The Letters of Mozart and his Family

by Emily Anderson (Editor)

Notes providing background information accompany the complete correspondence of Mozart and his father and mother

510 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads' database

Emily Anderson, OBE (March 1891 – October 1962) was a British Foreign Office official and scholar of German.
Translator and editor of Letters of Mozart and his family, Letters of Beethoven.

Reviews

[Bogdi]

You'd think that between Amadeus and his concert hall popularity even nowadays, there's little to learn about Mozart. Yet what better account about someone's life than from his back and forth with his closest ones? After reading these letters, which span most of his life, you might be surprised to learn that his portrayal in Amadeus wasn't as off the mark as some might claim. The chap surely liked living the life and was on the metrosexual side (there's one letter in particular where he goes one about a certain jacket he would like to get, complete with description of buttons) and his work ethic might have stemmed in part from his desire to detach himself from his father's tiger-parenting and make it on his own in a very competitive musical world. He doesn't however, strike me as the shrewdest self-promoter (there are side-accounts of this or that contemporary composer landing a good, cushy job with the local nobility whilst Mozart was passed over and one is left wondering as to the reasons why, but since we only have his account it would be impossible to tell).

The interesting thing you get out of it is that for all his mythical status today, he wasn't the most famous composer within his lifetime, although he had a stretch of 2-3 years in the 1780s when he came close. Unluckily, the mid 1780s saw a great recession, and the resources for art and entertainment dried up significantly, forcing Mozart (who had still not landed a cushy job with the Emperor, as he had hoped) to literally scramble to support his household (he was now married with a child and his wife was pregnant most of the time).

But if you're not so interested in Mozart the man, there is a lot of talk about his compositions, his writing and performance habits, as well as his love for "jamming" at home with a bunch of musical buddies. My favourite bits were the detailed descriptions of how Idomeneo and Entfuhrung aus dem Serail came to life and their subsequent reception (Mozart was at the height of his Viennese popularity in the wake of Entfuhrung's premiere). Hard to believe for today's audiences, but Le Nozze di Figaro never reached that level of popularity in his lifetime (likely due to its being on the subversive side politically), although Don Giovanni fared better, and La Clemenza di Tito and especially Die Zauberflote were on the verge of re-launching him.

As with any letters, you get a feel of the 18th century way of life among the middle classes, how they lived, how they traveled (a lot!), how they interacted, what they believed, as well as a few more or less oblique references to court and musical circle politics.

[B.]

I know space was an issue, but I wish the editors had included ALL of every letter! (That's my reason for 4 stars instead of 5.)

[Jonah Church]

Absolutely hilarious