A summons to play before the court on April 14 was regarded as an unusual honour, and was followed by a present of 100 ducats.[ 6 ] Elsewhere he played with his usual readiness and good nature; and the interest which was felt in him was increased by a competition in which he came off with flying colours. His rival was Hàssler of Erfurt,[ 7 ] who happened to be in Dresden at the time, and was considered a pianoforte and organ-player of the first rank. Much was said in praise of his astonishing executive powers, of his brilliant and fiery delivery,[ 8 ] of his singular gift "of putting expression into the most rapid prestissimo—so that in softness and pathos it was equal to an adagio"[ 9 ]—and of his wonderful memory, enabling him to play the most difficult compositions without the notes. As an organ-player his dexterity with the pedal was specially admired.[ 10 ] He had an A PROFESSIONAL TOUR. excellent opinion of himself; and when in the summer of 1788 he was in Dresden, "exciting the liveliest astonishment in all who heard him by his inexpressibly affecting playing," he let it be known that he intended to proceed to Vienna, "in order to prove to the Vienna public in competition with the great Mozart, that strong as the latter may be upon the pianoforte, he cannot play the clavichord."[ 11 ] To Mozart he appeared no formidable antagonist; he gave him credit for his dexterity in the use of the pedal, but placed him below Albrechtsberger as an organ-player, and compared him to Aurnhammer as a pianist.
Mozart's visit to Leipzig left behind a strong and pleasant impression. Fr. Rochlitz, then a young man, became intimate with him at the house of their common friend Doles,[ 12 ] and preserved a number of interesting traits, characteristic both of the man and the artist. He was cheerful and amiable in society, outspoken in his judgments of art and artists, and responsive to any display of interest in music; "not niggardly of his art, as so many musicians are." Almost every evening during his stay in Leipzig he took part in musical entertainments at different houses, and when quartets were played he took the piano or tenor part. The violinist Berger, who was generally of the party, used, as an old man, when any of these pieces were brought forward, to whisper to a friend with tender emotion, "Ah, I had once the honour of accompanying the great Mozart himself in that piece."[ 13 ] An ear-witness gave the following account:—
On April 22 he played the organ of the Thomaskirche, without previous notice, and gratuitously. He played very finely for an hour to a large audience. The then organist, Gorner, and the cantor, Doles, sat near him and pulled the stops. I saw him well; a young, well-dressed man of middle height. Doles was quite delighted with the performance, and declared that his old master, Sebastian Bach, had LEIPZIG—POTSDAM, 1789. risen again. Mozart brought to bear all the arts of harmony with the greatest ease and discrimination, and improvised magnificently on every theme given—among others on the chorale, "Jesu meine Zuversicht."[ 14 ]
Doles in return made his Thomaner scholars sing for Mozart Bach's motett, "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied," and we have already seen how intensely delighted he was, and how eagerly he at once set about studying Bach's other motetts (Vol. II., p. 416). Shortly after this, and apparently without having given a concert, Mozart continued his journey to Berlin, and thence immediately proceeded to Potsdam, where Lichnowsky presented him to the King. Frederick William II. possessed remarkable talent and love for music. He played the violoncello well, not only as a soloist, but frequently also in the orchestra at rehearsals.[ 15 ] Even before his accession to the throne he had maintained a well-appointed and excellent Kapelle under the leadership of the violoncellist Duport senior (1741-1818); concerts were regularly performed before him, and he was fond of hearing foreign virtuosi.[ 16 ] Reichardt credits him with great universality of taste,[ 17 ] which was of special advantage to music after Frederick the Great's bigoted prejudice. It was at the King's instigation that Reichardt organised his Concerts Spirituels, at which the older Italian music was principally performed; he esteemed highly both Handel and Gluck, and both at his concerts and on the stage showed equal favour to Italian, French, and German music; the improved instrumental music called into being by Haydn found a sympathetic patron in him. After his accession, in 1786, musical enterprise had still more cause to rejoice in the royal favour. He united his own with the royal Kapelle and placed Reichardt as Kapellmeister at their head. The grand Italian opera given at the Carnival was brilliantly appointed, and Naumann's services as a composer were retained, together with those of Alessandri A PROFESSIONAL TOUR. and Reichardt. The hitherto little-esteemed German drama was elevated to the rank of a national theatre, and a regular support was secured to it, which had great weight in the elevation of German opera. Nor were opera buffa or the French opera neglected; on one evening, during a court festival, in the summer of 1789, Cimarosa's "Falegname," Dalayrac's "Nina," and Reichardt's "Claudine von Villa-bella" were performed. The King's concerts were conducted in the same manner as before, remaining under Duport's leadership.
The King welcomed foreign artists not only liberally in point of payment, but with the utmost kindness and freedom of personal intercourse, so that it is not surprising that they should have held him in great reverence, and approached him with large expectations.[ 18 ] Mozart's best introductions to the King's favour were his instrumental compositions, especially his quartets, and the very successful performance of his "Entführung" which had taken place in Berlin; there can be little doubt that he confirmed the good opinion conceived of him by his accomplishments as a virtuoso and by his general demeanour. But he found a powerful opponent in the haughty and intriguing Duport.[ 19 ] At Mozart's first visit he insisted on speaking French, which Mozart, although familiar with the language, decidedly declined doing. "The grinning mounseer," said he, "has been long enough making German money, and eating German bread, to be able to speak the German language, or to murder it as best he may, with his French grimaces."[ 20 ] Duport did not forgive him, and did all he could to prejudice the King against him, although Mozart paid him the compliment of composing variations (573 K.) to a charming minuet of Duport's (April 29, 1789), and of performing them himself. But the King was proof against OFFER OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA. Duport's ill-nature, invited Mozart regularly to his concerts, and was fond of hearing him play. When he asked him what he thought of the Berlin Kapelle, Mozart answered frankly, that it contained the best performers in the world, but that if the gentlemen would play together it would be an improvement.[ 21 ] This implied disapprobation of the Kapellmeister Reichardt, whose direction had indeed been found fault with by others.[ 22 ] We hear of no intercourse between the two artists; perhaps some such sharp expressions as the above were the cause of the grudging notices of Mozart by Reichardt and the journals under his influence, which we cannot fail to remark.[ 23 ] No two natures could well be more dissimilar. Reichardt was undoubtedly a distinguished man; he had musical talent, a keen intellect, varied cultivation, and great energy; but ambition, vanity, and a passionate temper seldom allowed him to arrive at a calm judgment, and he was in continual search of some new way in which to bring himself forward. The journalist and the musician, the critic and the composer, trod close on each other's heels; and while always seeking to gain credit for originality of style, his greater compositions are in truth uncertain and unequal, and seldom produce the desired effect. No wonder that he failed to understand a nature such as Mozart's, which, undisturbed by external considerations, followed its creative impulses from sheer inner necessity; no wonder, either, that so failing, he should have sought to justify his aversion to his rival on polemical grounds.[ 24 ] Mozart's remark must have made some impression on the King, since he soon after offered him the post of Kapellmeister, with a salary of 3,000 dollars. This offer, however, consideration for the Emperor Joseph induced Mozart to decline.[ 25 ]
During his stay in Potsdam, Mozart resided in the house of the well-known hom-player Thùrschmidt, with whom he had become acquainted in Paris; he was a constant guest also of the hospitable and music-loving Sartory, an artist of architectural ornament, who had been much in Italy, and welcomed all who took interest in his favourite art; Mozart's playing and sociability made him, as may be imagined, the centre of this cheerful society.[ 26 ] Another of his friends was the charming singer Sophie Niclas, sister to the Kammer-musikus Semler, who had made a very successful appearance as Constanze in the "Entführung" in 1784:[ 27 ]—
On one occasion, at her house, he was asked to improvise something. Readily, as his custom was, he complied, and seated himself at the piano, having first been provided with two themes by the musicians who were present. Madame Niclas stood near his chair to watch him playing. Mozart, who loved a joke with her, looked up and said, "Come! haven't you a theme on your mind for me too?" She sang him one, and he began the most charming fantasia, now on the one subject, now on the other, ending by bringing them all three together, to the intense delight and amazement of all who were present.[ 28 ]
Arrangements were made during Mozart's stay in Berlin for a return visit to Leipzig, where in the meantime a concert for his benefit was being organised; he arrived there on May 8. At the rehearsal for this concert he took the tempo of the first allegro of his symphony so fast that the orchestra was very soon in inextricable confusion. Mozart stopped, told the players what was wrong, and began again as fast as before, doing all he could to keep the orchestra together, and stamping the time with his foot so energetically that his steel shoe-buckle snapped in two.[ 29 ] He laughed at this, and as they still dragged, he began a third time; the musicians, CONCERT IN LEIPZIG, 1789. grown impatient, worked in desperation, and at last it went right. "It was not caprice," he said afterwards to some musical friends, whom he had lectured only a short time before on the subject of too rapid tempo, "but I saw at once that most of the players were men advanced in years; there would have been no end to the dragging if I had not worked them up into a rage, so that they did their best out of pure spite." The rest of the symphony he took in moderate time, and after the song had been rehearsed he praised the accompaniment of the orchestra, and said that it would be unnecessary to rehearse his concerto: "The parts are correctly written out, you play accurately, and so do I"; and the result showed that his confidence was not misplaced.[ 30 ]
The concert[ 31 ] was poorly attended, and scarcely paid the expenses of Mozart's journey to Leipzig. Almost half the audience had free tickets, which, with his usual liberality, Mozart gave away to every one he knew. He required no chorus, and the fairly numerous chorus-singers were therefore excluded from their usual free admission. Some of them inquired at the ticket-office whether this was really to be the case; and as soon as Mozart heard of the inquiry he gave orders that the good folks should all be admitted: "Who would think of enforcing such a rule?" The poor audience had not the effect of damping his musical enthusiasm or good humour. His own compositions only were performed; he conducted two symphonies, as yet unpublished, and then Madame Duschek sang the air composed for Storace with obbligato pianoforte (505 K.); he himself played two concertos, one of them the great C major (467 K.), as usual without notes. He complied with ready goodwill to the request for an improvisation at the close of the concert; and after it was over, as though he were then just warming to A PROFESSIONAL TOUR. his work, he took his friend Berger into his room and played far into the night.[ 32 ]
