Page 49 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

The Other

Mozart

Mozart is a household name, a legend in the realm of music
and beyond — but in the 18th century there was not one

but two Mozarts who rocked the world with their talents

Written by Frances White

n 1829, the English author Mary Novello mother had certainly not led an easy life as her
visited the ageing Maria Anna Mozart, family had fallen into poverty when she was
sister of the celebrated composer. She was young and was forced to live on a charity pension.
shocked by what she found — not only was Anna Maria was also constantly ill. Although
Ithe old woman blind, but she was living she had attracted Leopold with her beauty, the
what appeared to be an impoverished life. Feeble, marriage was plagued by misfortune, and they
exhausted and barely able to speak, the lonely sadly lost five children in infancy. It is perhaps
woman was a sad sight to behold. That same year, due to this difficult life that she was so willing to
Maria Anna died aged 78 and was buried in her submit to her husband’s strict regime.
birthplace of Salzburg, Austria. However, Novello Leopold was not an easy husband to live with
had been wrong. Looks can be deceiving: the old and certainly not an easy-going father. Headstrong,
woman was not impoverished, she left a large determined and stubborn, he had disobeyed his
fortune behind, but had chosen to live frugally. mother’s wishes of entering the priesthood so
Very few people truly knew Maria Anna or that he could pursue a life of music as a violinist
the life she had led, for much of it had been in and organist. This decision to chase his dream
the shadow of her brother. Even today we don’t estranged him from his mother, but it made
know the extent of her talents as, like most him all the more determined to succeed. Many
female musicians from the past, her work was biographers emphasise the impact Nannerl’s
not recorded and she herself was never given the father had upon her, but it was the combination
chance to thrive. What could have been for the old, of her parents — a ruthlessly ambitious father and
blind, feeble woman will never truly be known, a mother willing to let him do anything — that
but the role she played in her brother’s life, hailed would shape her life.
as one of the greatest masters of all time, is a truly When a young Nannerl, aged just seven, sat
remarkable — if seldom told — tale. down before a harpsichord and began to play, she
Maria Anna, better known by the affectionate was immediately followed by her younger brother,
nickname Nannerl, was born in the summer of Wolfgang. The boy was four and a half years
1751 to Anna Maria and Leopold Mozart. Her younger than her and idolised his sister — Nannerl
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