Mozart and Prague
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
is often said to have had a special relationship with the city of Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and its people. Mozart biographer Maynard Solomon
Maynard Solomon
Maynard Solomon has carried out a multiple career: he was a co-founder of Vanguard Records as well as a music producer, and later became a writer on music.-Career in the recording industry:...
writes of
- an enthusiasm for Mozart that has passed into legend, with Prague seen as the good city that supported and understood him at a time when he had allegedly been neglected, even scorned, by ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
.
Mozart is claimed to have said, "Meine Prager verstehen mich" ("My Praguers understand me"), a saying which became famous in the Bohemian lands
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
.
The Prague premiere of Figaro
Mozart's opera The Marriage of FigaroThe Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, which premiered in Vienna, was produced in late 1786 in Prague with tremendous success. The reviewer for the Prague newspaper Oberpostamtzeitung wrote "No piece (so everyone here asserts) has ever caused such a sensation as the Italian opera Die Hochzeit des Figaro, which has already been given several times here with unlimited applause." The orchestra and some affiliated music lovers funded a personal visit by Mozart so he could hear the production. Mozart arrived on 11 January 1787 and was feted everywhere. On 19 January he gave an "academy" (that is, a concert for his own profit) at which the famous Symphony in D major, K. 504
Symphony No. 38 (Mozart)
The Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in late 1786. It was premiered in Prague on January 19, 1787, a few weeks after Le nozze di Figaro opened there. It is popularly known as the Prague Symphony...
--now called the "Prague" Symphony--was premiered. Mozart also improvised solo on the piano--including variations on the popular aria "Non più andrai" from "The Marriage of Figaro." Afterward, Mozart said he "counted this day as one of the happiest of his life."
The great success of this visit generated a commission from the impresario Bondini for another opera, which like "The Marriage of Figaro" was to have a libretto by Mozart's great collaborator Lorenzo da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte was a Venetian opera librettist and poet. He wrote the librettos for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's greatest operas, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte....
.
The premiere of Don Giovanni
The world premiere of Mozart and Da Ponte's Don GiovanniDon Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
took place in Prague on October 29, 1787 at the Theatre of the Estates. The work was rapturously received; the Prager Oberamtszeitung reported, "Connoisseurs and musicians say that Prague has never heard the like," and "the opera ... is extremely difficult to perform."
Berlin visit
Mozart returned to Prague in 1789 during a trip to Berlin, but stayed there only briefly; for details see Mozart's Berlin journeyMozart's Berlin journey
One of the longest adulthood journeys of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a visit, beginning in Spring 1789, to a series of cities lying northward of his adopted home in Vienna: Prague, Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin.-Departure:...
.
The premiere of La clemenza di Tito
Mozart wrote La clemenza di TitoLa clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...
for the festivities accompanying Leopold II's
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold II , born Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard, was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia from 1790 to 1792, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa...
Prague coronation as King of Bohemia in November 1790; Mozart obtained this commission after Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
had allegedly rejected it.
Why didn't Mozart stay?
After Don Giovanni, Mozart had an offer to stay and write another opera for Prague, yet he chose to return to Vienna (where he revised the opera for the local premiere). Maynard Solomon suggested that the reasons were first that Prague lacked the musical talent available in Vienna; in particular, the execution by the musicians of the Don Giovanni premiere was faulty and not up to the standard set in Vienna. In addition, a career like Mozart's depended on the support of the aristocracy, and Prague was only a provincial capital. The wealthy, music-supporting aristocrats whose estates were in the region were more likely to spend their time in Vienna than in Prague.Another possible reason why Mozart didn't stay is given by Volkmar Braunbehrens, citing Schenk: the death in Vienna in November 1787 of Gluck, whose post in the Imperial musical establishment Mozart sought (and ultimately got, though at a much lower salary); Mozart needed to return home to lobby for the position.
Why did Prague appreciate Mozart?
Braunbehrens also gives a fairly deeply-rooted explanation of why Prague gave Mozart's music such an enthusiastic reception. Prague was the capital of theformer independent nation of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, which following the loss of the Battle of White Mountain
Battle of White Mountain
The Battle of White Mountain, 8 November 1620 was an early battle in the Thirty Years' War in which an army of 30,000 Bohemians and mercenaries under Christian of Anhalt were routed by 27,000 men of the combined armies of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor under Charles Bonaventure de Longueval,...
in 1620 was incorporated into the Austrian Empire. Much of the native Czech aristocracy was displaced by Germans, and those who remained largely stayed on their own estates rather than moving back and forth to Vienna as the Austrian nobility did. The area was poor, in part because of the continuation of serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
, used by some of the new German aristocracy to support the development of industrial enterprises. In addition, after the conquest Bohemia was forced to re-convert to Roman Catholicism, and an important part of the program of reconversion involved church music. An extraordinary law required that every village schoolmaster should compose, rehearse, and perform with his students at least one Mass per year.
These factors combined to create a very musical country: due to the reconversion law, a great number of young people received musical instruction and became professional musicians, often employed by the aristocrats in jobs combining the function of musician and servant. In addition, many of the musicians sought employment outside of Bohemia; a number of Mozart's musical colleagues in Vienna were emigrant Bohemians. The sedentary character of the Czech nobility led to a great deal of music-making in the country; and the fact that Prague was not a national capital meant that there was no jaded nobility there to hold back new music; more open-minded bourgeois tastes prevailed.
All of these created an enthusiastic and knowledgeable public in Prague for Mozart's operas when they were performed there.
Commemorating Mozart in Prague today
Many tourists follow his tracks in Prague and visit the Mozart Museum of the reconstructed Villa BertramkaBertramka
Bertramka is a villa in Prague where Mozart was a frequent guest. Bertramka is now a museum dedicated to the memory of Mozart and to the former owners and Mozart’s hosts: Mr and Mrs Dušek.Bertramka is situated about a mile from the city centre...
, where the composer stayed with his friends the Duscheks on visits to Prague.