02 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Herbert Francis Peyser

Mozarts earthly journey was remarkably brief, yet it was rich with extraordinary achievements that left an indelible mark on the world. In this booklet, the author grapples with the challenge of capturing the essence of a life so densely packed with events—from early triumphs to profound tragedies. Rather than attempting a comprehensive evaluation of Mozarts immense creative legacy, the author offers a glimpse into the pivotal moments that shaped the master’s unforgettable story. - Summary by Authors Preface

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part two of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Herbert F. Peiser.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part two
Vienna and Lafitta Semplice. Not quite a year later, the
Mozarts were off again, this time to Vienna for the

(00:20):
betrothal festivities of the Archduchess Maria Josepha and King Ferdinand
of Naples. But the great expectations were hardly realized. A
small pox epidemic in the capital carried off the royal bride,
and Leopold fled with his family to Olmutes, where both
the children contracted the disease. Both Gang lay blind for

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nine days and for some time had to be careful
of his eyes. Only on Christmas Eve were they well
enough to set out again. On their return to Vienna,
Maria Theresa received them kindly, but things had changed. Economy
was the order of the day the Aristocras. He followed
the example set by the imperial household. Musical activities were reduced,

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and the Mozarts felt the pinch. Interest in the prodigies diminished.
Joseph the Second, who had succeeded his mother on the throne,
expressed a desire to hear in Vienna an opera of
the twelve year old Boy's composition, and suggested such a
work to the lassie of the court theater, Giuseppe Aflioso.

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The result was La Finta Samplice, its libretto based on
a goldone farce, and it was arranged that the composer
should lead it from the harpsichord. Nothing came of the scheme, however,
presumably because of intrigues. The youth was partly consoled for
this check by a noted physician, the celebrated doctor Anton

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Mesmer and early practitioner of Mesmerism, at whose suburban home
the one act German Zingspiel Bastin unt Bastien, based on
a parody of Jean Jacques Rousseau's famous pastoral La damin
du ve lige, was performed. The little piece, for all
its simplicity, lives on. Perhaps the most striking thing about

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the score is the fact that the prelude or entrada
begins with the theme that was to be the main
subject of Beethoven's Eroica. The travelers came back to Salzburg
early in seventeen sixty nine. The trip had not been
a financial profit, but Wolfgang was undoubtedly richer in experience

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and had added to his creative store. The archbishop delighted
them by ordering a performance of Lafitta Samplice, though he
had no genuine opera buffa personnel at his disposal. The
leading soprano part of Rosina was sung by Maria Anna Heiden,
Michael Haydn's wife. The year was largely devoted to further

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study and composition, chiefly of masses and other church music
written at the command of the friendly Archbishop, and in
addition of symphonies and other forms of entertainment music for
garden parties, festivities, and social functions of the high placed
and well to do, and Wolfgang was appointed concertmaster in

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the arch Episcopal Orchestra Italy and Mozart's early operas. Leopold
realized that the hour had now struck for that long
projected trip to Italy, which he wished to take before
Wolfganger reached the age and stature which would deprive his
accomplishments of all that was marvelous. Plainly, it would not

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do to let the boy outgrow his precocity, and so
on December thirteenth, seventeen sixty nine, father and son set
out on an adventure that was to resolve itself into
three separate journeys to what was rightly or wrongly esteemed
as the home of music and of art in general.
The youth was now ripe for Italy, the language he

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absorbed by second nature, as it were, everywhere he made
valuable new friendships and came across old acquaintances. In Milan,
he was commissioned to write an opera seria, and the
following October he composed Mitre date Re di Ponto, which
produced on December twenty six, seventeen seventy amid cries of

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Viva il Mastrino, had twenty performances in Bologna. He greatly
impressed the aged Castrato Farinelli and the great Padre Martini,
dean of Italian musicians. At Naples, he had to remove
a ring from his finger upon playing to convince the
superstitious that it was not the real explanation of his

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magic skill. In Rome, after a single hearing of the
papal choir singing, Allegri celebrated Miserrei, which nobody was allowed
to copy under penalty of excommunication. He wrote it down
from memory and then listened to it a second time
to make a few minor corrections. The Pope bestowed on

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Wolfgang the Order of the Golden Spur, which enabled him
to sign his letters with the whimsical Chevalier de Mozart.
He was invited to undergo a difficult examination for membership
in the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna, and passed it by
working out in an hour a problem that consisted of
producing in the strict church style and antiphon certe primium.

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The real truth, however, is that the authorities accepted him
only after they had charitably corrected what he submitted. It
was not long before the Philharmonic Society of Verona, likewise
conferred membership upon him, this time presumably without the preliminary
of a test. Now Maestro di capella, he was ordered

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to provide a serenata ascagno in alba. Wolfgang completed its
fairly voluminous score in twelve days for the impending marrige
of Archduke Rudolph and the Princess Maria of Modina. Leopold
imagined his son made for life, But the boy's music,
for all its charm and fluency, still wanted the unmistakably

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creative touch the tireless traveler. Doctor Burney wrote a little later,
if I may judge of the music which I have
heard of his composition in the orchestra, he is one
further instance of the early fruit being more extraordinary than excellent.
And the composer has believed that young Mozart is certainly

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a prodigy for his age. The father adores his son
over much, and does all he can to spoil him.
But I have so good an opinion of the innate
goodness of the boy that I hope that, despite his
father's adulation, he will not allow himself to be spoiled.
The pair went briefly to Salzburg in seventeen seventy one,

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and started south again for Milan, where Ascanno in Alba
was to be given in an October. The work was
duly presented for the princely nuptials, along with Hass's opera Ruggiero,
likewise commissioned for the festivities. According to the father's report,
the youth Festa tetral completely eclipsed the work of the

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venerable Master, who, far from being jealous, is said to
have remarked this boy will throw us all into the shade.
Scarcely were the traveler's home. Once more than the kindly
archbishop died. His successor was the former Bishop of Girk, Hieronymus,
Count of Colorado. Like many others the Mozart's scented trouble,

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for Colorado was a hard boiled bigot and in every
respect the reverse of his predecessor. He lives on in
history principally as Mozart's evil genius, and as the man who,
in the end was to fan Wolfgang's detestation of Salzburg
to white heat and to drive him to open mutiny.
Hieronymus knew by a kind of intuition that his his

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new subjects were not well disposed to him, so, in
the words of a contemporary chronicler, he despised them and
held himself aloof his rule. Says Palmgartner, was something other
than the ancien regime of his forerunner, the musical highlights
of which had been Leopold Mozart, Ernst Eberln and Cajitan

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a de Gasser. Colorado was a revolutionary and a deadly
foe of routine, and sought to put his ideas into
force by sharpest disciplinary measures. His taste, however, ran to
the easy grace of Italian music. Yet he did, in
his chilly way, at first look upon Wolfgang as a
talent he might use for the greater glory of his court.

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For his new master's festive installation in seventeen seventy two,
the composer wrote a one act serenata along the lines
of his escagno, entitled Ilsgonio di Sipione, to a text
by Metastasio adapted from Cicero. The score was a typical
occasional work of allegorical character far more important in the

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creative sense, or at least eight symphonies and four divertimente,
in all of which are traces of the ripening genius
shortly to emerge. The third Italian visit differed in some
ways from the earlier ones. Luccio Cilia, produced in Milan
in December twenty sixth, seventeen seventy two, was not acclaimed

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as Mitre date had been. Outwardly. It was successful and
enjoyed more than twenty performances, but did not hold the stage.
To begin with, the opera had an inferior libretto, and
Wolfgang absorbing other musical influences, was less concerned about catering
meticulously to Italian tastes. Moreover, he was no longer the

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child prodigy whose every action was to be considered phenomenal,
but the real reason lay deeper. A prophetic ear might
have detected the vibrations of a storm and stress period
beginning to ferment in the spirit of the artist. Leopold
made a vain effort to secure his son a post
at the Grand Ducal Court of Tuscany, but Wolfgang received

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no more operatic commissions for Italy, so early in March
seventeen seventy three, taking a last leave of that land,
they returned to Salzburg, where Leopold was angered to see
Coloredo appoint an Italian rather than a German, to the
position of conductor. The elder Mozart now determined to try

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his luck in Vienna. After the death in seventeen seventy
four of Florian Gosman, the court composer, Leopold hoped to
secure the appointment for Wolfgang, and the two obtained an
audience with Maria Theresa, who, for all her graciousness, merely
replaced Gosman by one as Giuseppe Bono. At the moment

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there was no opportunity to earn anything in the capital,
but the young man became acquainted with something that, in
the long run was to prove even more rewarding. This
was the music of Joseph Hayden, whom he was not
to meet personally until later. The influence of Heiden on Mozart,
as of Mozart on Heiden, was to be incalculable from

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every standpoint. On December ninth, seventeen seventy four, father and
son were on a journey once more, this time to Munich,
where the Bavarian elector Maximilian the Third had commissioned a
Ulfgang to write an opera for the following carnival. It
was A Buffa la finta Giardiniera, and on January fourteenth,

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seventeen seventy five, the composer wrote to his mother, my
opera went so well yesterday that I find it impossible
to describe the applause. In the first place, the theater
was so packed that many had to be turned away.
After every aria, there was a wild tumult with hand
clappings in shouts of Viva Maestro, which began again as

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soon as it ended, and Christian Daniel Schubart wrote in
the Teutsche Kronik, I heard an opera buffa by the
marvelous Mozart. The fires of Genius Lurk and dart in it.
Yet this is still not the sacred fire which rises
to the gods in clouds of incense. If Mozart does
not become a hothouse plant, he will be the greatest

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composer who ever lived. Il Re Pastor, However, Archbishop Colorado
was growing irritable over these continual absences of his servants.
He had not been able to refuse the request of
the elector to permit the Mozarts to go to Munich,
but he at last wanted his vice Capellmeister and his

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son back. Henceforth, it was not going to be so
easy to obtain the great cleric's leave to go wandering,
whatever the reason. So for the immediate future, the impatient
young genius settled down to compose and to perform. A
stream of works were put on paper in seventeen seventy
five and seventeen seventy six. Five violin concertos were written

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the first year. They are the best known of Mozart's
concertos for that instrument, and were conceived in the main
for the violinist Brunetti of the Court Orchestra. With all
their charm, they still stand below the great clavier concertos
in grandeur and epoch making qualities. Bof Gang did not

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particularly enjoy the violin, although his father exhorted him to
practice and told him that he could be the greatest
violinist in Europe. Another work in seventeen seventy five was
Ilre pastor, a cross between opera and cantata two, a
poem by Metestasio composed for a visit to the archbishop

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of Archduke Maximilian. A score of sensitive loveliness, it is
known today chiefly for its tenuis soprano aria with violin
solo lamealsarro costanda. Of the many other creations of this
period we can only mention in passing, the six clavier
sonatas for the barren Genets, the innumerable variations, the serenades

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no turne di vertimente, masses, Offertorius, organ sonatas e litanies graduals,
the stunning clavier concertos for his own use for the
French pianist Mademoiselle Genome, the Countess Luzzo, and other high
placed local amateurs. Last, but far from least, he composed

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the serenade, later transformed into a symphony by the elimination
of a movement or two for the wealthy Hofner family,
of whom Sigmund Hoffner, a merchant prince, was burgomaster of Salzburg,
Mannheim and Paris. Despite all this work, the young man

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chase at the narrow provincialism of his native town, at
the absence of true artistic interest at the company he
was obliged to keep at the archbishop's table, and most
of all, at that cleric's attitude. Leopold, seeing the dangerous
way in which the situation was shaping itself between the
young man and his master, made an effort to stave

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off a catastrophe by planning another trip. Bofgang applied to
the archbishop for his discharge, whereupon Colorado, who was not
really anxious to lose the composer's services, told the pair
to seek their fortunes where they pleased, but at the
same time would not permit Leopold to leave. The father
thereupon decided that his son should go to Paris, perhaps

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to find some lucrative position at the French court, unless
he should be lucky enough to discover one somewhere else.
But since he was forbidden to go along, he deputed
his wife to go in his place and keep a
careful eye on the impulsive young man. The Webers and Paris.
Early on September twenty three, seventeen seventy seven, Wolfgang and

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his mother, who would much rather have remained in Salzburg,
drove off in a newly purchased carriage. The departure was
a bitter event for Leopold, whose trouble was such that
he forgot to give his son his blessing before the
vehicle was out of sight, and Earle, equally distraught, was
sick and had to take to her bed. To add
to the melancholy of the occasion, Father Mozart darkened the

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house and fell asleep till roused hours later by Bimperl
the dog. The woeful day finally dragged itself to an end.
It would have been far more terrible had they known
that poor Maria Anna was never to return. They went
first to Munich, where Wulfgang made an ineffectual appeal to
the elector and received that answer with which he was

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in the course of his life to become so tragically familiar. Yet,
my dear child, but there is no position free now,
if only there were, et cetera, et cetera. At Augsburg,
the next stop, he divided his time between andre Stein,
the piano maker, whose instruments stirred his interest, and his

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cousin the Basil, with whom he freely indulged in those
ribaldries that so shocked the Puritanical generations of the next century.
From that ancestral seat they turned to Monheim, which was
a very different story. For here Mozart found all manner
of musical interests and important personalities, and here he fell

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devastatingly in love. He had made the acquaintance of the
family of Fridolen and Maria cecil Weber. A streak of
Bohemianism ran through the lot of them. The father, in
straightened circumstances, eked out an existence in Manheim as singer, musician, copyist, prompter,

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in short, a kind of man of all work in
the theater and orchestra. The mother was a sinister creature, an
out and out adventuress. The couple had four daughters, Josefa
Aluisia Constance and Sophie Constance was in the fullness of
time to become Mozart's wife, but his feelings were at

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first kindled by Aliosa, who was then only fifteen, and
with whom Maria Cecil at this stage set about to
tempt the young man, who was quickly bowled over by
the girl's feminine charms, her lovely voice, and her musicianship.
In the years to come, each of these women was
to play some part in the composer's life. A few

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years later, there was born, in a closely related branch
of the Weber family, that figure who made the name immortal,
Carl Maria von Weber, so that through marriage the creators
of their fry Shoots and of dis Alberfreta became cousins.
Love caused volfgan to build castles in the air and

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to concoct extravagant schemes. He composed abundantly in Manheim, planned
operas and what not for his idolized Aluisia, and before
long was riding to his father, proposing to give up
the Paris venture altogether and set out on a trip
to Italy with the Webersleopold was horrified, the more so
as his wife wrote telling him exactly how things stood.

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Father Mozart sternly laid down the law to his son
and ended with the words, off with you to Paris,
and that soon find your place among great people ott
kaissar ot nihil. The mere thought of seeing Paris ought
to have preserved you from all these flighty ideas. Bofguang

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did not, it is true, rebel, And in the end
he went to Paris. But he answered his father with
some heat. He declared that he was no longer a
child and had no intention of tolerating aspersions on his
conduct with all luetia. There are some people, he added,
who think it impossible to love a girl without evil designs.

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And this pretty word mistress is indeed a fine one.
But Leopold had for the moment won his point, and
in March seventeen seventy eight, Wolfgang and his mother were off.
The Paris adventure turned out a dismal fiasco. Even Melchior Grimm,
once so helpful, was not interested this time. He was

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willing to promote a sensation who gave promise of being
a money maker. But as Alfred Einstein has noted it
was Wolfgang's character that made Leopold wrong in his estimate
of Paris and the Parisian nobility. For Wolfgang was no conqueror,
and he could not have conquered Paris even if he
had wanted to. How carefully Greek's conquest of Paris had

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been prepared. Not only ambassadors and queens, but the entire
public took part in these preparations. Mozart slipped into Paris
quietly and unobserved, accompanied by his mother, who had come
along to keep an eye on him. He detested Paris,
thought continually of Alioso, had no use for the now

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surly grim turned down the offer of an organist post
in Versailles, feeling that the place was no more than
a suburb. Had some unsatisfactory dealings with le Groaux, director
of the concert Spirituelle, composed for the Parisian stage no
more than the ballet Les petit Rain, easily succumbed to

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some of Lagroue's intrigues, and was demoralized. Generally. Only one
work of his, the D Major Symphony K. Two ninety seven,
was outspokenly successful. To climax his woes, his mother fell
ill and died on July three, seventeen seventy eight. He
had to ask the old Salzburg family friend Abbe Boulanget

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to break the news to his father and Si sister,
and he wrote, you have no idea what a dreadful
time I have been having here. Until one is well known,
nothing can be done in the matter of composition. From
my description of the music here you may have gathered
that I am not very happy, and that I am
trying to get away as quickly as possible. As quickly

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as possible was not till September seventeen seventy eight he
decided reluctantly to return to Salzburg to the Archbishop's service,
where he would conduct and accompany, but not play violin.
Even so, he was momentarily tempted to stay on in Paris,
and might even have done so if Grim had not

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been obviously eager to be rid of him. He did
not hurry back to the hated Salzburg, but stopped off
in Strasburg, Mannheim and Munich, where he found the flighty Aliosso,
already the wife of Joseph Lange, the itinerant actor to
whom posterity Owes the familiar una unfinished portrait of Mozart.

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When he finally did submit to the inevitable trip home,
he lacked the courage to meet his bereaved father alone,
and so took his dear little Basal with him Idomeneo.
At the archbishop's table, he sat between the castrado Cicerelli
and the violinist Brunetti. If he felt revolted by his

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present circumstances, he seems, however, to have taken refuge in
the inner sanctuary of his spirit. He created quantities of
priceless works, and in so doing could forget situations in
themselves repugnant. There were church compositions, serenades de vertimente, the
Gorgeous Symphony Concertante for violin and viola, K. Three sixty four,

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a triple Concerto for violin, viola and cello, the adorable
E flat Concerto for two pianos K three sixty five,
three Symphonies in G B flat and sea, some music
for Gabler's drama Tomos Kernig in aegyptin which he had
begun five years earlier and was a foretaste of the

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magic flute. And lastly an operatic fragment entitled Zaida after
Mozart's death and destined to remain a torso by seventeen
eighty however, a bof Gang was to some degree compensated
for his disillusionments while labouring on Zaida. He was commissioned
by the Bavarian elector Carl Theodor to write an opera

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seria for the Munich Canival of seventeen eighty one. The
Munich authorities picked a libretto, Idomeneo re di Creta ocia
ilia ed Damante, which was based on a book by
Antoine d'anche and which, as composed by Andre Compra as

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far back as seventeen twelve, had enjoyed a day of
fame in Paris. It dealt with the tale of the
Cretan king who had made a rash Jephtha vow to
Neptune on returning from the Trojan War, and was saved
from sacrificing his son by a dio SX machina. The
libretto was put in shape by the Salzburg cleric Gambattista Varesco,

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and called for, in accordance with French models, massive crowd scenes, ballets, choruses,
and all the effects of a large scale spectacle, as
well as vocal virtuosity and elaborate instrumental tone painting. For
a change, Mozart had things more or less his own way.
The Weber family had moved to Vienna, much to Leopold's relief,

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and for the moment the composer had no time to
worry about Aliosso, but went ahead, putting his new opera
into shape and helping to prepare the production. On the
whole he met with sympathetic cooperation. The Elector Calteodor welcomed
him cordially, the intent dant Count Cicco was helpful, and

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the women singers declared themselves pleased with their arias. The
chief difficulties were caused by the aging tenor Roff, who
had the title role, and the sixteen year old artificial
soprano cast for the part of Idemantes. Mozart, who used
to call him Miomoto Amoto Castrato del Prato, deplored the

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poor boy's lack of stage experience, musicianship and vocal method. Nevertheless, Idomeneo,
when brought out late in January seventeen eighty one, was
warmly acclaimed, and the Elector who had followed the rehearsal
from the first, marveled that so small a head should
contain such great things, insisting he had never been so

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stirred by any music. He had reason for his enthusiasm.
The score of Idomeneo is one of its composer's most
superb achievements, and if it lives on to day, chiefly
as a museum piece, it does so because, like Mitre Date,
Luccio Silla and Il Re Pastor before it, and La

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Clemenza di Tito after it, the work is a specimen
of opera seria, a form that had lost every trace
of vitality and dramatic punch. Yet to the end of
his days its creator valued it highly and made some
unavailing efforts to reanimate it. And of Part two