mozart and vienna

[pianistimo]

just so i won't go on and on about something non-related to pedalling -

i found this article by andrew steptoe and thought someone may appreciate just a little insight (as i did) into mozart's vienna years.  everyone thinks he may have been just hitting a high with those piano concertos.  the truth of the matter, he was hurting for money and it's a miracle he made time to create these masterpieces.

'our views of mozart's years in vienna are indelibly coloured by the series of begging letters written to his fellow freemason, michael puchberg.  mozart began the correspondence in 1788 with nonchalant requests for money, but descended rapidly to urgent, pathetic appeals for amounts as small as 10 guilden.  the impression of abject poverty and misery is reinforced by the fact that the composer was buried in a common grave, without even the dignity of a tombstone or monument.  yet the viennese decade (1781-1791) was the period during which mozart enjoyed some of his greatest triumphs, not only in the opera house but on the concert platform.  at various times he earned considerable amounts of money and lived stylishly.  how can these extremes be reconciled? ...

a good starting point for trying to place mozart's experiences in context is an outline of his working life in vienna.  mozart was 25 years old before he finally broke with salzburg, and he left the archbishop's service in may 1781.  events over the previous years, including successes as a keyboard virtuoso and the commissioning of 'idomeneo' in munich hinted that an independent career was viable.  mozart's conviction was strengthened when he arrived in vienna as part of the archbishop's suite in march 1781.  the favor of the nobility was unmistakable, and an appearance at a tonkiinstler-societat concert suggested that wider audiences were also waiting.  mozart described the event in a letter to his father dated 4 april: 'i can say with truth that i was pleased with the viennese public yesterday, when i played at a concert for the widows in the karntnerthor theatre.  i had to begin all over again, because there was no end of applause.  well, how much do you suppose i should make if i were to give a concert of my own, now that the public has got to know me?'

paraphrasing the next couple paragraphs - mozart was booted out by the archbishop's steward count arco and then given this advice by him:
'believe me, you allow yourself to be far too easily dazzled in vienna.  a man's reputation here lasts a very short time.  at first it is true, you are overwhelmed with praises and make a great deal of money into the bargain --but how long does that last?  after a few months, the viennese want something new...'

so...mozart (love it) 'soon built up a small roster of pupils who helped sustain him financially.  he recruited his pupils largely from the female circles of the wealthy middle class and new nobility.  lessons took up valuable time that might otherwise have been used for composing, so mozart was forced into a rigorous routine:

'every morning at six o-clock, my friseur arrives and wakes me, and by seven i have finished dressing.  i compose until ten, when i have to give a lesson to frau von trattner and at eleven to the countess rumbeck, each of whom pays me six ducats for twelve lessons, and to whom i go every day.'

a month later ...'i have three pupils now, which brings me in eighteen ducats a month; for i no longer charge for twelve lessons, but monthly.  i learnt to my cost that my pupils often dropped out for weeks at a time; so now, whether they learn or not,each of them must pay me six ducats.  i shall get several more on these terms, but i really need only one more, because four pupils are quite enough.  with four, i should have 24 ducats...'

[pianistimo]

...it is doubtful whether mozart realized his ambition of having four regular pupils.  the number of keyboard students that can be identified is small, and there were periods (including the first half of 1790) when he had difficulties in finding any pupils at all.  making the generous assumption that mozart averaged three regular pupils, and that each had twelve lessons a month for six months of the year, we can extimate his annual teaching income at 486 gulden on 1782 prices...but two travels to prague in the winter months entailed 'serious losses of revenue.' 

an account of mozart's teaching practice would be incomplete without mention of the small but significant band who learnt composition under his guidance.  it is not clear whether he gained financially from this work, since although some pupils were members of the wealthy aristocracy, others were young boys(thomas attwood and johann nepomuk hummel being the most celebrated).  the small fee of 200 gulden charged by leopold mozart for teaching children of this kind suggests that profits were meagre. 

...'the most substantial fees were undoubtedly paid for operas.  mozart earned 450 gulden each for die entfuhrung and le nozze di figaro, and half that sum for der schauspeildirektor.  the combined prague and vienna fees for don giovanni totalled 675 gulden.  ...'finally, in 1787, mozart was awarded the one and only fixed salary of his maturity, when he was appointed imperial kammermusicus.  his annual stipend was 800 gulden.  the salary was low in comparison to the 2,000 gulden paid to gluck as the previous intendant, although gluck of course had very special status in vienna at the end of his life.  (dittersdorf's salary rose to 2, 700 over his period of service).

'aside from all the financial ups and downs - between 1783 and 1791 the couple had six children, four of whom died in infancy after living less than six months.  yet, neither births nor deaths coincided with troughs in musical activity, even though they may have caused great emotional upheaval.  from his earliest years, mozart apparently possessed iron detachment.  during the family's travels through holland in 1765, mozart's sister developed pneumonia and was near death...  (he goes on to explain how mozart had to cope with that at an early age).

the amazingness of mozart was concluded in this article saying 'mozart contracted a serious illness in 1784, and was treated by sigmund barisani.  barisani was a contemporary from salzburg who rose rapidly in his profession; becoming senior physician at the allgemeine krankenhaus.  he died in sept. 1878 when only 29, but not before stating in mozart's album that he had twice saved the composer's life.  the 1784 illness was evidently a renal complaint, and peter davies has suggested that mozart developed glomerial-nephritis following a streptococcal throat infection complicated by schonlein-henoch syndrome.  the disorder may have recurred in april 1878 and in the summer of 1790 when mozart complained of headache, rheumatic pains, and malaise.  his death was said at the time to be due to inflammatory rheumatic fever, although a cerebral hemmorage and broncho-pneumonia superimposed on renal failure seem more probably as immediate causes of death.'   

so much for salieri poisoning him?  what i don't understand is why would salieri confess to this years later?  was he just crazy. 

anyway - how mozart ever composed such beautiful works amidst turmoil of working out his wages, his family life, operas, travels, sickness - i don't know. 

[gymnopedist]

so much for salieri poisoning him?  what i don't understand is why would salieri confess to this years later?  was he just crazy. 

He didn't. The whole "Salieri and Mozart-Rivalry" thing was made up.