Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart | |
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_1825.jpg) Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1825) | |
| Born | (1791-07-26)July 26, 1791 Vienna, Archduchy of Austria |
| Died | July 29, 1844(1844-07-29) (aged 53) Karlsbad, Kingdom of Bohemia |
| Parent(s) | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Constanze Mozart |
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (26 July 1791 – 29 July 1844), also known asWolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr., was the youngest child of six born toWolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wifeConstanze and the younger of his parents' two surviving children.[1] He was acomposer,pianist,conductor, and teacher of the lateclassical period whose musical style was of an earlyRomanticism, heavily influenced by his father's mature style. He knewFranz Schubert andRobert Schumann, both of whom held him in high esteem.
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart was born in Vienna, four months and ten days before his father's death. Although he was baptized Franz Xaver Mozart, he was always called Wolfgang by his family.[2] He received excellent musical instruction fromAntonio Salieri andJohann Nepomuk Hummel, and studied composition withJohann Georg Albrechtsberger andSigismund von Neukomm.[3] He learned to play both the piano and violin. Like his father, he started to compose at an early age. "In April 1805, the thirteen-year-old Wolfgang Mozart made his debut in Vienna in a concert in theTheater an der Wien."[4]
Mozart became a professional musician and enjoyed moderate success both as a teacher and a performer. Unlike his father, he was introverted and given to self-deprecation. He constantly underrated his talent and feared that whatever he produced would be compared with what his father had done.
Needing money, in 1808, he traveled to Lemberg (nowLviv), where he gave music lessons to the daughters of the Polish count Wiktor Baworowski. Although the pay was good, Franz felt lonely in the town of Pidkamin, nearRohatyn, so in 1809 he accepted an offer from another Polish aristocrat, theimperialchamberlain, Count von Janiszewski, to teach his daughters music in the town ofBurshtyn. Besides teaching, he gave local concerts, playing his own and his father's pieces. These concerts introduced him to the important people inGalicia.
After two years in Burshtyn, he moved to Lemberg (Lviv) in 1813 where he spent 25 years teaching (with students includingJulie von Webenau, née Baroni-Cavalcabò) and giving concerts. Between 1826 and 1829, he conducted the choir of Saint Cecilia which consisted of 400 amateur singers. In 1826, he conducted his father'sRequiem during a concert at theUkrainian Greek Catholic cathedral ofSt. George. From this choir, he created the musical brotherhood of Saint Cecilia and thus the first school of music in Lemberg. He did not give up performing and in the years 1819 to 1821, traveled throughout Europe. In 1819, he gave concerts inWarsaw,Elbing and Danzig (Gdańsk).
In the 1820s, Mozart was one of 50 composers to write avariation on a theme ofAnton Diabelli for part II of theVaterländischer Künstlerverein. Part I was devoted to the 33 variations supplied byBeethoven which have gained an independent identity as hisDiabelli Variations Op. 120. Around that time, Mozart made the acquaintance of Schubert and the two became close until Schubert’s 1828 death.
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In 1838, Mozart left for Vienna, and then for Salzburg, where he was appointed as theKapellmeister of theMozarteum. From 1841, he taught the pianistErnst Pauer. Mozart died fromstomach cancer on 29 July 1844, in the town of Karlsbad (nowKarlovy Vary) where he was buried.
Like his brother, he was unmarried and childless. His will was executed by Josephine de Baroni-Cavalcabò (1788–1860), a longtime patron to whom he dedicated his cello sonata.[3]
The shadow of his father loomed large over him even in death. The followingepitaph was etched on histombstone: "May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence of his life."
Franz Xaver Wolfgang had a relatively small output (his opus numbers only go up to 30) and after 1820 he seems to have given up composing almost entirely; in particular, there is an 11-year gap (1828 to 1839) when he seems to have not written anything. Nevertheless, recordings of his music can be found today. He wrote mainly chamber music and piano music, with his largest compositions being the twopiano concerts.
Orchestral works
Concertante
The two piano concertos differ somewhat. The first concerto could pass for one of his father's late (K. 550 and above) works, except for a youthful exuberance and the piano'stessitura which had been expanded in 1795, just after Mozart senior died. The second concerto is more contemporary to the 1810s with a more virtuosic piano part showing hints that the younger Mozart was developing his own style.
Chamber works
Piano works
Choral and vocal works
Without opus
Franz Xaver Mozart's Five Variations on a romance from Méhul'sJoseph, Op. 23, was published in 1820. But the work was until 1994 mistakenly attributed to the youngLiszt: a copyist's manuscript of the work wrongly noted that it was "par le jeune Liszt" (by the young Liszt). The work was published in good faith by theNeue Liszt-Ausgabe in 1990 and catalogued as Liszt's S147a. Liszt scholarLeslie Howard recorded the work in similar good faith in 1992 for his series of recordings of the complete music for solo piano by Liszt (for the disc entitledThe Young Liszt). But shortly afterwards Howard noted in his sleeve notes for the disc's release:
It has since been established that the attribution is false and that the work is from the pen of Mozart’s son Franz Xaver and was published as his opus 23 in 1820. But since the work remains unknown and unrecorded, like the vast majority of F X Mozart's output, and since the writing is not vastly different from some of the other pieces in this collection, it was thought best not to discard it.[6]
There is a monument of Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart erected inLviv inUkraine, in Yevhena Malanyuka Square.
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