Chapter XXIV: First Attempts in Vienna (2)

Six months later, when he had this symphony sent back to him for performance at one of his concerts, he wrote to his father (February 15,1783): "The new Haffner symphony has quite astonished me, for I did not remember a word of it, and it must be very effective." These little incidents show us the true Mozart, in his good-nature and readiness to oblige his father, and in his power of productiveness and elasticity of mind; he excuses himself for not having the symphony ready in a fortnight--and that at a time when not only his opera, but also his courtship and marriage were filling his head and his heart--and then he is astonished at himself for having done the thing so well.[54] The serenata which was thus composed is the lovely one in C minor (388 K.).

Meanwhile the opera pursued its successful course; in the

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course of the year it was performed sixteen times; and in the beginning of October, when the Archduke and his wife returned to Vienna, on their homeward journey, the "Entführung" was given in their honour, "on which occasion I thought it as well to sit at the piano again and conduct," he writes to his father (October 19, 1782), "partly to wake up the somewhat slumbering energies of the orchestra, partly to show the great people present that I am the father of my offspring." Kaiser Joseph had attained the object of his ambition; the German opera was established; but he scarcely seemed to appreciate the importance of the movement thus set on foot. His criticism on the "Entführung"--"Too fine for our ears, and an immense number of notes, my dear Mozart!" (referring, no doubt, to the accompaniment, which was also found fault with by Dittersdorf as overpowering the voices)[55]--is indicative of his taste. Mozart's spirited answer, "Just as many notes, your majesty, as are necessary," was worthy of an artist.[56] Generally speaking, the opera received unmitigated praise. Prince Kaunitz, an accomplished amateur and passionate friend of the theatre,[57] sent for the young composer, received him in the most flattering manner, and remained henceforth his friend and patron. The veteran Gluck, the most distinguished person in the musical world, expressed a desire to hear the opera which was making so much sensation; it was performed at his request, as Mozart writes to his father (August 7, 1782), although it had been given only a few days before; he paid the composer many compliments on it, and invited him to dinner.

The opera had decided Mozart's musical position in Vienna;[58] it speedily caused his fame to spread throughout Germany. The Prussian minister, Baron Riedesel--the

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well-known traveller and friend of Winckelmann--begged Mozart for a copy of the score for performance in Berlin, for which he was to receive suitable remuneration. This was the more flattering, since André's version of the "Entführung" had been well received in Berlin only the year before. Mozart had sent the original score to his father immediately after the first performance, that he might become acquainted with the composition before seeing the opera, which he was not to do until the end of 1784, in Salzburg:--

I have just promised to have it copied. As I have not got the opera I am obliged to borrow it from the copyist, which is very inconvenient, since I never can keep it three days together; the Emperor continually sends for it, as he did yesterday, and it is so often performed; it has been performed ten times since August 16. My idea was, therefore, to have it copied in Salzburg, where it can be done more secretly and cheaper.

The father, who watched his son's proceedings with jealousy and suspicion, thought he detected something underhand in the objection to have the copying done in Vienna. He had reminded his son, _ä propos_ of "Idomeneo," that the score should remain the property of the composer (Vol. II., p. 141); and he now cautioned him as to whether he had the right to dispose of the score, would it not cause unpleasantness in Vienna, and that for the sake of an uncertain verbal promise of payment.

To this Wolfgang answered (October 5, 1782):--

I waited on the Baron von Riedesel myself; he is a charming man, and I promised him (in the belief that the opera was already in the hands of the copyist) that he should have it at the end of this month, or at the latest at the beginning of November. I must beg you to take care that I have it by that time. To relieve you of all anxiety, which I thankfully acknowledge as a proof of your fatherly love, I cannot say anything more convincing than that I am under great obligation to the Baron for having asked me for the opera, instead of going direct to the copyist (as is the custom in Italy), who would have given it to him directly for ready money; and besides this, I should have been very sorry if my talent could be paid for in that way--especially by a hundred ducats![59] This time (because there is no occasion) I shall say nothing

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about it; if it is performed, as it is certain to be (and that is what pleases me most about it), it will be known soon enough, and my enemies will have no excuse for ridiculing me, and treating me as a poor fellow: they will be quite ready to ask me for another opera if I will write it, but I do not know that I shall; certainly not if I am to be paid one hundred ducats, and see the theatre make four times that sum in a fortnight.

I shall bring out my next opera at my own expense, make at least twelve hundred florins in three representations, and then the management may have it for fifty ducats. If not, I shall be paid, and can produce it anywhere. Meanwhile I hope you will never find in me the least trace of any evil intentions. I would fain not be a bad fellow, but I do not want to be a stupid one who lets other people reap the advantage of his labour and study, and gives up his rightful claim to his own works.

The father's distrustful prudence prevented his putting the work in hand at once, and such haste was then necessary that no copyist in Salzburg would undertake it; Mozart had no resource but to explain the cause of the delay to the ambassador. But in the end the score was copied in Salzburg. The "Entführung" was performed the following year at Prague with extraordinary success.[60] "I cannot describe the applause and sensation which it excited at Vienna from my own observation," says Niemetschek; "but I was a witness of the enthusiasm with which it was received at Prague by connoisseurs and non-connoisseurs. It made what one had hitherto heard and known appear not to be music at all! Every one was transported--amazed at the novel harmonies, and at the original passages for the wind instruments." It was given at Leipzig in 1783;[61] at Mannheim,[62] Salzburg, and Schwedt in 1784;[63] at Cassel in 1785;[64] at Berlin not until 1788.[65] The applause was great on all occasions, and very soon the smaller stages sought to master the favourite piece. The actor Philipp Hasenhuth used to relate how the theatrical manager

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Wilhelm, at Baden,[66] in 1783 or 1784, undertook the production of the "Entführung" with a very weak company. At the rehearsal of the quartet there was no tenor-player; Hasenhuth, who had just begun to learn the violin, and hardly knew one string from another, was put down to the tenor. A little man who had come in as a spectator sat down by him, and when he saw the deficiency, seized a viola and they played together. But the little man soon showed his impatience of his stumbling neighbour, and giving vent to his anger more and more plainly as the quartet proceeded, he ended by flinging away the viola, exclaiming, "The man is a veritable donkey!" (Der Herr ist ein wahrer Krautesel!), and running out of the room. The opera, however, was a great success; and the well-satisfied manager gave his company a farewell supper, to which, hearing that Mozart was in Baden, he invited the composer. Hasenhuth was astonished to recognise in him the tenor-player at the rehearsal, but Mozart relieved him from all awkwardness by saying good-humouredly, "I was somewhat impolite when we last met, but I did not know who you were, and the devil himself could not have stood the wrong notes!" The judgment of contemporary critics of the opera was almost unanimously of accord with that of the public.[67]

It is not probable that Mozart obtained any share of the rich profits which accrued from the production of his opera on these various stages. He was even cheated out of the production of a clavier score. "Now it has come to pass exactly as I foretold to my son," wrote L. Mozart to his daughter (December 16, 1785); "the 'Entführung aus dem Serail' has appeared in clavier score at Augsburg, and has also been printed at Mayence. Since March, when he began it, my son has not found time to finish it. He has lost his time, and Torricella (who was to publish it at Vienna) his profits."[68]

FOOTNOTES OF CHAPTER XXIV.

[Footnote 1: He wrote to Breitkopf (August 10, 1781): "My son is no longer in the service of this court. He was summoned to Vienna by our Prince, who was there, we being in Munich. But his highness lost no opportunity of insulting and ill-treating my son, who, on the other hand, received much honour from all the high nobility of Vienna. My son was therefore easily persuaded to forsake his ill-rewarded service, and to remain in Vienna."]

[Footnote 2: Jahrb. d. Tonkunst, 1796, p. 51.]

[Footnote 3: Devrient, Gesch. der Deutsch. Schauspielkunst, III., p. 117.]

[Footnote 4: Cf. Sonnenfels' programme of his theatrical management in the year 1770, in Müller's Abschied von der Bühne, p. 73.]

[Footnote 5: Muller, Abschied, p. 79. Lange, Selbstbiogr., p. 25.]

[Footnote 6: Lange, Selbstbiogr., p. 65. Meyer, C. Schröder, I., p. 361.]

[Footnote 7: Müller, Abschied, p. 95. A. M. Z., XXIV., p. 253.]

[Footnote 8: Carl Pichler, Denkwürdigkeiten, I., p. 78.]

[Footnote 9: Meyer, I., pp. 361, 375.]

[Footnote 10: A survey and account of the Vienna stage of the time will be found in K. R[isbeck], Briefe über Deutschland, I., p. 258. Nicolai, Reise, IV., p. 587. Meyer, C. Schroder, I., p. 355.]

[Footnote 11: An accurate account of the state of German opera is given by Muller (Abschied von der Bühne, p. 253). Cf. A. M. Z., XXIV., p. 254. K. R[isbeck] (Briefe über Deutschland, I., p. 269) says that the members of the opera were looked down upon by those of the old comedy, and there were almost daily ridiculous displays of jealousy and ill-nature.]

[Footnote 12: Forkel, Musik. Krit. Bibl., II., p. 392.]

[Footnote 13: Sonnleithner, Recensionen, 1862, No. II., p. 18.]

[Footnote 14: Lange, Selbstbiogr., p. 104. Muller, Abschied, pp. 259, 261.]

[Footnote 15: Theaterkal., 1781, p. 183.]

[Footnote 16: Müller, Abschied, pp. 181, 189, 194.]

[Footnote 17: The _personnel_ of the opera from 1781 to 1783, which, with their salaries, I have borrowed from Meyer (C. Schroder, I., p. 356), was as fellows:--Male singers: Adamberger (2,133 fl. 30 kr.), Souter (1,200 fl.), Dauer (?), Fischer (1,200 fl.), Gunther (1,200 fl.), Schmidt (1,200 fl.), Ruprecht (700 fl.), Hoffmann (600 fl.), Frankenberger (400 fl.), Saal (800 fl.). Female singers: Mdlle. Cavalieri (1,200 fl.), Madame Lange (1,706 fl. 20 kr.), Madame Fischer (1,200 fl.), Mdlle. Teyber (800 fl.), Mdlle. Haselbeck (600 fl.), Mdlle. Brenner (400 fl.), Madame Saal (800 fl.),Madame Bernasconi (500 ducats). The orchestra, under the leadership of Kapellmeister Umlauf, consisted of six first and six second violins, four tenors, three violoncelli, three double-basses, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, and drums. The total pay amounted to 16,124 florins.]

[Footnote 18: Schmid, Gluck, p. 107.]

[Footnote 19: Mosel, Ant. Salieri, p. 72.]

[Footnote 20: Cramer, Magazin der Musik, I., p. 353. Auembrugger was further known to fame as a physician, and his daughters Franziska and Mariane were distinguished pianoforte-players.]

[Footnote 21: In Forkel's Musik. Alman., 1784, p. 189, the question as to why the music of Viennese composers should be liked in North Germany, but the music of North Germany should be disliked in Vienna, is treated of in a contribution for Vienna, showing the two different standpoints.]

[Footnote 22: Nicolai, Reise, IV., p. 556.]

[Footnote 23: Allg. Wiener Musikztg., 1821, p. 56.]

[Footnote 24: Müller, Abschied, p. 185.]

[Footnote 25: Forkel, Musik. Bibl., III., p. 340.]

[Footnote 26: Cramer, Magazin der Musik, I., p. 353, where it is erroneously stated that Gluck's "Alceste," "Iphigenia in Tauris," and "Orpheus" were given in Italian. Cf. Muller, Abschied, p. 270. A. M. Z., XIV., p. 268. The German translation of "Iphigenia" was by Alxinger (Forkel, Musik. Alman., 1783, p. 153.)]

[Footnote 27: Reichardt describes his interview with Joseph II., in the summer of 1783 (A. M. Z., XV., p. 667. Schletterer, Reichardt, p. 326): "The Archduke Maximilian led the conversation on Gluck, whom they both considered as a great tragedian: but now and then the Emperor was not so much in favour of Gluck's operas as could have been wished."]

[Footnote 28: Wien Ztg.,1731, No. 95, Anh. "Alceste" was repeated on December 13. Ibid., No.100, December 27 (No.104); "Iphigenia" was played on December 9 (No.99), and on January 3,1782; "Orpheus" was performed in Italian., Ibid., 1782, No. 2.]

[Footnote 29: A. M. Z., XV., p. 668. Schletterer, Reichardt, I., p. 327.]

[Footnote 30: Mosel, Salieri, p. 22.]

[Footnote 31: Ludwig Berger's narrative was taken from the lips of his teacher in 1806, and is identical with Mozart s own account (Cäcilia, X., p. 238; A. M. Z., XXXI., p. 467). Other accounts differ somewhat, as usual in such cases.]

[Footnote 32: Clementi thought it advisable on the republication of this sonata to assert his prior claims, as follows: "Cette sonate, avec la toccata qui la suit, a été jouée par l'auteur devant Sa M. J. Joseph II., en 1781, Mozart étant présent." There can be no doubt that Mozart was conscious of the reminiscence.]

[Footnote 33: Bridi's account says that the Emperor had laid a wager with the Grand Duchess that Mozart would surpass Clementi, and won it.]

[Footnote 34: Paesiello composed sonatas and capricci for the Grand Duchess.]

[Footnote 35: Dittersdorf, Selbstbiogr., p. 236.]

[Footnote 36: This criticism belongs to the toccata rather than to the sonata; it is marked _prestissimo_, and is a brilliant study of passages in thirds and fourths.]

[Footnote 37: The account which follows is founded on an accurate account of Joseph's chamber concerts (Musik. Corresp., 1790, p. 27).]

[Footnote 38: Mosel, Salieri, p. 22.]

[Footnote 39: Mosel, Ibid., p. 71.]

[Footnote 40: A. M. Z., XXIV., p. 285.]

[Footnote 41: The A. M. Z., XV., p. 512, narrates an apocryphal anecdote to the effect that the Emperor Joseph once wrote a song, and secretly inserted it in a little Italian opera which he gave in his private theatre at Schönbrunn. On his asking Mozart what he thought of the song, the latter, "with childlike frankness and gaiety," replied, "The song is good, but he that wrote it is better."]

[Footnote 42: A. M. Z., XV., p. 66. Reichardt, Mus. Monatschr., 1792, p. 57.]

[Footnote 43: A characteristic scene is related by Mosel (Salieri, p. 130).]

[Footnote 44: Dittersdorf tells a story which illustrates this (Selbstbiogr., p. 241)]

[Footnote 45: Reichardt, A. M. Z., XV., p. 667 (Schletterer, Reichardt, p. 325; Griesinger Biogr. Not. übcr Jos. Haydn, p. 63).]

[Footnote 46: Besides Mosel's Biography cf. the account by Rochlitz (Für Freunde der Tonkunst, IV., p. 342; A. M. Z., XXVII., p. 412).]

[Footnote 47: A. Hüttenbrenner, a pupil of Salieri, relates upon his authority (A. M. Z., XXVII., p. 797) that Mozart often came to Salieri, saying: "Lieber Papa (?) geben sie mir einige alte Partituren aus der Hofbibliothek (?), ich will sie bei Ihnen durchblättem," and that he often ate his midday meal during these studies.]

[Footnote 48: Mosel (Salieri, p. 211) confines this to silence on the merits of Mozart's works. But although Salieri occasionally spoke in praise of Mozart in afteryears (Hüttenbrenner, A. M. Z., XXVII., p. 797; Rochlitz, Für Freunde der Tonkunst, IV., p. 345), I have heard upon trustworthy authority in Vienna, that Salieri, even in his old age, when among confidential friends, expressed, with a passion that was painful to his hearers, the most unjust judgments on Mozart's compositions. Thayer's attempt to justify Salieri (A. M. Z., 1865, p. 241) led me to make a searching examination of the facts.]

[Footnote 49: K. R[isbeck], Briefe, I., p. 272.]

[Footnote 50: "A cantata composed for Prince Aloys von Lichtenstein by W. A. Mozart," of which there is a copy in the Royal Library in Berlin, is certainly not by Mozart (242 Anh. K.).]

[Footnote 51: The Wien. Zeit., 1781, No. 98, announces "Six sonatas for the piano with accompaniment for the violin by the well-known and celebrated master, Wolfgang Amade Mozart, Op. 2, 5 fl." (296, 376-380, K.). No. 2 (in C major) was composed in Mannheim (p. 400), and No. 4 (in B flat major) was previously known to his sister, as he writes to her (June 4, 1781).]

[Footnote 52: Clementi left Vienna at the beginning of May, 1782.]

[Footnote 53: "The 'Entführung,'" says a notice from Vienna in Cramer's Magazin, I., p. 352, "is full of beauties. It surpassed public expectation, and the delicate taste and novelty of the work were so enchanting as to call forth loud and general applause."]

[Footnote 54: This symphony (385 K., part 5) with the superscription, "ä Vienna nel mese di Juglio, 1782," has only a minuet, and no march. The second minuet was written on separate sheets, and not preserved, not being used in Vienna. Mozart afterwards added two flutes and two clarinets to the first and last movements for the performance in Vienna; these are wanting in the printed score.]

[Footnote 55: Dittersdorf, Selbstbiogr., p. 237.]

[Footnote 56: The truth of this anecdote is vouched for by Niemetschek, who narrates it (p. 34). Napoleon is said to have received a similar answer from Cherubini, who certainly did not borrow it from Mozart (A. M. Z., XXXVI., p. 21; cf., II. P. 735).]

[Footnote 57: Many instances are given in Lange's Selbstbiogr., p. 98 Müller, Abschied, p. 100; Meyer, L. Schröder, I., pp. 341, 343, 346.]

[Footnote 58: It remained on the Vienna repertory until 1779. The German opera was quite extinguished in 1778; it was revived on September 23, 1801.]

[Footnote 59: Even this sum appears to have been thought excessive; at least Schroder wrote to Dalberg (May 22, 1784): "Mozart received fifty ducats for the 'Entführung aus dem Serail'; he would compose no opera under this price." At a later time, one hundred ducats was the usual price for an opera (Ditters-dorf, Selbstbiogr., p. 241).]

[Footnote 60: Cramer, Magazin der Musik, I., p. 99.]

[Footnote 61: Raisonnirendes, Theaterjoum. von der Leipzig. Michaelmesse, 1783, p. 32.]

[Footnote 62: Koffka, Iffiand und Dalberg, p. 136.]

[Footnote 63: Berl. Litt. n. Theat. Ztg., 1784, II., p. 160.]

[Footnote 64: Lyncker, Gesch. d. Theat. u. d. Musik, in Kassel, p. 316.]

[Footnote 65: Chronik. von Berlin, II., p. 440. Teichmann's Litt. N'achl., p. 45.]

[Footnote 66: Ant. Hasenhuth's Leben., p. 94.]

[Footnote 67: Cramer's Magazin f. Musik, II., 2, p. 1056, and B. A. Weber, in Knigge's Dramaturg. Blattern, 1788, II., p. 21, give favourable notices. Both these journals were among Mozart's little collection of books.]

[Footnote 68: Two fragments of Mozart's pianoforte score of Constanze's and Blond-chen's songs (11 and 12) are preserved in his handwriting. The piano score of the first act is noticed in the Wien. Ztg., 1785, No. 98.]