This Jause is an excerpt from Classical Cake, Op. 16. In this quick overview, we’re talking with Salzburg-based musicologist Dr. Eva Neumayr about Maria Anna Mozart’s musical talents and legacy.

TRANSCRIPT

Maria-Anna Mozart was a child prodigy known for “Interpreting the greatest maestros’ most difficult sonatas and concertos on the harpsichord with great clarity, inexpressible lightness, skill, and style. It was a source of wonder to many.” So, Nannerl showed musical talent early. Who taught her the harpsichord?

Well, first of all, I'd like you not to use her nickname, Nannerl, because we are not related to her — obviously — and it was a name used in the family.

She was taught the harpsichord by Leopold Mozart, her father, and he started her on the harpsichord  when she was eight years old.

So, the siblings were quite talented, very early on. The family embarked on a European tour. Could you tell us more about this time of their tours around Europe?

Well, they started in June of 1763 and this tour lasted three-and-a-half years. So, a long, long tour. Of course, one traveled a lot slower at that time.

There’s a report talking about Maria Anna's playing saying, “His daughter (Leopold's daughter), 11 years of age, plays the harpsichord marvelously and performs the longest and most difficult pieces with impressive precision.” So clearly, they made a good impact. What caused her to stop traveling?

Leopold Mozart didn't want his daughter to be a traveling artist. In society, it was not seen as positive for women at that time.

Clearly, the connotation and the expectations were different for Wolfgang and Maria Anna. Did she continue playing music in adulthood?

Yes, she definitely did when she married in 1784 and went to St. Gilgen — which is about 30 kilometers from Salzburg. We know that she continued to practice the piano three hours per day. So that's a long time for the 18th century.

And, she was also soloist in the concerts of Count Ernst von Schwarzenberg, which were the dominant concerts at that time in Salzburg in the early 19th century. There's a quote where they say ‘the most eminent soloist is Maria Anna von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, Mozart's sister.’

In Salzburg, people began to visit her. And in 1824, Constanze came with her husband, Georg Nikolaus Nissen, who was working at that time on a biography of Mozart. Maria Anna had kept all the family's letters and that's what she gave them. So, this biography would not have happened without her. A lot of stories we know from his early days we know from her.

So, we really have her to thank for this legacy and wealth of information we have about Wolfgang.

Of course. I mean, partly Constanze, but also, Maria Anna.