Mozart's Berlin journey
Encyclopedia
One of the longest adulthood journeys of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

 was a visit, beginning in Spring 1789, to a series of cities lying northward of his adopted home in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

: Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

.

Departure

The journey took place during a difficult period of Mozart's career when he was no longer earning much money from concerts, and his income from the composition of operas had not made up the difference. He was borrowing money, for example from his friend Michael Puchberg, and the financial situation was very worrisome.

Mozart's passage to Berlin was free of charge: he accompanied his aristocratic patron and fellow Mason
Mozart and Freemasonry
For the last seven years of his life Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Mason. The Masonic order played an important role in his life and work.-Mozart's lodges:...

 Prince Karl Lichnowsky
Karl Alois Johann-Nepomuk Vinzenz, Fürst Lichnowsky
HSH Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky , was second Prince Lichnowsky and a Chamberlain at the Imperial Austrian court...

, who had his own reasons for visiting Berlin and had offered Mozart a ride.

Mozart and Lichnowsky departed Vienna on the morning of 8 April 1789. They reached Prague on 10 April. In a letter written that day to Constanze
Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.-Early years:Constanze Weber was born in Zell im Wiesental. Her mother was Cäcilia Weber, née Stamm. Her father Fridolin Weber worked as a "double bass player, prompter and music copyist." Fridolin's half-brother was the father of composer...

, Mozart reported the good news that oboist Friedrich Ramm, traveling from Berlin, told him that Friedrich Wilhelm II
Frederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II was the King of Prussia, reigning from 1786 until his death. He was in personal union the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg and the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel.-Early life:...

, King of Prussia, was eagerly awaiting him in Potsdam. The King was a great potential source of concert income and commissions for new works. Mozart also reported to Constanze that he had worked out an agreement with Domenico Guardasoni
Domenico Guardasoni
Domenico Guardasoni was an Italian tenor singer, opera producer and impresario.Guardasoni was born at Modena. Singing in Giuseppe Bustelli's touring opera company, he later became its director...

, the director of the Italian opera in Prague, for a new opera for a fee of 250 ducat
Ducat
The ducat is a gold coin that was used as a trade coin throughout Europe before World War I. Its weight is 3.4909 grams of .986 gold, which is 0.1107 troy ounce, actual gold weight...

s (ca. 1,000 florins).

Dresden

They arrived in Dresden on 12 April, and lodged at the "Hôtel de Pologne". This hotel was the scene of a concert performed the next day; according to Deutsch, "Mozart performed quartets with the organist Anton Teyber
Anton Teyber
Anton Teyber , was an Austrian organist, Kapellmeister and composer.Anton Teyber was born and died in Vienna. His brother was Franz Teyber. He taught the children of the Holy Roman Emperor before working as a composer to the Dresden opera and Vienna court. He is notable for his two 'Concertos for...

 and the cellist Anton Kraft; they also played the String trio, K. 563." At the same concert, Mozart accompanied his friend Josepha Duschek
Josepha Duschek
Josepha Duschek was an outstanding soprano singer of the Classical era. She was a friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who wrote a number of works for her to sing.Her name is most often given in its German version as above...

 who also travelled to Dresden from her home in Prague. Duschek sang arias from The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...

and Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...

. In a letter to his wife, Mozart writes that they arranged a quartet at the hotel, which they performed in the chapel. "Wir hatten bei uns a l'hotel de Boulogne ein quartett arrangirt. - wir machten es in der Kappelle mit Antoine Tayber..."

The following day, Mozart performed for Elector Friedrich August III
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
Frederick Augustus I was King of Saxony from the House of Wettin. He was also Elector Frederick Augustus III of Saxony and Duke Frederick Augustus I of Warsaw...

 of Saxony and his wife Amalie; his collaborators included the nine-year-old cellist Nikolaus Kraft
Nikolaus Kraft
Nikolaus Kraft was a Czech cellist and composer . He was the son of Antonín Kraft, under whom he first studied. He then trained under Jean-Louis Duport...

 and Duschek. Mozart played the newly written Coronation Concerto K. 537
Piano Concerto No. 26 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 26 in D major, K. 537, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and completed on February 24, 1788. It is generally known as the "Coronation" Concerto.-Source of the nickname "Coronation":...

, and was on the next day awarded a snuff-box with 100 ducats.

The following day (15 April), Mozart had lunch with the Russian ambassador, Prince Alexander Belovselsky-Beloserky, and then conducted a trial of skill, first on organ, then on the piano, against organist Johann Wilhelm Hässler
Johann Wilhelm Hässler
Johann Wilhelm Hässler , was a German composer, organist and pianist.Hässler was born in Erfurt, Germany. He first studied under his uncle Johann Christian Kittel, who was an organist at Erfurt. His first post was as organist of the local Barfilsserkirche in around 1762...

.

On either 16 or 17 April Mozart paid a visit to the consistorial councillor Christian Gottfried Körner
Christian Gottfried Körner
Christian Gottfried Körner was a German jurist. His home was a literary and musical salon, and he was a friend of Friedrich Schiller.-Biography:...

, a friend of Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...

. Körner's sister-in-law Dora Stock
Dora Stock
Dora Stock was an artist of the 18th and 19th centuries who specialized in portraiture. She was at the center of a highly cultivated household in which a great number of artists, musicians, and writers were guests; and her friends and acquaintances included some of the most eminent figures of her...

 was a talented artist and took the occasion to sketch a portrait of Mozart, shown here, in silverpoint
Silverpoint
Silverpoint is a traditional drawing technique first used by Medieval scribes on manuscripts.-History:A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a surface, often prepared with gesso or primer. Silverpoint is one of several types of metalpoint used by scribes, craftsmen...

 on ivory board. This may have been the last portrait of the composer to be produced.

Leipzig

On 18 April Lichnowsky and Mozart departed for Leipzig, where they arrived two days later. Mozart spent three days here. He visited the famous Thomaskirche, where Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 had served as music director several decades earlier. Mozart had become a great admirer of Bach's music during his early years in Vienna, thanks to the influence of Gottfried van Swieten
Gottfried van Swieten
Gottfried, Freiherr van Swieten was a diplomat, librarian, and government official who served the Austrian Empire during the 18th century...

. Mozart improvised on the organ of the Thomaskirche. Cantor Friedrich Doles, who had been a pupil of Bach, and organist Karl Friedrich Görner
Karl Friedrich Görner
Karl Friedrich Görner was a German organist. His father was Johann Gottlieb Görner. His pupils included the Leipzig cantor Friedrich Doles....

, the son of Johann Gottlieb Görner
Johann Gottlieb Görner
Johann Gottlieb Görner was a German composer and organist. His brother was the composer Johann Valentin Görner and his son the organist Karl Friedrich Görner...

, manipulated the stops of the organ for him. Probably on this occasion, the choir of the Thomasschule
Thomasschule zu Leipzig
St. Thomas School, Leipzig is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest schools in the world.St. Thomas is known for its art, language and music education...

 performed Bach's motet Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied is a motet by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first performed in Leipzig around 1727, using psalm 149:1–3 for its first movement, a 1548 Johann Gramann hymn for the second movement and psalm 150:2 and 6 for its third movement.-External links:** at Emmanuel Music...

, BWV
BWV
The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis is the numbering system identifying compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. The prefix BWV, followed by the work's number, is the shorthand identification for Bach's compositions...

 225 and Mozart took advantage of the occasion to inspect the score.

Berlin

On 23 April, Mozart traveled from Leipzig to Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....

, near Berlin, where King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia maintained his principal residence and arrived on 25 April. As noted above, Mozart had told his wife that the King was anxiously awaiting him; if so, the arrival was a disappointment as the following court document indicated:
One named Mozart (who at his ingress declared himself to be a Capellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

 from Vienna) reports here that he was brought hither in the company of Prince Lichnowsky, that he desired to lay his talents before Your Sovereign Majesty's feet and awaited the command whether he may hope that Your Sovereign Majesty will receive him.


Reading this, the King scribbled in the margin "Directeur du Port", meaning that Mozart should be referred to Jean-Pierre Duport
Jean-Pierre Duport
Jean-Pierre Duport was a cellist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Along with his brother, Jean-Louis Duport , he was active in the musical life of France and Germany...

, the director of the royal chamber music. According to Deutsch, Mozart was "not on good terms" with Duport. Attempting (in Solomon's view) to "curry favor", he composed (29 April) a set of nine piano variations on a minuet
Minuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...

 by Duport, K. 573. No royal audience was granted at this time, and indeed, there is no solid evidence that Mozart even remained in Potsdam.

Leipzig again

On 8 May, Mozart briefly returned to Leipzig, where on 12 May he gave a concert at the Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...

. The concert program consisted entirely of Mozart's music: the piano concerti K. 456
Piano Concerto No. 18 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat Major, KV. 456 is a concertante work for piano, or pianoforte, and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In Mozart's own catalogue of his works, this concerto is dated 30 September 1784....

 and K. 503
Piano Concerto No. 25 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, was completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on December 4, 1786, alongside the Prague Symphony, K.504. Although two more concertos would later follow, this work is the last of the twelve great piano concertos written in Vienna between 1784 and...

, two scenas for soprano (K. 505, K. 528) performed by Josepha Duschek, the fantasy for piano solo K. 475, and two unidentified symphonies. Following a custom of the time, the first of the symphonies was split, the first two movements being played at the opening of the concert and the second two before the intermission.

The concert, organized on short notice, apparently was not well attended. Mozart writes back home, that "from the point of view of applause and glory this concert was absolutely magnificent but the profits were wretchedly meager" (letter, 16 May 1789).

Prince Lichnowsky, who had been traveling with Mozart up to this time, left Leipzig in mid-May, and Mozart's subsequent travels were on his own. It may have been during the journey that Mozart incurred a financial debt to Lichnowsky. The amount of the debt was 1415 florins, for which the Prince successfully sued him in October 1791, not long before the composer's death.

Mozart lingered in Leipzig until 17 May, partly due to his wish (reported in a letter to Constanze) to remain in the company of a group of friends also visiting the city (Johann Leopold Neumann, Frau Neumann, and Josepha Duschek). His departure was also delayed, he told Constanze, by a dearth of horses available for traveling.

Return to Berlin and home

Mozart then returned to Berlin, arriving on 19 May. In his letters to Constanze, on this second stay in Berlin he performed before the King and Queen at the royal palace (26 May), reporting his receipt of an award of 100 friedrichs d'or (around 800 florin
Austro-Hungarian gulden
The Gulden or forint was the currency of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1754 and 1892 when it was replaced by the Krone/korona as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the Gulden was initially divided into 60 Kreuzer, and in Hungary, the...

s) and commissions from the King for six string quartets and a set of six easy piano sonatas for Princess Friederieke.

The night Mozart arrived in Berlin, he apparently attended a performance of his own opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...

. Local newspapers apparently did not report his presence, but it was recorded much later (1856) in the posthumously published memoirs of a distinguished figure of German literature, Ludwig Tieck
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, translator, editor, novelist, writer of Novellen, and critic, who was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...

 (1773-1853). Tieck was not quite 16 at the time; he refers to himself in the third person.
Ludwig's regard for Mozart was to be rewarded in a surprising way. One evening in 1789, entering the dimly-lit and still empty theatre long before the beginning of the performance, as was his wont, he caught sight of a man in the orchestra pit whom he did not know. He was small, rapid of movement, restless, and with a stupid expression on his face: an unprepossessing figure in a grey overcoat. He was going from one music-desk to the next and seemed to be looking carefully through the music on them. Ludwig at once entered on a conversation. They spoke of the orchestra, the theatre, the opera, the public's taste. He expressed his views openly, but spoke of Mozart's operas with the deepest admiration. "So you often hear Mozart's operas and are fond of them?" the stranger asked, "that is very good of you, young man." They continued their conversation for some time, the auditorium slowly filled, and finally the stranger was called away by someone on the stage. His words had strangely moved Ludwig; he made enquiries. It was Mozart himself, the great master, who had spoken with him and expressed his appreciation to him.


Mozart left Berlin on 28 May, traveled via Dresden to Prague, where he stayed from 31 May to 2 June, and finally arrived home in Vienna at midday on 4 June.

Mozart's fidelity

The trip was the first that Mozart took, following his marriage to Constanze in 1782, on which his wife did not accompany him. Mozart wrote frequently to Constanze in the early stages of the trip, but the loss of many letters makes it uncertain whether he continued this regular correspondence. Maynard Solomon
Maynard Solomon
Maynard Solomon has carried out a multiple career: he was a co-founder of Vanguard Records as well as a music producer, and later became a writer on music.-Career in the recording industry:...

, in his Mozart biography, alleges that during the journey Mozart was unfaithful, pursuing an affair with Duschek, whose own itinerary through Germany (she lived in Prague) frequently intersected Mozart's. However, this hypothesis is generally rejected and has been disproven by subsequent scholarship.

Further reading

  • Heartz, Daniel (2009) Haydn, Mozart, and early Beethoven: 1781-1802. New York: Norton.
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