We let him do it for a joke, and almost died of laughter. He was so elated by our applause that he said he could play the first violin part. Little Wolfgang played through all six trios. Quietly I laid my violin aside and watched your Papa, who had tears of wonder and pleasure running down his cheeks. At last your Papa said: “Play along with Herr Schachtner, then, but so softly that you can’t be heard, or you’ll have to go.” Soon I noticed to my amazement that I was superfluous. I asked that he be allowed to play alongside of me. Wolfgang said: “You don’t need to have taken lessons to play second violin.” When your Papa insisted that he go away at once and not bother us, he began to cry, and went off in a sulk with his little fiddle. As he hadn’t had any lessons yet, your Papa reproved him for his silly begging, thinking he would be unable to make anything of it. Little Wolfgang asked to be allowed to play second violin. (Apologies in advance to our distinguished second violin section.): He recalled a read-through of trios at the Mozarts’ home, during which Wenzel Hebelt (who had written them) played first violin, Schachtner played second, and Leopold Mozart viola. Schachtner was a close friend of the Mozart family, served as librettist or literary collaborator for several of the composer’s early stage works, and performed as trumpeter, violinist, and cellist in the Salzburg musical establishment. His very first steps as a violinist were fortuitously documented in an account written by Johann Andreas Schachtner, who sent it to Mozart’s sister, Maria Anna (“Nannerl”), on April 24, 1792, a few months after her brother’s death. Once he left Salzburg for Vienna he seems to have preferred playing the violin’s alto cousin, the viola, which he often did in chamber music. Young Mozart became adept enough to serve as a court violinist-eventually as concertmaster-in his native Salzburg. He was an accomplished string player, too, having been tutored in the violin by his father, Leopold, whose violin treatise (published the year of Wolfgang’s birth) stands as a monument of eighteenth century pedagogy. THE BACKSTORY We think of Mozart as being a composer first and foremost, but he was also acknowledged as an uncommonly fine keyboard virtuoso. Mozart did not provide cadenzas for this work INSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings. Jacques Thibaud was soloist and Pierre Monteux led. In this performance, Christian Tetzlaff plays cadenzas of his own composition We lack information about its early performance history. Salzburg, AustriaĬOMPOSED: 1775, in Salzburg. JOANNES CHRISOSTOMUS WOLFGANG GOTTLIEB MOZARTīORN: January 27, 1756.

Mozart convertos