1. MOZART, Leopold. [...] ad usum F. Narcissi à S. georgio Carm: Disc: 1772. Set of manuscript parts in dark brown ink on ten stave paper, oblong folio (32.5 x 24.3 cm): Vl. 1 (4 pp.), Vl. 2 (2 pp.), Va (2 pp.), Basso (2 pp.), title on Vl. 1 with ownership note “ad usum F. Narcissi à S. georgio Carm: Disc. 1772.” Cornu di pastore (2 pp. in a later hand). £ 1,800
 
KVAnh. C 11.13; MGG/2 vol. 12, col. 584 (quotes 4 other mss. and this as the fifth). – “During the 1740s and 1750s Leopold Mozart was a productive composer and especially an important early representative of the Symphony, but most of his works are lost” (MGG/2). The Symphonia Pastorella dates from “before 1753” (MGG). In a letter of 29 December 1755 to his publisher Lotter in Augsburg, Leopold mentions three Pastorella Sinfonias, but none other than the present in G major survives, and none was published in his lifetime. The Cornu di Pastore only has four notes and has a rather comical effect. This work may be regarded as one of Leopold’s musical jokes; indeed the Mozarts en famille had a highly developed sense of humour. Otherwise Leopold’s musical style is marked by a high sense of compositional accuracy, but it is dominated by the need to be practical and commercial. As late as 1778 Leopold suggests to his son: “If you can only win applause and get a decent sum of money, let the devil take the rest.”Wolfgang will need the experience of his first journey as an adult in 1777-79 to fully understand the importance of “the rest”: the quest for the highest artistic quality and personal expression. Indeed, at Leopold’s behest to hurry up his composing Wolfgang answers on 14 February 1778: “I could, to be sure, scribble off things the whole day long, but a composition of this kind [his most recent flute quartets] goes out into the world, and naturally I do not want to have cause to be ashamed of my name on the title-page.” Manuscripts of Leopold’s works dating from his lifetime are rarely offered on the market.Symphonia Pastorella Ex G à Violino 1mo, Violino 2do, Alto Viola oblig: et Cornu di Pastore Con Basso.

Leopold Mozart’s musical ‘Sleigh Ride’

2. MOZART, Leopold. La Course aux Traineaux. Pièce fameuse de Leopold Mozart arrangée d’une exécution facile pour le Pianoforte. La partie de Violon ad libitum [...] Prix f 1½ . Amsterdam, Steup, pl. no. 89 [c. 1795]. 2 engraved parts: title p. (with a dealer’s label A Rotterdam chez L. Plattner...) + 11 pp. (piano), 3 pp. (violin), oblong folio, a good copy. £ 850

RISM M/MM 4033; BUC, S. 699; MGG/2 vol. 12 col. 585. – First edition. This is the latest of only three published musical works by Leopold Mozart. It was reprinted several years later byKühnel in Leipzig (pl. no. 931, c. 1812). According to MGG this work was composed before 1755; Leopold himselfmentions it in 1757. Only four manuscript copies from the 18th century are recorded. Once more Leopold Mozart uses descriptive and comical effects in order to popularize his works. In his own account of his compositions, published in 1757 in Marpurg’s Historisch-Kritische Beyträge under the title News from the present state of His Grace the Archbishop of Salzburg’s Music, Leopold expressly mentions this work: “[...] and finally a Sleigh Ride piece with five sections of sleigh-bell pealing”, thus indicating his own high opinion of that composition.

 
 

Leopold’s most celebrated composition: ‘Haydn’s’ Toy Symphony

 

3. MOZART, Leopold. Sinfonie Burlesque de J. Haidn [sic; recte: L. Mozart ]. Full score for Trompette de Ferblanc, Coucou, Crecelle, Organiste, Bastringue, Petit Tambour, Violino Primo, Violino Secondo and Basso, manuscript c. 1800, in a dark brown ink on 10 staves, 19 pp. oblong folio (35 x 25 cm), uncut, a few spots, margins slightly creased otherwise in fine condition. From the Talleyrand collection. £ 300
 
Hob. II: 47 (‘Kinder’- or ‘Berchtolsgadener’ Symphonie, about which Hoboken expresses doubts on Haydn’s authorship); MGG/2 vol. 12 col. 585 (as Leopold Mozart’s work). In the oldest known manuscript (Munich SBB Ms. mus. 5229), presumably dating from c. 1760, the work is called Cassatio and has seven movements. From 1780 onwards, manuscripts using the movements III (Allegro), IV (Minuet) and VII (Presto) began circulating under the names of Michael and Joseph Haydn and an Edmundo Angerer (1740-1794; cf. copies listed in Hoboken I p. 332), but the early editions which appeared from 1786 onwards used only the ‘best-selling’ name of Joseph Haydn. After the first English edition (Forster c. 1786) a first French edition was published around 1790 by Sieber, but the latter does not seem to be the source for our manuscript since the instrumentation is not identical. Leopold Mozart was appointed court composer to the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1757 and Vice- Kapellmeister in 1763.

 
 

An unrecorded piano version of the ‘Toy symphony’

 
4. MOZART, Leopold. Sinfonie Burlesque De J. Haydn pour le Piano Forte. Arrange par Fz. Brath. Manuscript c. 1820 in a dark brown ink, 9 pp. large folio (36.5 x 25.5 cm), some tears to the right margin. From the Talleyrand collection. £ 120
 
Hob. II:47; MGG/2 vol. 12 col. 585. – This piano version is unrecorded, and the arranger, a certain Franz Brath, is not known in any dictionary. Only later piano versions were published; the Hofmeister bibliography notes the Klavierauszüge by A. E. Marschner and E. D. Wagner in 1845. Our manuscript is testimony to the growing popularity of the Toy Symphony during the 19th century.
 
 

The now very rare first edition of Leopold’s teaching masterpiece

 
5. MOZART, Leopold. Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, entworfen und mit 4 Kupfertafeln sammt einer Tabelle versehen. In Verlag des Verfassers. Augsburg, Johann Jacob Lotter, 1756. Frontispiece (with Leopold Mozart’s portrait: G. Eichler delin. / Jac. Fridrich Sc.), 8 ff. title, dedication and preface, 264 pages., 4 ff. index, 1 p. Errata, with 4 plates (1 folding attached to 1st page of Register), a few stains, otherwise a very good copy; half-leather binding, rubbed, with small leather losses to back and corners. £ 4,600
 
RISM M 4035; RISM Ecrits p. 600-602; Rheinfurt (Lotter) p. 157. – The legendary first edition of Leopold Mozart’s Violinschule, the most remarkable, indeed epoch-making instruction-book on the violin playing of the eighteenth century; it made Leopold Mozart famous in musical circles throughout Europe. This book was reprinted five times during Leopold’s lifetime (1756, 1766, 1769, 1770, 1787) and republished many times afterwards (1791, 1800 etc.) Today this book is one of the most frequently offered facsimile editions among 18th century music publications. An apparently complete list of the pre-1850 editions is offered in the second part of this catalogue. [See items 170ff.] Just as in the comparable works by C. P. E. Bach and J. Quantz, L. Mozart’s book is not only an instrumental tutor, but moreover a wide-ranging instruction in musical taste, thought and experience during the author’s lifetime. Leopold sets out his subject-matter in a scholarly, methodological style and includes many references in his footnotes. When returning proofs of the violin method on 9 February 1756, Leopold informs his publisher: “By the way I am informing you that my wife fortunately gave birth to a boy on 27 January at 8 o’clock in the evening. [...] The boy’s name is Joannes Chrisostomus, Wolfgang, Gottlieb.”
 
 

One of the rarest of Leopold Mozart’s compositions:
The 1759 collection of music for the Salzburg Fortress

 
6. MOZART, Leopold (1719–1787) / EBERLIN, Johann Ernst (1702–1762) / ANON. Der Morgen und der Abend, den Innwohnern der Hochfürstl. Residenz=Stadt Salzburg melodisch und harmonisch angekündigt. Oder: Zwölf Musikstücke für das Clavier, deren eines täglich in der Vestung Hohensalzburg auf dem sogenannten Hornwerke Morgens und Abends gespielet wird; auf Verlangen vieler Liebhaber, sammt einer kurzen Geschichte von dem Ursprunge der Vestung Hohensalzburg herausgegeben von Leopold Mozart, Hochfürstl. Salzburgischen Cammermusikus. Augsburg, Lotter, 1759. 12 leaves: fol. 1: title; fol. 2-3r: dedication (3 pp.); fol. 3v-4v: Versuch einer kurzen Geschichte von dem Ursprunge der Vestung Hohensalzburg (3 pp.); fol. 5-11: score in letterpress (16 pp.), oblong folio, a clean uncut copy in excellent condition; fine early 20th century half red morocco binding, upper cover with bookplates of WH Cummings and Alfred Cortot (with a few annotations in his hand). £ 8,800
 
RISM M 4032, MM 4032 and SD p. 241 (6 copies, none in any GB library); Rheinfurth Nr. 210. – A very fine copy of one of only two publications of Leopold Mozart’s music published in his lifetime. The upper printed cover contains a description cut from The Strad, 1913, with a complete translation of the long-winded title text: “The Morning and the Evening, notified to the Inhabitants of the Grand Ducal Residence City of Salzburg, in melodic and harmonic manner: 12 Pieces of Music for the Clavier of which one is played daily on the so-called ‘Hornwerk’ (mechanical music) every Morning and Evening: published at the Request of many Amateurs, and provided with a short History of the Fortress of Hohen-Salzburg and its Origin...” The writer, Jeffrey Pulver, adds: “The dedication is one of the most humble specimens of literary genuflexion I have ever read and his ‘High-born, Well-born, Honorable, Highly-Worthy, and Most Noble Grace of Salzburg must have immensely gratified in its purse-and-position-proud vanity. It is followed by the history of the fortress, commencing in Roman times – immensely interesting [...] and by a description of the machine producing the music, and its compass.” Albi Rosenthal adds in his later description: “There follow 12 keyboard pieces, one for each month, as well as four pages of variations on the March piece.”With regard to the latter Pulver wrote: “The one anonymous piece played by this contrivance was the original tune that had been ground out for uncounted decades [das alte Stück, dessen Meister die Länge der Zeit uns entrissen hat]; the Capellmeister, Johann Ernst Eberlin, wrote five more [...] and Mozart composed the remaining six.” In fact numbers 1, 4, 8, 11 and 12 are by Eberlin (the pieces for January, April, August, November and December) and nos. 2, 5–7, 9 and 10 by L. Mozart, adding six variations: Veränderungen, die über das Stück für den Merz eingerücket sind; diese Veränderungen sind aber nicht auf dem Hornwerke, sondern erst itzt von demselben, bey dieser Herausgabe dazu verfertiget worden [i.e. L. Mozart]. In the historical preface L. Mozart points out the surprising fact that the musical box, which has 200 pipes, gives out “a so-called shout” [ein so genanntes Geschrey] before each performance, which is nothing less than a squawking F major chord. Mozart’s and Eberlin’s compositions are short diatonic pieces of 16 to 36 bars which frequently bear descriptive titles: “Carnival” (Die Fastnacht, no. 2), “hunting” (Die Jagd, no. 9) and “Lullaby” (Das Wiegenlied, no. 12). – With regard to these small pieces Leopold remarks at the end of his introduction: “If reproachful, jealous and agitated souls cannot hide their contemptible and naïve views in the face of this little trifle as well as happened on the publication of my violin tutor [in 1756], I will only laugh at them!” This kind of remark is typical of Leopold’s oversensitive and difficult character (which comes across very frequently in his letters). This work is one of the greatest rarities in the field of Mozartiana.
 
 

Further compositional models for the young Mozart

 
7. EBERLIN, Johann Ernst (1702–1762): Sicut mater a tre voci Di Ernesto Eberlin an. 1750. Manuscript score from the very early 19th century, 8 pp. oblong folio; in very good condition. £ 250
 
Eberlin lived in Salzburg from 1721 onwards; he was first appointed as court organist and in 1749 as Kapellmeister to the court and to the cathedral. He was a close friend of the Mozart family and co-operated with Leopold on the occasion of the publication of Der Morgen und der Abend (cf. previous item). In addition to Leopold Mozart, Eberlin was one of the most important compositional models for the young Wolfgang who copied at least 21 of Eberlin’s works himself (cf. Köchel/7 p. 755 f., 765 ff.); for many years at least three of Eberlin’s compositions were attributed to W. A. Mozart. As late as 1775 the latter used a theme from one of Eberlin’s offertories in the Misericordias Domini K. 222. Only a few of Eberlin’s works were printed, but they spread through the Austrian and South German musical world in manuscript form. His popularity lasted at least half a century after his death, as our relatively late copy suggests. His fluent style assured him a long influence on following generations.
 
 
8. HAYDN, Michael (1737-1806). Deutsches Hochamt für 2 Singstimmen, 2 Hörner und Orgel-Solo [aus: Kirchen-Compositionen von Michael Haydn. Nachgelassene Werke, the only published issue from this series]. Munich, Falter & Sohn, pl.-no. 1337 [1863]. Set of lithographed parts: 32, 8, 8, 13, 11 pp., folio, a few tears and dust marks on first 2 leaves, otherwise a fine copy. £ 190
 
RISM H 4738 (only 1 location); BSB VII, 2709. First edition. A very rare edition of an important church composition; in accordance with Archbishop Colloredo’s reform of the Salzburg liturgy, Haydn did not use a Latin but a German text with a simple but highly original instrumentation: organ, 2 sopranos and 2 horns (with a concert solo for corno I in no. VIII Nach der Wandlung). The organ has important solos in no. III Gloria and no. IX Agnus Dei. Michael Haydn was one of the closest friends of the Mozart family and among the most important mentors for the young Wolfgang Amadé. Indeed the latter copied at least nine of Michael Haydn’s works (K. Anh. A 11-15, 52-53, 71 and 80) who is thus, apart from Eberlin, the best represented Salzburg master among Mozart’s 88 autographs of works of other composers.
 
 
9. WAGENSEIL, Georg Christoph (1715–1777). A Lesson for the Harpsichord or Piano Forte Compos’d by Mr. Wagenseil [...]. London, C. and S. Thompson [c. 1770]. 8 pp. oblong folio, engraved, a fine copy. £ 350
 
RISM W 51 (5 copies); BUC p. 1052; very rare. – Wagenseil entered the Emperor’s service in Vienna as piano teacher to Maria Theresia and her daughters in 1739. He was very helpful to the Mozart family during their stays in Vienna in 1762 and 1768. Already in 1761 Wagenseil’s piano works were chosen by Leopold Mozart as study material for his children. Wolfgang Amadé’s first known compositions, the Andante and Menuettos Köchel no. 1 (February 1761), were written in his sister’s music book in which Leopold noted and dated which of his own pieces (composed previously for ‘Nannerl’) were played by the young genius. For example: “Wolfgangerl studied this minuet and trio on 26 January 1761 one day before his 5th birthday at 9.30 in the night for half an hour.” On 24 January and 6 February Leopold notes “zwei Scherzi von Wagenseil”. These were probably the first pieces by a composer other than Leopold performed by Wolfgang Amadé. Wagenseil’s Lesson offered here is an almost typical example of the study material Leopold used for training Nannerl and Wolfgang. Our Lesson concludes with a Menuetto resembling those composed by Leopold and Wolfgang (K. 1-2, 4-5) written in Nannerl’s music book and first published in the appendix to p. 15 in G. N. v. Nissen’s Biographie W. A. Mozart’s (1828). See no. 194.
 
 
10. WAGENSEIL, Georg Christoph. Sonata [C major, for Harpsichord and Violin] compos’d by Christopher Wagenseil. [London,] Printed for A. Hummel in King Street St. Ann’s Soho [c. 1765]. 7 pp. full score, folio, engraved, a very good copy. £ 380
 
NOT IN RISM. – This sonata is more developed than the previous Lesson and may be typical of the works Mozart played with his sister in their London concerts of 19 May 1764 (at the Court of King George III) and 21 February 1765 at the Haymarket Theatre in which works by Wagenseil were included. – Wagenseil himself was a celebrated performer on the harpsichord; in the 1770s Christian Friedrich David Schubart reports: “He was one of the first virtuosos in his time. His sonatas and concertos set both fists in rapid movement.”
 
 

9 June 1763: Start of the great European journey
Pietro Nardini, one of Mozart’s earliest acquaintances

 

On 9 June 1763 the Mozart family left Salzburg for a journey lasting until 29 November 1766 to show off both child prodigies, Wolfgang Amadé and Nannerl, to the world. On 9 July 1763 they arrived in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart, where since 1753 Niccolo Jomelli had been Kapellmeister. Nardini toured in Augsburg at the time where the Mozarts heard him.

 
 
11. NARDINI, Pietro (1722-1793), et al. The Harpsichord Miscellany. Book Second. Composed by Alberti, Pasquali and Nardini. London, Bremner [1763]. Title-page and 27 pp. engraved, oblong folio, a good copy. £ 480
 
RISM B II, S. 199 (9 copies); BUC S. 449. – This collection contains six Lessons; among them are two by Pietro Nardini (no. III and V). – The Mozart family met Nardini in June or early July 1763 in Augsburg; in a letter dated 11 July 1763 Leopold reports: “I have heard a certain Nardini [...] it would be impossible to hear a finer player for beauty, purity, evenness of tone and singing quality.” Wolfgang met him again in March 1770 and played with him. In our collection lessons no. I and VI (both in B flat major, two single movements) are composed by Domenico Alberti (c.1710-1746), the inventor of the ‘bassi Albertini’. These are first editions; the sonatas are not included in the other known printed collections (cf. MGG/2 vol. 1 col. 347 f.). Alberti’s style-setting oeuvre is extremely small: only 15 sonatas and 11 single movements are known. – The other two lessons are composed by Niccolo Pasquali († 1757). The last section of our collection contains a Simphonie [C] By the Earl of Kelly (Thomas Alexander Erskine, Lord Pittenweem, 1732-1781)
 
 

The Mozarts meet the most distinguished Italian composer, Jommelli

 

At Württemberg the Mozarts had difficulties holding a concert at the ducal court, and as usual Leopold Mozart ascribes this misfortune to the Italian influence: “I regard the whole business as the work of Jommelli who is doing his best to weed out the Germans at this court and put in only Italians.” Wolfgang will manifest similar prejudices towards Italians throughout his lifetime. In fact the Duke of Württemberg was away from court, and Jomelli was blameless. The latter said of Wolfgang Amadé (according to Leopold) that “it was amazing and hardly believable that a child of German birth could have such an unusual musical genius and so much understanding and passion”! There follows one of Jomelli’s most successful works:

 
12. JOMELLI, Niccolò (1714-1774). La Passione di Nostro Signore Giesu Cristo. Oratorio [...] Poesia del Signor Metastasio. London, R. Bremner [1770]. 2 leaves title (with fine floral border engraved by J. Caldwal) and subscription list, 127 pp. full score, folio, engraved; half-calf binding with marbled boards, slightly disbound, otherwise in very good condition. £ 650
 
Eitner V, 295; BUC S. 558; RISM J 568; Hochstein (Die Kirchenmusik von N. Jomelli) Anh. 40 (p. 267 ss). First edition of Jomelli’s celebrated setting of Metastasio’s version of the Passion, composed in 1749 in Rome. This work greatly contributed to the establishing of Jomelli’s fame as a church composer, a parallel activity to his operatic career. La Passione was largely diffused in manuscript before its first publication; Hochstein quotes 44 sources in seven countries. Nevertheless this work was the only religious one to have been published during the composer’s lifetime. It was reprinted up to 1919 (vocal score by Francesco Malipiero). Jomelli dedicated La Passione to the Duke of York, one of his patrons in Rome, and this work became his “most celebrated oratorio” (Hochstein). In 1780 J. A. Hiller emphasised its “incomparable effect and noble simplicity”, and one century later, Fétis stated that this oratorio still remained a model of “real beauty”.

After a trip to Brussels the Mozarts arrived in Paris on 18 November. A German diplomat, Baron Melchior von Grimm, proved to be extremely helpful for Mozart’s entrée to the French nobility. Grimm gives exact accounts of these events in his highly important Correspondance littéraire.

 
13. GRIMM, F. M. Baron v. [-DIDEROT, D.] Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique, adressée à un Souverain d’Allemagne, depuis 1753 jusqu’en 1769 […] Première (-3e) Partie (1770-1790). Paris, Longchamps-Buisson 1812-14. Supplément 1814-29. Together 8790 pp. in 17 vol. (of 18, vol. 13 is missing), 8vo., cloth bindings with marbled boards, some signs of use. £ 1,200
 
Brunet II, 1741; Deutsch (Mozart. Die Dokumente seines Lebens) pp. 27 (based on the 1877 edition). First edition of Grimm’s highly important accounts of French cultural life in the second half of the 18th century, written for subscribers such as the Russian Tsar, the King of Prussia and many others curious to learn the background to French politics. 231 entries are dedicated to music and opera and give a wealth of information not to be found elsewhere. All French composers are commented on as well as the Buffon and Gluck and Piccini quarrels in which Grimm had taken an active part. Mozartians especially appreciate Grimm’s letter of 1st December 1763 (vol. III, 528 ff.) which is the earliest report of Mozart’s first appearance before the Royal Family at Versailles. Grimm’s account is much more complete than Leopold Mozart’s (undated) letter of Dec. 1763 (Anderson 20). Since Deutsch (Dokumente) uses the variant 1877 edition, that collection lacks the entry referring to Mozart’s death (Suppl. p. 329).
 
 

A new musical encounter in Paris: Johann Schobert

 
14. SCHOBERT, Johann (ca. 1735–1767). Six Select Sonates Pour le Clavecin avec L’Accompagnement D’un Violon. Dedies à S. A. R. le Prince de Conti [...] Oeuvre II. London, Longman, Lukey & Co. [c. 1775]. Title-page & 39 pp. engraved score, folio, slightly dusty, margins rather narrowly cut, otherwise a good copy. £ 260
 
RISM S 2025 (only 1 copy: GB-Lbl); BUC S. 930. An extremely rare selection of highlights from Schobert’s works, chosen from his op. 3, 6 and 16. Schobert lived in Paris from 1760 and was appointed harpsichordist to the Prince de Conti to whom our collection is dedicated. Baron Grimm, Mozart’s friend, is the main informant about Schobert’s life; according to Grimm Schobert died on 28 August 1767 from eating some fungi which he had gathered near Paris and which poisoned his family, his cook and three friends (Correspondance littéraire vol. VII, p. 422). On 10 November 1767, Mozart notes “how and in what kind of company Herr Schobert went into eternity”. Schobert, however, was present much earlier in the Mozart correspondence: In 1764 Leopold regards him as one of the most important musicians in Paris, and on 1 Febuary he reports that “my little girl [Nannerl] plays the most difficult works which we have of Schobert”, and he does not omit some musician’s gossip: “Schobert is not at all the man he is said to be. He flatters to one’s face and is utterly false. But his religion is the religion in fashion. May God convert him!” Since T. de Wyzewa’s and G. de St. Foix’s copious monograph, Mozart scholars agree that Schobert was a great influence on the composer’s early sonatas (K. 6-15, 26-31), and unsurprisingly, as late as 1778, Mozart reports that “I happened to be in a music shop buying a collection of sonatas by Schobert for a pupil” (29 May 1778).
 
 
15. SCHOBERT, Johann. Deux Sonates [D, F] pour le Clavecin avec accompagnement de Violon [...] OEuvre V. London, Longman & Broderip [ca. 1780]. Engraved parts, folio: Clav (15 pp.), Vl (3 pp.). A very good copy. £ 220
 
RISM S 1942 (only 3 copies); BUC p. 930. – The title of the first edition (Paris, c. 1765) still reads ... avec accompagnement de violon ad libitum. The English edition reflects the fact that Schobert’s sonatas contributed to enhance the string part in the early piano duo sonata; Mozart will continue this tendency. Nineteenth century writers, however, criticize Schobert’s compositions and assert that his sonatas reflect his “wild and boisterous character”: “A tempest of passions is always raging in his heart and moves the ship of his creative genius on gigantic waves through the immense sea without a destination or rudder.” (Schilling, Encyclopädie 1840).
 
 
16. SCHOBERT, Johann. IV Sonates pour le Clavecin avec Accompagnement de Violon [...] Opera XVII. London, Welcker [c. 1780]. Engraved parts, folio: Clav (25 pp.), Vl (9 pp.). A fine copy. £ 280
 
RISM S 2012 (only incomplete copies); BUC p. 931. – These sonatas show the rôle of the violin in Schobert’s mind as a new colour or register of piano playing: The violin, indeed, mainly doubles the right piano hand (in thirds or octaves), varying the sounds and contributing to their charm.  
 

1764 : In London Mozart meets Abel and J. C. Bach
The Mozart family arrived in London in April 1764 where they found an apartment
 at 19 Cecil Court, St. Martin’s Lane.

 
17. ABEL, Karl Friedrich (1723–1787). Six Sonates Pour le Clavecin, avec accompagnement D’un Violon ou Flute Traversiere et d’un Violoncelle. Très humblement dediées a Sa Majesté Charlotte, Reine de la Grande Bretagne [...] Oeuvre V. London: For the Author and Sold at his House… [1764]. 25 pp. score for violin and harpsichord, folio. £ 250
 
RISM A 115. BUC, p. 2. – According to RISM most of the recorded copies lack the separate violoncello part as in our copy; generally this part is identical with the bass of the harpsichord part. C. F. Abel was born in Coethen where his father was a friend of J. S. Bach. Abel went to London in 1759 and became associated with J. C. Bach in 1764 in the foundation of the Bach-Abel- Concerts. One of Abel’s first acquaintances from the Continent was the Mozart family. Abel, who was a Chamber musician of Queen Sophie Charlotte, witnessed Mozart’s introduction and first concert before the Royal Family on 27 April 1764 where the young artist also performed works of his new friend Abel, who was famously painted by Gainsborough, whom he met in Bath in 1760. Abel’s sonatas were models for a generation of English composers. The young Mozart, too, was influenced by this composer and held him in high esteem. As late as 1787 Mozart quotes a theme from the 5th Sonata of Abel’s op.5 offered here in the Presto-Finale of the Sonata for piano and violin K. 526. This sonata was completed on 24 August 1787, two months after Abel’s death (20 June), and many scholars interpreted this coincidence as Mozart’s homage to his old friend.
 
 
18. ABEL, Karl Friedrich (1723–1787). Six Quartettes à Deux Violons, Alto Viola, et Violoncello. Obligato. [...] Opera VIII. Amsterdam: Markordt [c. 1780]. 4 engraved parts, folio: Vl. 1 (13 pp.), titlepage with fine floral framework (Gegravee door J.Turpin), Vl. 2 (16 pp.), Va (13 pp.), Vc (13 pp.). £ 280
 
RISM A and AA 94 (4 copies); BUC p. 2. – Abel’s first set of string quartets which originally appeared a few years earlier in London. Markordt’s particularly fine reprint shows Abel’s early popularity: Indeed his opus 8 was reprinted about ten times during his lifetime. Mozart was also influenced by Abel’s larger works. In London he copied Abel’s symphony opus 7 No. 6 which for many years was believed to be an original work by the young Salzburg master (K. 18).
 
 

1764: Mozart’s second public appearance in London

 
19. Advertisement in the Public Advisor, London, 31 May 1764: At the Great Room in Spring-Garden […] Tuesday, June 5, at Twelve o’Clock, will be performed a grand Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music. For the Benefit of Miss Mozart of Eleven, and Master Mozart of Seven Years of Age, Prodigies of Na-[ture…]. 1 f. 7 x 7 cm. £ 350
 
This advertisement was almost certainly devised by Leopold Mozart; the Spring-Garden was situated near Charing Cross, where the exhibitions of the Society of Artists were held. This text is quoted in Deutsch (Dokumente) on p. 35. Documents of this kind are exceedingly rare in private hands.
 
 

The same event in another London newspaper

 
20. Advertisement London, 4 June 1764: For the Benefit of Miss Mozart […] Tomorrow [5 June 1764] at Twelve o’Clock, will be performed a Great Concert […] This Method is therefore taken to shew the Public the greatest Prodigy that Europe, or that even Human Nature has to boast of. […] 1 f. 7 x 7 cm. £ 350
 
This text is based on the advertisement of 1st June, but the variant of 4 June is not quoted by Deutsch (Dokumente). The organization costs amounted to 20 Guineas; the income is reported to have been 100 Guineas. The 5th of June was the King’s birthday, on which occasion many people in London society returned to the city. Leopold Mozart almost certainly had this event in mind when planning his concert, and the success proved that he was right.
 
 

The ‘London Bach’: Mozart’s most important ‘teacher’

 
21. BACH, Johann Christian (1735–1782). No. I The Favourite Songs in the Opera Carattaco. London, Welcker [1768]. Title-page (with an ownership mark dated 1771) & 20 pp. engraved full score, folio. A fine copy. £ 220
 
RISM B 170; BUC S. 72. – First part (of three) with choice arias from Bach’s Italian opera Carattaco which was first performed on 14 February 1767 in London and seven times subsequently. In contrast to the work as a whole, several arias became very popular and were therefore published. Our collection is numbered ’I’ and contains four arias. J. C. Bach went to London in 1762, where his operas Orione and Zanaida were performed in 1763. When the Mozart family went to London in 1764, Bach took great care of the little boy, and is therefore regarded as one of the most important models for Mozart’s compositional development. In 1771 Mozart arranged three sonatas of Bach’s op. V as piano concertos (K. 107). When they met again in 1778, Mozart wrote to his father: “I love him (as you know) and respect him with all my heart; and as for him, there is no doubt but that he has praised me warmly, not only to my face, but to others also, and in all seriousness…” In a letter of 10 April 1782 Mozart expresses his pain about Bach’s death: “What a pity for the musical world!”, and wrote a musical tribute to him: In the piano concerto K. 414 he uses Bach’s La calamita dei cuori.
 
 

John Stanley’s copy

 
22. BACH, Johann Christian. Six Sonatas for the Harpsichord or Piano Forte: with an Accompagnament for a Violin. Humbly dedicated to the Right Hon.ble Lady Melbourne [...] Opera X. London [Welcker], [1773]. Title with fine decorative border (with the ownership stamp), 4 pp. (catalogue), 37 pp. engraved full score, oblong folio, some foxing, otherwise a fine copy; covers detached. £ 1,250
 
RISM B 335 (only 3 copies); BUC, p. 76. With the ownership signature of John Stanley (1712–1786), the blind Master of the King’s Band of Music, on the title-page. The first edition, variant without imprint on the title-page (the catalogue only goes up to Bach’s op. VII). These sonatas were very popular; RISM cites ten editions throughout Europe.
 
 

Barrington’s account of the young Mozart –
Presentation copy from the author to William Graves

 
23. BARRINGTON, Daines. Miscellanies. London, J. Nichols, 1781. Small folio. Pp iv, viii, 558pp; Contemporary boards; covers rubbed. Revised edition of the 1770 text, published in 1771, containing the celebrated text “Mozart, a very remarkable young Musician” (pp. 279-288). + etched portrait of Mozart aged 7 (engraved by Cook after Delafosse) captioned in French and with an epigraph from Homer’s Hymn on Mercury in Greek beneath, expressing the wonderful gifts bestowed, which ordinary mortals will always covet. Apresentation copy from Barrington to William Graves Esqr. £ 2,800
 
RISM, Ecrits p. 119. – The 1770 article, printed as part of the Philosophical Transactions (Vol. LV), for the Royal Society, is brought up to date (January 21 1780), with an account of Mozart’s award of the Order of the Golden Spur from the Pope and his 14-part composition for Tenducci in Paris in 1778. The Miscellanies also include accounts of the musical prodigies Charles and Sam Wesley and William Crotch (who played the harpsichord aged 3). The lawyer and antiquary Daines Barrington (1727-1800) took advantage of the opportunity offered by Leopold Mozart for his son’s abilities to be examined by interested persons during their stay in London. Barrington here records how he tested Wolfgang’s sight-reading and improvisatory powers, and found them to be quite extraordinary.

The Mozart family came back from their forty-month long European trip on 29 November 1766 and return to Salzburg musical life.

  Leopold Mozart mentioned in the official Calendar 1768

 
24. [SALZBURG]. Gilowsky, Franciscus Antonius. Hochfürstl. Salzburgischer Kirchen- und Hof-Calender, auf das Jahr nach der Gnadenreichen Geburt unsers Herrn und Seeligmachers Jesu Christi M.DCC.LXVIII. Alles zusammen getragen, und auf eigene Unkosten in den Druck gegeben… Gedruckt bey Johann Joseph Mayrs v. Mayregg… [1768]. 8vo. 24ff., 130pp., 3ff., + engraved plate of the Archbishop of Salzburg and one other. Contemporary gilt pictorial wrappers of oriental instrumentalists, with library shelfmark on label pasted on upper cover. On page 102, in the music section, Leopold Mozart is listed in the post of Vice-Kapellmeister (28 Febr. 1763). See plate on p. 25. £ 450
 
 

Gellert, Leopold’s spiritual Master

 
25. BACH, Carl Philipp Emmanuel (1714-88). Herrn Professor Gellerts Geistliche Oden und Lieder mit Melodien.... Dritte Auflage. Berlin, G. L. Winter; 1764. 2 ff. title, preface and index, 60 pp. typeset music, oblong folio; slightly spotted throughout, otherwise in good condition. – Bound with: Zwölf geistliche Oden und Lieder als ein Anhang zu Gellerts geistlichen Oden und Liedern.... Berlin, G. L. Winter; 1764. Very fine decorative title-page, 13 (+1) pp., slightly spotted; marbled wrappers (rubbed, slight loss to cover). £ 650
 
Wotquenne 194-195; Helm 686 / 696; Eitner I, 282; Wolffheim II, 2097; RISM B 124 and 128. – First part: Third edition; supplement: First edition. Arare and important collection with “in part highly valuable compositions” (M. Friedlaender), with remarkable letterpress features. Mozart first documents his esteem for C.P.E. Bach in 1767 when using a movement from Musicalisches Mancherley in the ‘Pasticcio’ concerto K. 40. In 1788 Mozart performed Bach’s Cantata Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu in Count Esterhazy’s palace in Vienna. – Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (1715-69) was one of Leopold Mozart’s favourite authors. In 1754 both exchanged letters, and Gellert’s answer expresses his high opinion of the Salzburg musician. Wolfgang informs Nannerl on 26 January 1770: “I have no news except that Herr Gellert, the poet, has died at Leipzig and since his death has written no more poetry.”
 
 
26. BACH, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–1788): Clavier-Sonaten und Freye Fantasien nebst einigen Rondos fürs Fortepiano für Kenner und Liebhaber, [...] Vierte (and Fünfte) Sammlung. Leipzig: Im Verlage des Autors, 1783 (1785). 1 f. title (lower margin repaired), 35 and 38 pp. typeset (title-page of Fünfte Sammlung missing, pp. 37/38 in manuscript), oblong folio; both collections in marbled binding. - Bound with: Sonatas by N. G. Gruner (1732-92), 1781 (52 pp., title-page in manuscript). A good working copy of these rare editions. £ 450
 
Wq 58 & 59; Helm 276 / 281; RISM B 90/91 and G 4781; BUC, pp. 73 and 407. – Bach completed six volumes of this collection. They contain typical examples of the ‘empfindsamer Stil’, the style of pre-classical sensitivity. Bach’s Freye Fantasien had a large impact on Mozart; the most obvious traces are found in his fantasias K. 397 and 475.

After some quiet years in Salzburg Leopold and Wolfgang Amadé leave for Italy on 13 December 1769. They stay at Verona, Mantua and Milan, where they meet Nicola Piccini at a rehearsal of his opera Cesaro in Egitto.

 
27. PICCINI, Nicola (1728-1800). La Buona Figliuola. London: Bremner [1767]. 84 pp. engraved short score, folio, rubbed marbled half-leather binding. £ 145
 
RISM P 2064. BUC, p. 782. – One of the earliest English versions of Piccini’s most succesful comic opera, first performed in Rome on 6 February 1760 and also produced in 1766 in London (25 November in Italian, 3 December in English as The Accomplished Maid). Two main versions are known: a larger one (166 pp.) and our shortened one (84 pp.). After the good contacts the Mozarts had with Piccini in 1770, the relationship became more complex in 1778 in Paris. At that time the Gluck-Piccini quarrel was dominating discussion in cultural circles and thus making Mozart’s attempts at success more elusive. Leopold wrote to his son on 9 February: “If Gluck and Piccini are there, you will avoid their company as much as possible”; Baron von Grimm, Mozart’s closest friend in Paris, however, recommended seeking Piccini’s friendship whom he publicly favoured. Mozart refused, and this was the main reason why Grimm stopped protecting him. Many of the great composers got help from colleagues and helped others (Gluck, Liszt, Schumann, Schoenberg…); Mozart’s exaggerated sense of honour was highly damaging and compromised his success.
 
 

On 30 March 1770 the Mozarts arrive in Florence. The most important acquaintance there is
the young violinist Thomas Linley, a pupil of Nardini.

 

The only remaining relic of Mozart’s letters to Thomas Linley

 
28. MOZART, Wolfgang Amadé. Mirror-image impression of the autograph address leaf of a letter by Mozart to Thomas Linley, Bologna, 10 September 1770 or shortly before. This impression almost certainly resulted by keeping the original letter (now lost) between two pieces of cardboard in slightly damp conditions; Mozart’s ink therefore partly peeled off the original leaf and attached itself to the back of the protecting cardboard as a mirrorimage. The (mirrored) text reads:
 
                   “A Monsieur
Monsieur Thomas Linley
[…] Ga […]
[…] Pivets [?] […]
                          [Fi]renze
                  […]”
The front of the cardboard shows a mid-19th century carnival scene. The back has an explanatory note in a 19th century hand, written by a great-grandchild of Thomas Linley: “A letter to my Gt. Grandfather from Mozart (1770) – from a collection in the possession of her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, & by her restored to my late aunt.” £ 7,900
 
Mozart met the exceptionally gifted violinist Thomas Linley, born in 1756 (who drowned at the age of 22 in 1778), in April 1770 in Florence. The two boys of the same age played together and became very close friends. Leopold reports to his wife: “The two boys performed one after the other throughout the whole evening, constantly embracing each other. On the following day the little Englishman, a most charming boy, had his violin brought to our rooms and played the whole afternoon, Wolfgang accompanying him on his own. On the next day we lunched […] and these two boys played in turn the whole afternoon, not like boys, but like men! Little Thomas accompanied us home and wept bitter tears, because we were leaving on the following day. […] He called on us at nine o’clock in the morning and gave Wolfgang with many embraces the following poem […] Then he accompanied our carriage as far as the city gate. I should like you to have witnessed this scene.” Mozart wrote two letters to Linley in September 1770 which are both lost. Only the text of the second letter is known from a publication of 1898 when it was owned by the Novello family, but the collected edition of Mozart’s letters is unable to trace its present whereabouts (cf. No. 208). The existence of another letter (No. 207a) is known only from a reference in the second letter, but it has never come to light. It seems that our mirror-image impression is the only remnant of one of these lost letters.
 
 

1770: The Mozarts meet the famous Padre Martini in Bologna

 
29. MARTINI, Padre Giovanni Battista (1706–1784). Duetti da Camera consagrati All‘ Altezza Reale Elettorale di Maria Antonia di Baviera Principessa Elettorale di Sassonia. Bologna: Lelio de la Volpe, 1763. 1 f. title within a magnificent frame, 2 pp. dedication, 47 pp. score in letterpress (each page within a finely engraved border), large oblong folio (41.5×29cm), some tears to margins, old wrappers. £ 750
 
RISM 1006. – First edition of one of the very rare editions of Martini’s compositions issued in his lifetime. Martini’s early works are frequently written in the ‘stile antico’; later he incorporated preclassical influences. In his Duetti both elements are successfully combined. The collection is dedicated to Maria Antonie, Electress of Saxony (1724–1780), one of the most gifted woman composers of the 18th century. Padre Martini was the highest musical authority in Italy when Leopold and Wolfgang Amadé first met him in 1770. Wolfgang trained with him, and the canons Köchel 73r (taken from Martini’s Storia della Musica) and antiphons K. 73u were written under Martini’s supervision. The Antiphon K. 73v was written for the admission to the ‘Accademia de Filarmonici’, but Mozart’s antiphon did not conform closely enough to the ‘stile osservato’ requested by that institution. Martini therefore secretly replaced it with his own version keeping only the beginning of Mozart’s work, and the censors awarded the successful candidate with the diploma and made the traditional presentation of the white balls to mark this.
 
 

A certificate of admission to the Accademia Filarmonica

 
30. BOLOGNA: Accademia Filarmonica. Admission certificate for Joseph Cajetan Aldini, 1st September 1767, signed by Angelus Antonius Caroli, Princeps, Aloysius Ferri, Secretus, and Cajetanus Petrus Cavana, Camplonerius, 1 f. imperial oblong folio (35.5 x 46.5 cm), with paper seal, folded, in excellent condition. £ 450
 
“Omnibus, et singulis praesentes Literas lecturis, felicitatem. […] Hinc est, quod hujusce nostrae PHYLHARMONICAE ACADEMIAE existimationi, & incremento consulere […] Testamur Illum et Exum Dnum Ioseph M.m Cajetanum Aldini sub die 1.o Mensis Septembris Anni 1767 inter Academiae nostrae Conservatores perpetuos adscriptum fuisse […]” Although this diploma was the most sought after in the 18th century musical world, it seems that it was a testimony of plodding scholarship rather than of musical genius. Joseph Cajetan Aldini indeed is not quoted in any music dictionary and we have no knowledge about his abilities in the real musical world. Mozart obtained the very same diploma on 10 October 1770 preserved in the archive of the Salzburg Mozarteum. It is reproduced on plate 237 in O. E. Deutsch: Mozart und seine Welt in zeitgenössischen Bildern (1961).
 
 

1770: The Mozarts meet Jomelli again and report about his “Demofonte”

 
31. JOMELLI, Niccolò (1714-1774). Il Demofonte. Musica Del Sig: Nicola Jomelli. Atto Primo [-Secondo, -Terzo]. Full score in manuscript in a clear, very legible hand by a professional copyist, in medium brown ink, last quarter of 18th century, Neapolitan provenance. 2 vols., small oblong folio (29 x 21.5 cm); vol. I: Act I, 138 pp.; Vol. II: Acts II-III, 188 pp.; in 2 half-calf bindings, covers with 18th century chequered paper, gilt leather labels “Mrs de Talleyrand”. In excellent condition. From the Talleyrand collection. £ 4,800
 
Eitner V, 297; Piper III, 207 f.; Loewenberg 200; MGG/2 IX, 1152 f.; TNG/Opera II, 1121. “One of Jomelli’s most successful works” (Loewenberg). – The libretto of Demoofonte is by Metastasio (1733) and was composed by around 30 of the most celebrated composers within one century (up to Cherubini): Demofoonte, a legendary king of Greece, is obliged to sacrifice his daughter, but a lot of intrigues come to a happy end and reconcile the gods. Jomelli’s Il Demofoonte was never published in full score (RISM J 585 is only a pasticcio with a few excerpts of Jomelli’s work). He first composed it in 1743 for Padua (only 2 manuscripts are recorded: Stuttgart & Paris), then revised it in 1753 for Milan (only 1 ms: Naples); a 3rd version with ballets by Noverre was prepared in 1764 for Stuttgart, and finally a new setting was staged in 1770 for Naples. Leopold and Wolfgang Amadé Mozart were in Naples in May 1770 and attended Jomelli’s Armida abbandonata, about which Wolfgang Amadé comments that it is “well composed and which I really like”. They met the composer: “He himself spoke to us and was very polite.” Jomelli, however, was unfortunate to produce a second work, Demoofonte, on the same stage only a few months later, and, despite his celebrity, the Neapolitans were not pleased with it. In his letter of 22 December 1770, Leopold refers to the “bad luck of Signor Jommelli, whose second opera at Naples has failed so miserably that people are even wanting to substitute another. […] It was really rather foolish of him to undertake to compose two operas for the same theatre in one year”. Jomelli’s Demoofonte, however, was one of his most influential works and has been staged several times since then (e. g. Stuttgart 1985). Our manuscript seems to follow the 1770 version, since it has the new terzetto for Dircea, Matusio and Timante at the end of act I which was only included in the 1764 and 1770 versions; but since our manuscript does not contain the 1764 ballets, it almost certainly represents the final Naples version of 1770, which is said to be “more intense, rhythmically complex and chromatic than the Stuttgart version” (M. McClymonds in TNG/Opera). Charles Burney commented on this setting: “It is in a difficult style […]. Sometimes it may be thought rather recherché but it is admirable in the tout ensemble: masterly in modulation, and in melody full of new passages.” Full scores of operas by Jomelli are exceedingly rare on the market. Only one has come to auction during the last 15 years (Dec. 2005). Only one complete opera by Jomelli was published during the 18th century: Olimpiade, which was offered in Otto Haas Catalogue 40.
 
 

The best of Farinelli’s repertory

 
32. [FARINELLI] BROSCHI, Carlo (1705–1782). Farinelli’s Celebrated Songs &c. Collected from Sig.r Hasse, Porporà, Vinci, and Veracini’s Operas Set for a German Flute, Violin or Harpsichord, Vol. I. London, Walsh, ed.-no. 602 [c. 1736–1755]. Engraved score, folio, 1 f. title (p. 5/6 missing). Brownings, repair on upper right corner to title-page, repaired tear on p. 2, signs of use and dust. £ 180
 
BUC, p. 965; RISM B II, p. 171 (7 copies, some incomplete). – Musical material relating to the most celebrated castrato of the eighteenth century is scarce; therefore this incomplete edition is welcome in this context since the Mozarts met Farinelli in March 1770 in Bologna: “We have also visited Cavaliere Broschi or the so-called Signor Farinelli, on his estate outside the town.” (27 March 1770) Farinelli’s iconic status as an opera singer has lasted to the present day; still in his lifetime and posthumously he was represented as the main character in operas and operettas (Lampe 1744, Barnett 1839, Auber 1843, Guillen 1853, Zumpe 1886, Matthus 1998 etc.), and in the 1994 film. Among the countless writers who lauded him we cite only Burney (1771, 1772 and 1796). When the Mozarts met him, Farinelli lived in his villa near Bologna since he had retired from the stage and business in 1762. Such a visit was obligatory for musical travellers in Bologna, and the Mozarts met other tourists in Farinelli’s house, especially the soprano Giuseppa Useda, La Spagnoletta.
 
 

Mozart meets ‘Il Divino Boemo’

 
33. MYSLIVECEK, Josef (1737–1781). Six Orchestra Trios for two Violins and a Violoncello. London, Longman and Broderip [c. 1780]. Engraved parts, folio: Vl. 1 (13 pp.), Vl. 2 (13 pp.), Basso (13 pp.); slightly browned and light signs of use; old wrappers. £ 280
 
Not in RISM; BUC, S. 722. – Welcker’s original imprint of 1775 (cf. RISM M 2892) had been erased from the plates after his bankruptcy in 1780. The plates were acquired by Longman & Broderip who issued these trios again, but only few copies of this issue survived. The bass part is figured; the orchestra therefore calls for a harpsichord. – Myslivecek was an unusually gifted musician whose style is astonishingly close to Mozart’s. The former’s oratorio, Abramo e Isacco, was for many decades believed to be Mozart’s work (K. Anh. C 3.11). Myslivecek achieved substantial success, but had a rather complex personality and was somewhat dissolute. The Mozarts first met him in Bologna in 1770 and became friends; Wolfgang visited him again in hospital in Munich when he was already severely ill.
 
 

During a second shorter journey to Northern Italy, Wolfgang and Leopold Mozart met
Johann Adolph Hasse in Verona on 31 August 1771.

 
34. HASSE, Johann Adolf (1699–1783). Intermezzo Marcantonio e Pimpinella [“Cento amanti tutto il giorno”] Del Sig.r Gio. Adol. Hasse, detto il Sassone. Full score on ten staves in manuscript in a neat mid-18th century hand in dark brown ink, 38 pp., oblong folio (22 × 31.5cm), in contemporary marbled wrappers, Henry Prunières’s book-plate on front endpaper. £ 1,400
 
New MGG and Opera Grove give 7 October 1741 as the first performance of the intermezzo Pimpinella e Marcantonio in Hubertusburg Castle near Dresden. As usual at that period it was performed between the acts of a ‘great’ opera which on that night was the three act opera Numa Pompilio also by Hasse. Marcantonio e Pimpinella was fairly successful and has been performed in several other places, but was never published and was only diffused in manuscript form. Copies are known in B-Bc; D-Dlb; I-PLcon; US-Aau. – In contrast to single arias from Hasse’s works, manuscripts of complete operatic material of this composer are extremely rare although he was one of the most celebrated in opera of the 18th century. Hasse knew Leopold Mozart from a visit to Vienna and wrote in a letter dated 30 September 1769 to Giovanni Maria Ortes about his children: “He has a daughter and a son; the first plays the harpsichord very well, and the second, who must be 12 or 13 years of age, is at that age a composer and music master. I have seen his compositions which do not seem to be those of a 12-yearold boy, but I do not dare entertain any doubt that they are his own since I have heard him playing them; they sound like works of an adult.” Two years later Hasse heard Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba; the already elderly Sassone is said to have exclaimed “this young man will throw us all into oblivion” (quoted by Jahn I p. 136). Hasse was astute enough as well to characterize Leopold “as dissatisfied all the time and with everything”
 
 

The librettist of “Ascanio in Alba” K. 111

 
35. PARINI, Giuseppe (1729-99). Descrizione delle feste Celebrate in Milano per le Nozze delle LL. Altezze Reali l’Arciduca Ferdinando d’Austria e l’Arciduchessa Maria Beatrice d’Este fatta per ordine della R. Corte l’anno delle medesime nozze MDCCLXXI. Milano, Soc. Tipogr. de’ Classici Italiani, 1825. 4to. 2ff., 49pp + frontispiece of a commemorative medallion (obverse and reverse) celebrating the marriage. Contemporary halfcalf with marbled boards; slight foxing to frontispiece but a very good copy. £ 350
 
Hoepli, Cat. 275; Köchel/7 p. 135. – First posthumous edition of this description by Parini of the grandiose celebrations for the marriage of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, the third child of the Empress Maria Theresia and the daughter of the Duke of Modena. For one of the subsequent revelries Parini specially wrote ‘L’Ascanio in Alba’, set to music by the fifteen-year-old Mozart (K. 111) and premièred on 17 October 1771. On page 21, there is a reference to this allegorical pastoral work and to the young composer’s fame in various parts of Europe: “la musica del detto drama fu composta dal signor Amadeo Volfango Mozart, giovinetto già conosciuto per la sua abilità in varie parti dell’ Europa.”
 
 

The models for the piano concertos K. 107

 
37. BACH, Johann Christian. Six Sonates pour le Clavecin ou le Piano Forte composées par Jean Chrétien Bach Maître de Musique de S. M. la Reine D’angleterre OEuvre V. Paris, Le Duc, pl.-no. 124 [1782]. [3] pp. title-page (signed by the publisher) and catalogue [cf. Johansson 65-66], pp. 2-34 engraved score, oblong folio. From the Talleyrand collection. £ 450
 
RISM B 384; Lesure p. 24; first French edition. – Bach’s opus V is his first set of piano sonatas published in London in 1768. This collection had a great impact on Mozart who transformed nos. 2, 3 and 4 into piano concertos; according to Wolfgang Plath this arrangement dates from c. 1771.
 
 

“Wolfgang is composing a quartet against boredom”

 
38. MOZART, W. A. [K. 155 etc.] Trois Quatuors Tres faciles pour deux Violons, Alto et Basso. [...] Ier Livre de Quatuors. Vienna and Mainz, Artaria, pl.-no. 387 [1792]. Complete set of engraved parts, folio: Vl. 1 (title-page, 12 pp.), Vl. 2 (12 pp.), Va (9 pp.), Vc (7 pp.). A few stains, otherwise a fine copy. £ 1,250
 
KV 157/1, 170/1+4, 160 (159a), 173/1+2, 155 (134a)/3; RISM M 6101; Haberkamp, p. 82f. (second issue, ill. 25). – First edition in a variant with new title-pages (all other criteria identical with first issue). According to Haberkamp the present copy is the only complete one she can trace; she used it as her bibliographical reference and quotes the seller’s label: Imported and Sold by Longman & Broderip [...] Who have a regular Correspondence with all the most eminent Professors and Publishers of Music in every part of Europe. This collection contains quartet movements composed during the 1772 journey to Italy. Leopold refers to them on 28 October 1772: “Wolfgang is composing a quartet against boredom”! According to Köchel/7 this reference concerns K. 155 and 157.
 
 

1773: The Mozarts (father and son) arrange dances from Gluck’s “Paride ed Helena”
Leopold and Wolfgang travel to Vienna on 14 July 1773

 
39. GLUCK, Christoph Willibald (1714-1787). Paride ed Helena. Dramma per Musica... In Vienna, nella stamparia aulica di Giovanni Tomaso de Trattnern, 1770. (12) pp. title, dedication, tables and argomento, 196 pp. full score in letterpress, tall folio (40 x 28 cm), some decorative woodcut vignettes, first ten leaves with diminishing water-stain; paper boards with a few signs of use, gilt leather label on verso. From the Talleyrand collection. £ 2,800
 
Hopkinson 39A; RISM G 2876. – First Edition. One of Trattner’s famous and very rare type settings; only one other opera by Gluck first appeared in Vienna in a similar edition (Alceste, 1769). With Paride ed Helena, Gluck and his librettist Calzabigi continued their trend to present subjects from Greek mythology. In comparison with his earlier works, Gluck reinforces his art of psychological description in a way that looks forward to the French Iphigénies; the orchestral accompaniments are capable of describing not only ‘simple’ feelings, but also nuances like irresolution, doubt and irony, thus creating new models Mozart was able to use from the time of Idomeneo onwards. But Gluck’s influence on Mozart goes back as far as 1773: In his Ballo Gavotte (K.626 b/28), Mozart arranges and enlarges the instrumentation of Gluck’s Gavotte from Paride ed Helena printed in our score on p. 119. (The autograph of Mozart’s Ballo Gavotte came from the Kallir Collection to Albi Rosenthal and was offered in the Mozart Catalogue 22 of Musikantiquariat Dr Ulrich Drüner in 1991.) Mozart’s Ballo Gavotte is part of a series of several similar arrangements by Leopold Mozart (cf. Köchel Anhang C 17.12) which demonstrate the very early acquaintance of the Mozarts with Gluck’s works. In 1782 these connections became much closer: Gluck was invited several times to Mozart’s and Aloysia Lange’s houses, whose concert (“Akademie”) the elderly composer attended on 11 March 1783. Both families were also Gluck’s guests, where Mozart improvised variations on his host’s song “Unser dummer Pöbel meint” (from Gluck’s La rencontre imprévue). After Gluck’s death in 1787 Mozart became his successor as Court Chamber Composer.
 
 
40. BURNEY, Charles. The Present State of Music in France and Italy or The Journal of a Tour through those Countries, undertaken to collect Materials for a General History of Music…with: The Present State of Music in Germany, The Netherlands and United Provinces…London for T. Becket and Co. (Vol.II T. Becket, J. Robson and G. Robinson), 1771 and 1773. 4to. 2 vols. Pp. vii, 396 pp., 5ff index; pp vii, 352pp. Modern cloth-backed marbled boards; recased. £ 1,200
 
RISM, Ecrits p. 192 f. – Invoking Montesquieu’s dictum that “[music] is the only one of all the arts which does not corrupt the mind”, Burney cites its importance in many contexts, including alleviating the danger and pain of childbirth, before describing its ubiquity: “Music has indeed ever been the delight of accomplished princes, and the most elegant amusement of polite courts: but at present it is so combined with things sacred and important, as well as with our pleasures, that mankind seems wholly unable to subsist without it: it forms a considerable part of divine service in our churches: it is essential to military discipline; and the theatres would languish without it. Add to this, that there is hardly a private family in a civilized nation, without its flute, its fiddle, its harpsichord, or guitar: that it alleviates labour and mitigates pain; and is still a greater blessing to humanity, when it keeps us out of mischief, or blunts the edge of care.” A doctor of music, Burney was for three years a pupil of Thomas Arne, and composed music for three operas from 1745 - 50, produced at Drury Lane. His journey described in these volumes began in June 1770 and his History of Music (1776 onwards), formed the basis of all similar works and secured his popularity. Burney visited the Mozart family in Salzburg and described Wolfgang, aged then 16, as a “great master of his instrument” but, as a composer, he was “one further instance of early fruit being more extraordinary than excellent”. Nannerl, the elder sister, was “not marvellous” he says (vol. II, p. 323). Burney was admired by Dr. Johnson, his position as organist at Chelsea Hospital from 1783-1814 was thanks to Edmund Burke and his daughter, Frances, the celebrated novelist better known as ‘Fanny’, remembered most for her novel Evelina, published a biography of her father in 1832.
 
 

Mozart composes for the Munich Court, 1775

 
41. MOZART, W. A. [KV 196] Die Gaertnerin aus Liebe, Oper in drei Aufzügen von W. A. Mozart. In vollständigem Clavierauszug mit deutschem Texte, und zugleich für das Piano=Forte allein. Mannheim, Heckel, no pl.-no. [1828]. 204 pp. vocal score, lithographed, folio. Fine modern binding, with the original wrappers laid down. £ 650
 
RISM M 4182 (only a later issue with pl.-no. 241); Hoboken No. 36. – First edition of the complete vocal score including all the 28 numbers; the title-page shows one of Heckel’s finest title illustrations (the giardiniera with flowers). The previous, incomplete vocal score from 1797 included only 8 single numbers: the overture and numbers 2, 4, 6, 9a-b, 11, 13. The full score was not published before the AMA (c. 1875). The Finta Giardiniera was composed in 1774-75 probably based on a libretto by Rainieri de Calzabigi and was first performed at the Munich Court Theatre on 13 January 1775. The work had great success and widely reinforced the contacts between Munich and the Mozart family. A further production took place during Mozart’s lifetime in Frankfurt in 1789.
 
 

A musical preparation for the Paris journey

 
42. MOZART, W. A. [K. 273] Sancta Maria von W. A. Mozart. Partitur mit beygefügtem Klavierauszuge. Nach dem hinterlassenen Original Manuscript herausgegeben. Offenbach, André, pl.-no 4852 [1824]. Full score with additional piano score, 15 pp. oblong folio, lithographed; a few stains, otherwise a good copy. From the collection of Alfred Cortot with his initials’ stamp and markings. £ 600
 
KV 273; RISM M 4 133; Constapel (André II) p. 274. - First edition. - Mozart composed the Sancta Maria on 9 September 1777 in Salzburg as a graduale ad festum Beata Maria Virgine for a four part chorus with strings and organ. The dedication day of the Holy Virgin was the 12th of September, and this composition generally is believed to be a votive offering for Mozart’s approaching Paris journey on which he embarked on 23 September.

On 23 September 1777 Mozart starts a 16 month trip to Munich, Augsburg, Mannheim and Paris. In Mannheim he runs into problems with the deputy Kapellmeister.

   

Mozart on his special enemy, Abbé Vogler: “A dreary musical jester”

 
43. VOGLER, Georg Joseph, Abbé (1749–1814). Autograph letter signed, Munich, 20 October [probably 1809], perhaps to Johann Friedrich Hartknoch the younger in Leipzig (1768-1819), son of the well-known music publisher J. F. Hartknoch in Riga (1740-1789), 2 pp. 8vo (24×19.5cm). £ 1,200
 
Vogler was one of the best known, though not uncontroversial musicians of his generation. The lexicographer Gerber praised Vogler as a true musician of high value, but Mozart saw a competitor in him and called him “a dreary musical jester, an exceedingly conceited and rather imcompetent fellow” (letter of 4 November 1777). Vogler was deputy Kapellmeister, a post Mozart regarded as within his own reach. It is typical for Mozart’s contacts with his musical world that he writes quite differently a few lines later about Ignaz Holzbauer, then first Kapellmeister at Mannheim: “Today, Sunday, I heard a mass by Holzbauer, which he wrote twenty-six years ago, but which is very fine. He is a good composer, he has a good church style […]” Vogler too had a good ecclesiastical style and wrote a famous Miserere dedicated to Pope Pius VI (published by Bossler in 1780). Ironically, Mozart’s youngest son became Vogler’s student of composition. In the letter offered here Vogler discusses his work as a specialist for organ building; he writes about a government enterprise for “an organ of first [largest] size with the promptest action and at a price of 14,000 Gulden in cash”. Vogler lived in Darmstadt since 1807, but in 1809 he was in Munich for the completion of the organ at St Peter. From then onwards he worked on the construction of a “Triorganon”, a giant organ with three consoles over which he got deeply into debt. Our letter almost certainly refers to that project. Letters by Vogler are exceedingly rare.
 
 
44. VOGLER, Georg Joseph, Abbé (1749–1814). XXXII Préludes pour L’Orgue ou Forte Piano. Munich, Falter (no pl. no.) [1806]. Title-page, 33 pp. in lithography, oblong folio; some brownings, upper margin foreshortened (some paginations cut), otherwise a good copy. £ 220
 
RISM V 2509; Schneider (Falter), vol. I, p. 249. – Some copies have the 56 pp. historical introduction which is not present here, but the title text refers to it: Nebst einer Zergliederung in ästhetischer, rhetorischer und harmonischer Rücksicht, mit praktischem Bezug auf das Handbuch der Tonlehre vom Abt Vogler. – Our collection contains short pieces of one or two pages (without indications for registrations) which may be regarded as examples of Vogler’s teaching method. These pieces apparently were composed during Vogler’s Munich period (1805-6), and were published there. Vogler’s interest in teaching was very strong, and he was able to attract students of great quality, among them musicians such as Franz Danzi, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Carl Maria von Weber. But despite his didactic merits, Mozart comments very aggressively on Vogler’s method of composition: “His book is more useful for teaching arithmetic than for teaching composition.”

On 23 March 1778 Mozart and his mother arrived in Paris. They establish friendly relations with several musicians, particularly with the composer Gossec.

 
45. GOSSEC, François Joseph (1734–1829). To be continued Monthly. The Periodical Overture [G] in 8 Parts. [...] Number XXXIII. London, Bremner [ca. 1771]. Complete set of engraved parts, folio: Flutes, Oboes, Horns (each 2 pp.), Vl. 1 (title-page, 4 pp.), Vl. 2 (3 pp.), Va (2 pp.), Vc (2 pp.), Basso (2 pp.), fine copy. £ 280
 
RISM G 3166 (only 1 complete copy). – An exceptionally rare edition, and a fine example from Bremner’s periodical series of publications for the orchestra. – Gossec wrote over 50 symphonies and symphonias concertante and is regarded as the “most important French symphonist of the 18th century” (New MGG), whom some of his contemporaries put on the same level as Haydn. During his 1778 sojourn in Paris Mozart met Gossec who inspected and praised Mozart’s choirs commissioned by Joseph Legros, the director of the Concert Spirituel, in order to enrich Ignaz Holzbauer’s Miserere (whose choirs were, according to Mozart, very “weak”, as Mannheim vocal music was in general). Gossec said – according to Mozart’s letter to his father of 4 April 1778 – that the first chorus was “charmant and would certainly produce a good effect”. Unfortunately these choruses are lost today. Mozart continues in his letter: “He [Gossec] is a very good friend of mine and at the same time a very dull fellow.”
 
 

Gossec gives a lesson about the engraving of vocal music

 
46. GOSSEC, François Joseph (1734–1829). Important autograph letter signed, 12 May 1784, to a French publisher, 2½ pp. large 8vo (21 x 16.5 cm), browning at head, otherwise in very good condition. £ 340
 
Gossec returns proofs and gives a long list of changes he wants. After supplying several details he writes in a general manner and asks for more clarity in the musical text with regard to the proportion of time in each measure: “il faut arranger les paroles sur les notes et non les notes sur les paroles. Pour rendre ceci parfait il faudroit que celui qui applique les caracteres fut musicien.” Letters by Gossec are rare.
 
 

Meeting an old friend in Paris again – Noverre

 
47. NOVERRE, Jean-Jacques Georges (1726-1810). Lettres sur la danse, et sur les ballets. Stuttgart/Lyon, Delaroche, 1760. 2 ff. title (corner repaired affecting 2 letters) and dedication, 484 pp., octavo, contemporary mottled calf with gilt spine, corners and hinges slightly restored. £ 1,200
 
RISM BVI, S. 622f.). – First edition. Noverre’s most important work about dance, which has been reprinted many times. During the year of publication, Noverre had been appointed Maître des Ballets de Son Altesse Sérénissime Monseigneur le Duc de Wurtemberg, to whom this edition is dedicated; in later years he was Master of Dance to the Kärtnertortheater (Vienna), and from 1775 to the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Together with Gluck and Lessing, Noverre was the first to develop a synaesthesia including music, dance and language. – According to Noverre’s memoirs he first met Mozart in 1767; a first co-operation took place in 1772 with the ballet Le gelosie del seraglio K. 135a, whose libretto is quoted in our book on p. 409 ff. Mozart visited Noverre immediately after his arrival in Paris, and the latter ordered a new ballet, Les petits riens (K. 299b), which was first performed at the Paris Académie Royale on 11 June 1778 between the acts of Piccini’s opera buffa Le finte gemelle.
 
 

The most dangerous enemy in Paris, 1778: Giuseppe Cambini

 
48. CAMBINI, Giuseppe Maria (1746–1825). Six Sonates Pour Violon et Basse, D’une Difficulté Graduelle Pour servir d’Etude aux Amateurs, avec les Notes sur le Caractère de chaque Morceau et le Style de leur Execution [...] Ier Livre de Sonates. Paris, Porro / Baillon [1786]. Title-page, 37 pp. engraved score, folio. £ 260
 
RISM C 529 (only 6 copies); Lesure (Bibl. de Paris) p. 92. – One of Cambini’s rather rare works for teaching purposes. His celebrity in ancien régime Paris was based on his orchestral works and his chamber music which corresponded exactly to the ‘light’ taste of the day and which therefore had significant success. It was with reference to one of his quartets that Mozart was first confronted with Cambini at the very beginning of his Paris sojourn in 1778. On 1st May Mozart reports to his father that on the occasion of their first meeting he remembered some of Cambini’s quartets he knew in Mannheim: “I praised them to him and played the beginning of the one I had heard. But Ritter, Ramm and Punto [some musicians from Mannheim] gave me no peace, urging me to go on and telling me what I could not remember, I myself could supply. This I did, so that Cambini was quite beside himself […] I am convinced that he did not enjoy it.” Indeed, Cambini did not enjoy the improving of his work and understood immediately that the only way of surviving with such a competitor would be by withholding his music from the public: Cambini plotted against the performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante (K. 297B) at the Concert Spirituel and succeeded in replacing it with one of his own Sinfonias. This misfortune was a major reason why Mozart felt unsettled in Paris, but he never understood that his own clumsiness in the dealings with his colleagues was dangerous for his own career.
 
 
49. CAMBINI, Giuseppe Maria (1746–1825). Second Recueil de Préludes et Point d’Orgues Dans tous les Tons Mêlés d’Airs Variés Pour l’étude et tous les coups d’archet du Violon. Dédié Aux véritables Amateurs. Paris: Porro, no pl. no. [after 1787]. Title-page, 25 pp. engraved, folio. £ 260
 
RISM CC 534a (only 3 copies). – A very rare collection for the instruction of the violin. The Premier Recueil of this collection is not known in the French first edition but was reprinted as late as 1796 by André. This shows that Cambini had a growing popularity outside France; the rarity of such editions must be understood as a sign of their intense use - very worn copies were rarely preserved.
 
 

Further Parisian enemies: Anton and Carl Stamitz

 
50. STAMITZ, Carl (1745–1801): Trois Sonates Pour le Forte Piano Avec un Violon Adlibitum, dediées A Madame La Vicomtesse de Torrington [...] OEuvre XVII. Gravé à Bruxelles. Brussels, Van Ypen et Mechtler / Paris, Cornouaille [c. 1783]. 25 pp. piano part (without the ad libitum violin part), folio, title within a fine frame with Stamitz’s initials “CS”. £ 280
 
RISM S 4560 (only 2 complete and 2 incomplete copies). – A beautiful edition showing the high standing Stamitz had in Europe and particularly in the Netherlands where he travelled in the years 1782-1783. His successes as an independent musician (like Mozart most of his lifetime) and as a travelling virtuoso on the viola and the viola d’amore lasted until c. 1790. Afterwards he looked for a settled appointment but soon became impoverished since his compositions were now regarded as old fashioned – partly due to Mozart’s increasing fame. Leopold Mozart soon raised his son’s suspicion of the brothers Anton and Carl Stamitz: “Not only Cambini but Stamitz too – and Piccini and others are bound to become jealous of you.” (6 May 1778). On 13 April, Leopold had already mentioned Stamitz’s symphonies: These works “are very much liked, as they are very noisy”. It is not surprising that Wolfgang informs his father on 9 July: “Of the two Stamitz brothers only the younger one is here, the elder […] is in London. They indeed are two wretched scribblers, gamblers, swillers and adulterers – not the kind of people for me. The one who is here [i. e. Anton] has scarcely a decent coat to his back.” Once again Mozart is raging against colleagues whose job could very well suit him: Anton was concertmaster to the Concert Spirituel, and Carl was Court composer to the Duke of Noailles. Other contemporaries such as the lexicographer Gerber describe Carl Stamitz quite differently as a musician “who may be esteemed for his honest and generous character as well as for his art”.
 
 

Carl Stamitz in the fold of successful European composers

 
51. [STAMITZ, Carl] Piano-Forte Magazine, Vol. XV. Containing: 1. Twelve Pieces by Sigr. [Franz Xaver] Sterkel op. 10. – 2. Les petites beautés by I. F. Sterkel op. 21. – 3. Twelve favourite Songs by [William] Jackson of Exeter. – 4. Four Sonatas by [Giusto] Ferdinando Tenducci. – 5. A favourite Sonata by Giovanni Paisiello. – 6. A Sonata by Charles Stamitz. – 7. Six Divertimentos by Antonio Kammell. – 8. A favourite Air with Variations (Anonymous) – 9. Mozarts Airs with Variations. [KV 360 (374b)] – 10. Two Sonatas by Muzio Clementi. – 11. A favourite Sonata by Leopold Kozeluch. – Three Sonatas by Muzio Clementi [op. 7]. London, Harrison, Cluse & Co., pl.-no. 224-238 [c. 1790, issue c. 1798]. 28, 20, 37, 35, 19, 21, 18, 8, 9, 17, 42 pp. (together 254 pp.) engraved, 4to., binding defective. £ 240
 
Fellinger, p. 102f.; this collection not in RISM. – Mozart’s variations on “Hélas, j’ai perdu mon amant” by Antoine Albanese were composed c. 1781 (originally for violin and piano, here in a piano solo arrangement). This edition is not mentioned in Köchel and RISM.
 
 

Mozart meets J.C. Bach again in St. Germain
Bach and Tenducci, the two “bosom friends”

 
52. BACH, Johann Christian. The Broom of Cowdenknows, a favorite Scotch Song [How blyth was I each morn] Sung by Mr. Tenducci, at the Pantheon & Mr: Abel’s Concert, the Instrumental Parts by the late celebrated Mr: Bach. London, Cahusac [c. 1784], 3 pp. engraved full score, folio, in very good condition. £ 280
 
RISM B 194 (only 2 copies); BUC p. 75; Terry p. 257/3. An extremely rare edition. – On 27 August 1778 Mozart writes: “Mr. Bach from London has been here for the last fortnight. He is going to write a French opera , and has only come to hear the singers. […] You can easily imagine his delight and mine at meeting again. […]” Mozart knew J. C. Bach and his friend, the castrato Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci (c. 1735–1790), in 1764. All three met again in 1778 in St. Germain near Paris at the Maréchal de Noailles’s summer residence. Mozart continues in the letter of 27 August: “Tenducci is here too. He is Bach’s bosom friend. He also was greatly delighted to see me again.[…] Tenducci is a great favourite of his [de Noailles], and because Tenducci is very fond of me, he was anxious to procure me this acquaintance.” After a rather scandalous marriage the castrato Tenducci lived mostly in London from 1758 onwards.
 
 

A model for Mozart’s lost ‘Scena for Tenducci’?

 
53. TENDUCCI, Giusto Ferdinando (c. 1735–1790). The Favorite Rondeau [Venus, queen of tender], Sung by M.r Tenducci at Mess.rs Bach and Abel’s Concert. Accompagnied on the Piano Forte by M.r Bach and on the Hautboy by M.r Fischer, adapted for the Harpsichord & an occasional Accompanyment for the Flute with English Words. [London] Author (Engrav’d by J. B. Scherer) [c. 1775?]. 4 pp. engraved full score, oblong folio. From C. B. Oldman’s collection with his signature. £ 850
 
RISM T 481 (2 copies, none in GB). – This work combines three of Mozart’s friends: Tenducci, Johann Christian Bach and the oboe player Johann Christian Fischer (1733–1800). But when Fischer came to Vienna in 1787 Mozart found his playing rather poor. In 1774 however he had composed 12 variations on a celebrated minuet from Fischer’s oboe concerto (K. 179). Tenducci had set this Rondo tailor-made for his two friends, Bach and Fischer, and himself. It has been speculated whether the work, in which solo sections for oboe and harpsichord closely alternate, may have had an influence on Mozart’s (lost) scena for Tenducci K. 315b. In an article for Music and Letters (1961) C. B. Oldman debates on that question. Oldman’s autograph manuscript for this article, Mozart’s Scena for Tenducci, is added here (24 pp. with many corrections and a typescript). According to Daines Barrington and Mozart’s letter of 27 August 1778, his scena also contained solos for Bach and Fischer.
 
 

An author’s copy initialled by J. C. Bach

 
54. BACH, Johann Christian. Ouverture Et Airs de Ballet détachés de La Partition d’Amadis Composés par J. C. Bach Arrangés pour Le Clavecin Ou Piano forte Et [recte : Ou] Harpe par N. J. Hüllmandel. Paris, Sieber [May 1780]. [3] pp. title-page (initialled “JB” by the composer) and pp. 2-21, engraved, oblong folio, in excellent condition. From the Talleyrand collection. £ 5,800
 
RISM B 381 (only 1 copy) and BB 381 (4 copies); Lesure (Bibl. de Paris) p. 22. – When meeting Mozart again in July 1778, Bach stayed in Paris where the Académie Royale de Musique had invited him to compose Amadis de Gaule. This masterpiece was first performed on 14 December 1779 in the presence of Queen Marie Antoinette. Joseph Legros sang the title role of Amadis; Legros was the Director of the Concert Spirituel for which he had commissioned the Paris Symphony from Mozart (K. 297) in early 1778.
 
According to MGG/2 the score of Amadis was published only in 1782, and our edition seems to be the first important excerpt from Bach’s opera to appear in print. Sieber was anxious to put his signature to each and every one of his publications, and we have never seen a single unsigned imprint among the several hundreds that have passed through our hands up to now. The Beethoven Archiv (Bonn) owns a copy of our Bach edition which is properly signed by Sieber, and thus it appears that we are offering one of the very rare author’s copies here, which were generally part of his royalties. Leopold Mozart refers to this custom in a letter dated 10 August 1781, mentioning Sieber’s publication conditions: “15 Louis neuf, 30 copies and free dedication”. Bach almost certainly got 30 free copies too from Sieber, and when selling them for his own benefit they had to be signed or initialled in order to authenticate them. Thus the copy was protected against piracy within the kingdom of France as a consequence of Bach’s privilège général for his own publications issued in 1763. Ours must be one of the very few examples of author’s copies to have survived from the 18th century. J.C. Bach used different signatures for the different languages. Italian letters are signed “Giov: Bach”; for French correspondence he uses “Jean Bach” (e. g. “Milan ce 29 Mai 1762 Votre tres obeissant Serviteur Jean Bach”). Although the “J” remains identical, Bach’s baroque “B” becomes less ornate in later years as in our document.
 
 

Musical and financial fruits of the Paris journey

 
55. MOZART, W. A. [K. 301-306] Six Sonates Pour Clavecin Ou Forté Piano Avec Accompagnement D’un Violon, Dediées A Son Altesse Serenissime Electorale Madame L’Electrice Palatine par Wolfgang Amadeo Mozart fils OEuvre Premiere. [ms. 9tt]. Paris, Sieber [November 1778]. Piano part (title-page, 49 pp.), engraved, oblong folio; slightly spotted, otherwise a good copy (without the violin part). £ 3,800
 
Köchel/7 p. 297; RISM M 6475; Haberkamp, p. 126f. (ill. 76); Coll. Hoboken XI, no. 66 (only 2nd issue). First edition of the so-called Kurfürstinnen-Sonaten [the sonatas dedicated to the Electress of Bavaria, K. 301 (293a), 302 (293b), 303 (293c), 304 (300c), 305 (293d), 306 (300l)] composed in 1778 in Mannheim and Paris and frequently mentioned in Mozart’s letters to his father. He tried to publish them in Mannheim but without success, and he wrote on 28 February 1778: “Nothing is done in this place by subscription; it is a miserly spot, and the engraver will not do them at his own expense, but wants to go halves with me in the sale. So I prefer to have them engraved in Paris, where the engravers are delighted to get something new and pay handsomely and where it is easier to get a thing done by subscription.” The publication, however, was delayed, for Mozart’s pecuniary zeal was intense: “My sonatas will soon be engraved. Up to the present everyone has refused to give me what I asked for them, so in the end I shall have to give in and let them go for fifteen louis d’or. It is the best way too to make my name known here.” (20 July 1778) The amount of 15 louis d’or, however, is quite considerable (cf. the previous J. C. Bach item); it corresponds to 165 gulden – more than Wolfgang’s annual salary in Salzburg between 1772 and 1777. Adding the 30 free copies (according to the title-page: 9 livres each, i. e. 4.12 gulden) and the dedication gift (usually a golden clock or a tobacco tin to a value of c. 150 gulden) the total honorarium for this publication amounts to c. 440 gulden. Leopold Mozart earned 400 gulden a year as Vice-Kapellmeister in Salzburg (500 from 1779 onwards). Since Leopold was famous in Paris as well, the publisher added “fils” to the author’s name in order to avoid confusion. Mozart had to leave Paris before the printing was complete, and the first copies reached him only a few days before his arrival in Munich. He obtained an audience with the Electress (to whom the works are dedicated) on 7 January 1779; Mozart waited a few days longer to receive the dedication present before returning to Salzburg on 15 January. The fifth sonata, in E minor, is regarded as one of the greatest in the repertoire of Mozart’s chamber music for piano.
 
 

An account of Mozart in Paris

 
56. PERIODICAL. Les Spectacles de Paris, ou Calendrier Historique & Chronologique des Théâtres ; contenant 1. Les noms & les demeures des principaux Acteurs, Danseurs, Musiciens & autres Personnes employées aux Spectacles. 2. Le Catalogue de toutes les Pièces que se jouent sur les différens Théâtres. 3. Des Anecdotes auxquelles ces différentes Pièces ont donné lieu. 4. Les noms des Auteurs vivans, Poëtes & Musiciens, qui ont travaillé dans le genre dramatique. 5. Un Précis de toutes les Pièces nouvelles, joués pendant l’année 1778. 6. Les noms des Acteurs & Actrices qui ont débuté la méme année… Pour l’Année 1779. Paris , la Veuve Duchesne [1779]. 12mo. 8ff., 8pp., [239] pp. A nice copy in contemporary mottled calf, gilt. £ 750
 
Mozart is mentioned as one of the composers to the Concert Spirituel. Mozart arrived in Paris in March 1779: between then and September at least two of his symphonies were performed at the Concert Spirituel. He also composed additional pieces for Holzbauer’s Miserere and a symphony concertante (K Anh.9/297B), but the latter was suppressed by the director, Joseph Legros, apparently on Cambini’s request, and never performed (cf. item 47).
 
 

Long-term effects of Mozart’s Paris journey

 
57. ALMANAC MUSICAL, pour l’année mil-sept-cent quatre-vingt-deux. Paris, Bureau de l’Abonnement Littéraire, 1782. 236pp.,12mo. Uncut in original grey printed wrappers. Backstrip partially missing, wrappers worn at corners, but a nice copy. £ 550
 
Sonneck (Supplement), p. 3; RISM BV1 p. 912 (only 2 copies in the United States and none in Britain.) – The penultimate volume in a series published annually from 1755-59 and 1781-83. Contains reports of new inventions and improvements in musical instruments and a list of new books and music, but comprises mainly a detailed retrospective of the musical events of 1781: notices of operatic premières and other stage productions, recitals, concerts, obituaries and gossip. There are detailed reviews both of music and performers and in the case of new operas, full résumés of the plots. Much attention is paid to Gluck and Piccini and to the controversy surrounding them. Of particular interest are three mentions of Haydn, including an enthusiastic review of his Stabat Mater performed at the Concert Spirituel, under the direction of Legros, who was inspired by the occasion to offer Haydn the opportunity to have his work published in Paris. The Almanac also recalls the performance of a symphony by ‘Amedeo Mozartz’ (p.107), with whom Legros had close connections during his stay in Paris. This is one of many known reports of the long-term effect of Mozart’s stay in Paris in 1778 which is considered as a ‘total failure’ in the whole Mozart literature. In fact, Mozart’s untimely departure from Paris just at the very beginning of notable successes was the consequence of Leopold’s psychological pressure on his son, and not a question of ‘failure’. (cf. U.Drüner, Mozarts Große Reise.)
 

Mozart returned to Salzburg on 15 January 1779 and re-entered the Archbishop’s service – but with a threefold increased in his salary. His curiosity was as intense as ever, and he studied other composers.

   

1780: Mozart subscribes to Georg Benda’s piano music

 
58. BENDA, Georg (1722–1799): Sammlung Vermischter Clavierstücke für geübte und ungeübte Spieler. Der regierenden Herzogin von Gotha und Altenburg gewidmet. [...] Erster Theil. Gotha, beym Verfasser und in Commission bey C. W. Ettinger, 1780. Titlepage, 1 p. preface, 5 pp. subscribers’ list, 36 pp. score in letterpress, oblong folio; in a fine half-leather binding with marbled boards. £ 750
 
RISM B 1897. – This publication has the longest subscribers’ list we have ever seen; indeed it totals 2068 copies! For comparison we refer to our Stuttgart catalogue no. 57 where several subscribers’ lists are quoted up to 1766 copies (items 4, 13 and 18). Breitkopf’s first editions of works by Haydn were printed in 700 to 1000 copies; there were subscribers for C. P. E. Bach’s piano works from 400 to 700 copies. Benda’s publication therefore may be regarded as particularly successful in the 18th century. The most remarkable detail is, however, that for Salzburg only two names are present: Capellmeister Mozart and the ‘musical artist’ Mozart (“Salzburg, 2 Exempl. Hr. Capellm. Mozart, Hr. Tonk. Mozart”), i. e. Leopold and Wolfgang Amadé. This is not a coincidence; Wolfgang Amadé had been highly impressed by Benda’s melodramas Ariadne and Medea which he had heard in Mannheim in 1778 on his return from Paris, and he writes: “both are excellent. You know that of all Lutheran Kapellmeisters Benda has always been my favourite, and I like those two works of his so much that I carry them about with me.” He began composing a work in the same manner, Semiramis, which is unfortunately lost (in his letter of 3 December 1778 he writes that he is already composing the first act). This is disappointing; perhaps one could have deduced from it that Benda’s monodramas were essential models for Mozart’s later idiom. In these circumstances it is not surprising that Mozart was interested to know Georg Benda’s piano music. Our edition is an extremely rare example of a subscribers’ list including Mozart’s name.
 
 

Munich and “Idomeneo” 1781: Mozart’s first operatic masterpiece

 
59. MOZART, W. A. [K. 366] Idomeneo Rè di Creta Opera Seria in 3. Atti Del Sign. W. A. Mozart aggiustata per il Piano Forte Dj Gjov. Wenzel. Leipzig bey Schmidt und Rau [1797]. 1 f. title (with charming vignette engraved by C. Seipp), 182 pp. oblong large folio (39 x 27 cm), light foxing, half-leather binding with marbled boards; binding rather worn, otherwise a good copy. From the Talleyrand collection. £ 4,800
 
Köchel no. 366, (7th ed. p. 372); Haberkamp p. 162 and plate 112; Hirsch IV, no. 41; Coll. Hoboken vol. XI no. 109. First edition of the vocal score, published eight years before the full score. According to Haberkamp, our copy belongs to “issue B” (without subscribers’ list), but she states that a chronological order of the different states “A” , “B”, “C” and “D” is not possible. Konstanze Mozart supported this first edition and signed an invitation for subscription on 1st May 1795, stating that the publication would be made according to the composer’s autograph manuscripts. This is an interesting document showing growing concern for correct and authentic editions. Nevertheless, for commercial reasons, the recitatives were shortened in this first edition. It is very rare since the publishers Schmidt and Rau ceased their activities in 1798, only one year after Idomeneo was published. Already at the end of 1797 and in early 1798 Breitkopf and Simrock published further vocal scores, with vocal lines in the G-clef , “to the advantage of the public” as an early review states in respect of the less handsome soprano clefs used in the first edition. Breitkopf and Härtel, who bought Schmidt and Rau, did not reprint from the original plates.
 
 
60. MOZART, W. A. [K 366] Jdomeneo Rè di Creta o sia Jlia e Jdamante, Drama Eroico in tre atti…. Bonn, Paris, Simrock, pl. no. 444 [1805]. 1 f. title, 365 pp. folio, engraved. In three bundles attached in the upper left corner as issued by the publisher, without its catalogue. £ 700
 
Köchel/7 p. 367 ff.; RISM M 4187; Haberkamp p. 165; Coll. Hoboken XI, No. 108; not in the Hirsch Collection. – First edition of the full score, here in the 6th issue according to Haberkamp’s classification (i.e. without any publisher’s catalogue). – Idomeneo was composed in 1780-1781 for the Munich Court; it is one of the most interesting examples of a mythological setting in the Opera Seria.
 
 
61. MOZART, W. A. [K. 373] Rondo pour le Violon avec accompagnement de grand orchestre [...] Oeuvre 85.me. Edition faite d’après la partition manuscrite. [...] Offenbach, J. André, pl.-no. 1423 [1800]. Complete set of engraved parts, folio: Violino principale (3 pp.), Ob 1+2 (1 p.), Vl. 1 (3 pp.), Vl. 2 (1 p.), Va + Hr 1 (1 p.), Basso + Hr 2 (1 p.). Title-page with a fine vignette (landscape with a farmhouse), slightly browned, otherwise a good copy. Some fingerings  in pencil in the solo part.
£ 950
 
Köchel/7 p. 382; RISM M 5753; Haberkamp, p. 169f.; Constapel (André-2), p. 126. – First edition. – Mozart refers to this Rondo in his letter of 8. April 1781 and says that it had been written six days before for the Salzburg Konzertmeister Antonio Brunetti and first performed that very day at a concert in the palace of Duke Rudolph Joseph Colloredo. Mozart had already composed other works for Brunetti.
 
 

Mozart exchanges his patrons

 
62. Silver taler from Salzburg showing the head of Hieronymus, Count Colloredo, Prince-Archbishop, 1772-1803, on obverse and his coat of arms on reverse. Diameter 4.5cm. In red leather, velvet and silk-lined box (Sergy-Genève). [Salzburg]: 1784. £ 275
 
Archbishop Colloredo was less sensitive to the special needs of the Mozart family than his predecessor, Count Schrattenbach. Colloredo had practical reasons to refuse the leave Leopold Mozart had asked for 1777 in order to accompany his son during the Paris journey. But Colloredo had heard of Wolfgang’s successes in Augsburg, Mannheim and Paris and therefore re-engaged him in 1779 at three times his previous salary in the meanwhile vacant position of court organist. But this new appointment was too restricted, and after severe disputes Mozart was somewhat painfully dismissed from the Prince Archbishop’s service in June 1781.
 
 
63. Gold ducat showing the head of The Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II on obverse; embossed with his coat of arms on reverse. Diameter 2.3 cm. [Vienna]: 1788.
£ 175
 
Joseph II was an ‘enlightened’ prince with great cultural and especially musical interests, but he governed rather economically. He observed Mozart’s development closely and took care to employ him regularly, but he did not wish to increase solely for him any of the remuneration he normally granted to other musicians of public interest. After his definitive move to Vienna in May 1781 Mozart immediately attempted to draw the Emperor’s attention upon himself, and he succeeded in this within seven months.
 
 

After leaving Salzburg, Mozart settles in Vienna

 
64. FISCHER, Joseph Maximilian. Verzeichniss der in der Kaiserl. Königl, Haupt- und Residenzstadt Wien, sammt dazu gehörigen Vorstadten und Gründen; befindlichen numerirten Hausern, der selben Eigenthümern […] Wien, Joseph Gerold, 1783. 8vo. 2ff., 268pp., 1f. manuscript addition. Contemporary tree calf, spine in compartments gilt, worming to upper cover and pp. 175-225. With two ambassadorial bookplates. £ 350
 
Includes listings on 12 pages of the dozen lodgings occupied by Mozart from March 1781 to December 1791, which are summarised on a loosely inserted modern leaf.

 

 

Mozart’s celebrity in Vienna was rapidly growing. His first performance as a pianist before Emperor Joseph II took place on 24 December 1781 on the occasion of Muzio Clementi’s visit to Vienna.

 

Dittersdorf discusses Mozart with Emperor Joseph II

 
65. DITTERSDORF, Karl Ditters von (1739–1799). Lebensbeschreibung seinem Sohne in die Feder diktirt. Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1801. 8vo. Pp. 16, 294 pp. Contemporary half-morocco with spine in compartments gilt; boards and rubbed corners; some wormholing to lower cover spine. £ 750
 
First edition of Dittersdorf’s autobiography which contains the account of a conversation he had with Emperor Joseph II, including a discussion about Mozart, in the course of which Dittersdorf answers the Emperor’s question: “What can you say about Mozart the composer?” “He is doubtless one of the greatest original geniuses, and I have known no composer who has such a wealth of ideas. I wished he were less lavish with them. He leaves the hearer breathless; the moment you want to relish a beautiful idea, there follows another splendid one displacing the former, and this goes on and on so that at the end you cannot retain any of those beautiful things in your memory.” When the Emperor says: “ In his operas, Mozart has the only fault that, as the singers have often complained, they are drowned by his full accompaniments”, Dittersdorf replies: “That would surprise me. It is possible to use harmony and accompaniment without spoiling the vocal line.”