MOZART AT THE KEYBOARD
Richard Maunder
Mozart's keyboard instruments
i The Mozart family by Johann Nepomuk della Croce, Salzburg, 1780-81 (Salzburg, Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum)
Though there are nowadays many convincing 'period
instrument' performances of Mozart's music, it seems to
have become accepted orthodoxy that, except for some
continuo work, the only relevant (stringed) keyboard
instrument is the Viennese fortepiano. In their book
Interpreting Mozart on the Keyboard, Eva and Paul
Badura-Skoda confidently state:
There is not the slightest doubt that his concertos, like all his
keyboard works with the possible exception of some com-
positions written during his childhood, were composed for the
forte-piano.'
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In the same spirit, the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe labels every
keyboard part in Mozart's entire output 'Pianoforte' (in
a few very early pieces 'Cembalo' is added in brackets).
Malcolm Bilson, who has written: 'Mozart and his sister
played . . . K365 on two harpsichords in Salzburg, where
no fortepianos were available . . . V nevertheless uses
the fortepiano throughout his recordings of the con-
certos. Dissenting voices are occasionally raised, notably
Nathan Broder's, who considers that Mozart's Salzburg
concertos up to and including K365 are for harpsichord.3
On the whole, though, little attention has been paid to
EARLY MUSIC MAY 1992 207
 EDITIONS DE
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such opinions, and in any case the knowledge that
Mozart later played many of his earlier keyboard works
on the fortepiano tends to induce the feeling that it was
the instrument he 'really' had in mind when he com-
posed them, and would have preferred if it had been
available
But is this correct' Or was some of Mozart's keyboard
music conceived for harpsichord or clavichord? Even for
pieces known for certain to be for fortepiano, did he
have in mind one particular instrument, or the for-
Italian, Mozart rarely uses any other term than 'Cem-
balo', which is obviously no more specific than 'Clavier'.
But in a few pre-1780 works he uses 'Clavicembalo',
which might perhaps mean 'harpsichord' (although he
also uses this term in the autograph of the duet sonata,
K448). Later he sometimes writes 'Fortepiano' or 'Piano-
forte' (for example in the last two concertos, K537 and
K595), though it should be noted that the solo parts of his
other Viennese concertos, right up to K503, all continue
to be labelled 'Cembalo'.

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tepiano in general? A prerequisite for any attempt to
answer such questions is, obviously, as much accurate The harpsichord
information as can be mustered about exactly what key- During Mozart's childhood, adolescence and young
board instruments Mozart had available at various times manhood—indeed until his father's death in 1787—the
and places during his life. A great deal can be learnt from chief keyboard instrument in the Mozart household in
the Mozart family correspondence and other contempo- Salzburg was a two-manual harpsichord by Christian
rary writings, and three of Mozart's instruments (two Ernst Fnedenci (1709-80) of Gera in Saxony. The instru-
clavichords and a fortepiano) survive. In this article I ment appears to have been acquired by June 1763 at the
shall review this evidence, about the harpsichord, clav- latest, when Leopold Mozart, his wife and their children
ichord and fortepiano in turn, and afterwards briefly Nannerl and Wolfgang set out from Salzburg for their
survey Mozart's keyboard music in the light of what is three-year Grand Tour. In Paris Leopold wrote to his
known about his instruments landlord, Hagenauer, on 8 December 1763, saying that
his family had been lent Countess van Eyck's harpsi-
A note on terminology chord {Flugel), 'which is good and, like ours at home,
5
It is sometimes suggested that 18th-century German ter- has two manuals'. He also wrote to Hagenauer with
minology for keyboard instruments is too imprecise to detailed and very firm instructions about the mainten-
allow reliable conclusions to be drawn from documen- ance of his own harpsichord (Fhegel, Flugel): any broken
tary evidence. Fortunately, though, the Mozart family strings were to be replaced by the Salzburg organ-buil-
and other writers of the time appear to use the terms der Egedacher, but 'I would like Mr Spitzeder or Mr Adl-
'Flugel', 'Clavicord' and 'Pianoforte' (sometimes 'For- gasser to be present, to make sure he uses the correct
tepiano') as the exact equivalents of'harpsichord', 'clav- string gauges' (12 November 1765). On 22 November 1766
ichord' and 'fortepiano', respectively. Obviously these instructions were repeated, with the added proviso
'Clavicord' and 'Pianoforte' cannot be misunderstood; that 'broken strings are to be kept so that I can inspect
and even 'Flugel', though on the face of it ambiguous, them'; moreover 'nothing else is to be touched, especi-
occurs so frequently in contexts that allow 'harpsichord' ally not the quills or the jack-springs, everything is to be
as the only possible translation that it seems safe to treat left exactly as it is'. Leopold obviously had a detailed
it, too, as a specific term.4 (The only demonstrable knowledge of harpsichord mechanism and evidently
exception in the Mozart correspondence occurs in Leo- preferred to carry out his own maintenance work rather
pold's letter of 12 March 1785, where he refers to his son's than leave it to the unreliable Egedacher, despite the
fortepiano as his 'Fortepiano Flugel', and later abbre- latter's apparent local monopoly as a supplier of replace-
viates this expression to 'flugel'.) Real ambiguity can ment strings.
arise only with 'Clavier', which sometimes means 'clav- Though Leopold mentions Fnedenci by name in 1770,
ichord', but was also used as a non-specific term for any it is not until November 1777 that he explicitly states that
keyboard instrument Fortunately, again, the Mozarts Fnedenci was the maker of his own harpsichord (Flu-
use this word relatively infrequently in their correspon- gel).6 On 9 October of that year Leopold had written to
dence, and, when it does occur, as a rule the context his son, then in Augsburg, enclosing a letter to the key-
makes the meaning clear In all quotations, however, I board maker Johann Andreas Stein (1728-92), and ask-
shall give the original German expression as well as ing Wolfgang to write back with a full description of
(usually) my English translation. Stein's instruments. Leopold appears to have been a little
On his autograph scores, where the language is embarrassed at possessing instruments by a rival maker

EARLY MUSIC MAYI992 209

When you talk to Mr Stein, you must avoid any opportunity of
telling him about our instruments from Gera, for he is jealous
of Fnedenci If you just can't keep off the subject, tell him that I
acquired the instruments from Colonel Count Prank, when he
left Salzburg because of his epilepsy. You wouldn't know any
more, because you were too young then to pay attention to
such matters
In fact Prank retired from the army in 1766, and did not
leave Salzburg for another two years.7 It is just possible,
therefore, that Leopold had a different two-manual
The Hague, Amsterdam, Dijon and Lyon.'3 In Pans
Grimm considered that Nannerl played 'le clavecin de la
maniere la plus bnllante',' 4 and Leopold had himself and
his children painted by Carmontelle, with Wolfgang
playing a large French harpsichord, probably with two
manuals although only a small portion of one keyboard
is visible (see cover of EM, February 1992) Leopold
described the picture in a letter to Hagenauer of 1 April
1764.
Wolfgang is playing the Clavier, I am standing behind his chair

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harpsichord in the early 1760s, but it is much more likely playing the violin, and Nannerl has one arm resting on the Cla-
that he had bought his Fnedenci rather earlier than his vecin In the other hand she holds some music, as if she were
seemingly apocryphal story for Stein would suggest. singing.
After Leopold's death in 1787 his household effects
In London, Wolfgang gave a public demonstration of a
were auctioned. A newspaper advertisement for the sale
large two-manual harpsichord with newly invented
gives a few details not recorded elsewhere-
machine pedal that Shudi had just made for the King of
Lot 4 A harpsichord [Flugl] by the famous Friedenci of Gera Prussia.'5
Two keyboards of ebony and ivory, full five-octave compass, There are few references to keyboard instruments in
with special lute and buff stops [Kornet und Lautenzug] 8
the accounts of Mozart's second visit to Vienna in 1767,
This was presumably the instrument used in Novem- or his three to Italy in 1769-73, no doubt because he was
ber 1772 when Louis de Visme 'went to [Mozart's] chiefly concerned with operas. However, a portrait of
father's house to hear him and his sister play duets on the Mozart by della Rosa painted in Verona in early 1770
same harpsichord', and again in 1777 when Schiedenho- shows him playing a typical Italian harpsichord by Gio-
fen ' w e n t . . . to the concert at the Mozart's . . . M and vanni Celestinus, Venice, 1583; and in Naples on 19 May
Mile Mozart played together on one Clavecin'.9 1770 Leopold wrote:
Other Salzburg residents also had harpsichords (Flu- Yesterday evening we called on the English ambassador Hamil-
gel) at this time. On his return from Pans in January 1779 ton (whom we met in London), whose wife plays the Clavier
Mozart was expected 'to direct [the archbishop's orches- with unusual feeling, and has a very agreeable figure She trem-
tra] from the harpsichord [Flugl]'.'" In April 1775 Arch- bled at having to play in front of Wolfgang She has an expen-
duke Maximilian visited Countess Lutzow (the sive English harpsichord [flugl] by Shudi, with two manuals
dedicatee a year later of Mozart's keyboard concerto and a pedal to change the registers
K246), where he heard 'the famous young Mozart play- In Vienna in 1773 Mozart was busy with chamber music
ing the harpsichord [Flugel]'." Likewise, Countess and orchestral works rather than keyboard perform-
Lodron (for whom, with her two daughters, Mozart ance; though a year earlier Burney saw and heard harpsi-
wrote the triple concerto K242 in February 1776) had at chords there belonging, among others, to Gluck, Hasse,
least two harpsichords: Leopold wrote to Wolfgang on 12 Wagenseil and Mozart's future patroness Countess
April 1778, about a concert at her home, that: Thun. (He also heard a child play a 'small, and not good
5
Nannerl was to have played a concerto, only the Countess Piano forte')" The visit to Munich in the winter of
would not allow her good harpsichord [fliegl] (which is '774~5 is noteworthy for Mozart's first recorded public
reserved for the Archbishop) to be used, but only the Ege- appearance as a pianist; but even there Leopold was con-
dacher harpsichord [fliegl] with the gilt stand, so [Nannerl] cerned that Nannerl's lodgings should be equipped with
didn't play. At the end the two Lodron daughters had to per- a harpsichord (flugl) '7
form . .
After his move to Vienna in 1781 Mozart did not com-
Away from Salzburg, the first documentary record of pletely lose touch with the harpsichord. While lodging
the Mozart children's playing in public is of their appear- with the Weber family Mozart wrote to his father (27
ances in Vienna in 1762, when they played sonatas and June 1781):
concertos on the harpsichord (auf dem Clavessin oder Where I live we have two harpsichords [flugel], one for playing
Flugel).'1 On the Grand Tour of 1763-6 Nannerl and galantene, the other a machine tuned throughout with the
Wolfgang frequently performed on the harpsichord, lower octave, like the one we had in London Consequently like
there are newspaper references from Frankfurt, London, an organ; so 1 have extemporized on it and played fugues

210 EARLY M U S I C MAY 1992


2 Travelling clavichord by J. A. Stein, Augsburg 1762 (Budapest, Magyar Nemzeti Museum)
In the opera house, in any case, the harpsichord prob-
ably survived longer than elsewhere.'" In 1775 the two
chief Vienna theatres were still paying for 'Clavichem-
balo' tuning,19 and in 1783 J. M. Kraus went to a concert
at the Burgtheater that was directed from the 'Clavecin?"
But whether it was still there for Le nozze di Figaro three
years later is hard to say: an account published many
years later said that Mozart directed from the
'fortepiano'.2'
There is, however, only one post-1780 record that
might be interpreted as a reference to a public appear-
ance by Mozart as a harpsichord soloist. This is a news-
paper report of his concert at the Electoral court of
Dresden on 14 April 1789:
This evening a concert took place in the hall of H. H. the Elec-
tress, at which the Vienna Kapellmeister Mr Mozzart on the
Fliigel, Mr Prinz on the flute, and a small nine-year-old boy,
Kraft, on the cello, performed to great applause."
Certainly 'Fliigel' usually means 'harpsichord' (though a
Dresden court reporter who could not spell Mozart's
name correctly should not be relied upon for accuracy in
musical matters); but a later account of the same concert
in a musical journal makes it clear that Mozart's instru-
ment was in fact a piano:
On 14 April the famous composer Mr W. A. Mozart from
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Vienna performed on the Fortepiano before His Electoral
Highness.2'
The clavichord
Apart from the Friederici harpsichord, the Mozart
household in Salzburg had several clavichords. Leopold
bought a small travelling clavichord (Clavierl) from
Stein when the family passed through Augsburg in the
summer of 1763;24 he kept it for many years, although
Wolfgang, in a letter of 3 October 1778, asked for a differ-
ent instrument in his room when he returned home
from Mannheim and Paris:
It would be very agreeable if I could have the little clavichord
\ Clavierl}, which used to belong to Fischietti and Rust, by my
writing-table, for it would suit me better than the little Stein.
The Stein clavichord, which is fretted and has a range of
four and a half octaves, still exists: it is in the Magyar
Nemzeti Museum, Budapest (illus.2).25 Leopold also had
a large clavichord (mein grosses Clavicord) with its own
stand/'' His 1777 reference to 'our instruments from
Gera', in the plural, suggests that it as well as his harpsi-
chord may have been made by Friederici. On 21 February
1785, having heard from Nannerl that her fortepiano was
in poor condition, Leopold wrote to offer her this clav-
ichord, giving her characteristically precise instructions
EARLY M U S I C MAY 1 9 9 2 211
about its removal to her home at St Gilgen. It appears
that Nannerl kept it, for it is presumably the instrument
that Constanze Mozart, in a letter to Spontini of April
1828, was hoping to sell him on Nannerl's behalf:
My sister-in-law, who still possesses the Clavicort from her
brother's childhood years has asked me to suggest that you
might like to buy her dear clavier It is not beautiful, although it
has been well preserved, and in the old-fashioned manner has
onlyfiveoctaves.
(This cannot have been the Stein, which had a smaller
range.) Although a five-octave clavichord once belong-
ing to Nannerl is now in the Museum Carohno Augus-
teum in Salzburg, it is not the one her father gave her.27
On Mozart's tour of 1777-9 to Munich, Augsburg,
Mannheim and Pans he played the new fortepiano quite
extensively, but there are several references to his playing
the clavichord as well, sometimes in public. Despite his
interest in Stein's pianos, he was prevailed on to play 'for
about three-quarters of an hour on a good Clavicordby
Stein' (14 October 1777), and later in the day played
another of the latter's clavichords at a coffee-house. A
few days later he performed again: 'Then a small Clav-
icord was brought. I extemporized, and played a sonata,
and then the Fischer Variations [1(179]' (23-5 October
1777). In Mannheim he was invited by Beecke (Sr) to try
his clavichord, 'which is very good . . . I extemporized
and played the sonatas in Bb [K281] and D [K284]' (13
November 1777). Even in the 1780s Mozart went on play-
ing the clavichord occasionally; returning to Vienna
from Salzburg in 1783, Mozart and Constanze stopped
for a day at Lambach, 'where I played the organ and a
davicord (31 October 1783) In Dresden in 1789 Mozart
'played at many private residences to boundless
applause; his skill on the clavichord (Klavier) and the
Fortepiano is quite inexpressible'.28
On the whole, though, Mozart seems to have regarded
the clavichord less as a recital instrument than as an
essential piece of equipment in his private study. We
have already seen that this was what he wanted in 1778;
and on 12 April of that year Leopold had advised him,
when in Pans, that 'if you can get hold of a good Clav-
icord, like ours, you would find it better and more suit-
able than a harpsichord {Flugl)'. While lodging with the
Webers in Vienna in 1781 Mozart wrote to Leopold: 'Now
I am off to hire a Clavier, for until there is one in my
room I can't live there' (1 August 1781) That his practice
of using a clavichord in private continued to the end of
his life is confirmed by the instrument now in the
Geburtshaus Museum, Salzburg, which bears a hand-
written label stating:
212 EARLY MUSIC MAY 1992
At this Clavier, my late husband Mozart composed Die Zan-
berflote, La demenza di Tito, the Requiem and a new Masonic
Cantata [K623], in the space of five months. This I can certify,
as his widow Constanza, Etatsrathin von Nissen, formerly
Widow Mozart
The fortepiano
When Mozart was born in 1756 the piano was a rather
rare and exotic instrument. Apart from those by Cnsto-
fon and one or two successors in Italy, a few pianos
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based on his design had been manufactured in Spain and
Portugal, and in Germany a number had been made by
Gottfried Silbermann and his circle.29 Other models,
such as the upright and square, the latter with a primi-
tive Prellmechamk action not yet incorporating
escapement, had occasionally been made, but were
probably even rarer at this date.30
During the next 20 years pianos and their makers
spread to most of Europe, and there were important
innovations in design. The Cristofon tradition was con-
tinued in Strasbourg by Gottfried Silbermann's nephew
Johann Heinnch, and also gave rise to the English grand
piano, first made by Backers of London in about 1770
(though Zumpe's popular English square piano
appeared most probably in 1766).3' Also in about 1770,
after some years of experiment, Johann Andreas Stein of
Augsburg produced the fully developed Prellmechamk
action, with escapement, in what has since become
known as the 'Viennese' fortepiano.32 In Paris, though,
no pianos appear to have been manufactured until Erard
started copying Zumpe's squares in about 1777. How-
ever, many instruments were imported there during the
1760s and 1770s, mostly from England, although there
was at least one Silbermann in Paris by 1769.'3
When and where did Mozart first meet the piano? It
can hardly have been in Salzburg, where (with the poss-
ible exception of a square dated 1775) the piano seems
not to have arrived until about 1780 (see below). His
childhood visit to Vienna in 1762 missed by a few months
the first recorded performance there on the new instru-
ment, by J. B. Schmid on 13 May 1763.34 What of the
Grand Tour of 1763-6? There is no documentary evi-
dence of Mozart's having seen a piano then, although
there is plenty for his playing the harpsichord. Even in
Augsburg, Leopold Mozart's sole business with Stein was
the purchase of the travelling clavichord; and the
family's departure from London in July 1765 was a little
too soon for the first appearance of Zumpe's square.
Possibly they saw a piano in Pans, where in the winter of
1763-4 they met J. G. Eckard, an Augsburg friend of
 THE PERFECT COMBINATION OF
SOUND AND PERFORMANCE

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CCS 2791: 'The vocalist ul the group is l.ucm
Meeuwsen, a mezzo of well-focused, penetra-
ting tone. The players are skilfull in solving Ihe
problems of the period." (Fanfare)

"** JohjnD Seb

BACH

CCS 109(1: 'This production can without an>

restriction be recommended as the reference
recording." (Ahe Musik Akmell/(jerman\j

CCS 3492: 'Undoubtedly one of the finest sets

of concern grossi published in England during
the 18th centur\. though surely one of the most
CHANNEL CLASSICS
unjustly neglected today." /Simon Hashes) FROM AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND
Distribution in the L\K The Complete Reu>rd Cumparn

EARLY M U S I C MAY 1 9 9 2 213

Stein's who had travelled with him to Pans in 1758, cal-
ling on J A. Silbermann in Strasbourg on the way.35
Eckard, whose music Mozart evidently liked,36 expressly
stated in the preface to his op 1 sonatas of 1763. 'J'ai tache
de rendre cet ouvrage d'une utihte commune au Clave-
cin, au Clavicorde, et au forte et piano.' He may have
been the anonymous agent for Silbermann's pianos who
was advertising in the Pans press in 1761.37 It is not
unreasonable to guess, therefore, that he possessed his
own Silbermann piano, which Mozart might have tried.
soundboard of a Clavier, he exposes it to air, rain, snow, sun-
shine and all the devils to make it split, and then he glues it up
with wedges to make it really strong and firm He is delighted
when it splits, for one can then be sure nothing else will happen
to it Very often he cuts into it himself and then glues it together
again, to strengthen it. He also makes the knee-lever mech-
anism better than others. I need hardly touch it to make it
work, and as soon as the knee is lowered a little not the least
reverberation can be heard.
Mozart was obviously impressed, even though some of

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On the other hand the evidence is entirely circum- what Stein told him (especially about his soundboard-
stantial, and it should be noted that Leopold, in his travel seasoning techniques) may strike us as exaggerated
notes for November to December 1763, described Eckard sales-talk. If Mozart hoped that his father would take the
only as a "Virtueux du clavessin'. hint and order a Stein fortepiano he was disappointed,
for Leopold's laconic reply (23 October) was merely 'I
Mozart may have seen a fortepiano in Vienna in 1767
am glad that Mr Stein's Pianfortes are so good; but they
or 1773 ('small and not good', perhaps, like Burney's in
1772?), and might even have come across an early Italian are certainly also expensive' There are no other refer-
instrument during his travels there in 1769-73. But it is ences in Mozart's letters to instruments by Spath; one
not until the visit to Munich in the winter of 1774-5 that might conjecture, though, that he was the maker of the
there is documentary evidence of his playing the 'excellent fortepiano' belonging to Herr Albert of Mun-
fortepiano' ich, which Mozart was eager to play again on his return
there in September 1777.39 Regensburg is, after all, not
Last winter in Munich I heard two of the greatest Klavierspieler, much further than Augsburg from Munich.
Mr Mozart and Capt von Beecke; my host, Mr Albert,. has
While in Augsburg Mozart gave a concert that
an excellent Fortepiano in his house There I heard these two
included K242 played on three Stein fortepianos by J. M
giants wrestling at the Klavier Mozart is a very strong player,
and plays at sight everything that is put in front of him 38 Demmler, Mozart and Stein himself.40 In Mannheim he
called immediately on Christian Cannabich and played
On their way to Mannheim and Pans, Mozart and his his 'very good pianoforte (31 October 1777). It was by no
mother spent two weeks in Augsburg. In reply to his means the only piano in Mannheim; indeed, Frau
father's enquiry about Stein's instruments, Mozart rep- Mozart proudly wrote to her husband on 28 December
lied with his often-quoted letter of 17 October 1777. 1777:
Until I had seen something of Stein's work, my favourite Cla- Everyone thinks very highly of Wolfgang, though he plays very
viers were Spath's; but now I must admit a preference for differently from the way he does in Salzburg, for there are
Stein's, for their dampers are much better than on the Regens- pianofortes everywhere here, which he can play so incompar-
burg instruments [Spath's] If I strike hard, I can leave my fin- ably, that no-one has heard the like before.
ger down, or raise it, in which case the sound ceases the instant
I have produced it However 1 approach the keyboard, the tone Pianos must have been equally common in Pans by 1778,
is always even It does not jar ['block'], get louder or softer, or though Mozart's sole reference to such instruments
fail to sound, in a word, everything is even. It is true that he will there is his complaint (1 May 1778) about the 'miserable
not sell such a Piano forte for less than 300 f, but his pains- wretched Pianforte he had to play in the Duchesse de
taking labour is beyond price. His instruments have the special Chabot's freezing music-room.
advantage over others that they are made with escapement. By mid-January 1779 Mozart was back in Salzburg,
Only one in a hundred makers bothers about this But without
having failed to find employment elsewhere It is not
escapement it is impossible for the Pianoforte [hammers] not
unlikely that his disillusionment was compounded by
to block or rebound, when one touches the keys, his [Stein's]
hammers fall back the instant they have struck the strings, the continuing absence of pianos there. Certainly Leo-
whether one holds down the key or releases it When he has pold Mozart's request in October 1777 for details of
finished such a Clavier (as he told me himself) he first sits Stein's fortepianos makes no sense unless there were
down and tries all kinds of passages, runs and leaps, and adjusts none in Salzburg for him to examine (and it should be
it and works at it until the Clavier can do everything His noted that Countess Lodron was equally eager to hear
Claviers are certainly also durable He guarantees that the Wolfgang's description); 4 ' moreover Frau Mozart's
soundboard will not break or split When he hasfinishedthe remarks about her son's playing in Mannheim imply

214 EARLY MUSIC MAYI992

that he had not yet been able to demonstrate his abilities
as a pianist in Salzburg, on instruments by Stein or any-
one else. (It must be admitted that Archbishop Col-
loredo apparently possessed a small square piano by
Christian Baumann of Zweibriicken, dated 1775. Its
action lacks escapement, and the hammers may have
been unleathered; it is obviously a domestic rather than
a recital instrument, and it would be quite unsuitable for
concertos. )42 Leopold's letters of 1785-7 frequently refer
to the acquisition of fashionable new pianos by Salzburg

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residents (especially after the maker Johann Schmid set-
tled there in late 1785);4' but he never mentions even the
existence of such an instrument in Salzburg until 4
December 1780, when he wrote to Wolfgang (who had
already left home, never to return except for his visit
with Constanze in 1783):
Just this instant Mr von Edlbach and three strangers came into
[ my] room . . . your sister had to play them a short piece on
the Pianforte.
Was Nannerl asked to demonstrate the piano to
strangers because it was the family's proud new pos-
session? There is some circumstantial evidence to sup-
port this hypothesis, in the form of the Mozart family
portrait of 1780-81 by J. N. della Croce (illus.i). The
Mozarts (who were painted separately) took much
trouble over their appearance, Nannerl, for example,
spending a long time with her hairdresser the day before
her first sitting.44 The inkstand, the copy of Leopold's
Violinschule, and various other objects are prominently
arranged, obviously to draw attention to the family's
status and achievements. In the foreground is the key-
board instrument on which Wolfgang and Nannerl are
playing a duet. It has sloping cheeks and only one
manual, so is certainly not the Friederici harpsichord;
indeed, it is just possible to make out some dynamic
markings on the back page of their music, which would
be impossible on a single-manual harpsichord. It must
be the Mozarts' fortepiano: was this proudly displayed,
perhaps, because they were the leaders of Salzburg fash-
ion in being the first to possess one?
Curiously, Leopold never again refers to a piano in his
possession, and none is listed in the advertisement for
the sale of his effects after his death. However, after Nan-
nerl's marriage in 1784 she and her father corresponded
frequently about her own fortepiano and its troubles. It
had been made by Egedacher and the wood was evi-
dently poorly seasoned.4S That Leopold knew the instru-
ment well is demonstrated by his ability to diagnose
faults and offer detailed explanations, as for example in
his letter of 10 December 1785:
3 Mozart's fortepiano, by Anton Walter, Vienna, c.1782-4
(Salzburg, Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum)
When you say 'it rattles', I presume you mean that the ham-
mers do not fall back. Mr Schmid must certainly help you, and
give the escapement-levers more clearance, which however is
very tricky and is easy to get wrong. No doubt the levers have
swollen [in the damp weather], and since they must anyway be
closely set, the least swelling prevents their operating and
consequently the hammer cannot fall back.
It seems a plausible guess, therefore, that Nannerl's Ege-
dacher fortepiano is the same instrument as the one in
the della Croce portrait, perhaps given to her by her
father as a wedding present. If so, it was probably what
Wolfgang played when he performed his piano concerto
K415 at the family home in Salzburg in 1783.4"
In March 1781 the Mozarts visited Augsburg for a few
days; there Wolfgang and Nannerl played 'almost more
than heavenly music on two [Stein?) forte pianos.*7 Later
that month Mozart arrived in Vienna, and immediately
set about establishing his reputation as a keyboard vir-
tuoso. On 3 April he performed at a Tonkiinstler-Gesell-
schaft charity concert;4" for the occasion Countess Thun
lent him her 'beautiful Stein Pianforte (24 March 1781).
Mozart may have borrowed the same instrument for
other concerts that year, for he played it again at the con-
test with Clementi on 24 December.w

EARLY M U S I C MAY 1 9 9 2 215

 At some time within the next two or three years, how-
ever, Mozart acquired his own fortepiano, by Anton
Walter of Vienna (illus.3).50 Possibly he had it as early as
25 September 1782, when he wrote to his father: 'Mr
Gabel. . is here and is waiting until I have finished this
letter, to accompany me on the violin in my sonata.'
However, Mozart does not make it clear whether they
were about to play at his lodgings or elsewhere. A more
likely guess, perhaps, is that he bought his new forte-
piano in the winter of 1783-4, when he and Constanze
ishment, 'I will now play it to you' How wonderful1 Under his
fingers the Clavier became quite a different instrument He had
had it reinforced by a second Clavier, which served as a PedalM
Although the inventory of Mozart's estate after his
death lists '1 Forte-Biano mit Pedal', the pedal depart-
ment has not survived But it is clear from Leopold's and
Frank's descriptions that it must have been a completely
separate instrument Apparently the only extant
example of this arrangement is a pedal-piano of c.1815 by
Brodmann (illus.4) Unlike Mozart's fortepiano, the

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were sufficiently affluent to move to a large and expen- Brodmann does not have a fifth leg in the middle of the
sive flat in the Trattnerhof in central Vienna. He cer- bentside. The extra leg on Mozart's would obviously
tainly had it by the time of his father's visit in early 1785, have fouled the lid of the pedale, so must have been
for Leopold wrote to Nannerl on 12 March. 'Since I have removed when he was using both instruments together.
been here your brother's Fortepiano Flugel has been Thus they cannot have been made as a pair, which con-
moved at least 12 times, to the theatre or other houses.' firms Leopold's hint that the fortepiano itself pre-dates
After Mozart's death Constanze had the fortepiano over- the pedale, and so must date from 1784 at the latest.
hauled by Walter, and subsequently gave it to her son Of course, Mozart could not have expected to find a
Carl Thomas Mozart.51 He in turn presented it, on the pedal-piano on his concert tours to other cities,
occasion of the centenary of his father's birth, to the although conventional fortepianos were readily avail-
'Dommusik-Verein und Mozarteum', Salzburg (now the able." What seems to be the only occasion for which any
Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum), where it has information about his instrument is recorded is his con-
remained ever since (it is at present in the Geburtshaus cert in Frankfurt on 15 October 1790, when a member of
Museum). It has a range offiveoctaves (F - / ' " ) ; the bot- the audience wrote.
tom 40 notes are bichord and the top 21 (from a') are tri-
He had a forte Piano by Stein of Augsburg, which must be one
chord. A hand-stop operates the 'moderator', and the
of the best of its kind . this instrument belongs to Mme la
damper-rail is raised by two knee levers, one for each
Baron [ne] de Frentz "
end but overlapped so that the right knee automatically
raises both ends. (The left knee raises only the bass end, Implications for Mozart's keyboard music
so that in theory it should be possible to sustain bass
There can be little doubt that Mozart intended the harp-
notes while preserving clear articulation in the treble. In
sichord for music written before 1770, except possibly
practice, however, the point at which the left knee-lever
for some solo pieces which may have been for clav-
by itself stops raising the dampers is rather
indeterminate.) ichord. Equally clearly, after 1780 he always had the
fortepiano in mind, though a few works may have been
By 1785 Mozart had made a very unusual addition to conceived for pedal-piano It is the decade 1770-80 that
his fortepiano, for Leopold's letter of 12 March presents most of the problems, and it will by now be
continues: clear that it is essential to know where as well as when
[Wolfgang] has had a large pedal-piano (Forte piano pedak) each piece originated, when trying to decide for which
made, which stands under theflugel,is about two feet longer, keyboard instrument it was composed.
and is incredibly heavy. It is taken every Friday to the Mehl- The first six solo sonatas (K279-84) cannot be dated
grube [concert hall], and also to Count Zichy's and Prince precisely, for the first page of the autograph is missing.
Kaunitz's. However, in a letter of 12 June 1784 Mozart refers to K284
And, he might have added, to the Burgtheater as well, as the sonata 'I wrote for Durnitz in Munich', i.e during
where two days previously Mozart had extemporized on the winter of 1774-5. Current opinion, based on hand-
a 'large Forte piano Pedal I52 Three years later Mozart writing and paper-studies," is that K279-83 were also
played fantasias on it to his Danish visitors Preisler and written then. This is entirely consistent with our study of
Rosing,'3 and on another occasion his pupil Joseph instruments, for the liberal dynamic markings in the
Frank called for a lesson. autograph (including crescendos) obviously rule out the
'Now', said [Mozart], 'play me something' I played him a fan- harpsichord; but it was during Mozart's visit to Munich
tasia of his composition 'Not bad', said he to my great aston- that his contest with Beecke on Albert's 'excellent for-

2l6 EARLY MUSIC M A Y 1 9 0.2


4 Pedal-piano by Brodmann, Vienna, c.1815 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum)
tepiano' took place.'* Mozart played all six of these sona-
tas on a Stein fortepiano in Augsburg in October 1777,"
though as we have already seen he played two of them on
the clavichord in Mannheim a month later.
The next two sonatas, K309 and K311, were composed
in Mannheim in the autumn of 1777, one of them, prob-
ably the former, for Cannabich's daughter Rosa."" She
presumably played it on her father's 'very good piano
forte', though, since Mozart uses only the word 'Clavier'
in his descriptions of her playing, the clavichord remains
a possible alternative. The autograph of K310 is dated
'Paris 1778', and the unusually wide-ranging dynamics
(pp to ff, including crescendo and calando) imply that it
4
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was conceived for piano (the clavichord being rare out-
side Germany). But the Duchesse de Chabot's 'miserable
wretched Pianforte' hardly seems an adequate instru-
ment for such a powerful work: so what did Mozart have
in mind? Could it have been an imported English grand?
Of the few other solo keyboard pieces from this dec-
ade, the Fischer Variations, K179, were written in Salz-
burg in 1774, and contain no dynamics at all. The set
must presumably be for harpsichord, though Mozart's
performances on the clavichord in Augsburg in 1777 and
on the piano in Paris the following year*" show that we
must be wary of jumping to conclusions on stylistic
grounds alone. The K180 variations are usually assigned
EARLY M U S I C MAY 1 9 9 2 217
to the visit to Vienna in the autumn of 1773, though this
is only a guess based on the fact that the theme comes
from an opera of Sahen's produced there the previous
year Possibly Mozart added the dynamics when K180
was published (with K179 and the newly composed K354)
in Pans in 1778.62 Two four-hand sonatas, K381 and K358,
come from the 1770s; they may have been what de Visme
and Schiedenhofen heard Wolfgang and Nannerl play-
ing at home on the harpsichord.63
The sonatas for keyboard and violin of the 1770s were
all written in 1778, in Mannheim and Paris:64 the key-
board parts are therefore almost certainly for piano. The
'Divertimento', K254, of August 1776, the only other con-
certed chamber work of the decade to include a key-
board instrument, is more of a puzzle. The Neue
Mozart-Ausgabe edition is based on the Paris print of
1778, which has some dynamics in the keyboard part.
They all appear to be realizable on the two-manual harp-
sichord implied by the date and place (Salzburg), except
for one 'cresc; but I have not yet been able to check
whether these markings are also in the rediscovered
autograph (in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska, Krakow)
Mozart played K254 in October 1777 at Herr Albert's in
Munich,65 no doubt on the latter's fortepiano.
There remain the concertos of this decade. The first
three, K107 nos. 1-3, are arrangements of J C. Bach's solo
sonatas op.5 nos. 2-4. Significantly, all the dynamic
markings in the originals, many of which imply the
piano,66 are omitted in Mozart's versions, which neatly
supports the presumption that they were intended as
harpsichord concertos. K175, K238, K242 and K246 were
all written in Salzburg, the last three in early 1776, so
must again be for harpsichord: indeed, K242 and K246
were respectively for Countess Lodron and her two
daughters, and for Countess Lutzow, who are known to
have possessed such instruments at the time. There are
some puzzling dynamic markings in the autograph of
K242, though, including a crescendo in the first part but
not the other two. (Might Countess Lodron's 'good
harpsichord' have been a Shudi with machine pedal?)
Some fp markings, often on long notes, obviously can-
not be interpreted literally on any keyboard instrument
(they occur also in the print of K254): perhaps Mozart
simply wanted the effect of an initial accent, produced
by an ornament or by an 'arpeggiated release' of a
chord?67
The next two concertos, K271 and K365, are the most
problematic of all K271 is dated January 1777 on the
autograph, which is headed 'Concerto per ll Clavicem-
balo'68 (which may or may not be significant), some of
2l8 EARLY M U S I C MAYI992
the dynamics appear to rule out the harpsichord, though
it is difficult to be certain. It is, perhaps, just possible that
the work was written during an otherwise unrecorded
visit to Munich, in any case the legend that it was com-
posed for one 'Mile Jeunehomme' is based on very
meagre evidence.69 As for K365, the usual dating (1779) is
only a guess, and paper-studies suggest that it could have
been composed as late as the winter of 1780-81, in
Munich.70 Perhaps Wolfgang and Nannerl played it in
Augsburg in March 1781?
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The 'pedal-piano' problem admits only guesses,
though Mozart certainly had it on the platform at the
premiere of K466 at the Mehlgrube on 11 February 1785
and that of K467 at the Burgtheater on 10 March 1785
Did he restrain himself from using his feet in those con-
certos? It is hard to imagine so. On 10 March he extem-
porized a fantasia on the pedal-piano: might it have been
a preliminary version of K475, which was entered in his
thematic catalogue only two months later? Certainly
K475 must have been the piece Mozart played to Joseph
Frank on the pedal-piano, for it was the only one of
Mozart's keyboard fantasias available in print at the
time, and which Frank could therefore have learnt
beforehand.
Richard Maunder has been a Fellow of Christ's College,
Cambridge, since 1964. He has edited much music by
Mozart, J. C. Bach and others; his book on Mozart's
Requiem is published by OUP He is the founder and direc-
tor of the Cambridge Classical Orchestra, and is active as a
maker and restorer of historical keyboard instruments
'E and P Badura-Skoda, Interpreting Mozart on the Keyboard
(London, 1962), pp 242-3
'Performance Practice Music after 1600, ed H M Brown and S
Sadie (London, 1989), p 225 There is in fact no evidence that Wolfgang
and Nannerl ever played K365 in Salzburg, though they performed
K242 (a 2) on 3 September 1780 (Bnefe)
'N Broder, 'Mozart and the Clavier', MQ, \xvn (1941), p 429
4
See, for example, Leopold Mozart's letters of 8 December 1763 and
19 May 1770, and the 1787 newspaper advertisement for the sale of his
effects (all quoted below), each of which refers to a 'Flugel' with two
manuals Turk's Clavierschule (Leipzig, 1789), pp 1-2, gives 'Flugel' as
the standard German term for harpsichord, and then continues 'The
Fortepiano has the shape of a small Flugel, but (the strings are] struck
by small hammers' An 1805 inventory of Archbishop Colloredo's
instruments (for details of which I am grateful to K Birsak) lists his
keyboard instruments under the heading 'Piano Forte, und Flugeln',
and maintains a clear distinction between the two types
'Letters of Mo/art and his family are all quoted from Mozart Bnefe
und Aufzeichnungen, ed W A Bauer, O E Deutsch and I H Eibl
[Bnefe] (Kassel, 1962-75), and are identified by date only, most other
contemporary documents are quoted from Mozart Die Dokumente
seines Lcbens, ed O E Deutsch [Dokumente] (Kassel, 1961)
"Letters of 11 January 1770 (Leopold is ordering an instrument from
Fnedenci on behalf of someone else) and 13 November 1777
7
'Kommentar', Bnefe, referring to letter of 9 October 1777
 "Salzburger Imelhgenzblatt, 15 September 1787 (Dokumente) "Letter of 23-5 October 1777
g 4
Dr Barney's Musical Tours m Europe, ed P A Scholes (London, 'Letter of 1 November 1777
1959). 11. P 238, Dokumente, 15 August 1777 •"For more details of this instrument (which is presumably the one
'"Letter of 10 September 1778 referred to by Mozart in his letter of 31 August 1782) see Salzburger
"Dokumente, 24 April 1775 Klaviere, pp 57-8,131-3, also a forthcoming article by B Brauchli, GSJ,
"Augsburger Intelligenz-Zettel, 19 May 1763 (Dokumente) \lv (1992)
"Ordentliche Wochenthche Franckfurter Nachnchten, 30 August 1763, "'See for example 9 July 1785,11 August 1786, 16 March 1787
The Public Advertiser, 9 May 1764 and subsequently, s Gravenhaegse "Letter of 30 December 1780
<s
Vnidagse Courant, 17 January 1766, Amsterdamsche Dmgsdagsche Letter of 8 April 1785
Courant, 25 February 1766, concert notice (Dijon), 18 July 1766, PeMs *Nannerl's diary, 1 October 1783 (Bnefe)
Affiches (Lyon), 13 August 1766 (Dokumente) "Letter of D B Strobl to H Lech, 10 March 1781 (Dokumente)
"Dokumente, 1 December 1763 "Concert notice, 3 April 1781 (Dokumente)
K
Europaeische Zeitung (Salzburg), 6 August 1765 (Dokumente) ""Letter of 16 January 1782

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5
'"Dr Barney's Musical Tours, 11, pp 76, 90, 96, 108, 112 °See U Ruck, 'Mozarts Hammerflugel erbaute Anton Walter, Wien',
"Letter of 16 December 1774 Mozart-Jahrbuch, 1955, pp 246ff, for a detailed description, and a full
"Though J Adlung, in Musica Mechanica Organoedi (Berlin, 1768/ discussion of the case for Walter as the maker (the instrument is
R1961), 11, p 117, quotes Agncola as saying '[The piano] was once unsigned)
used at the Opera in Berlin, with good results' ''Letters of 17 January and 7 May 1810
ll)
G Zechmeister, Die Wiener Theater nachst der Burg und nachst dem "Concert notice, 10 March 1785 (Dokumente)
Karntnertor von 1747 bis 1776 (Vienna, 1971), p 373 "Dokumente, 24 August 1788
10
J Webster, 'On the Absence of Keyboard Continuo in Haydn's "Joseph Frank's memoirs, 1852 (Dokumente)
Symphonies', EM, xvin (1990), p 601 "For example Prague letters of 15 and 19 January 1787, Leipzig con-
"Fran/ Kazincky's autobiography (1828, Dokumente) Joseph Weigl cert notice of 12 May 1789 (Dokumente)
i6
said in his autobiography (1819, Dokumente) that Mozart accompanied L von Bentheim-Steinfurt's travel diary, 15 October 1790
van Swieten's Sunday oratorio performances 'auf dem Fortepiano', and {Dokumente)
directed Le none di Figaro and Don Giovanni 'am Clavier' °W Plath, 'Beitrage zur Mozart-Autographie II Schnftchronologie
"Journal des Dresdener Hofmarschallatnles, 14 April 1789 1770-1780', Mozart-Jahrbuch 1976/7, pp i3tff, A Tyson, Mozart Studies
(Dokumente) of the Autograph Scores (London, 1987), p 29
"Musikalische Real-Zeitung (Speyer), 17 June 1789 (Dokumente) "This point was apparently first made in Broder, 'Mozart and the
"Letter of 20 August 1763 Clavier', p 430
"For more details of this instrument and its provenance, see G "Letter of 17 October 1777
Gabry, 'Das Reiseldavichord W A Mozarts', Stadia Musicologica Acad ""Letters of 4, 8 and 14 November 1777, 6 December 1777
Scient Hung, \ (1968), pp i53ff "Letter of 1 May 1778
"Letter of 21 February 1785 "Mozart certainly added dynamics and ornamentation when pre-
"Salzburger Klaviere, ed K Birsak (Salzburg, 1988), p 131 paring K457 for publication see the facsimiles of the recently redisco-
2
'Musikalische Real-Zeitung, 17 June 1789 vered autograph in Sotheby's catalogue Fine Music Manuscripts The
!9
B K de Pascual,'Francisco Perez Mirabal's Harpsichords and the Property of the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
Early Spanish Piano', EM, xv (1987), pp5O3ff, S Pollens, 'The Early (London, 21 November 1990) The autograph has now been acquired
Portuguese Piano', EM, xin (1985), pp i8ff, and 'The Pianos of Gott- by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Salzburg
6J
fried Silbermann', The Organ Yearbook, 1986, pp iO3ff The Neue Mozart-Ausgabe edition of K358 contains dynamics that
J
° Friedenci's 'pyramid piano' dates from 1745, the earliest extant appear impossible on the harpsichord (for example a note marked /
square is by Johann Socher, 1742 (New Grove, 'Fnedenci', 'Pianoforte') slurred to one marked p) But most of these are misreadings of the
Turk describes the square as a 'new variety' of piano (Clavierschule, p 2) autograph (in which the p is under the note after the slur), in any case
3I
W Cole, 'Amencus Backers Original Piano Forte Maker', The the autograph is not the composing score, but a copy for performance
Harpsichord and Fortepiano Magazine, IV (1978), pp 79ff, R Maunder, (it has no heading, and 'pnmo' and 'secondo' are on facing pages)
'J C Bach and the Early Piano in London', /RAM, cxvi (1991), pp 2oiff Again, it is not impossible that the dynamics were added later, perhaps
It is worth noting that Leopold's travel notes for 1764-5 (Bnefe) do not when K358 was published in 1783
describe Zumpe, as they do Kirckman and Shudi, as a 'Claviermacher' ""Tyson, Mozart Studies of the Autograph Scores, p 225
3
'E Hertz, Johann Andreas Stem (Wurzburg, 1937) "Letter of 9 October 1777
"] A Hiller, Nachnchten und Anmerkungen die Musik betreffend "'Maunder, 'J C Bach and the Early Piano in London'
(Leipzig, R1970), 24 July 1769, p32 "'The Neue Mo/art-Ausgabe edition of K246 (ed Chnstoph Wolff)
"E Badura-Skoda, 'Prologomena to a History of the Viennese For- has 'cresc' markings in the solo part, in bars 90 and 186 of the first
tepiano', Israel Studies m Musicology, 11 (1980), pp 78-9 (The date is 13movement But these markings are in neither the autograph score
May 1763 in the facsimile of the Thcatral Cassa account, but is incor- (Biblioteka Jagielloriska, Krakow) nor the original performing parts
rectly transcribed as 13 March 1763 in the text ) (Stift St Peter, Salzburg), indeed, it is surely significant that the solo
"I A Silbermann's notes for 19 October 1758 (quoted in Hertz, part omits dynamic markings given to all other instruments
Johann Andreas Stem, pp 26-7) "The solo part in the last movement of K238 is also labelled
16
He used Eckard's op 1 no 4 as the slow movement of his K40 'clavicembalo'
concerto, and on 30 December 1774 asked Nannerl to bring some of " On 11 September 1778 Mozart wrote from Pans 'I will give the
Eckard's music to Munich engraver three concertos, the ones for jenomy and htzau, and the
'''L'Avant-Coureur, April 1761 On 20 September 1759 Affiches, one in Bb' 'Litzau' means 'Lutzow', so K246, 'the one in Bt>' must be
annonces, et avis divers carried a similarly worded advertisement for K238 The only other (solo) keyboard concertos Mozart had written by
'Un clavecin d'une nouvelle invention appele piano et forte', though it 1778 are K175 and K271 Nothing else is known of'jenomy', except that
does not mention Silbermann or Eckard she is presumably the 'Mad ™ jenome' and 'Md ™ genomai' men-
"DeutscherChromked C F D Schubart,27 April 1775 (Dokumente) tioned briefly in two other letters of 1778
7
"Letter of 26 September 1777 °A Tyson, private communication

EARLY M U S I C MAYI992 219

THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
CONTINUO SONATA
Edited by 1. CORELLI AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
Jane Adas, Rutgers university Sonatas for Violin
With introductions by

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272 pages oblong ISBN 0-8153-0174-X $80
Jaap Schroder, Yale university;
Paul Goodwin, Royal College of 2. VERACINI AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
Sonatas for Violin and Flute
Music, London; Myron Lutzke, 296 pages oblong ISBN 0-8153-0175-8 $80
Mannes college of Music
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