 1 in G-major
from 1783-84. [Kreutzer was a French composer and violinist. He
was professor of Violin at the Paris Conservatory from its founding
in 1795 until 1826 and was one of the authors of the violin
method taught there. Between 1783 and 1810 he wrote 19 Violin
Concertos. Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata" for Violin and Piano
Op.47 is dedicated to him.] Mahling believes the frequent high
postions of the solo violin in K271a show the French influence of
the Concertos of Baillot and Kreutzer and correspond to the
exercises of the teachings at the Paris Conservatoire. However
these high notes were frequently "unmotivted" with nothing
leading to their appearance and seemed disconnected and
unnecessary to the piece. Mahling found much in the Concerto
that was very unMozartian, but more customary to the French
composition school a little later. The noted unusual use of
pizzicato in the second movement is found in the beginning of a
Symphonie Concertante for 2 Violins in d-minor (Op.38 from
1816) of Baillot. Also the tempo indication "Allegro Maestoso" for
the 1st movement--found later in Mozart's Piano Concertos, but
in none of this Violin Concertos--is frequently found in Concertos
from the French region. And the "majestic beginning" of the
Concerto, with its punctuated notes, according to Mahling is
characteristic of the French Overture form. If this Concerto is an
"arrangement", Mahling thinks the best possibilites would be
Baillot or Kruetzer, and the probable origin time about 1830.
So Mahling concludes that we have many questions on the
Concerto:
---From the form of the solo Violin part could we accept a Mozart
Concerto of a later dating?
---Or had Mozart arranged a Violin concerto of another
composer?
---Or just the opposite, could another have arranged an
autograph model of Mozart's? Thus Mozart provided the
"substance" and it is now presented in a different garment?
---Or did the Concerto originate from a later time from an
unknown author and was only thought to be by Mozart, or falsely
attributed to him?
---Or in the end is it simply a matter of a "forgery'?
Kevin Bazzana in his CD notes to the Richard Kapp recording of
this Concerto believes he has a clue for the provenance of the
Concerto. Kapp stated that during the recording sessions the
members of the Czech Philharmonie Chamber Orchestra laughed
when they began playing the piece, for the theme of the Rondo
quotes a Bohemian Christmas carol. Thus the Concerto could have
been the work of a Czech composer. Perhaps someone familiar
with Bohemian music of that period can nail down this tune, and
we can add this to the puzzle of the Violin Concerto K271a.
I have numerous recordings of the Concerto, and all use the
longer version found in the Fuchs Berlin copy of the Concerto.
Jean-Jacques Kantorow uses the Cadenzas found in this copy,
while all others use either their own or Cadenzas of recent
composers.
dennis
Subject: Music for Expectant Mothers
From: Tel Asiado
To: All
Date Posted: 05:49:44 06/18/04 ()
Email Address: webmaster@inspiredpen.4t.com
Message:
Dear fellow Mozart lovers,
[Note:I'm sharing this article which I've primarily written for RITRO.com (Health and Living Section) dated June 15, 2004. Agnes and Daisy think that some people here might be interested. Best regards, Tel]
Music for Expectant Mothers
(June 15, 2004 9:00 AM) By Tel Asiado
One of the most important sounds to a foetus is that of its mother's voice, according to Dr. Alfred Tomatis, French physician and psychologist, who pioneered groundwork for the multidisciplinary science called Audio-Psycho-Phonology (APP). He revolutionized our understanding of the role our ears play and explained ‘why the way we listen’ has a profound impact on almost all aspects of our day-to-day lives. Tomatis documented the sounds most beneficial to the foetuses and revealed what music would ease kicking within the mother’s womb.
The Tomatis listening method has been shown to be especially successful for expectant mothers. It explains that the foetus reacts strongly to its mother’s emotions and the music that she sings or listens to. A study was done at the Vesoul Hospital in France where researchers reported that pregnant women who participated in four weeks during the eight month of pregnancy spent less time in the hospital and had fewer complications. Further result showed that 60 percent of the Tomatis patients needed no medication, as against 46 percent of the conventionally prepared and 50 percent of the unprepared mothers. Women using the Tomatis method expressed less worry about giving birth.
It has been well researched and documented that the initial purpose of the ear is to grow the brain of the unborn child. After birth, the function of the ear is to charge the neo cortex of the brain and the entire nervous system. The food digested by the body provides its nourishment and fuel. Sound waves “digested” by the ear are what fuel the brain, and therefore, sound is literally a nutrient.
The ears of a growing baby in the womb begin to function when it is 18 to 24 weeks old. After the 26th week of pregnancy, a foetus can hear a mother’s heartbeat, circulation, and a range of low frequency sounds, such as her rhythmic breathing and the gurgling of her stomach. The unborn baby can also hear the mother’s voice. The higher frequencies of the mother’s voice is said to literally nourish the foetus. A uterine dialogue is established where the foetus waits for the sound of its mother’s voice, content when the unborn child hears it, and listens for the sound of her voice once again. This is how the listening process begins that is carried into childhood. It is also the start of the emotional and psychological bond between mother and infant.
The low and repetitive sounds tend to ‘discharge’ the brain, causing weakness and fatigue, while the higher sounds such as the mother’s voice that the baby hears in the womb, tend to stimulate and charge the brain. They are soothing and feel nurturing to the foetus.
If she is continually distressed or is subjected to loud discordant sounds, her rhythmic breathing becomes harmful to the development of her child, physically, mentally and spiritually. Such disharmony can affect her baby's hormonal responses and the neurological impulses of the nervous system. In reaction, the foetus will have a raised heart rate and will start kicking against her womb in a violent fashion.
It has been found that the music of Wolfgang Mozart in particular has helped lower a baby's heart rate and have alleviated the force of the baby's kicks. Some research has also shown that foetuses in the last trimester of pregnancy can hear and understand simple syllables. Why Mozart in particular? Tomatis himself posed the same question. So have I, and a lot of other Mozart and classical music lovers. Well, although Mozart shares affinities with other composers of his period, Tomatis asserts: “Wolfgang Mozart has an effect, an impact, which the others do not have … he has a liberating, curative, and I would even say, healing power. His efficacy exceeds by far what we observe among his predecessors, his contemporaries, or his successors.”
Moms-to-be, consider also making up simple lullabies or rhymes which you can hum to welcome the embryo growing within you. To paraphrase Dr. Tomatis, let your unborn baby draw a feeling of security from this permanent dialogue through the music that guarantees a harmonious blossoming.
Key References:
Cynthia Blanche/Antonia Beattie The Power of Music Lansdowne Sydney, 2000
Don Campbell The Mozart Effect Hodder & Stoughton A/NZ, 1997
Featured article by Irene H. Zundel Sound as a Nutrient in Utero
http://www.tomatis.com
http://www.tomatis.com.au
http://www.greenepa.net
Suggested CDs:
Mozart for Mothers-To-Be
More Mozart for Mothers-To-Be
Ultrasound-Music for the Unborn Child
Tune your Brain: Pregnancy and Childbirth
(Note: The use of music during pregnancy, delivery, infancy, and even for young children constitutes one of the fastest growing fields of music therapy. As a result of studies in relation to the Tomatis Method, hospitals and maternity clinics have started to make music therapy available. This article focuses on the effect of music for the expectant mother. Tel Asiado, RITRO Staff writer.)
Subject: Mozart's Viotti Additions K470a and Lost Andante K470
From: dennis
To: All
Date Posted: 04:08:49 06/18/04 ()
Email Address:
Message:
MOZART'S ADDITIONS TO VIOTTI'S VIIOLIN CONCERTO #16
K470a AND LOST ANDANTE K470
Mozart's additions to Viotti's Violin Concerto #16 in e-minor are
on a single autograph sheet (written on both sides), with the
heading "Concerto" and "2 Horns in E/Timpani in E".
J.A. André in the introductory remarks of his manuscript
catalogue of 1833 noted the following next to the incipit of the
1st movement parts: "For lack of space or lack of music paper
Mozart had for many accessory parts and by Opera full scores
often also for the entirely not essential wind instruments wrote
out an 'accessory full score'. Thus was found among his
manuscripts also such a one of 2 Trumpets and Timpani to a
Concerto in E, which begins with an 'Adagio non troppo'. As this
Concerto is entirely unknown to me, I place for its possible re-
discovery the beginning measures of the Trumpets and Timpani-
full score here".
Köchel's Catalogue of 1865 did not place, or mention, André's
"unknown Concerto", nor did K2 of 1905. In 1936 Alfred Einstein
solved the riddle of these parts, reporting they were additions to
the outer movements of Giovanni Battista Viotti's Violin Concerto
in e-minor that Mozart presumably made in the beginning of
1785 for a performer in one of his concerts. Mozart wished to
"glitter up" the outer movements; the middle movement was
already "Romantic" sounding. [Rather ironically, even though
Einstein did not bring up the fact, André had published Viotti's
Violin Concerto #16 in parts in 1821, and in 1833 did not
recognize the additions to a Concerto he had already published.]
Einstein believed--confirmed by St. Foix--the work was reworked
for the same concert event in the Mehlrube for which he had
written the Andante K470. [Also at the end of the autograph--not
identified in any edition of Köchel--is the remark "You can write in
directly the Trumpets and Drums", thus showing a copyist must
have brought about the parts very quickly for a performance from
Mozart's written copy.]
K470 is a (lost) Andante to a Violin Concerto. Mozart entered the
incipit in his work catalogue under April 1, 1785. Nothing else is
known of the work. Otto Jahn and Köchel believed it was perhaps
written for the virtuoso Janiewicz [Anton Janitsch 1753 - 1812],
who at that time was in Vienna. Hermann Abert had thought
Janiewicz could also mean Jarnovich [?Giovanni Giornovichi 1735 -
1804]. Einstein added Leopold Mozart's Salzburg student, Heinrich
Marchard [1769 - after 1812], who was in Vienna at the time with
his teacher.
Einstein in K3 thought K470 was most likely written to replace the
original slow movement of the Violin Concerto K218, probably
performed in Vienna, as in his work catalogue Mozart wrote "An
Andante for the Violin to a Concerto", thus the piece was not
intended to be a free standing piece. By the time of K3a (1947)
Einstein eliminated Jarnovich from consideration as K470's
performer, as he had arrived in Vienna in 1786. Einstein also
followed St. Foix in now expressing the opinion K470 was meant
as a replacement for the middle movement of Viotti's Violin
Concerto in e-minor #16 (K470a).
K6 kept Mozart's additions to Viotti's Violin Concerto at K470a,
but placed doubts that K470 could be intended for this Concerto
from tonal grounds. K6 thought Einstein's original opinion it was a
replacement for K218 was correct. Unfortunately this does not
solve much of the problem why or for who K470 was written.
Heinrich Marchard's only documented appearances in Vienna are
in March of 1785 (March 2 and 14). Easter Sunday in 1785 was on
March 27.
In 1973 the Viotti side of the picture finally came to be heard.
Chapell White in his article "Toward a more accurate Chronology of
Viotti's Violin Concertos" wrote the Concerto was probably written
for the Theatre de Monsieur in Paris in 1789-90, but possibly for
Versailles around 1784-86. Its first edition was in Paris 1789-90.
White points out that to accept the 1785 dating of Mozart's
additions it would have to be assumed Violin Concerto #16
travelled from Paris to Vienna in manuscript, an assumption
difficult to support. White stated Viotti would not risk the chance
of piracy of such an important work, and certainly the young
Marchard (16 years old at the time) would have been an unlikely
candidate for such a favor. There is also no evidence Viotti was
well known in Vienna in the mid 1780's.
Once the connection between the Mozart additions for the Viotti
Violin Concerto and K470 is removed, a much later dating comes
into consideration. As White pointed out Mozart might have
prepared them for any one of a variety of occasions as late as
1790 or 1791. White concluded the Violin Concerto #16 was
written by Viotti in 1789 or 1790, for Viotti or one of his star
pupils to perform in Viotti's own theater which opened in January
1789. Viotti's Concertos were also played during intermissions at
the opera house in Paris.
Boris Schwarz was however of the opinion the Violin Concerto #16
came to Mozart from Johann Friedrich Eck (1766 - 1810). The 20
year old violinist was in Vienna in March 1786 and Schwarz
believed Eck may have brought the Concerto with him from Paris.
Eck had become a student of Viotti in 1785. Mozart then reworked
the Violin Concerto for a planned concert by Eck and Mozart,
which never materialized.
In 1995 Manfred Hermann Schmid took up the Mozart additions to
the Violin Concerto #16. He stated the handwriting of the
autograph belonged to the time of 1787-1791. The paper type
can not be determined with final certainty, but one used from the
end of 1789 until 1791 comes into question.
From all the above I think it safe to say Mozart's additions to the
Violin Concerto in e-minor of Viotti date from 1789 to 1791, or as
Schmid writes "around 1790".
Musically Mozart placed no high demands on his new players. The
additions are restricted to doubling; the Trumpets strengthening
the Horns in the forte. However Schmid believes Mozart's
encounter with Viotti's Violin Concerto #16 had an influence on his
composition style. Mozart used slow introductions prior to 1789,
but not as Viotti did in this Violin Concerto. All three slow
introductions Mozart used after his presumed work on Violin
Concerto #16 have slow introductions that return again toward the
finish of the work--String Quintet K593, Overtures to Cosi and
Zauberflöte--exactly as Viotti's introduction returns later in the
movement.
Unfortunately I do not know of a CD recording of Viotti's Concerto
in e-minor that uses Mozart's additions. Two old LPs used these
additions, but have not been transfered to CD, as far as I know.
dennis
Subject: Violin Concerto In Eb K268
From: dennis
To: All
Date Posted: 07:53:23 06/17/04 ()
Email Address:
Message:
The Violin Concerto in Eb was first published by Andre in
Offenbach in 1799. Later in October of the same year an article
appeared in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung dismissing the
piece as an imposture, stating it "contained the grossest offenses
against the most elementary rules of composition". Andre did not
reply to the charges. In the same journal F.A. Ernst defended the
work in January 1800, stating it was by Mozart and written "some
15 years ago". Ernst cited as proof that the composer and violinist
Johann Friedrich Eck told him Mozart had placed this Concerto
before him in Munich and played it for him, "scraping a good deal
in his enthusiasm". This caused Constanze Mozart to write Andre
stating she did not know to which Concerto this was aimed at, so
she could not comment, but suggested Andre look in Mozart's
work catalogue. Again Andre never replied.
We do not know where Andre received this Concerto. Probably not
from Constanze, as he only received the manuscripts acquired
from her on January 9, 1800; at least months after the Concerto
was published. When Nissen published his Mozart biography (with
Constanze's substantial help) in 1828 he did not mention the
work, but did mention the 5 authentic Concertos; nor is it
mentioned in Jahn's first edition biography of 1859. It appeared in
Köchel in 1864 assigned to 1776 (thus K268). Jahn then added the
work to his second edition biography in 1867.
In 1882 the Concerto was published in Breitkopf's Complete
Edition, however in Series 24--the series for unauthenticated,
unfinished or recently discovered compositions. Its editor, Ernst
Rudorff, commented "that this Concerto, in the form in which we
have it, cannot be the work of Mozart...". He gave numerous
examples. He however believed it might contain some Mozart
material. He was the first to come forward with the theory Mozart
might have left sketches for the beginning of the first and last
movements which someone else finished. Abert later added to this
suggestion that Süssmayr or Andre himself may have been
responsible for the completion.
In 1922 Georg St.Foix came forward with the idea the opening
orchestral tutti and violin part throughout had been completed by
Mozart, and from stylistic basis believed it was written in 1784 or
1785, which of course corresponded with Ernst's statement about
Eck.
In 1931 C.B. Oldman issued a paper with his views on K268. He
correctly stated Mozart was not in Munich after 1781 until 1790.
So 1785 could not be a correct date, unless Ernst meant Vienna.
Citing resemblances to earlier Mozart pieces (especially the
Sinfonia Concertante K364) Oldman believed the Concerto was
written in Salzburg or Munich between 1779 and 1781, perhaps to
add a sixth to the already composed 5 with any eye toward
publication. He then may have taken it to Munich and showed Eck,
who copied the Concerto from memory. Einstein in K3 moved the
Concerto to K365b, reflecting the Oldman theory. He believed
Mozart wrote only a "sketch of the 1st movement, and perhaps a
few opening bars of the Rondo", calling the middle movement "a
crude forgery".
In 1956 Friedrich Blume came out strongly in favor of the
Concerto, giving it a broad dating of 1777-1783. He believed it
was "one of those works in which Mozart did not care to go
through all the stages of composition", believing Mozart wrote the
solo part and the Ritornelli and sketched other passages in. Other
parts were left undone. Andre then had some unknown person
complete the Concerto for publication.
The 1964 Köchel 6, citing most earlier sources, moved the
Concerto into its Anhang C section (Doubtful and Misattributed
Works) as Anh C14.04.
In 1978 Walter Lebermann wrote on the Concerto. He compared
K268 with Violin Concertos of Eck and other composers of the
Paris Violin school and concluded that it could not be proven Eck
was the composer of K268, but he was the "probable" composer.
He concluded the Concerto could not have been written before
1790.
In 1988, H.C.R. Landon wrote on the Concerto and brought
forward a curious piece of evidence that the Concerto could not
have been written before 1783. He quotes a passage from Haydn's
Symphony #77, suggesting it is a direct inspiration of a section of
K268's Finale. Landon suggests no composer, but does say its
style points to a south German composer (perhaps Munich) of the
period 1785-1798. He rules out Mozart.
I have two recordings of this Concerto. One by Mela Tenenbaum
on Ess.ay CD and another by Jean-Jacques Kantorow on Denon.
dennis
Subject: Contemporaries of Mozart: Jan Ladislav Dussek
From: Gary Smith
To: All
Date Posted: 20:14:52 06/16/04 ()
Email Address:
Message:
CONTEMPORARIES OF MOZART:
Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812)
By Agnes Selby/Andrea Hubrich
Edited by Gary Smith
"... the most honest, politest and most excellent man among all composers ..."- Haydn, 1792
This is another posting in an irregular series on the various contemporary composers from Mozart's lifetime. The material is mostly derivative from general sources as noted. These are the people that Mozart:
Competed for work with.
Considered as friends and colleagues.
Knew from reputation.
Taught/nurtured as pupils and students.
Jan Ladislav Dussek (more properly Vaclav Jan Dusik) Bohemian Early Romantic, Enlightenist and Revolutionary, was one of the most celebrated composers and pianists of his age, a quintessential Classico-Romantic who traveled the civilized stage of Europe at the time, arguably, of its greatest modern historical eras. He was an organist and composer; his mother Veronika was a harpist. From childhood on, Dussek received piano instruction and later on took up the organ as well. He attended the Jesuit elementary school in Iglau and grammar school in the mining town of Kutna Hora.
Following just two years of school and studies at the Charles University in Prague (1776 - 1778) he traveled in 1779 in that part of the Netherlands, which is known today as Belgium, to Mechelen (the region from which Beethoven’s family originally came). Here Dussek appeared for the first time as a pianist and continued to give concerts in the region, eventually finding employment at the municipal court of Wilhelm the V as a piano teacher. In 1782 he is reported to have been in Hamburg, where was most likely a student of C.P.E. Bach, who held him in high esteem and who no doubt provided a decisive impulse for Dussek’s further artistic development. In 1783 found Dussek in Russia where he appeared at the court of the Czar in St. Petersburg; shortly thereafter he had to flee the country in the wake of the plot against Catherine II (in which he himself became implicated) and later found refuge at the court of Prince Karl Radziwill in Lithuania. From 1784 - 1786 he gave concerts again in Germany, not only on the piano, but also on the glass harmonica. He then settled in Paris where his playing found favor with the queen Marie-Antoinette, becoming one of her favorite musicians. 1786 - 1789 he remained in Paris as pianist, composer and teacher, leaving only once to visit his brother Frantisek Benedikt Dussek (1766 - after 1816), a composer of opera and instrumental music in Milan.
Early in 1789, sensing revolution and the demise of his old world, he looked to England, making his way across the Channel in the late spring of 1789. His first known performance in London was on June 1, 1789. In 1792 he married the singer, pianist and harpist Sofia, the daughter of the music publisher Domenico Corri and founded the publishing house of Corri, Dussek & Co. Josef Haydn made Dussek’s acquaintance during his London visits, and as such was the only one of the Viennese classical composers to meet this international colleague. Haydn expressed his praise and admiration for Dussek in words previously used only in regard to Mozart) as “a most upright man of integrity, culture and – concerning music – most excellent”.
In London, Dussek was among the first to encourage piano makers – among them John Broadwood – to extend the 5-octave compass of their fortepianos up to 6 octaves (playing such an instrument in 1794); and to strive for a more robust tone. Dussek’s concerts must have been very effective and he is reported to have appeared in together with Josef Haydn in the famous Salomon-Concerts (1791 and again in 1794). As well, he befriended Muzio Clementi, another leading pianist and composer of the times, who also owned a music publishing business. Dussek’s sister Veronika (1769-1833), pianist, singer and harpist as well, came to London at his request and later married a London music dealer. Along with concerts, Dussek kept himself busy by giving lessons (publishing a volume of Instructions on the Art of Playing the Piano-Forte or Harpsichord in 1796); and, together with his father-in-law, Domenico, founded a music business - Corri & Dussek Comp, Purveyor of Music 'to their Majesties, their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of York', with premises eventually at 67/68 Dean Street, Soho. In late 1799 this speculation collapsed. Facing bankruptcy and the debtor's jail, he headed back for Europe, his flight kept secret. Behind, he left a partner in prison and a wife and infant daughter he was not to see again.
Dussek spent the years 1800 - 1807 mainly in Germany, from which location he made at least one celebrated concert tour through his original home Bohemia, visiting the place of his birth, Easlav. Noteworthy as well were concerts in Hamburg (where he made the acquaintance of Spohr, Steibelt and Nancy Storace - Mozart's original Susanna); and his starry return to Prague in 1802 - remembered over forty years later by the composer and pianist Jan Václav Tomasek in his Autobiography:
"There was ... something magical about the way in which Dussek with all his charming grace of manner, through his wonderful touch, extorted from the instrument delicious and at the same time emphatic tones. His fingers were like a company of ten singers, endowed with equal executive powers and able to produce with the utmost perfection whatever their director could require. I never saw the Prague public so enchanted as they were on this occasion by Dussek's splendid playing. His fine declamatory style, especially in cantabile phrases, stands as the ideal for every artistic performance - something which no other pianist since has reached..."
Tomasek as well confirms it was Dussek (and not Liszt) who 'was the first [to place] his instrument sideways upon the platform, in which our pianoforte heroes now all follow ... though they may have no very interesting profile [or hands] to exhibit'.
By 1804, Dussek could afford to enter the service of Prince Lois Ferdinand of Prussia as an unsalaried pianist and Kapellmeister. Louis Ferdinand and Dussek were close friends who both enjoyed "spirited" festivities in which other prominent colleagues such as Louis Spohr and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also participated. Louis Ferdinand was also an outstanding pianist (Beethoven dedicated his c minor piano concerto to this prince) and composer; Louis Ferdinand died in the battle of Saalfeld in 1806 at the hands of Napoleon’s cavalry. On the occasion of Louis Ferdinand’s death, Dussek composed perhaps his best-known piano sonata "Elegie harmonique sur la mort de Prince Louis Ferdinand de Prusse"op. 61.
Following a short period of employment at the court of Prince von Isenburg, Dussek went finally to Paris. He had spent happy and exuberant time with Prince Ferdinand, but such was not to be said in Paris. There in 1807 he took up (despite his previous employment by the enemy) an appointment as pianist and music director to Talleyrand. As well, it was in Paris that he bid his leave of the concert platform - in 1808 with a series of concerts at the Odeon partnering the violinists Baillot and Rode, and the cellist Lamare. 'The broad and noble style of this artist,' Fetis wrote, 'his method of singing on an instrument which possessed no sustained sounds, the neatness, delicacy and brilliance of his playing in short, procured him a triumph of which there had been no previous example'. Perhaps hounded by ghosts, certainly surrounded by pleasures and triumphs, but slowly stricken with a mental disorder, Dussek’s life and health unwound. Finally, it was near Paris, in the castle of St Germain-en-Laye - mentally disordered, gout-stricken, alcoholic, abnormally obese, bed-ridden, without family, a caricature of his former handsome self - that he was to die.
DUSSEK'S WORKS FOR PIANO
Jan Ladislav Dussek composed primarily for the piano and for his own concert appearances, but he also pursued vigorously the publication and distribution of his works. 14 piano concertos, among them one for two pianos and orchestra, 3 harp concertos (also playable on the piano), piano trios, chamber music with piano, sonatas for piano 4 hands and above all the sonatas for solo piano bear witness to Dussek's preference for this universal instrument. A number of his programmatic pieces portray actual contemporary –often-political – events. Dussek composed no symphonies per se.
Many of his works appeared in numerous different editions, the most popular being often the least interesting pieces, which has not helped Dussek’s reputation. Generally, the expression and originality of Dussek’s works were praised, his somewhat relaxed attitude in regard to parallel fifths and octaves as well as his preference for enharmonic relationships brought forth objections – particularly from conservatives and purists; these passages tend however, to be more visible than audible.
Although Dussek’s piano music clearly foreshadows the Romantic period, his name is not at all mentioned in connection with Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Moscheles and Chopin. Still, from 1860 - 1880 both Breitkopf & Härtel as well as Litolff published new editions of his piano sonatas. The over-riding preoccupation (i.e. hero-worship) of Beethoven into the late 19th century, under which even Haydn and Mozart suffered to some extent, probably accounts for Dussek’s name slipping into obscurity. Again in 1958 the piano sonatas appeared in a modern edition in the series Musica Antiqua Bohemica but the piano concertos (with the exception of op. 22, op. 15/26 and op. 63) and most of the chamber music await reissue and remain to be taken up again in the repertoire of fortepianists or modern pianists.
CDs:
Dorian Discovery Piano Works of Jan Ladislav Dussek 3 Vols. DIS 80110, 80125, 80138
Meridian Records Quartet for Piano and Strings in f; Sonata for Piano Op. 64 CDE 84383
Supraphon Piano Concerto in Eb Op. 70; Piano Sonatas Op. 61 & 62 SU 3659
Vox Piano Concerto in Bb CDX 5148
SOURCES:
AMZ, Intelligenzblatt, 16. Nov. 1803 (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien)
Craw, H.A. (1964) A biography and thematic catalogue of the works of Jan Ladislav Dussek, Diss. Univ. of Southern California.
Sadie, Stanley The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, 2000
Liner notes from the CD’s noted above
Subject: Complete Violin Concerto Sets
From: dennis
To: All
Date Posted: 05:29:45 06/15/04 ()
Email Address:
Message:
After giving complete cycles of Symphonies and Piano Concertos,
our next step is the cycles of Violin Concertos. The first five of the
below listed are in my collection. The remainder I gathered from
various sources, so again can not vouch 100% for their accuracy. I
imagine there are more, so if you know of them, please help our
CD buying MozartForum members.
(Some of the following are boxed together, others are individual
CDs. The difference can be seen by the CD numbers).
-------------------------
Simon Standage- violin, Academy of Ancient Music conducted by
Christopher Hogwood (L'Oiseau-Lyre 433 045-2 -- 3 CDs)
All 5 authentic Mozart Concertos and Adagio and the 2 Rondos;
(#3 uses Mozart's ossia 3rd movement).
György Pauk-violin, Liszt Ference Chamber Orchestra of Budapest
conducted by Janos Rolla (Hungaroton 31030-32 -- 3 CDs)
All 5 authentic Concertos, Adagio and 2 Rondos, plus Sinfonia
Concertante K364 and Concertone K190 (#3 uses Mozart' 3rd
ossia movement).
Jean-Jacques Kantorow-violin, Leopold Hager conducting
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (Denon 33C37-7504, 7505,
7506, 7507, 33CO-1331 -- 5 CDs)
All 5 authentic Concertos and Adagio and 2 Rondos; plus doubtful
Concertos #6 and #7 (K268 and K271a). In addition Sinfonia
Concertante K364 and Concertone K190; plus fragments of
Concerto for Piano and Violin K315f and Sinfonia Concertante for
Violin, Viola, Cello K320e.
Monica Huggett-violin and conducting Orchestra of the Age of
Enlightment (Virgin Veritas 7243 5 61576-2 -- 2 CDs)
All 5 authentic Violin Concertos, only Adagio and Rondo K269.
(Uses Mozart's 3rd ossia movement in #3).
Mela Tenenbaum-violin, Richard Kapp conducting Czech
Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra (Ess.a.y 1070, 1071, 1072 -- 3
CDs)
All 5 authentic Violin Concertos and Adagio and 2 Rondos. Also
not authenticated Concertos #6 and #7, plus forged "Adelaide"
Concerto K.Anh 294a
Pamela Frank-violin, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich conducted by
David Zinman (Arte Nova AVA 72104 -- 3 CDs)
All 5 authentic Violin concertos, plus "Haffner" Serenade K249
Henryk Szerying-violin, New Philharmonia conducted by Alexander
Gibson (Philips 422 508--Complete Mozart Edition v.8 -- 4-CDs)
All 5 authentic plus doubtful #7 K271a, also Adagio and 2 Rondos,
Sinfonia Concertante K364, Concertone K190, and fragments of
Piano/Violiin concerto K315f and Siinfonia Concertante for Violin,
Viola, Cello, K320e in completions by Philip Wilby.
David Oistrakh-violin and conducor Berliner Philharmoniker (Angel
(EMI) 74743 and 74744 -- 2 CDs)
All 5 authentic Concertos and 2 Rondos and Adagio.
Yehudi Menuhin-violin and conductor Bath Festival Orchestra (EMI
Classics Allegro ECA 585030 -- 5 CDs)
Featuring Violin 5 authentic Concertos, plus #6 and #7, and also
"Adelaide" Concerto K.Anh 294a; the 3 solo violin movements
from the Haffner Serenade; the Divertimento No. 15, K 287; the
Concertone K190 and Sinfonia Concertante K364.
Emmy Verhey-Violin, Concertgelow Chamber Orchesrtra
conducted by Eduardo Marturet (Brilliant Classics 99713 -- 7
CDs)
All 5 authentic Concertos and 2 Rondos and Adagio; Also includes
Sinfonia Concertante K364 and Concertone K190. (Set also
includes complete Wind Concertos)
dennis
Subject: Leopold Mozart's Grave
From: Agnes Selby
To: All
Date Posted: 23:53:25 06/12/04 ()
Email Address: taselby@idx.com.au
Message:
The title of this story is not altogether correct because Leopold Mozart's grave is in fact the grave of his mother-in-law, Eva Rosina Pertl. She was the first to occupy this grave in St. Sebastian Cemetery.
It is a unique, little cemetery. One is greeted at the very beginning with a tomb of Auroleus Phillipus Theostratus Bombastus von Hohenheim who had mercifully shortened his name during his lifetime to PARACELSUS. Paracelsus ended his interesting and full life in Salzburg in 1541 in the service of the Prince Palatine, Duke Ernst of Bavaria. Like Leopold Mozart himself, he was obliged to please and serve this prince.
Leopold Mozart's grave was not a private crypt nor was it a privately owned plot. It is situated in the open field and administered by the Church of St. Sebastian. While it was still operational, the Church held complete jurisdiction over the open field. Some of Leopold Mozart's friends, the wealthy burghers and merchants, are resting in privately owned crypts under the exquisite Italianate awnings of the loggia.
Leopold Mozart, who so vehemently opposed Wolfgang's marriage to Constanze Weber was destined to share with her, in eternity, the very same grave.
The Church authorities in charge of St Sebastian Cemetery used their own discretion as to where bodies were to be buried, so we find a number of unrelated people buried in the same grave. The reason, of course, was the lack of space. The large Communal Cemetery which now serves Salzburg retains the same old practice but at least the graves today contain family members, which does not make the atmosphere among them any more cordial. It is very lucky that they cannot fight among themselves any longer.
Leopold Mozart followed his mother-in-law to this grave and so did Nannerl Mozart's stepdaughter, Jeanette. The next to be buried in the same grave was the mother of Carl Maria von Weber, who died suddenly while the family was in Salzburg with Carl Maria, who was receiving lessons from Michael Haydn. Madam Weber, being a singer herself, the authorities decided that the best company for her would certainly be found in Leopold Mozart's grave. Many writers have accused Constanze Mozart for burying her aunt in Leopold Mozart's sacrosanct grave but as Constanze was at the time of her aunt's death in Vienna, there is absolutely nothing she could have done about it. Evidently, neither could Nannerl who was closer to the action.
The grave was peaceful for quite some time. Then on March 24, 1826 Georg Nikolaus Nissen died suddenly while writing Wolfgang Mozart's biography.
Nissen was a Protestant. There was no Protestant cemetery in Salzburg. The authorities at St. Sebastian relented and allowed Nissen to be buried
in the same grave which already contained quite a number of personages. So, Leopold Mozart was joined in death with Constanze's second husband and one hundred years later a loud cry was heard amongst Mozartean historians who decided that Nissen should not have been buried in this grave in the open field or perhaps not buried at all. The claimed it was all Constanze Mozart's fault who tried to elevate herself socially by having her second husband, a decorated Danish diplomat buried in Leopold Mozart's grave.
Nannerl was said to have been upset to the point of hysteria at such an affrontery. There is written evidence in contemporary correspondence that she sat in the Church when Wolfgang (Franz Xaver)Mozart celebrated Nissen's life with a performance of Mozart's Requiem. Her remarks to her nephew were more than complimentary. By then she was a very sick woman, partly paralysed, and another attack would leave her completely paralysed for the rest of her life.
The Mozartean writers also inform us that Constanze had an elaborate monument erected over the grave with only Nissen's name inscribed on it. However, we know from Vincent and Mary Novello who, in 1829 visited Nissen's grave in Constanze's company, that the monument was a simple pyramid with the names of all occupants inscribed on it.
The rule that prevails in Salzburg to this day does not allow burials in the same grave for seven years after the last interment. Nannerl, who saw herself dying well before this period elapsed, wrote a number of codicils to her will, the last one stating her wish to be buried in St. Peters's Cemetery. Nannerl died on October 29, 1829 and was buried in the tomb which contained the remains of some Salzburg notables as well as the remains of Michael Haydn.
Constanze died on March 6, 1842 and was buried next to her husband in St. Sebastian Cemetery.
There is something definitely wrong with the monument on this august grave. First of all, Constanze's name appears on the front of the monument and Nissen's on the back of it. There are a number of tablets on the grave commemorating all other occupants. This is not unusual in Salzburg's Communal Cemetery where the names of the latest occupants appear on the gravestone and the earlier occupants' names appear on tablets placed on the grave.
But why did Constanze place her name on the front of the monument and her husband's name on the back of it. Why on earth would she have given the engraver the wrong date and the wrong place of her birth?
How did she know the exact date of her own death?
The answer comes from a number of letters written by Carl Mozart to his friend, Johann Ritter von Finetti, who had moved from Milan to Salzburg. Finetti informed Carl that over past 30 years, the monument on his mother's grave had crumbled and as the Mozarteum authorities were just then getting ready for the centennial celebrations of Mozart's birth, a new monument would have to be erected.
Carl agreed to have a new monument erected and this was done with much love and attention by Finetti and Alois Taux, the director of the Mozarteum. Taux and his wife planted pansies all over the grave with their own hands and the tradition of pansies flowering on what is now known as Constanze Mozart's grave continues to this day. Finetti and Taux must have decided to put Constanze's name on the front of the monument and they may have made the mistake in quoting Constanze's birth date and place of birth.
In summary, the Church authorities made the decision to bury Madam Weber and Nissen in the same grave with Leopold Mozart and there certainly was no "desecration" involved on Constanze's part.
Kind regards, Agnes.