Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (76 page)

Sunday, 7 in the morning
. – I slept very well and hope that you’ll have slept well, too. – I really enjoyed the half of a capon that friend Primus brought back with him. – At 10 I’m off to the service at the Piarists
⁷
as Leutgeb has told me that I can then speak to the
director
. – I’ll also stay for lunch.

Primus told me yesterday that lots of people in Baden are ill, is that true? – Do take care and don’t trust the weather. – Well, Primus has just got back with the beastly news that the coach left before 7 this morning and there won’t be another one till this afternoon – as a result, I’ve been wasting my time writing all this at night and in the early morning as you won’t receive my letter till this evening, which annoys me greatly. – I’ll definitely be coming out to see you next Sunday – we’ll then go to the Casino together and return home together on Monday –

Lechleitner was again at the opera; – even though he’s no con
noisseur, he’s still a genuine music lover, something that […] isn’t – he’s a real
nonentity
. – He’d much prefer a dinner. – Farewell, my love! – I kiss you millions of time and am ever your

Mozart

P. S.: Give Sophie
⁸
a kiss for me. Perhaps you’ll
pull
Süssmayr’s
nose
for him and give his
hair
a good
tug
. A thousand good wishes to Stoll. Adieu – the hour has struck – – ‘lebt wohl, auf Wiedersehn!’
⁹
–

N. B.: You presumably sent the 2 pairs of yellow winter breeches that go with the boots to the laundry as Joseph and I have looked for them in vain. – Adieu –

Dearest, most beloved wife,

Yesterday, Thursday the 13th, Hofer drove out with me to see Carl,
¹
we had lunch out there, then drove home, at 6 I picked up Salieri and Mme Cavalieri in my carriage and drove them to my box – I then hurried off to collect Mama and Carl, whom I’d left in the meantime with Hofer. – You can’t imagine how kind they
²
were – and how much they liked not only my music but also the libretto and everything else. – They both said it was a grand opera worthy of being performed at the grandest festivities and before the greatest monarch and that they’d certainly be seeing it more than once as they’d never seen a more beautiful or delightful spectacle. – He listened and watched with the utmost attentiveness, and from the overture to the final chorus there wasn’t a single number that didn’t
call forth a
bravo or a bello
from him, and they could barely thank me enough for my kindness. They’d always intended to go to the opera yesterday. But they’d have needed to have been in their seats by 4 – as it was, they saw and heard everything in comfort. – After the show I drove them home and had supper with Carl at Hofer’s. – I then drove home with him and we both had a good night’s sleep. It was no small treat for Carl to be taken to the opera. – He’s looking splendid – in terms of his health he couldn’t be in a better place, but everything else there is unfortunately wretched! – No doubt they can turn out good peasants! – But enough of this, his serious studies – God have mercy on him! – don’t start till Monday and so I’ve asked to keep him till after lunch on Sunday; I said you’d like to see him – tomorrow, Sunday, I’ll drive out with him to see you – you can then keep him, or else I’ll drive him back to Heeger’s after lunch on Sunday; – think it over, a month can’t do him much harm, I think! – meanwhile we may be able to sort something out with the Piarists – I’m working on this. – I should add that although he’s no worse, nor is he in the least bit better. He’s still got the same bad habits, still enjoys making trouble and is
almost less inclined
to study than before but, as he himself admits, merely wanders around in the garden for 5 hours in the morning and 5 hours after lunch, in a word the children do nothing but eat, drink, sleep and go for walks, Leutgeb and Hofer have just arrived; – the former is staying to eat, I’ve just sent my faithful comrade Primus to fetch something to eat from the Bürgerspital; – I’m very pleased with the fellow he’s let me down only once, when I was forced to sleep at Hofer’s, which annoyed me a lot as they sleep far too long for my liking, I prefer to be at home as I’m used to my own routine. This one occasion put me in a really bad mood. Yesterday the whole day was taken up with my trip to Perchtoldsdorf, so that I couldn’t write to you – but it’s unforgivable of you not to have written for 2 days, I hope I’ll have news from you today. And tomorrow I’ll speak to you in person and kiss you with all my heart.

Farewell, ever your

Mozart

I kiss Sophie a thousand times, with N. N. you can do as you like. Adieu.

Mozart fetched Constanze backfrom Baden on 17 October and on 17 November his
Kleine Freimaurer-Kantate K623
was performed at the Masonic lodge ‘Zur neugekrönten Hoffnung’. On 20 November he became ill and was attended by Dr Thomas Franz Closset and Dr Mathias von Sallaba (1764-97). Mozart’s condition deteriorated rapidly and he died at five minutes to one on the morning of 5 December. Possibly the most accurate account of Mozart’s last days, at least with respect to the medical attention he received and the suddenness of his death, probably from rheumatic inflammatory fever, comes in a letter of 7 April 1825
³
written thirty-four years after his death by his sister-in-law Sophie.

… when Mozart fell ill, we
¹
both made him a night-shirt which he could put on from the front, for he could not turn over because of the swelling; and as we did not know how very ill he was, we also made him a quilted dressing-gown (for all of which his good wife, my dear sister, gave us the material) so that he would be well protected when he got up, and so we visited him diligently; he made it plain that he was greatly delighted by the dressing-gown. I went to visit him in the city every day, and once when I went in on a Saturday, M. said to me, ‘Now, dear Sophie, tell Mama that I am getting on very well, and that I will be coming out to her in the octave of her name day to give her my congratulations.’ Whose joy could be greater than mine when I brought my mother such glad tidings, after she
could scarcely expect the news; so I hurried home to calm her fears, after he had really seemed to me to be cheerful and well. The next day was a Sunday, then; I was still young and, I admit it, vain – and I liked dressing up, but I never liked walking from our suburb into the town in my best clothes, and I had not the money for going by carriage; so I said to our good mother, ‘Dear Mama, I shan’t go in to Mozart today – he was so well yesterday, so he’ll be better still today, and one day more or less will make no difference.’ She then said, ‘I’ll tell you what, make me a cup of coffee, and then I’ll tell you what you can do.’ She was rather concerned to keep me at home, for my sister knows how much she always wanted me to be with her. So I went into the kitchen. The fire had gone out; I had to light a taper and kindle the fire. But Mozart was still constantly on my mind. My coffee was ready, and my candle was still burning. I then saw how wasteful I had been to have burnt so much of my candle. The candle was still burning brightly, and I stared straight at my candle and thought, ‘I wonder how Mozart is?’, and as I was thinking this, and looking at my candle, the candle went out, it went out as if it had never been alight. Not even a spark remained on the big wick, there was no draught, to that I can swear; I shuddered, ran to our mother, and told her. She said, ‘All right, hurry up and take those clothes off and go in, but come and tell me straight away how he is. Now don’t be long.’ I hurried as fast as I could. My God! how frightened I was when my sister, half demented yet trying to control herself, came to meet me and said, ‘Thank God you’ve come, dear Sophie; he was so bad last night that I never thought he would survive this day. Stay with me today, for if he gets bad again today, he will die in the night. Go in to him for a little and see how he is.’ I tried to control myself and went up to his bed, when he called to me at once, ‘Ah, dear Sophie, it is good of you to come. You must stay here tonight, you must see me die.’ I tried to be strong and to dissuade him, but he answered to all my attempts, ‘I have the taste of death on my tongue already’, and ‘Who will look after my dearest Constanze if you don’t stay?’ – ‘Yes, dear Mozart, but I must first just go and tell our mother that you would like me with you tonight, or she will think some misfortune has happened.’ – ‘Yes, do that, but come back
soon.’ – God, how awful I felt. My poor sister came after me and begged me for heavens’ sake to go to the priests at St Peter’s and ask the priests to come, as if on a chance visit. That I also did, though the priests hesitated a long time and I had great difficulty in persuading one of these inhuman priests to do it. – – Then I hurried to our mother, who was anxiously awaiting me; it was already dark. How frightened the poor dear was. I persuaded her to go and spend the night with her eldest daughter, Hofer, who is now dead, and so it was; and I ran back as fast as I could to my inconsolable sister. Süssmayr was there at M’s bedside; and the well-known Requiem lay on the coverlet, and Mozart was explaining to him how he thought he should finish it after his death. Then he commanded his wife to keep his death a secret until she had informed Albrechtsberger
²
of it; for the post was his by right in the eyes of God and the world. There was a long search for Closset, the doctor, who was found in the theatre; but he had to wait until the play was over – then he came and prescribed
cold
compresses on his burning head, and these gave him such a shock that he did not regain consciousness before he passed away. The last thing he did was to try and mouth the sound of the timpani in his Requiem; I can still hear it now.

1.
The merchant Johann Lorenz Hagenauer was the Mozarts’ landlord in Salzburg and possibly Leopold’s best friend, see List of Important People pp. xxiii–xxxvi.

2.
4 October.

3.
Leopold uses many diminutives of Wolfgang in his letters, including Woferl, Wolfgangl, Wolfgangerl and Wolfgangus.

4.
Probably Johann Joseph Anton Ernst Gilowsky von Urazowa (1739-89), a court councillor in Vienna.

5.
Thomas Vinciguerra, Count Collalto (1720-69). The concert took place on 9 October.

6.
Eleonore Elisabeth, Countess Sinzendorf (1713-67) was the widow of Count Sigismund Rudolf Sinzendorf, high chamberlain at the court of Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740); Rudolf Joseph, Count Colloredo-Mels und Wallsee, was imperial vice-chancellor from 1737, was the father of Hieronymus Colloredo, see List of Important People; Leopold Pálffy-Erdöd (1710–73) was Hungarian court chancellor at the Vienna court from 1761; Count Johann Rudolf Chotek von Chotkowa und Wognin (1748–1824) became chancellor of the Bohemian-Austrian court in 1765; Count Karl Anton Esterházy (1725–99) was bishop of Erlau.

7.
Leopold Joseph Maria, Count Kuenburg (1739–1812) was chief equerry in Salzburg from 1764; his fiancée was Friederike Maria Anna, Countess Waldstein (1742–1802).

8.
Archduke Leopold of Tuscany (1747–92), the future Emperor Leopold II (from 1790), was the third son of Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa (see list). The opera was
Orfeo ed Euridice
(1762) by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–87), one of the most famous opera composers of the day.

9.
The imperial summer residence, just outside Vienna.

10.
Friedrich Alexander, Baron von Schell, imperial Polish and Saxon captain, had lived in Salzburg from 1753-7; Chiusole is probably Dominicus Chiusole de Clusulis (?–1775), who was consistorial councillor in Salzburg; Karl Joseph, Count Daun (1728-?) was a canon of Salzburg cathedral.

11.
Maria Antonia, Countess Schlick, wife of Leopold Franz, Count Schlick (1729- 70), regional governor in Linz. The Schlicks were related by marriage to the Paálffy-Erdöds.

12.
For Archduke Joseph, the future Emperor Joseph II, see List. The empress is Maria Theresa.

13.
Prince Joseph Maria Friedrich Wilhelm von Sachsen-Hildburghausen (1702-87).

14.
Francis I (1708-65), Duke of Lorraine, married Maria Theresa of Austria in 1736 and became Holy Roman Emperor in 1745. The infanta is probably Isabella of Parma, first wife of Archduke Joseph, who died the following year.

15.
A portrait of Mozart in the gala dress sent to him by Maria Theresa, possibly by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni, is reproduced in Deutsch,
Bildern
, 3.

16.
Ferdinand (1754-1806) and Maximilian Franz (1756-1801), younger sons of Francis I and Maria Theresa.

17.
Count (later Prince) Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg (1711-94), Austrian statesman and diplomat, imperial court chancellor from 1753–92.

18.
Maria Theresia, Countess Kinsky (1715-78), wife of privy counsellor Leopold Ferdinand, Count Kinsky (1713-60); Anton Corfiz, Count Ulfeld (1699-1770), chief steward in Vienna.

19.
Maria Kunigunde Niderl was the wife of Dr Franz Joseph Niderl von Aichegg (1719-73), of Salzburg.