Mozart
Best wishes from my wife and children.
If you could heat the room for a few days, I’d be grateful. It doesn’t need to be much in the front stove.
[ On the envelope ]
It has been surprisingly cold here in recent days; and today in particular it’s exceptionally cold. Her Majesty the Empress has lost another princess, Princess Johanna, 13 years of age. She took my Wolferl by the hand and led him back and forth in her rooms when we were with her.
The Mozart family arrived backin Salzburg on 5 January 1763. Leopold was promoted to deputy Kapellmeister in the court music establishment on 28 February, receiving a modest increase in salary, and that evening Wolfgang played at court. But they did not stay in Salzburg for long: on 9 June the Mozarts set out on what was to become a three-and-a-half-year tour of the German states, France, England, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Their first stop was Munich, the capital of the prince-electors of Bavaria.
3. Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, 21 June 1763, Munich
We’re stuck here in Munich. We got here on Sunday evening, the 12th; Monday was a state occasion on account of the Feast of St Anthony, so we drove to Nymphenburg.1 The Prince of Zweibrücken, 2 who knew us from Vienna, saw us from the castle as we were walking in the park and, recognizing us, beckoned to us from the window, so we went over to him and after talking to us about various things, he asked us whether the elector3 knew we were there. We said no; so he immediately sent a courtier who was standing next to him to ask the elector if he wanted to hear the children. – – Meanwhile we were to go for a walk in the park and wait for the answer. – – In fact a footman arrived at once and told us to return at 8 for the concert. It was 4 o’clock; and so we continued our walk through the park and saw Babenburg4 but a sudden downpour and thunderstorm forced us to take shelter. To be brief, Woferl did well. We didn’t get home till a ¼ past 11, ate first and as a result got to bed very late. On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings we were with Duke Clemens, 5 on Thursday evening we stayed at home on account of the heavy rain. It’s now a matter of some urgency that we work out how to proceed: they have the charming custom here of keeping people waiting for presents for a long time, so you have to be happy to recover your expenses. Herr Tomasini6 has been here for 3 weeks. Only now has he been paid. Tell Herr Wenzel7 he can imagine how delighted we were to meet here so unexpectedly. He recognized me before I recognized him as he has now grown tall, strong and handsome. He certainly acknowledged the old friendship that I had shown him in Salzburg, and this touched me and showed me that he has a good heart. He too is going to Stuttgart and Mannheim, but then he’s coming back to Vienna. So the bishop of Passau is dead? – – Requiescat in pace! Judicia Dei etc. God can thwart so many people’s plans [line illegible].
On the 18th the elector dined in town. We too were invited; he and his sister and the Prince of Zweibrücken talked to us throughout the meal; I got my boy to say that we were planning to leave the next day. Twice the elector said that he was sorry not to have heard my little girl, for there wasn’t enough time when we were at Nymphenburg, as my boy on his own took up most of the time improvising and then playing a concerto on the violin and at the keyboard; two ladies sang, and then it was over. And so when he said a second time: I’d like to have heard her, I could only say that it wouldn’t matter if we stayed a few days longer. And so we’ve no choice but drive to Augsburg as quickly as possible on Wednesday. For yesterday there was a hunt. Today there is a French play and as a result she can’t play until tomorrow. I may thank God if I’m paid on Tuesday. I shan’t be detained by the duke, but he’s waiting to see what the elector gives me. Herr Tomasini has good reason to be displeased with the elector. He performed on 2 occasions and had to wait a long time before finally receiving 10 max d’or.8 But the duke gave him a beautiful gold watch. Basta! I’ll be happy if I recover what I’ve had to spend here and what I may still need before I get to Augsburg. I can hardly wait to get out of here. I can’t complain about the elector. He’s extremely kind and said to me only yesterday that we’re already old acquaintances; it must be 19 years since we first met. But the apostles9 think only of themselves and their purses. We dined recently with the Hamburg merchant Monsieur König, who visited us in Salzburg; he too was staying at Stürzer’s, 10 but at the front of the building, while we are 2 floors up in the new building. I also met a certain Herr Johann Georg Wahler of Frankfurt, who similarly dined with us and gave me his address. He lives on the Römerberg and is going to find private lodgings for me in Frankfurt. On the same occasion we met two Saxon councillors, Messrs de Bose and Hopfgarten;11 they are both the most delightful people and, God willing, we shall meet all these gentlemen again, either in Stuttgart or Mannheim, as they are taking the same route as us.
As I’m writing this letter every day, it will eventually be finished.
We are leaving tomorrow, the 22nd. Farewell. I am etc.
P.S.: We have now been paid. From the elector we received 100 florins, but from the duke 75. But what our bill will be at the inn we shall have the honour of hearing tomorrow, Herr Stürzer has the reputation of giving good service, but he’s also good at writing and doing his sums, patience! Nannerl was most warmly applauded when she played for both the elector and the duke. As we were leaving, both of them invited us to return. The Prince of Zweibrücken will announce our arrival in Mannheim, he’s going there soon. Duke Clemens, by contrast, has provided us with a letter of recommendation to the elector of the Palatinate.12
Tell our friends that we are well.
From Munich the Mozarts moved on to Augsburg, Leopold’s birthplace, where the children gave public concerts on 28 and 30 June and 4 July, and then by way of Ulm to Ludwigsburg, the court of the Duke of Württemberg.
4. Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, 11 July 1763, Ludwigsburg
Monsieur,
I was detained in Augsburg and gained little or nothing from the delay, for what I earned was as quickly spent as everything is extremely expensive, although the landlord of the 3 Moors, Herr Linay, who is the most delightful man in the world, looked after me very well. Herr Weiser is witness to this, and those who came to the concerts were almost all Lutherans.1 Apart from Herr Provino, who came to all 3 with Madame Perinet, and Herr Calligari, who appeared once for the sake of his reputation, I didn’t see a single Catholic businessman except Monsieur Mayr, the husband of Lisette Muralt; the others were all Lutherans: – – we left Augsb. on the 6th and by the evening were in Ulm, where we stayed only a night and the next morning. We wouldn’t even have spent the morning there if we’d not had difficulty obtaining horses. And now a calamity! When we arrived at the post stage at Blochingen we heard that the duke2 had suddenly decided to go off on the night of the 10th to his hunting lodge at Grafenegg, which is 14 hours away. And so I quickly decided to go straight to Ludwigsburg via Constatt rather than to Stuttgart in order to catch him. I arrived in Ludwigsburg late on the 9th and was in time to see a play at the French theatre. But not until the morning of the 10th was I able to speak to the principal Kapellmeister Jommelli3 and the Master of the Hounds, Baron Pöllnitz, for both of whom I had letters from Count Wolfegg.4 But, in a word, it couldn’t be done. Herr Tomasini, who had already been there for a fortnight before me, had not managed to gain a hearing, and everyone tells me that the duke has the charming habit of making people wait a long time before hearing them and then making them wait a long time before giving them a present:5 but I regard the whole business as the work of Herr Jommelli, who is doing all he can to weed out the Germans at this court and replace them with Italians. He has almost succeeded, too, and will be entirely successful because, apart from his annual salary of 4000 florins, his allowances for 4 horses, wood and light, a house in Stuttgart and a house in Ludwigsburg, he enjoys the duke’s favour to the highest degree, and his wife has been awarded a pension of 2000 florins on his death. How do you like that as a Kapellmeister’s post? – – Moreover, he has unlimited power over his
orchestra: and it is this that makes it so good. But you can tell how prejudiced Jommelli is in favour of his country by the fact that he and those of his compatriots who flock to his house to pay him their respects have been heard to say that it is amazing and scarcely credible that a child of German birth could be such a musical genius and have so much spirit and fire. Ridete amici! 6
But I digress. My situation has now become all the more wretched and difficult in that the duke has taken all the horses belonging to the post and the hired coachmen. And so I’m forced to remain here today; even as I’m writing, I’m having to contend with constant interruptions in my attempts to track down some horses and am searching every nook and cranny of Ludwigsburg in order to track them down. So you see that to date I’ve nothing more to show for my pains than the fact that I have seen countries and towns and people that I wouldn’t otherwise have done. Ulm is an appallingly old-fashioned place, so tastelessly built that I often thought of you and wished you could see it. Just imagine houses where you have to see the whole storey and all the timberwork from the outside, just as it’s constructed, and if it’s a tall building, it’s painted, but the brickwork is nice and white or every brick is painted, just as it is, so that the wall and timberwork can be seen all the more clearly. It’s exactly the same at Westerstetten, Geissling – where ivory is worked and where 7 females try to talk every passing stranger into parting with his money – and Goeppingen, Ploching and large parts of Stuttgart. NB. Please keep my letters, so that in due course I can explain things myself that it would take too long to describe here.
Ludwigsburg is a very strange place. It’s a town, but the town walls are made not so much of fences and garden railings as soldiers. When you spit, you spit into an officer’s pocket or a soldier’s cartridge case. In the street you hear nothing but: Halt! Quick march! About turn! etc. etc. You see nothing but weapons, drums and the equipment of war. At the entrance to the castle there are 2 grenadiers and 2 mounted dragoons with grenadier caps on their heads and cuirasses on their breasts, but with drawn swords in their hands and over each of them a beautiful large tin roof instead of a sentry box: in a word, it’s impossible to see greater precision in sentry drill or a finer body of men. You see absolutely no other men except those of the grenadier type, so that many a sergeant-major is paid 40 florins a month. You will laugh! And it’s certainly laughable. When I stood at the window, I thought I could see nothing but soldiers waiting to play their parts in a play or opera. Just think that all these people look the same and every day their hair is done not in ringlets but just like any petit-maître, 7 in countless curls combed back and powdered snow-white, but with their beards greased coal-black. I’ll write more from Mannheim. I must close now. If you write, write to me at Mannheim and write on it that the letter is to remain at the post until I collect it. I received the music in Augsb. If I were to write everything, I should have much more to say. But I can’t help but tell you that Württemberg is the most beautiful country: from Geissling to Ludwigsburg you see nothing to the right or left but water, woods, fields, meadows, gardens and vineyards, and all of these at once, mixed together in the most beautiful way. My regards to everyone in Salzb., especially our Father Confessor, Madame Robinig and her household etc. etc. – etc. etc. Complimenti sopra Complimenti. Addio! I am your old
Mozart
My wife is utterly enchanted by the countryside in Württemberg.
[ On the inside of the envelope ]
Tell Herr Wenzel that I have heard a certain Nardini8 and that one cannot hear a finer player in terms of beauty, purity, evenness of tone and taste in cantabilitaà. But he plays rather lightly. Herr Wotschitka9 is still in service in Stuttgart but is hardly to be commended for his childish behaviour: in Augsb. the choirmaster of St Moritz’s, Herr Schue, showed me a letter from Herr Meissner10 in which he signs himself Capello Magister. I explained to him that he was a Magister of singing in order to excuse his childishness.
[ On the outside of the envelope ]
We are now all well, thank God.
From Ludwigsburg the Mozart family travelled to Schwetzingen, the summer residence of Elector Karl Theodor of the Palatinate, and from there to Mannheim, Worms and Mainz.
5. Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, 3 August 1763, Mainz
Monsieur,
You’ll no doubt have received my letters from Ludwigsburg and Schwetzingen. In the first I said that you should reply to Mannheim, but in the second I said you should reply to Frankfurt. We’d earlier driven from Schwetzingen to Heidelberg to see the castle and the great cask.1 Heidelberg is very like Salzburg, that is, in its situation: and the fallen-in doors and walls of the castle, which are an astonishing sight, show the sad fruits of the recent French wars.2 In the church of the Holy Ghost, which is known to historians for the struggle between the Catholics and the Calvinists and which is the reason why the electors transferred their residence to Mannheim, 3 our Wolfgang played the organ so admirably that on the orders of the town dean his name, with all the particulars, was inscribed on it in perpetual memory of the occasion.
From Schwetzingen, where we received a gift of 15 louis d’or, we travelled via Worms to Mainz. We spent 3 days in Mannheim, where we were freely shown everything worth seeing. We were also paid for at the Prince Frederick by a French colonel who has served all his life in India. If I were to tell you all the strange things that this colonel has brought back with him from these countries, it would fill whole sheets of paper. Amongst other things I’ve seen a dress made from paper, a dress made from wood and also one in stucco. But you can’t tell what it’s made from until you tear off a little piece. He gave Nannerl a little ring that may be worth slightly more than a louis d’or and to Wolfgang he presented a delightful toothpick case. The city of Mannheim is uncommonly attractive on account of its regularity; but the houses have only one storey and so it looked like a city in miniature. Conversely, the rooms immediately next to the entrance to the houses are uncommonly attractive, and one finds the most elegant lodgings even under the roof. At the end of each street you see 4 main roads intersecting, each completely identical to the other. And on both sides of the streets, between the carriageway in the middle and the gutters at the side, there are painted posts on which lanterns stand at dead of night. As you can well imagine, there is no more beautiful sight than a view lit in this way, especially in the 4 main streets, where you can see, for example, from the castle or residence as far as the Neckar Gate etc.
Worms is an old-fashioned town much blighted by the old French wars. But the cathedral is remarkable for its old associations, and the Lutheran church even more so, for it was here that Luther appeared before the Council.4 For our evening meal in Worms we dined with Baron Dalberg. This family is so old that it has on display a letter on some rolled-up material, like tree bark, on which a Herr Dalberg reports the news that a carpenter’s son who claimed to be the Messiah had been condemned to be crucified. Credibile est veteres, latro ceu praesul et hospes, 5 says the Bible of the lowest form at grammar school. If you want to try a really bad road, you should drive from Worms to Oppenheim. In Oppenheim you’ll also see the saddest remains of the old French wars. From Oppenheim to Mainz it is utterly delightful: on one side you’re right next to the Rhine, and to your left are fields, villages, gardens and vineyards. The centre of Mainz is very built-up, the houses close together; it’s better in the so-called Bleiche and on the Tiermarkt.
NB: In Mainz I met Count Schönborn, who got married here, 6 also Count Ostein and his major-domo Krell, and Count Bassenheim, too. I was with them all. The Walderdorffs are in Koblenz.
From Mainz the Mozarts travelled to Frankfurt (where the children gave five concerts) and then on to Koblenz (where they gave a concert on 21 October), Cologne, Aachen and Brussels. Here they gave a concert on 7 November, attended by Prince Karl Alexander of Lorraine, governor general of the Netherlands and brother of Emperor Francis I. They arrived in Paris on 18 November and not long afterwards made a visit to the palac
e of Versailles.
6. Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, December 1763, Versailles
You may read the present letter and prepare a summary of it, then seal this summary and hand it with my most humble respects and New Year greetings to our Father Confessor or else get him to seal it himself. Madame de Pompadour is still an attractive woman, she’s very like the late Frau Stainer née Theresia Freysauff. Also something of the appearance of the Holy Roman Empress, especially in the eyes.1 She is very haughty and still in total command. – – Versailles is expensive: and we are extremely fortunate that at present it is almost as warm as in summer, otherwise we would be in difficulty as each log of wood costs 5 sous. Yesterday my boy received a gold snuffbox from Madame la Comtesse de Tessé, 2 and today my little girl got a small, transparent snuffbox inlaid with gold from Princess Carignan and Wolfg. a silver pocket writing case with silver pens to compose, it is so small and delightfully made that it is impossible to describe it. Almost everyone here is madly in love with my children: but the aftermath of the last war3 can be seen and noticed wherever you look. It’s impossible to commit to paper everything I’d like to. Wish all my good friends a Happy New Year from us all. I’d like to write to everyone if only I had time and if every letter didn’t cost 20 or 30 sous; if I’d written a longer letter to His Grace4 I’d certainly have had to pay 5 livres for it, for they charge according to weight and size or else according to shape. Did you reply to any of my letters? Perhaps I’ll find your answer when we get back to our hotel in Paris. Farewell, à Dieu!
Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters Page 5
