WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

AMADEUS IN 1787

PERSONA

Leopold Mozart

On May 28, 1787, Leopold – the father of Wolfgang – died at Salzburg, following a disease. The father-son relationship was not very harmonious during these last years. The father hoped to keep his son under his supervision whereas the son longed for a broader horizon. That did not prevent Mozart from being touched by the departure of his first idol.

SOCIETÀ

Mozart and Beethoven

The Learning

In 1787, Beethoven was sixteen years old and regarded Mozart as a great master of music. At the time of his stay in Vienna, he assisted to some lessons of Wolfgang who would not have perceived a future genius in him. This meeting left the pupil somewhat disappointed.

“One is mistaken in general when it is said that my art was easy for me to acquire. I assure you, my dear friend, that nobody had as much hard time than me to study composition. It would not be easy to find a famous master in music that I did not study with application, and often studied on several occasions, from start to finish.”
Mozart quoted by Niemtschek

IN DIRETTA

Figaro triumphs at Prague

At Prague, the opera Le nozze di Figaro was welcomed with great enthusiasm:

“Never did we see the theater so full of people, neither such powerful and unanimous rapture as the one aroused by his divine play. Indeed, we did not know which of his extraordinary composition or his extraordinary play was to be most admired. One and the other made on our hearts an overall impression similar to a sweet charm.”
Niemtschek

KOECHEL

Don Giovanni

I came

Don Giovanni opera tells the last feats of a noble unscrupulous seducer who succeeds in dodging the revenge of people that he misled. He is then facing the statue of a gigantic knight coming from beyond the grave to judge him before escorting him in hell:
E son venuto!

Interestingly, the work was qualified by Mozart as an opera-buffa, by librettist Da Ponte as a dramma giocoso, and in Vienna, by posters advertising, as a Singspiel.

“I am so much in love with the music of Don Juan that, even at the moment where I write to you, I would like to cry of emotion and fever... By its intermediary I penetrated in this area of artistic beauty where only geniuses reside... That I devoted my life to music, it is to Mozart that I owe it.”
Tchaikovsky

K.46	Transcription for string quintet No. 1 of the serenade, K.361, in B flat Major (very doubtful authenticity)
K.298	Quartet for flute and strings in A Major
K.406	Transcription for string quintet No. 3 of the serenade, K.388, in C Minor
K.511	Rondo for piano in A Minor
K.512	Recitative: "Alcandro, lo Confesso..." in C Major and aria: "Non so d'Onde Viene...", in F Major for bass
K.513	Aria for bass: "Mentre ti Lascio, o Figlia...", in E flat Major
K.514	Rondo for horn and orchestra in D Major
K.514a	Unfinished beginning of a string quintet in B flat Major
K.515	String quintet No. 4 in C Major
K.516	String quintet No. 5 in G Minor
K.517	"Die Alte" (the old woman), Lied in E Minor
K.518	"Die Verschweigung" (the mystery), Lied in F Major
K.519	"Das Lied der Trennung" (song of separation), in F Minor
K.520	"Als Luise die Briefe Ihres Ungetreuen Liebhabers Verbrannte" (When Louise burned the letters of her unfaithful lover), Lied in C Minor
K.521	Sonata for piano with four hands in C Major
K.522	"Ein Musikalischer Spass" (a musical joke), Divertimento in F Major for string quartet and two horns
K.523	"Abendempfindung, an Laura" (Twilight impression, for Laura), Lied in F Major
K.524	"An Chloe", Lied in E flat Major
K.525	Serenade No. 13 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" (a little night music), for two violins, viola, violoncello and double bass, in G Major
K.526	Sonata for piano and violin No. 42 in A Major
K.527	"Don Giovanni, Ossia: il Dissoluto Punito" (Don Juan, or the punishment of debauched one), opera buffa
K.528	Dramatic scene for soprano - for Josepha Duschek: Recitative "Bella mia Fiamma..." in E Minor, and aria "Resta, O Cara..." in C Major
K.529	"Des Kleinen Friedrichs Geburtstag" (the small Frederic anniversary), Lied in F Major
K.530	"Das Traumbild" (vision of a dream), Lied in E flat Major
K.531	"Die Kleine Spinnerin" (the small spinner), Lied in C Major

CON SPIRITO

Death as a goal

“Death (to take it exactly) is the true goal of our life. Since a few years, I familiarized myself so much with this true and excellent friend of the man that its face is very alleviating and very comforting to me, and no more frightening! And I thank my God for having awarded me the happiness to seize the occasion (you understand me) to learn how it's the key of our true bliss. I never sleep on evening without thinking that, perhaps the next day (as young as I am), I will not be there any more - and yet, nobody of all those who know me can say that I would be disgruntled or sad when in my company.”
Mozart to his sick father

Glossaryexpressions and names used in this page

Beethoven: Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. Prodigy child and talented composer, Beethoven met Mozart at Vienna in 1787. His work is described as romantic.
Da Ponte: Lorenzo Emanuele Conegliano - known as Da Ponte - (1749-1838),was born in Italy and was a writer and a librettist. Expelled from his native land in 1780, he became poet of the theatre then poet of the Court in Vienna. He is the author of mozartian operas booklets, namely Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi Fan Tutte.
E son venuto!: From the Italian: I came!

A remark addressed to Don Giovanni by the statue.
Mozart and death: It is true that Mozart and death had in common two of his sons and his mother.
Prague: (Praha in Czech) Capital of the Czech Republic, situated on the Vltava river, in the mid-west of the territory, in central Bohemia.

At the time of Mozart, Bohemia was a German territory.
Salzburg: Salzburg counted 10,000 inhabitants, all Catholics since 1733, whereas last Lutheran Protestants had fled to Prussia. At the time of Mozart, one inhabitant of Salzburg out of five relied on the Court to survive.
Tchaikovsky: Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a Russian composer. His music style is post-romantic.
Vienna: Capital of the Republic of Austria. Vienna had been for 400 years the heart of the Austrian Empire when in the XVIIIth century, Maria Theresa and her sons Joseph II and Leopold II – from Habsburg's family – reigned on the Empire.