Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (40 page)

[
On the envelope
]

will side with the king of Prussia and that Austria will then have to deal with 2 very great powers.
²⁷
I expect you’ll have received my answer to your first letter, and my two terribly long letters will also have reached Baron Grimm. Wolfg. wants an ABC, but he won’t have much time to devote to it. Here’s something.

I can’t write properly today, this pen is useless, and I have to rush away to Vespers, the Italians will also be there, I won the
prize
for Mama. We kiss you both a million times. I am your old faithful

Mzt

Addio
. Keep well.

Pimperl
is keeping well, whenever she stands on the table she scratches the rolls very gently with her paws to indicate that she wants to be given one, also the knife, indicating that we should cut her a slice. And if there are 4 or 5 snuffboxes on the table, she’ll scratch the one containing Spanish tobacco so someone takes a pinch and then lets her lick their fingers.

Mon très cher Père
,

Your letter of 12 April has arrived safely, this was the reason why I’ve not written for so long, as I wanted to wait for a letter from you; and you mustn’t take it amiss if I sometimes keep you waiting a long time for a letter; but letters are very expensive here, and unless one’s got something important to say, it’s not worth while spending 24 or more sous. I’d always intended to delay writing until I had some news and could tell you more about our circumstances; but now I’m obliged, after all, to provide you with an account of the few matters
that are still unresolved. The little cellist
Zygmontofscky
¹
and his worthless father are here, perhaps I’ve already told you that – – I do so only in passing as I’ve just remembered that I saw him at the place that I now intend to tell you about, namely, the home of Madame la Duchesse de Chabot.
²
Monsieur Grimm gave me a letter for her, and so I went to see her. The letter was mainly to recommend me to the Duchesse de Bourbon
³
– who was in a convent last time – and to reintroduce me to her and remind her of me. A week passed without any news at all; but she’d asked me to return after a week had gone by, so I kept my word and turned up. I had to wait half an hour in a large, ice-cold, unheated room that didn’t even have a fireplace. Finally the Duchesse de Chabot arrived, politeness itself, and asked me to make do with the piano that was there as none of her other ones had been seen to; she suggested I should give it a try. I said I’d be only too happy to play something but that it was now impossible as my fingers were numb with cold; and I asked her if she’d at least take me to a room with a hearth and a fire.
O oui Monsieur, vous avez raison.
⁴
That was her entire answer. She then sat down and started to draw for a whole hour in the company of some gentlemen, who all sat in a circle round a large table. I had the honour to wait a whole hour. Windows and doors were open. By now not only my hands were cold, so were my feet and my whole body; and my head started to ache. In short, there was
altum silentium.
⁵
I didn’t know what to do for cold, headache and boredom. I kept thinking that if it weren’t for Monsieur Grimm, I’d leave at once. Finally – and to be brief – I played on that miserable, wretched pianoforte. But the most annoying thing of all was that Madame and the gentlemen didn’t stop drawing for a moment, but continued as before, so that I had to play for the
chairs, table and walls. In such adverse circumstances I lost my patience – I started the Fischer variations, played half of them, then got up. They showered me with praise. I just said the only thing I could say, namely, that I couldn’t do myself justice on this piano and that I’d very much like to choose another day when there’d be a better piano. But she wouldn’t hear of it, and I had to wait another half an hour for her husband to come. He then sat down beside me and listened with the greatest attention, so that I – I forgot all about the cold and my headache and, regardless of the wretched piano, played as I play when I’m in a good mood. Give me the best piano in Europe but with people who, as an audience, understand nothing or who don’t want to understand anything and who feel nothing when I’m playing, and I lose all sense of pleasure. I told Monsieur Grimm about it all afterwards. You write that I should pay lots of calls in order to make new contacts and renew old ones. But this isn’t possible. It’s too far to go on foot – or too muddy, as the filth in Paris is indescribable. And taking a carriage means that you have the honour of wasting 4 or 5 livres a day – and
all for nothing
. People pay you compliments, but that’s it. They summon me to appear on such and such a day; I play for them, they say
O c’est un Prodige, c’est inconcevable, c’est étonnant.
⁶
And with that, goodbye. At first I wasted a lot of money driving round – and often in vain as the people weren’t there. Anyone who’s not here can’t believe how disastrous this is. Paris really has changed a lot. The French are not nearly as polite as they were 15 years ago. They now verge on coarseness. And they’re terribly arrogant.

I must now describe the Concert Spirituel for you. I must add in passing that my work on the choruses was in vain, so to speak, as Holzbauer’s Miserere is already very long and wasn’t to people’s liking, so they performed only 2 of my 4 choruses. As a result they missed out the best bits. But that didn’t really matter as hardly anyone knew that I’d had a hand in it and many knew nothing at all about me. Even so, there was lots of applause at the rehearsal; and I myself am very pleased with my choruses – I set little store by the praise of
the Parisians. There’s again a snag with the sinfonia concertante, though I think that there’s another problem and that I again have my enemies here. Where haven’t I had them? – But it’s a good sign. I had to write the sinfonia in the greatest haste but I worked very hard, and the 4 soloists were and still are head over heels in love with it. Legros kept it for 4 days in order to have it copied, but I always found it lying in the same place. Finally – the day before yesterday – I couldn’t find it but had a good look among the music and found it hidden away. I feigned ignorance and asked Legros: By the way, have you already given the sinf. concertante to the copyist? – No – I forgot. I can’t, of course, order him to have it copied and performed, so I said nothing. I went to the Concert on the 2 days when it should have been played. Ramm and Punto came over to me, snorting with rage, and asked why my sinfonia concert. wasn’t being given. – I don’t know. That’s the first I’ve heard about it. No one ever tells me anything. Ramm flew into a rage and cursed Legros in the green room in French, saying that it wasn’t nice of him
etc
. What annoys me most of all about the whole affair is that Legros never said a word to me about it, I wasn’t allowed to know what was going on – if he’d offered me some excuse, saying that there wasn’t enough time or something similar, but to say nothing at all – but I think that
Cambini
,
⁷
one of the Italian
maestri
here, is the cause because in all innocence I made him look foolish in Legros’ eyes at our first meeting. He’s written some quartets, one of which I heard in Mannheim; they’re really quite attractive; and I praised them to him and played the opening; but Ritter, Ramm and Punto were there, too, and they wouldn’t leave me in peace but told me to continue and make up what I couldn’t remember. So I did as they asked. And Cambini was beside himself and couldn’t stop saying
questa è una gran Testa
!
⁸
But I don’t think he can have liked it. If this were a place where people had ears to hear and hearts to feel and if they understood even a little about music and taste, I’d laugh heartily at all these things but – as far as music is concerned – I’m among beasts and brutes. But how
could it be otherwise, they’re exactly the same in all their actions, emotions and passions – there’s nowhere in the world like Paris. You mustn’t think I’m exaggerating when I speak like this about the music here. Consult anyone you like – as long as it’s not a native Frenchman – and – if it’s someone you can consult – he’ll say the same. I’m here now. I have to put up with it for your sake. I shall thank Almighty God if I leave here with my taste intact. I pray to God every day to give me grace to hold out steadfastly and to be a credit to myself and the whole of the German nation inasmuch as it is all to His greater honour and glory; and I pray that He will allow me to prosper and make lots of money, so that I may help you out of your present predicament and take steps to ensure that we’re soon back together again and can live together happily and contentedly. For the rest, may His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In the meantime, my dearest Papa, please do all you can to ensure that I get to see Italy soon, so that I may find a new lease of life. Please give me this pleasure, I beg you.

But now I ask you to be cheerful – I’ll hack my way out of here as best I can. As long as I can get away unscathed. Adieu. I kiss your hands 1000 times and embrace my sister with all my heart. I am your most obedient son

Wolfgang Amadè Mozart

[
Maria Anna Mozart’s postscript on the envelope
]

My dear husband, I hope that you and Nannerl are keeping well. For 3 weeks now I’ve been plagued by toothache and my head, throat and ears have been hurting, but, thank God, I’m now better, I don’t get out much and the rooms are cold even when there’s a fire, you just have to get used to it. If Count Wolfegg ever comes to Paris and could bring a black powder and a digestive powder, that would be very kind of him as I’ve nearly run out. Best wishes to all our acquaintances. Monsieur Heina
⁹
and his wife send their best wishes,
he often calls on me,
addio
keep well I kiss you many 100, 000 times and remain your faithful wife

Maria Anna Mozart

My Dear Husband,

Praise and thanks be to God, we’re both well and hope that you too are equally well. Our only pleasure is to hear that this is so. As for our own circumstances, we can be well satisfied, considering the time of year, Wolfgang has found himself a good family. He has to teach composition for 2 hours a day to the daughter of the Duc de Guines, he pays well and is the queen’s
¹
favourite, the duke loves Wolfgang more than anything, at the moment he has 3 pupils, he could have more but can’t take them on because everything’s so far away and he doesn’t have time until we’ve sorted ourselves out, by winter he’ll have so much to do that he won’t know whether he’s coming or going, or so everyone’s telling him, we also intend – and all our good friends advise us to do so – to take rooms of our own at the end of the summer, furnish them ourselves (something that can easily be done here) and prepare our own meals, in this way we can live for half the cost, we’ll do so as soon as we’ve got some more money. Above all I’d like to know more about the war,
²
people here are saying that peace has been concluded between the emperor and Prussia, war hasn’t been declared between here and England,
³
but plenty of preparations are being made. The queen is pregnant again, it’s not yet been made public, but there’s no question about it, the French are delighted. Please give our best wishes to Herr Ceccarelli
– if he’s still in Salzburg –, we’re sorry not to have had the pleasure of meeting him. How’s Frau Adlgasser, is little Viktoria still with her, and what are Waberl Eberlin and Berhandsky up to, do they still call on us? Is Nannerl still going to Antretter’s every week, is young Antretter still at Neu-Ötting
⁴
now that everything has changed in Bavaria? Are Fräulein von Schiedenhofen and Nannerl Kranach still coming to the target practice, Herr von Schiedenhofen will no doubt be very proud at having such a wealthy wife and will no longer deign to come to our house, not that it matters, otherwise I hope that Salzburg is much the same as ever.

Here in Paris a lot has changed since last time, it’s much bigger and has expanded so much I can’t describe it, the Chaussée d’Antin where Monsieur Grimm lives is a completely new suburb and there are lots of beautiful broad streets like it, it’s true that I haven’t seen many of them but I’ve got a new map of the town, which is very different from our old one. Something for Nannerl: the fashion here is to wear neither earrings nor a necklace nor any jewelled pins in your hair, in fact no sparkling jewels at all, whether real or artificial, their hair is worn extraordinarily high, no heart-shaped toupée, but equally high all over, making more than a third of an ell in all, then come the caps, which are even higher than the toupée, and at the back is the plait or chignon, which goes right down the neck, with lots of curls at the sides, the toupée is made entirely of crêpe, not smooth hair, they’ve been wearing them even higher so that the carriages had to be made higher as women couldn’t sit upright in them, but they’ve now come down again. Polonaises
⁵
are very fashionable and exceptionally well made. The corselets worn by unmarried women are smooth round the stomach at the front and have no folds. Nannerl now knows enough about Paris fashions and I must leave room for Wolfgang, so keep well, both of you, I kiss you many 100, 000 times, best wishes to all our good friends, Monsieur Bullinger, Sallerl, Deibl, Mistress Mitzerl and all the others. I remain your faithful wife

Marianna Mozart

Best wishes to Tresel and a big kiss for Pimperl, is the warbler still alive? – –

[
Mozart’s postscript
]