On February 21, the "Wonder of Nature" reappeared in public at a concert which had been often postponed. The political situation and the illness of the king made the time an unfavourable one, and the receipts were not so great as had been expected.
Another concert, on May 13, took place only after repeated announcements of the approaching departure of the Wonder of Nature, and at a reduced rate. "It was quite enchanting," declares the "Salzburger Zeitung"[35] "to hear the sister FIRST JOURNEY. of twelve years old play the most difficult sonatas on the harpsichord, while her brother accompanied her impromptu on another harpsichord." Wolfgang performed on a harpsichord with two manuals and a pedal which the musical instrument maker Tschudi had constructed for the King of Prussia;[36] Tschudi "rejoiced that his extraordinary harpsichord should be played for the first time by the most extraordinary performer in the world." After this, L. Mozart repeatedly invited the public to hear and test the young wonder in private daily from twelve to two o'clock; at first these performances took place in their own lodging, afterwards in a tavern, not of the first rank. It was promised as something extraordinary that the two children should play a duet on the same clavier with the keyboard covered. It was for these occasions that Wolfgang composed his first duet, according to L. Mozart, the first sonata for four hands ever written.
The Hon. Daines Barrington, a man highly esteemed as a lawyer and a philosopher, undertook a repeated and searching trial of the boy's skill, and has left a circumstantial report of the result.[37] He obtained a copy of Wolfgang's registry of baptism, in order to be sure of his age, and made other minute inquiries concerning him. Besides the usual tests of playing difficult pieces at sight, and of singing and accompanying with proper expression a score hitherto unknown to him, he demanded an improvisation. He told Mozart to improvise a love-song such as Manzuoli might sing in some opera. The boy at once pronounced some words to serve as a recitative, then followed an air on the word affetto (love) of about the length of an ordinary love-song in the regulation two parts. In the same way he composed a song expressive of anger on the word perfido which excited him so much, that he struck the clavier like one possessed, and several times sprang up from his seat. Barrington remarks that these improvised compositions, if not very astonishing, are HOLLAND, 1765. yet far above the ordinary run, and give proofs of decided inventive power. Not only has Mozart's technical education so far advanced, that he handles freely the forms and rules of composition; he begins now to display the inspired imagination of an artistic genius.
It is interesting to note the first stirrings of the dramatic element in Mozart, and how he was able already to give articulate expression to various passions as they were suggested to him.
An instance of this is a tenor song, "Va dal furor portata" (21 K.), composed in London, 1765, in which the Da capo form is rigorously adhered to, and which, though wanting in originality displays much sense of characteristic expression.
Before the end of their London stay they visited the British Museum, the natural history and ethnographical curiosities being duly noted by Marianne. In deference to an expressed wish, Wolfgang presented the Museum with his printed sonatas and with a manuscript composition (20 K.), consisting of a short madrigal in four parts, "God is our Refuge," the melody being possibly suggested.[38] Notwithstanding this, the treatment of it is an extraordinary proof not only of the boy's skill, but of his readiness in apprehending and adhering to an unaccustomed form.[39]
On July 24, 1765, they left London, remained one day in Canterbury, and passed the rest of the month at the country seat of Sir Horace Mann. In obedience to the repeated and earnest solicitations of the Dutch Ambassador, speaking as the mouthpiece of the Princess Caroline, of Nassau-Weilburg, L. Mozart, contrary to his original plan, consented to visit the Hague. He probably lays stress on this pressing invitation to excuse his lengthened absence from Salzburg. His leave of absence had long ago expired, FIRST JOURNEY. and he was repeatedly urged to hasten his return; but he was firmly resolved with God's help, to carry out what he had begun. They had proceeded as far on their journey as Lille, when Wolfgang was seized with an illness which necessitated a delay of four weeks, and from which he had not quite recovered when he was in Ghent playing on the great organ of the Church of St. Bernard. They reached the Hague in the beginning of September, and met with a very gracious reception from the Prince of Orange and his sister the Princess of Weilburg. But now, Marianne, in her turn fell dangerously ill; was delirious for a week together, and received the last sacrament. "No one," writes the father, "could have heard unmoved the interview between myself, my wife, and daughter, and how we convinced the latter of the vanity of the world and the blessedness of early death, while Wolfgang was amusing himself with his music in another room." They did not neglect to have masses for Marianne's recovery said in Salzburg.
On the Sunday that she was at her worst, Leopold opened the Gospel at the words: "Lord, come down, ere my child die;" but a new treatment of the case by Herr Schwenckel, physician to the Princess of Weilburg, was so successful, that he was soon able to acknowledge the prophetic significance of the words: "Thy daughter sleeps; thy faith hath saved thee."
Scarcely was the father relieved from this anxiety when he was subjected to a still greater trial. Wolfgang was seized with a violent attack of fever, which reduced him to extreme weakness for several weeks. But even illness did not cripple the boy's mental activity. He insisted on having a board laid across his bed, on which he could write; and even when his little fingers refused their accustomed service he could scarcely be persuaded to cease writing and playing.
In January, 1766, we find him composing a song, "Conservati fedele" (23 K.), for the Princess of Weilburg, which consists of a pleasant, flowing melody, and here and there characteristic touches, happily expressed by changes of harmony. HOLLAND, 1765-66. He was able before the end of this month to go on to Amsterdam, where they spent four weeks. Wolfgang gave two concerts at which all the instrumental pieces were of his own composition. Among them was a Symphony in B flat major (22 K.), in three movements, which had been written at the Hague, and which contains noteworthy instances of thematic elaboration and well-rounded phrasing. Although it was Lent, and all public amusements were strictly forbidden, these concerts were permitted because the "exhibition of the marvellous gifts of these children redounds to the glory of God," a resolution which, though it was formulated by Lutherans, was nevertheless cordially accepted by so devout a Catholic as L. Mozart.
