#classical instrument

Beatrice Harrison, 1929.

Photo by Fox Photos

Master plan of world domination: the musical spaceship 🚀 🎻 🎶 🎵

CONCERTS AT THE TIME OF MOZART & VIENNESE TONKUNSTLER - SOCIETAT

The majority of concerts given in Vienna during Mozart’s life were private events. Many were given in the great houses of the upper nobility, most of whom kept some musicians on their staff and the richest of whom (the Esterhàzys, the Lobkowitzes and others) employed complete orchestras. More recently the practice had spread to the lesser nobility and the bourgeoisie, creating semi-public musical salons.

( image 1: " Concert at the time of Mozart, " 1853 - detail )

- Most of the concerts in which Mozart normally took part were of these two types; sometimes he gave one at his own lodgings:

“Dear Father! I must write in the greatest haste, for it is already half-past five and I have asked some people to come here for a little concert. Altogether I have so much to do that often I do not know whether I am on my head or my heels. […] The evening is [therefore] the only time I have for composing and of that one can never be sure, as I am often asked to perform at concerts” ( M to his father, 28/12/1782 ).

“Dear Father! It is impossible for me to write very much, […] as I am invited to a concert at Court Councillor Spielmann’s”( 04/01/1783 )

Mozart could not rely on being paid for such appearances; he might perhaps receive an honorarium, or a present such as a new snuffbox, or a free meal. He went to keep his name before the public, and perhaps to gain pupils and patrons.

* There were however two types of public concert that took place:

1 / Public "benefit concerts"

Public “benefit concerts” mounted by individual artists, who would take a theatre or other venue, engage other musicians as needed, and take all the proceeds ( and bear all the costs ) of the event. These were easiest to mount during Lent, as there were no opera performances, meaning that it was easier to engage musicians from the opera orchestras. Mozart took part in one for his sister-in-law, Aloysia Lange, on 11 March 1783, less than a fortnight before his own”

“My sister-in-law, Madame Lange, gave her concert yesterday in the theatre and I played a concerto. The theatre was very full and I was received again by the Viennese public so cordially that I really ought to feel delighted…there was a regular torrent of applause. It is a good advertisement for my concert which I am giving on Sunday, March 23rd. "

2 / Concerts held by the Tonkünstler-Societät

During Mozart’s lifetime in Vienna a third type of musical event began to take place: the subscription series of concerts.

( image 3: A 19th-century portrayal by August Gerasch of the old Burgtheater, venue of a number of the Tonkünstler-Societät's concerts )

- Vienna Musicians' Society, the first and oldest concert society in Vienna, founded in 1771 as a "pension society for widows and orphans of Austrian musicians" at the instigation of the "kk chamber composer" Florian Gaßmann . Together with the " Society of Friends of Music in Vienna " , founded a few decades later, these two oldest organized music societies and concert institutes had a decisive influence on the concert and musical life of Vienna.

( image 2: Draft of the Basic Rules of the Tonkünstler-Society -1771 ).

- The association was led by a " protector ", the actual business led a " Prases " which was selected by the members among other things exercised this office ANTONIO SALIERI ( 1788 - 1795 )...

- Mozart's music was heard during approximately six different society concert series between 1781 / 1791 and of these instances, the composer made at least four appearances either performing or conducting his own music ( see my comment / table). He most often contributed symphonies and concerto ( in which he most likely performed the solo) and he led the society's massive orchestra as Battutist during the 1785 academy .

" Was Mozart a member? - The negative answer always surprises people...

- Evidently , the fact that her husband was not a member of the Tonkunstler- Societat did not matter to his widow Constanze, who applied for financial support in 1792 but was denied.

Mozart's membership process, as well as Haydn's experience a few years before further reinforces the exclusivity of the Society and the rigorous stipulations it upheld ". - by Emily M. Vuchner : THE TONKUNSTLER - SOCIETAT AND THE ORATORIO IN VIENNA 1771 - 1798 " ( pages 312,313,325 ) - Dissertation / University of Illinois US - 2017

* Mozart himself was one of the most enthusiastic exponents of these concert series; among the seventeen concerts he gave in Lent 1784 were two such events. At first these were extremely successful, but within couple of years Mozart was no longer a novelty, and the fickle Viennese public abandoned him as quickly as it had taken him up. He gave no more such concerts after April 1786.