At Frankfort, which they went out of their way to visit, Mozart's first concert, on August 18, was so successful that they decided on giving three more. The newspaper announcement, of August 30, 1763, shows what an astonishing performance was offered to the public. It runs as follows:[17]— FRANKFORT, COBLENZ, COLOGNE. The universal admiration excited in the minds of the audience by the astounding genius of the two children of Herr L. Mozart, Kapellmeister at the Court of Salzburg, has necessitated the threefold repetition of the concert which was announced to take place on one occasion only.
In consequence, therefore, of this universal admiration, and in deference to the desire of many distinguished connoisseurs, the next and positively the last concert will take place this evening, Tuesday, August 30, in the Scharfischen Saal, on the Liebfraoenberge.
The little girl, who is in her twelfth year, will play the most difficult compositions of the greatest masters; the boy, who is not yet seven, will perform on the clavecin or harpsichord; he will also play a concerto for the violin, and will accompany symphonies on the clavier, the manual or keyboard being covered with a cloth, with as much facility as if he could see the keys; he will instantly name all notes played at a distance, whether singly or in chords on the clavier, or on any other instrument, bell, glass, or clock. He will finally, both on the harpsichord and the organ, improvise as long as may be desired and in any key, thus proving that he is as thoroughly acquainted with the one instrument as with the other, great as is the difference between them.[18]
Here, too, Goethe heard him. "I saw him as a boy, seven years old," he told Eckermann, "when he gave a concert on one of his tours. I myself was fourteen, and I remember the little fellow distinctly with his powdered wig and his sword."[19]
At Coblenz, Mozart was presented to the Elector of Treves, Johann Philipp (von Walderdorf), by Baron Walderdorf and the Imperial Ambassador, Count Bergen, and appeared at court on September 18. He was also frequently invited by the Privy Councillor and Imperial Knight von Kerpen, whose seven sons and two daughters all either sang or played some instrument. At Bonn, the Elector of Cologne, Maximilian Freidrich (Count of Konigseck-Rothenfels), being absent, they only remained long enough to see and admire the splendours of the residential palace; the magnificent beds, the baths, the picture galleries, concert halls, decorations, inlaid tables, chairs, &c.; also the numerous curiosities at Poppelsdorf and Falkenlust. At Cologne, on the other hand, they only note the "dingy cathedral." At Aix, the Princess Amalie, sister EARLY JOURNEYS. to Frederick the Great, and a zealous lover and patroness of music, was taking the waters. She endeavoured to persuade L. Mozart to take his children to Berlin, but he would not alter his plans.
"She has no money," writes the practical man. "If the kisses she bestows on my children, particularly on Master Wolfgang, were each a louis d'or, we should be well off; as it is, neither our hotel bill nor our post-horses can be paid with kisses." At Brussels, where Prince Charles of Lorraine, brother of the Emperor Francis I., resided as Governor and Captain-General of the Austrian Netherlands, they were delayed some time, but succeeded in giving a grand concert.
Thence they proceeded direct to Paris, where they arrived on November 18, and were kindly received and hospitably entertained by the Bavarian ambassador, Count von Eyck. His wife was a daughter of the high chamberlain at Salzburg, Count Arco. Mozart was furnished with introductions to the most distinguished persons then in Paris; but all these were worth nothing, L. Mozart writes, in comparison with one letter given to him by a merchant's wife at Frankfort, and addressed to Grimm. Friedrich Melchior Grimm, the pupil and disciple of Gottsched,[20] had lived in Paris since 1749. As secretary to Count Friesen, and afterwards to the Duke of Orleans, he had admission to the highest circles of society. His amiable disposition and the important share he took in the literary struggles of the encyclopedists gained him a still more exalted position as a sort of literary and artistic arbiter. His judgment on musical matters was eagerly sought after, and, as it came within his special province to bring to light anything out of the common way, he was of all others most fitted to appreciate Wolfgang's performances. He had genuine sympathy with his countrymen, too, and could understand such a nature as L. Mozart's. He had not yet been created baron and ambassador, was still active and energetic, and exerted all his personal and literary influence for the Mozart family. Leopold ascribes PARIS—1763-64, GRIMM, MDME. DE POMPADOUR. all their subsequent success to this "powerful friend." "He has done everything—opened the court to us, managed the first concert, and is going to manage the second. What cannot a man do with sense and a kind heart? He has been fifteen years in Paris, and knows how to make things fall out as he wishes."
Their first object was the introduction at court. The most important personage at that time at Versailles was, of course, Madame de Pompadour. "She must have been very beautiful," writes L. Mozart to Madame Hagenauer, "for she is still comely. She is tall and stately; stout, but well proportioned, with some likeness to Her Imperial Majesty about the eyes. She is proud, and has a remarkable mind." Mozart's sister remembered in after days how she placed little Wolfgang on the table before her, but pushed him aside when he bent forward to kiss her, on which he indignantly asked: "Who is this that does not want to kiss me?—the Empress kissed me."[21] The King's daughters were much more friendly, and, contrary to all etiquette, kissed and played with the children, both in their own apartments and in the public corridors. On New Year's Day the Mozart family were conducted by the Swiss guard to the supper-room of the royal family. Wolfgang stood near the Queen, who fed him with sweetmeats, and talked to him in German, which she was obliged to interpret to Louis XV. The father stood near Wolfgang, and the mother and daughter on the other side of the King, near the Dauphin and Madame Adelaide.
Once having played at Versailles, they were sure of access to the most distinguished society.[22]A small oil painting, now in the Museum at Versailles, shows little Wolfgang at the clavier in the salon of Prince Conti, the centre of an assemblage of great people. Finally, having established their EARLY JOURNEYS. position in private society they gave two great concerts (on March 10 and April 9, 1764) in the rooms of a certain fashionable M. Felix, who had built a little theatre for private representations. The permission to give these concerts was a favour obtained with difficulty, as they infringed the privileges both of the Concert Spirituel and of the French and Italian theatres. The result was in every respect a brilliant success. Marianne Mozart played the most difficult compositions of the musicians then living in Paris, especially of Schobert and Eckart, with a precision and correctness that could not have been surpassed by the masters themselves.
Schobert was a native of Strasburg, cembalist to the Prince de Conti; as a composer he was famous for his grace and fire, especially in allegros,[23] but as a man he was not all he should have been, according to L. Mozart. He was a false flatterer, his religion was à la mode, and his envy was often so ill-concealed as to excite ridicule. Eckart, on the contrary, was a worthy man, and quite free from jealousy; he had come from Augsburg to Paris in 1758, and was highly esteemed as a clavier-player and teacher.