11. Maria Anna Thekla Mozart, see List.
12. The imperial councillor Jakob Wilhelm Benedikt Langenmantel von Westheim und Ottmarshausen (1719–90) was a childhood friend of Leopold Mozart. Both had studied at the Jesuit high school in Augsburg and in 1737 they travelled together to Salzburg, where they matriculated at the Benedictine University.
13. Of the Order of the Golden Spur.
14. Fr Anselm Hilber (1755–1827) was the son of Joseph Hilber, a violinist active in Salzburg from 1749.
15. Johann Michael Demmler (1748–85). Mozart later recommended Demmler to succeed Adlgasser as court and cathedral organist in Salzburg; in the event, he gained the post himself.
16. A small silver coin; see Note on Currencies.
17. The ‘Antretter’ music is the serenade K185; the contredanses cannot be identified. The violinist Antonio Brunetti (c. 1744–86) was concert master in Salzburg; Mozart wrote the adagio K261 and the rondo K269 for him.
18. The row was between Michael Haydn and Giacomo Rust (1741–86), Kapellmeister in Salzburg from 12 June 1777; at the end of the year he asked to be relieved of his post because the bad weather in Salzburg affected his health. Giuseppe Ferlendis (1755–1802) was an oboist active in the Salzburg court music establishment from 1775–8. The sonata is one of Wolfgang’s so-called epistle sonatas, one-movement instrumental works played between the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel during Mass; to this date, Mozart had written twelve such works: K67-69 (1771–2), 144, 145 (both 1774), 212 (1775), 241, 244, 245, 263 (all four 1776), 274 and 278 (both 1777).
1. The castrato Tommaso Consoli (1753-after 1811) sang the roles of Ramiro in La finta giardiniera (Munich, 1775) and Aminta in Il re pastore (Salzburg, 1775).
2. Joseph Anton, Count Seeau (1713-99), director of opera and drama at the Munich court.
3. Johann Baptist Becke (1743-1817), flautist in the Munich court chapel, who was a family friend.
4. Klemens Huber, actor and dramaturge active in Munich, 1776-9.
5. Maria Anna Sophie.
6. Johann Georg von Lori (1723-87), court councillor in Munich.
7. Sigl was apparently a local piano teacher.
8. ‘without any money’.
9. A comedy by Gustav Grossmann (1744-96) based on Julie, ou La nouvelle Héloïse (1761) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78).
10. Johann von Cröner (c. 1737–85) was a violinist.
11. ‘may God spare me them’.
12. Eugen Franz Erwein, Count Schönborn (1727-1801), hereditary high steward of Austria; his second wife, Maria Theresia (1744-1828), was the sister of Archbishop Colloredo.
13. ‘Farewell, my treasure.’
1. Joseph Thomas Cassel was a violinist, flautist and double bass player in the Salzburg court music establishment.
2. Voltaire’s Zaïre (1732), performed in German with incidental music by Michael Haydn.
3. Franz de Paula Gundacker, Count Colloredo (1731-1807) was the archbishop’s eldest brother.
4. Silvester Barisani (1719-1810), physician to Archbishop Colloredo.
5. Czech composer and music teacher Franz Xaver Duschek and his singer wife Josepha, see List.
6. ‘From the Most Exalted Prince’s (i.e. the archbishop’s) Decree.’ This decree is in reply to Leopold Mozart’s petition (now lost) to be reappointed as deputy Kapellmeister.
7. Joachim Kolb.
8. Antonio Ferrari, cellist; Franz de Paula Stadler (c. 1744-1827), tenor and violinist; Andreas Pinzger (1740-1817), violinist.
9. The works cannot be identified.
10. K272, Ah, lo previdi – Ah, t’invola agl’ occhi miei, composed in August 1777.A scena is an extended dramatic episode, often for solo singer.
11. Franz Xaver Wotschitka (c. 1727-96), chamber virtuoso at Munich.
12. Therese Pänkhlin (1738-?), the Mozarts’ maidservant.
13. In the event, Mozart sent Nannerl four preludes, K395, on 11 October 1777.
1. Joseph Ferdinand Maria, Count Salern (1718-1805) was Count Seeau’s predecessor as the director of opera and drama at Munich.
2. Wife and daughter of Johann Georg von Branca (1714-89).
3. The cassations are possibly K247 and K287. The identity of the rondeau is disputed – the serenade K250 has been proposed, but K251 is more likely.
4. Benefit performance.
5. Singspiel is the term for German-language opera, usually comic, with spoken dialogue.
6. Margarethe Kaiser, active at Munich 1776-84.
7. Giovanni Baptist Valesi (Johann Evangelist Wallishauser, 1735-1816), active at the Mannheim court during the 1770s; he sang the role of the High Priest of Neptune in the first performance of Idomeneo.
8. Wilhelm Ernst Sigmund von Rumlingen (?–1825) was later music director of the German court opera in Munich.
9. Mitridate, re di Ponto, Ascanio in Alba and Lucio Silla. Munich, 3 Oct. 1777 To all good friends bad friends good friends bad friends all manner of messages!
10. That is, Maria Aloisia Viktoria Robinig von Rottenfeld (1757-86). Aloisia von Schiedenhofen (1760-1831), below, was the sister of Johann Baptist von Schiedenhofen.
11. Joseph Fiala (1748-1816), an oboist active at the Palatine court (first at Mannheim, later at Munich) from April 1777.
1. Joseph Christian Willibald Michl (1745-1816), court composer at Munich.
2. Clemens Wenzel, Prince of Saxony, archbishop-elector of Trier; Pietro Pompeo Sales (1729-97) was music director at Ehrenbreitstein, the palace of the archbishop- electors of Trier, near Koblenz.
3. Aloisio Lodovico Fracassini (1733-98).
4. Unidentified.
5. Franz Lactanz, Count Firmian.
6. Prince Franz Xaver von Breuner (1723-97), cathedral dean at Salzburg.
7. Nannerl’s diary entries, which she included here, have been omitted.
1. Joseph Konrad von Hamm von Sonnenfels (1728-95), secretary in the war department at Munich; his daughter was Maria Anna Joseph Aloysia (1765-?). It seems that Leopold was considering taking her as a boarding pupil, but this plan did not materialize, see letter 79.
2. The Stube or Bauernstube was an inn across from the Augsburg city hall. In the preceding passage Mozart mentions a number of Leopold’s Augsburg contacts, including the instrument builder Johann Stein (see letter 52); Friedrich Hartmann Graf (1727-95) was music director in Augsburg and the brother of the composer Christian Ernst Graf (1723-1804), whom the Mozarts had met in The Hague.
3. Mozart had by this date composed four solo keyboard concertos: K175, 238, 246 and 271.
4. Joseph Hafeneder (1746-84) was a court violinist in Salzburg; his trio is lost.
5. A pun on the name Langenmantel (literally ‘longcoat’); kurz means ‘short’.
6. Here, too, Mozart plays with words. Sporn (‘spur’) is also dialect for Sparren (‘spar’ or ‘pole’); einen Sparren zu viel haben is ‘to have a screw loose’.
7. Anton Christoph Gignoux (1720-95), director of the local music society, was a long-standing acquaintance of Leopold Mozart.
8. Unidentified.
9.K175, 238, 246 or 271.
10. Maria Anna Thekla (Baäsle).
1. Franz Jakob SpĠth (1714-86), instrument builder in Regensburg.
2. Johann Andreas Schachtner (1731-95), Salzburg court trumpeter, poet and close friend of the Mozart family.
3. Father Philipp Gerbl (1719-1803), Kapellmeister at Augsburg cathedral.
4. Ignaz Franz von Beecke (1733-1803), pianist and composer, music director to Prince Kraft Ernst of Oettingen-Wallerstein.
5. ‘as wretched as usual’.
6. See previous letter; sonatas K279–284.
7. Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739-91), writer and editor of the influential Deutsche Chronik ; in the 27 April 1775 issue Schubart had written, ‘… I also heard an opera buffa by that wonderful genius Mozart. It is called La finta giardiniera. Flashes of genius appear here and there; but there is not yet that still altar-fire that rises tow
ards Heaven in clouds of incense – a scent beloved of the gods. If Mozart is not a plant forced in the hot-house, he is bound to grow into one of the greatest musical composers who ever lived.’
8. Father Aemilian Angermayr (1735-1803), professor of theology.
1. 31 October.
1. At his Augsburg concert of 22 October 1777, Mozart played an unidentified symphony, the concerto for three pianos K242, the solo sonata K284, the solo concerto K238, and an improvisation consisting of a fugue and sonata.
2. Christian Cannabich (1731-98), composer, violinist and Kapellmeister at Mannheim and Schwetzingen (the elector’s summer residence). When the Palatinate and Bavarian courts merged in 1778 he moved to Munich.
3. Rosina Theresia Petronella (1764–?1808), known as Rosa. The sonata is K309.
4. Christian Franz Danner (1757#8211;1813), violinist in the Mannheim court orchestra.
5. The oboist was Friedrich Ramm (1744–c. 1811); a child prodigy, he had joined the Mannheim court music as a fourteen-year-old. Mozart presented him with K314, composed in Salzburg in 1777.
6.K279-284.
7. Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer (1711-83), composer and court music director at Mannheim; Louis Aurel, Count Savioli (?–1788), court music intendant.
8. Karl Theodor (1724-99), Elector Palatine and from 1778 Elector of Bavaria.
9. In July 1763, see letter 5.
10. Mozart refers to Colloredo’s reforms of the Mass, see letter 48.
11. Georg Joseph Vogler (1749-1814), composer and writer on music, second Kapellmeister at Mannheim.
12. Ignaz Holzbauer’s Günther von Schwarzburg, composed to celebrate the elector’s name day on 4 November and first performed on 5 November 1777.
13. Elisabeth Maria Aloysia Auguste (1721-94), wife of Elector Karl Theodor; Mozart dedicated the accompanied sonatas K301-306 to her.
14. Carolina Josepha Philippine, Countess Bretzenheim (1768-86) was the eldest daughter of the elector with his mistress, the choreographer Josepha Seyffert.
15. ‘I kiss my father’s hands and embrace my sister tenderly and, in sending my best wishes to all and sundry, I remain with all my heart’.
16. For the next shooting competition.
1. Bartholomäus Christa (1714-78), abbot of Holy Cross, Augsburg.
2. She had promised to send Mozart her portrait.
3. Juliana and Josepha Freysinger, daughters of court councillor Franziskus Erasmus Freysinger, who had been at school with Leopold Mozart in Augsburg during the 1730s.
4. Unidentified.
5. Robert Spaethling notes in Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life (London, 2000) that ‘333’ (German drei drei drei) could be a phonetic transcription of the Salzburg dialect treu treu treu, which also has the meaning ‘true, true, true’ – that is, ‘thrice faithful unto death’.
6. Mozart writes the date in reverse but has it wrong; it should be 5th November 1777.
1. For the elector’s name day celebrations.
2. The music for the ballet was by Cannabich and the choreography by étienne Lauchéry, director of the court balls.
3. 6 November.
4. None of the works performed by Mozart can be identified with certainty. It is likely, though, that the concerto was K175, 238, 246 or 271.
5. They were all his natural (illegitimate) children.
6. 15 November.
7. K309, written for Rosa Cannabich.
8. ‘Monsieur, I assure you, it’s impossible to play any better.’
9. La finta giardiniera.
10. Carl August Friedrich Joseph, Count (later Prince) Bretzenheim (1769-1823).
11. Johann Baptist Wendling (1723-97) and his daughter, the singer Elisabeth Augusta Wendling (1752-94).
1. In a letter of 13 November Mozart reported to Leopold that for his performances at court Count Savioli had not given him money, which he would have preferred, but a watch.
2. He had not.
3. Leopold Heinrich Pfeil (1725/6-92) was a French teacher in Frankfurt; he had formerly been secretary to the father of the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).
4. Friedrich Karl von Erthal (reigned 1774-1802), archbishop-elector of Mainz.
5. Presumably Johann Adam Kreusser, concertmaster at Mainz, though his younger brother, the Kapellmeister Georg Anton Kreusser might be intended.
6. Johann Franz Xaver Starck (?–1799), cathedral organist at Mainz.
7. Friedrich Melchior von Grimm.
8. Franz Lamotte (?1751–81), violinist.
9. That is, the bishop of Chiemsee.
10. Maximilian III Joseph.
11. Contract.
12. The performance of Holzbauer’s Günther von Schwarzburg.
13. The tenor Anton Raaff (1714–97), who sang in this performance, was sixty-three years old.
1. Dietrich Heinrich Schmalz (1720-97), banker.
2. The seat of the princes of Oettingen-Wallerstein in western Bavaria.
3. The brothers Joseph Maria Marcus and Jakob Philipp Bolongaro had founded a bank (and a tobacco dealership) in Frankfurt c. 1740.
4. The archbishop-elector of Cologne at this time was Max Friedrich von Koönigsegg-Rothenfels (reigned 1761-84).
1. Christian Cannabich and Georg Joseph Vogler.
2. Count Savioli.
3. Carl August.
4. K179.
5. Carolina.
6. K284f, which is otherwise unknown.
7. K309.
8. A copy of this sonata, entirely in Leopold Mozart’s hand, is in private ownership in Switzerland.
1. K26–31; see letter 12.
2. Prince Karl Christian of Nassau-Weilburg (1735-88); his principality lay north of the river Main and east of the Rhine.
3. Emmerich Joseph von Breidbach-Bürresheim (reigned 1763-74).
4. Johann Rudolf, Count Czernin (1757–1845), nephew of Archbishop Colloredo.
5. Michael Haydn.
6. Anton Triendl (1721–96), Salzburg city councillor and son-in-law of Siegmund Haffner the elder.
1. K309.
2. Ferdinand Dejean (1731-97), physician and amateur musician who had been a surgeon with the Dutch East India Company from 1758-67.
3. Anton Joseph Serrarius, privy councillor to the elector.
4. Marie Antoinette had become queen of France on the accession of the dauphin as Louis XVI in 1774.
5. Nothing came of Mozart’s plan although the fragmentary K322 apparently belongs to this time and may represent an aborted attempt by him to compose a mass for the elector.
6. Thaddäus, Baron von Dürnitz (1756-1803), for whom Mozart wrote the piano sonata K284.
7. The bishop of Chiemsee.
8. Johann Gottlieb Pergmayr, Mozart’s godfather.
9. Maria Clara Susanna Auer (b. 1742), daughter of the administrator of the cathedral chapter, Franz Christoph Auer.
1. Wendling, the oboist Ramm and Georg Wenzel Ritter (1748–1808), bassoonist in the Mannheim court orchestra.
2. Ferdinand Dejean.
1. The cathedral organist Anton Adlgasser had died on 21 December 1777 while playing at Vespers. Franz Joseph, Count Starhemberg (1748-1819) was a canon at Salzburg cathedral.
2. Johann Georg Hagenauer (1748-1835), court architect.
3. Joseph Franz Anton, Count Auersperg, bishop of Gurk from 1772-83.
4. Maximilian III Joseph died on 30 December 1777. He was the last of the junior branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty, rulers of Bavaria since the early fourteenth century, and was succeeded by his distant cousin, Elector Karl Theodor of the Palatinate, from the senior branch of the dynasty.
5. Maximilian Franz Joseph, Count Berchem (d. 1777), intendant general of the electoral court.
6. Attilio Regolo by Carlo Monza (c. 1735-1801).
7. Leopold Lamprecht (d. 1780), who had baptized Mozart.
8. Michael Haydn.
9. Franz Ignaz Lipp (1718-98), third court organist from 1754; he was Michael Haydn’s future father-in-law.
&nbs
p; 10. 26 December.
11. Drama by Heinrich Ferdinand Möller (1745-98).
12. Franz de Paula Deibl (?1698–1783), oboist.
1. Presumably these are the flute quartets commissioned by Ferdinand Dejean.
1. Paul Rothfischer (1746–85), violinist.
2. From K279–284.
3. Unidentified.
4. Pietro Lugiati, who had befriended the Mozarts in Italy.
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