The Performing Mozart Family

"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg

[Extract]

                                                                       Mainz, 3 August 1763

    From Schwetzingen we drove to Heidelberg in order to see the castle and the great  tun.[The monster oak, capable of holding 49,000 gallons of beer, constructed in 1751 under Elector Karl Theodor]

    On the whole Heidelberg is very like Salzburg, that is to say, as to its situation.  The fallen-in doors and walls in the castle, which are amazing to see, show the sad fruits of the late French wars.[Begun in 1685, when Louis XIV. laid claim to the Palatinate.  In 1693 the castle was completely destroyed by Maréchal De Lorge.]  In the Church of the Holy Ghost [built at the beginning of the fifteenth century.  In 1705 the nave was separated from the choir by a wall in order that the Catholics might worship in the latter and the Protestants in the former.] which is famous in history on account of the struggle between the Catholics and the Calvinists, which led the Electors to transfer their residence to Mannheim[In 1720, owing to ecclesiastical differences with the Protestant citizens, Elector Karl Philipp moved his residence from Heidelberg (for five centuries the capital of the Palatinate) to Mannheim] our Wolfgang so astonished everyone by his playing on the organ that by order of the Town Magistrate his name was inscribed with full particulars on it as a perpetual remembrance.[The organ was taken later to the Jesuit church and the inscription was removed.] After receiving a present of fifteen louis d'or we came on from Schwetzingen through Worms to Mainz.[The Mozarts spent eight days in Mainz and stayed at the inn 'Zum König von England'.  According to a letter of Leopold Mozart of 7 December 1780, they met there the famous violinist Karl Michael Esser, whom Mozart, then aged seven, rebuked for his careless playing.  They also met Anne De Amicis, the famous operatic soprano, who ten years later sang in Milan in Mozart's Lucio Silla.]  

    In Mannheim a French colonel presented a little ring to Nannerl and a pretty toothpick case to little Wolfgang" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY.  Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson.  New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 27].

[Background Image:  Historical View of Mainz.]