Young Mozart, Exaggeration and Downright Falsehood
I would like to try over 3 posts to show how greatly exaggeration and falsehood have shaped much of what is popularly believed and taught about the early life and career of Mozart, focusing this time on the first 5 piano concertos that are credited to him in the Koechel catalogue. (One could easily do the same with other works but I think these in particular are quite revealing).
After Mozart's death in 1791 various attempts were made to sketch in the composer's early life and letters were written to still surviving members of the family. Here is an excerpt from a famous letter written to Nannerl Mozart by the Salzburg court trumpeter Johann Andreas Schachtner in reply to her request for his memories of the young Wolfgang -
'I once went with your father to the house after Thursday service and we found the 4 year old Wolfgang busy with his pen.
Leopold -'What are you writing ?'
Wolfgang - 'A keyboard concerto - the first part is nearly finished'
Leopold - 'Show me'
Wolfgang - 'It's not ready yet'
Leopold - 'Show it to me - it's sure to be interesting'
His father took it from him and showed me a smudge of notes , most of which were written over ink blots which he had rubbed out...At first we laughed at what seemed such a calamity, but his father then began to observe the most important matter - the notes and the music. He stared long at the sheet and then tears of joy and wonder fell from his eyes.
'Look, Herr Schachtner' said Leopold, 'How correctly it is all written, only it can't be used, for it is so very difficult that no-one can play it'
Wolfgang - 'That's why it is a concerto. You must practice it until you can get it right'.
///
Now, this charming story is being told more than 4 decades after it supposedly occurred. It is consistent with the version of Mozart that has for so long been readily acceptable. But is it true ? Is it not instead a piece in the creation of the Mozart myth ?
Cliff Eisen and other researchers have noted that time after time we give credibility to things about Mozart which we would not easily do to others. For there's a pattern in Mozart biography which seems never to stop making such demands. Here is one such case. The early concertos.
Today (despite remaining in the Koechel catalogue) the first 4 piano concertos of 'Mozart' are recognised NOT to be works by Mozart at all. Now, this of course (by any fair reckoning) must surely, logically, lead to them being eventually removed to some other Mozart list - let us say, as 'Mozart family arrangements' - must it not ? (But this has already been said here on this thread).
Look more closely at these concertos and the known facts -
These 4 concertos are today listed as KV37, 39, 40 and 41 in the official (Koechel) list of Mozart compositions. They are dated at April, June and July of 1767. Mozart is at this time 11 years old. But with the exception of one movement in KV40 (based as it is on a sontata now known to have been composed by CPE Bach and another movement in KV37 (the second) based on a work by an as yet unidentified composer) the music for all 4 of these works comes from keyboard sonatas by no less than 4 composers, Raupach, Honauer, Schobert and Eckhard - none of them acknowledged in the surviving Mozart literature. Furthermore, the existing versions of these same 'concertos' are written NOT in the hand of Wolfgang, but almost wholly in the hand of Wolfgang's father, Leopold.
The 18th century English music critic Charles Burney praised the works of both Eckhard and Schobert. (The lattter - (1720-1767) emigrated to Paris around 1760 where he was employed by the Prince de Conti. And Eckhart (1735-1809) was similarly praised by Burney and travelled to live in Paris with the early piano maker Andreas Stein . (Mozart himself spoke favourably of Stein's keyboards in a letter dated 17th April 1777).
There was intense rivalry between Schobert and Eckhart. Cliff Eisen notes that this rivalry erupted in to open hostility when the Mozart family (Nannerl in paticular) started playing Eckhart's sonatas. Here is Leopold's version of the bad feeling associated with the Mozart family and this music -
'My little girl plays the most difficult works we have of Schobert and Eckhard with others...with incredible precision, and so excellently that this mean man Schobert cannot conceal his envy and jealousy and is making himself a laughing stock to Eckhard, who is an honest man, and to many others... Mr Schobert is not at all the man he is said to be. He flatters to one's face and is the falsest of men - his religion, however, is the religion in fashion. May God convert him !'
(Leopold Mozart, Letter, 1st February 1764)
Well, no composer would ever be jealous to hear his sonatas performed wonderfully. Is he not delighted ? But Leopold here is trying to cover for the fact that the Mozart family were clearly performing works by Schobert on their tours without crediting them to their true composer. The same was to occur with these 4 early 'Mozart' concertos KV37, 39, 40 and 41.
Consider too these perceptive remarks by Cliff Eisen -
'Schachtner's story of the precocious 4 year old stretches credibility. FOR, at this point, Mozart had IN FACT barely learned to put pen to paper for a single minuet...Indeed, even as an 11 year old in 1767 the idea of a concerto must have presented a thorny problem...'
It is already fair to say that these first 4 'concertos' are NOT Mozart concertos but are, as is now surely clear, arrangements of sonatas by others made by Leopold. Furthermore, to judge from these works we are dealing only with sonata form, this simply orchestrated to become 'a concerto'.
And (as has been many times pointed out) the need for Mozart and his family to get music from German composers in Paris was to continue long after these 4 controversial works. In 1774 the 18 year old Mozart wrote to his sister from Munich reminding her to bring Eckhard's variations on a minuet called 'd'Exaudet'. Four years later (1778) and now aged 22 while in Paris he records having bought 'a collection of sonatas by Schobert for a pupil'.
Finally, it's during the same Munich visit of 1774 when Mozart is known to have written down on a single leaf of manuscript a minuet (KV168a), also a cadenza for a piano concerto by Ignaz von Beecke (with whom he had recently played duets) and, amazingly, a cadenza for the first movement of the early 'concerto' KV40.
Thus, with the exception of the concerto KV175 (which was in fact given to the Mozart family by Andrea Luchesi, its real composer) we have a situation where the 18 year old Mozart has not, in fact, written any piano concerto. And certainly not one at 4 years old in Salzburg.
As to the history of KV175 (which now assumes an important role in the 'official' biography of Mozart) this merits a post of its own in the near future.
Robert
[This message has been edited by robert newman (edited 02-05-2006).]
After Mozart's death in 1791 various attempts were made to sketch in the composer's early life and letters were written to still surviving members of the family. Here is an excerpt from a famous letter written to Nannerl Mozart by the Salzburg court trumpeter Johann Andreas Schachtner in reply to her request for his memories of the young Wolfgang -
'I once went with your father to the house after Thursday service and we found the 4 year old Wolfgang busy with his pen.
Leopold -'What are you writing ?'
Wolfgang - 'A keyboard concerto - the first part is nearly finished'
Leopold - 'Show me'
Wolfgang - 'It's not ready yet'
Leopold - 'Show it to me - it's sure to be interesting'
His father took it from him and showed me a smudge of notes , most of which were written over ink blots which he had rubbed out...At first we laughed at what seemed such a calamity, but his father then began to observe the most important matter - the notes and the music. He stared long at the sheet and then tears of joy and wonder fell from his eyes.
'Look, Herr Schachtner' said Leopold, 'How correctly it is all written, only it can't be used, for it is so very difficult that no-one can play it'
Wolfgang - 'That's why it is a concerto. You must practice it until you can get it right'.
///
Now, this charming story is being told more than 4 decades after it supposedly occurred. It is consistent with the version of Mozart that has for so long been readily acceptable. But is it true ? Is it not instead a piece in the creation of the Mozart myth ?
Cliff Eisen and other researchers have noted that time after time we give credibility to things about Mozart which we would not easily do to others. For there's a pattern in Mozart biography which seems never to stop making such demands. Here is one such case. The early concertos.
Today (despite remaining in the Koechel catalogue) the first 4 piano concertos of 'Mozart' are recognised NOT to be works by Mozart at all. Now, this of course (by any fair reckoning) must surely, logically, lead to them being eventually removed to some other Mozart list - let us say, as 'Mozart family arrangements' - must it not ? (But this has already been said here on this thread).
Look more closely at these concertos and the known facts -
These 4 concertos are today listed as KV37, 39, 40 and 41 in the official (Koechel) list of Mozart compositions. They are dated at April, June and July of 1767. Mozart is at this time 11 years old. But with the exception of one movement in KV40 (based as it is on a sontata now known to have been composed by CPE Bach and another movement in KV37 (the second) based on a work by an as yet unidentified composer) the music for all 4 of these works comes from keyboard sonatas by no less than 4 composers, Raupach, Honauer, Schobert and Eckhard - none of them acknowledged in the surviving Mozart literature. Furthermore, the existing versions of these same 'concertos' are written NOT in the hand of Wolfgang, but almost wholly in the hand of Wolfgang's father, Leopold.
The 18th century English music critic Charles Burney praised the works of both Eckhard and Schobert. (The lattter - (1720-1767) emigrated to Paris around 1760 where he was employed by the Prince de Conti. And Eckhart (1735-1809) was similarly praised by Burney and travelled to live in Paris with the early piano maker Andreas Stein . (Mozart himself spoke favourably of Stein's keyboards in a letter dated 17th April 1777).
There was intense rivalry between Schobert and Eckhart. Cliff Eisen notes that this rivalry erupted in to open hostility when the Mozart family (Nannerl in paticular) started playing Eckhart's sonatas. Here is Leopold's version of the bad feeling associated with the Mozart family and this music -
'My little girl plays the most difficult works we have of Schobert and Eckhard with others...with incredible precision, and so excellently that this mean man Schobert cannot conceal his envy and jealousy and is making himself a laughing stock to Eckhard, who is an honest man, and to many others... Mr Schobert is not at all the man he is said to be. He flatters to one's face and is the falsest of men - his religion, however, is the religion in fashion. May God convert him !'
(Leopold Mozart, Letter, 1st February 1764)
Well, no composer would ever be jealous to hear his sonatas performed wonderfully. Is he not delighted ? But Leopold here is trying to cover for the fact that the Mozart family were clearly performing works by Schobert on their tours without crediting them to their true composer. The same was to occur with these 4 early 'Mozart' concertos KV37, 39, 40 and 41.
Consider too these perceptive remarks by Cliff Eisen -
'Schachtner's story of the precocious 4 year old stretches credibility. FOR, at this point, Mozart had IN FACT barely learned to put pen to paper for a single minuet...Indeed, even as an 11 year old in 1767 the idea of a concerto must have presented a thorny problem...'
It is already fair to say that these first 4 'concertos' are NOT Mozart concertos but are, as is now surely clear, arrangements of sonatas by others made by Leopold. Furthermore, to judge from these works we are dealing only with sonata form, this simply orchestrated to become 'a concerto'.
And (as has been many times pointed out) the need for Mozart and his family to get music from German composers in Paris was to continue long after these 4 controversial works. In 1774 the 18 year old Mozart wrote to his sister from Munich reminding her to bring Eckhard's variations on a minuet called 'd'Exaudet'. Four years later (1778) and now aged 22 while in Paris he records having bought 'a collection of sonatas by Schobert for a pupil'.
Finally, it's during the same Munich visit of 1774 when Mozart is known to have written down on a single leaf of manuscript a minuet (KV168a), also a cadenza for a piano concerto by Ignaz von Beecke (with whom he had recently played duets) and, amazingly, a cadenza for the first movement of the early 'concerto' KV40.
Thus, with the exception of the concerto KV175 (which was in fact given to the Mozart family by Andrea Luchesi, its real composer) we have a situation where the 18 year old Mozart has not, in fact, written any piano concerto. And certainly not one at 4 years old in Salzburg.
As to the history of KV175 (which now assumes an important role in the 'official' biography of Mozart) this merits a post of its own in the near future.
Robert
[This message has been edited by robert newman (edited 02-05-2006).]
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