Because of this training, Mozart always remained modest, did everything with gratitude to God and greatest love for his parents. He was especially loving to Nannerl to whom he brought every new idea. In fact Mozart radiated friendship and love.
The Children Tour Europe
On this concert tour (1765) in Paris, London, Holland and Switzerland, Mozart was received with great enthusiasm everywhere. When they came back, Mozart had no time to become conceited for he began a strict course of study and at twelve he composed his first mass and his first opera Bastien et Bastienne, which is still played and is charming. At fourteen he was assistant concertmaster to the Archbishop of Salzburg, and then began a series of woes, for the Archbishop was a mean character and treated him most unjustly.
However, in 1777, we see him in Paris with his mother, where to his great advantage he heard Gluck’s operas and met Gluck. Shortly after that his mother died, and it made a very deep scar in his heart. Soon he was absorbed in composing and finishing Idomeneo and in this year (1781) took up his residence in Vienna. In the next, he married Constance Weber and wrote Il Seraglio in which his heroine is called Constance. They say he was teased for this, but he did not mind very much. In 1786 he wrote the unexcelled Marriage of Figaro, which at first was not appreciated, but soon came into its own.
Prague began to love Mozart and gave him ovations. To show his appreciation he composed Don Giovanni (1787) and so great was the people’s delight in this masterpiece that Emperor Joseph made him court composer at the salary of $400 a year! Too bad it was not more, for poor Mozart was never free from the heart-breaking struggle to make enough money to live. You will recall the letter of Haydn in the last section where he wished some nation would adopt Mozart and free him from care, so great was Haydn’s appreciation and love for Mozart, which Mozart returned. When listening to a piece of Haydn’s, a critic once said: “I wouldn’t have written it like that, would you?” “No,” replied Mozart, “and do you know why? Because neither of us would have had the idea!” Isn’t it refreshing to see men so great in wisdom and works that they become greater because of their loyalties.
Yet this man, a genius almost divine, was so hated by petty musicians, so badgered by unjust criticism, that when he was dying he believed that someone had poisoned him!
In spite of his enemies, he was known for his gaiety and bubbling fun, which ever overflowed into his music. No one seems to know why his country did not free him of money worry.
Appreciation Comes Late
As it so often happens with great men, after his death public subscriptions were collected and statues erected as a tribute to his memory. At Salzburg you can see a statue of him, and yearly festivals of his works are held in his honor; and in Vienna, the opera house is decorated with frescoes of scenes from the Magic Flute!
After his visit to Prague he was never well, and when he had finished the inimitable Magic Flute he started work on his last composition, the great Requiem (a mass played for the dead) which influenced Catholic Church music for years. He became very despondent, in great contrast to his usual high spirits, and poor Constance did everything to cheer him. One day, while writing the Requiem, Mozart began to weep and declared he was writing it for himself, “I feel I am not going to last much longer, some one has certainly given me poison, I cannot get rid of this idea.”