Page 52 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

The Other Mozart

Wolfgang plays violin aged seven
for Empress Maria Theresa of the
Holy Roman Empire

the same bawdy humour he shared with his impressive of all, and a testament to her spirit, is Wolfgang was unwilling for Nannerl to lose her
closest companions. Significantly, he sent her that although the glamour of the stage had been connection to the thing that had brought them
compositions and craved her approval, repeatedly taken from her, Nannerl did not stop indulging in closer — music. Nannerl, as obliging as she was to
demanding her to “tell me quite frankly how you music. Not only did Wolfgang send her a number her father’s wishes, continued to play.
like it” and begging her to write to him, even if she of works to perform, but there’s evidence that Wolfgang, however, was a little too much like his
has nothing to say. she herself wrote her own, as in 1770 he wrote, “I father in one way in particular — his headstrong
Nannerl was forced to watch her younger am amazed to find how well you can compose. rebelliousness. Leopold wished for his son to
sibling be praised while she languished, but she In a word, the song is beautiful. Try this more obtain a professional position, something that was
appeared to hold no ill will or grudges. Most often.” Enthusiastic, encouraging and thoughtful, especially pertinent when Wolfgang and Maria
Anna’s mother died in 1778, and the salary would
Nannerl recalls that her have enabled Nannerl to leave Salzburg. However,
brother was already composing
little pieces at the age of five he moved to Vienna without a salary in 1781 and
married in 1782. Leopold remained in Salzburg
with his daughter, and the two of them shared
a degree of disillusion in Wolfgang. Nannerl had
followed her father’s wishes dutifully, but Wolfgang
had acted out, and rather selfishly, too.
It became vitally important for Nannerl to find
a suitor. She was intensely in love with a man
called Franz Armand d’Ippold, but this union
came to nothing and instead she married the
twice-widowed Johann Baptist von Berchtold zu
Sonnenburg, who already had five children from
his previous marriages. The reason why the two
lovers did not marry is unknown, but a popular
theory is that Leopold stopped it. Either he did not
approve of the match, or preferred having Nannerl
at home as the lady of the house after losing his
wife and, for all intents and purposes, his son.
Wolfgang encouraged Nannerl to stand up
for her own preference, but she was becoming
disenchanted with her rebellious little brother and
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