Mozarts sister nannerl biography of george

When I read the announcement that Sylvia Milo’s solo play “The Other Mozart” would be presented in Little Rock at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, I immediately wanted to see it. Especially since on that very day we were supposed to be in the capital of the State of Arkansas for our friend’s wedding.

If it were not for the informational help of the “all-knowing” Google, I would have thought that this performance would once again be about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s life and work, but only from some unusual side. However, this performance was dedicated to the composer’s older sister, Maria Anna Mozart. My relatives agreed to my proposal to spend Friday evening at the theater and bought tickets without hesitation.

In her article, “The Lost Genius of Mozart’s sister,” published in The Guardian on September 8, 2015, Sylvia Milo wrote that she had never heard Mozart had a sister. She found out about it when she saw a copy of a family portrait on the wall near the exit of the Mozarthaus in Vienna, depicting Leopold Mozart and his children, Maria Anna (Nannerl) and Wolfgang, sitting at the harpsichord. This painting intrigued Sylvia. Having decided to learn more about Nannerl’s fate, she carefully studied the history of the Mozart family, the time they lived, read their correspondences, etc. This is how the idea for the play “The Other Mozart” was born.

I learned about Maria Anna Mozart at a children’s music school when the teacher told us that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn had talented sisters who were musicians. In addition, when I was older, I read the letters of the Mozart family that had come down to us. Nevertheless, I was interested in seeing the solo play of Sylvia Milo, which, by the time of the performance in Little Rock, had already been performed more than 300 times on stages in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

It must be said that Sylvia Milo did right, calling her work “The Oth

Danish diplomat and music historian (1761–1826)

Georg Nikolaus von Nissen (sometimes Nicolaus; 22 January 1761 – 24 March 1826) was a Danish diplomat and music historian. He is the author of one of the first biographies of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, still used today as a scholarly source.

Life

Nissen was born in Haderslev, Denmark–Norway. He completed his schooling in 1781 and became "authorized agent of the General Post Office" in Copenhagen in 1781. In 1792 he became a diplomat in the Danish foreign service. As of 1793, he worked in Vienna as chargé d'affaires.

In 1797, while serving in this post, Nissen first met Mozart's widow, Constanze, whose husband had died six years earlier in 1791. He was initially her tenant. The two began living together in September 1798.

Constanze had been through an arduous period following Mozart's death, trying to ward off poverty for herself and her two sons. In this she was successful, obtaining a pension from the Emperor, and making considerable money from concerts of Mozart's music and sale to publishers of his works in manuscript. Nissen came to participate in these labours, taking over much of the work of negotiating with publishers. He also helped care for the children, eventually taking (in Ruth Halliwell's words) "the role of a caring father" in the family.

Nissen and Constanze were married 26 June 1809. The wedding took place in St Martin's Cathedral, Pressburg (today Bratislava), to which the foreign diplomatic corps had temporarily decamped when Napoleon's armies took Vienna. The marriage did not produce any children.

In 1812 the couple moved to Copenhagen, where Nissen took up a post as a censor. They lived there until 1820, at Lavendelstræde 1, a street where many houses of the period are still preserved.

In 1820, Nissen retired, and the couple moved to Salzburg. Nissen had long been planning a biography of Mozart, and the work began se

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died after a short illness on 5 December 1791, aged 35. His reputation as a composer, already strong during his lifetime, rose rapidly in the years after his death, and he became (as he has remained to this day) one of the most celebrated of all composers.

Shortly after Mozart's death, biographers began to piece together accounts of his life, relying on the testimony of those still living who knew him, as well as surviving correspondence. The creation of Mozart biographies has been an activity of scholars ever since.

Early biographers

Friedrich Schlichtegroll was a teacher and a scholar who published Mozart's obituary in 1793. The obituary was part of a volume of obituaries referred to as Nekrolog. The two had never met. Most of the information was obtained from Nannerl, Mozart's sister, and Johann Andreas Schachtner, a friend of the family in Mozart's early years. Therefore, what Schlichtegroll knew and wrote about was the period before Vienna.

Franz Xaver Niemetschek was a citizen of Prague, a teacher and writer. Niemetschek allegedly met with Mozart and claimed to have been acquainted with Mozart's friends in Prague. After Mozart's death, his widow Constanze sent Carl, the elder son, to live with him from 1792-97. Through these relationships with the family, Niemetschek gathered the information needed to write a biography of Mozart. His main source was Constanze and Mozart's friends in Prague. Therefore, his emphasis was on Mozart's years in Vienna and his many trips to Prague. Based on research by Austrian scholar Walther Brauneis, much doubt has recently been cast on the veracity of Niemetschek's claim that he actually made Mozart's personal acquaintance.

Friedrich Rochlitz was the editor of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (AMZ), a journal published by Breitkopf & Hartel. Motivated by the wish to publicize the company's edition in progress of the composer's works, he published a number

Article: Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart by Agnes Selby

Postby Lance » Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:39 am

Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart
By Agnes Selby

Nannerl (Maria Anna) Mozart (1751-1829) was the darling little angel of my childhood whenever the subject of Mozart and his family came under discussion. My study of Mozart's family reveals a completely different picture, a picture of a rather spiteful and frustrated woman, a woman forced into a marriage of convenience forever mourning the great love of her life. Fulfillment came in death for she chose in her many codicils to her Will to be buried in St. Peter's Cemetery where the remains of the man she loved, Captain Franz Armand d'Yppold were also laid to rest. He died in 1790 but his remains were later transferred to St. Peter’s Cemetery at the request of his family. Looking through the register of burials at St. Peter's Cemetery, I came across his name by pure chance. His remains had been transferred there when the cemetery first opened its gates. So perhaps, she was reunited with the one love of her life that unlike her father, did not expect her undivided devotion and the renunciation of caring for her first-born son. Nor was he a miser of a man saddled with five children from two previous marriages, the man she finally married, Johann Baptist von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg (1736-1801).

Nannerl was baptized on 30 July 1751 Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Filia Legitima.
Nannerl was the fourth child of Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart, three previous babies all died within a short time of their birth. She was, by her own description, a very beautiful child. She was talented and as a child displayed a pleasing disposition. She had her first lessons from Leopold in 1758 and by 1764, the biased father considered her "one of the most skilful pianists in Europe."

Had Wolfgang not come along five years later, she would have remained her father’s shining light. No doubt, Leopold would have traveled the world with t