The Performing Mozart Family

"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg

[Extract]

                                                                           Schwetzingen, 19 July 1763

MONSIEUR!

    As I was writing from Ludwigsburg, I did not dare to add that the soldiering there is driven to excess.  For, in truth, twelve to fifteen thousand soldiers, who strut about every day dressed up to the nines, who can hardly walk on account of their tight gaiter and breeches made of the finest linen, all exactly alike, are too few to be taken seriously and too expensive to be joked about; consequently they are far too many.  On the 12th at eight in the morning we at last got the coach-horses which had been promised us for four o'clock and, driving through Enzweihingen (entirely Lutheran and a wretched spot), we reached Bruchsal in the evening.  On that day's journey we had pleasant views; and much pleasure was afforded us by a good friend, who coming from Augsburg happened to follow us.  . . . Thence we drove, not to Mannheim, but straight to Schwetzingen [according to E. Anderson, about nine miles from Mannheim and the summer residence of the Electors.  The Schloss was built by Elector Karl Ludwig in 1656 and the gardens laid out in 1753 by Elector Karl Theodor.  As Anderson further reports, the Mozarts arrived on 13 July and stayed at the inn 'Zum roten Haus'.], where the court always spends the summer.  Apart from the letter of recommendation which I had brought with me from Vienna to the Director of Music, Baron Eberstein, we had already been introduced there by Prince von Zweibrücken; and in addition Prince Clemens of Bavaria had sent to the 'Drei Mohren' in Augsburg a letter of recommentation in his own hand for the Electress at Mannheim.  Yesterday a concert, the second only to be held here since May, was arranged specially for us.  It lasted from five to nine in the evening.  Besides good male and female singers I had the pleasure of hearing an admirable flautist, Wendling [Johann Baptist Wendling, according to E. Anderson an eminent flautist who frequently played in Paris and London and who joined the Mannheim orchestra in 1754 and who, in 1778, followed the Elector to Munich] by name.  The orchestra is undeniably the best in Germany.  It consists altogether of people who are young and of good character, not drunkards, gamblers or dissolute fellows, so that both their behaviour and their playing are admirable.  My children have set all Schwetzingen talking.  The Elector and his consort have shown indescribable pleasure and everyone has been amazed.  When we leave here we shall go to Frankfurt, where our address will be: c/o Johann Georg Wahler, auf dem Römberberg.  . . .  At present we are staying in places where there are four religions, Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and Jewish.  Save for the court, which accounts for a large number of the inhabitants, Schwetzingen is chiefly Calvinist.  It is only a village, but it has three churches, Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist; and the whole of the Palatinate is like this.  Strange to say, since we left Wasserburg, we have not had a holy water stoup in our rooms.  For, even though the places are Catholic, such things are not to be found, because many Lutherans pass through, and therefore the rooms are so equipped that all religions can live in them together.  . . . Now I must close, for it is time to go to the French theatre, which could not be improved on, especially for its ballets and music.  I hope to find a letter from you in Frankfurt.  . . .  I am your old

                                                                                                   MOZART . . . " [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY.  Chronologially arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson.  New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 25-26].

[Background Image: Schloss Schweztingen.]