Life of Mozart Volume 2 — CHAPTER XXIV. FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA Part 1

CHAPTER XXIV. FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA.

WHEN Mozart's withdrawal from the service of the Archbishop had become an established fact, the latter was anxious to show the world that it lay in his power to attract equally distinguished artists to his service, and he offered a salary of one thousand gulden to Leop.

Kozeluch, who was considered the first clavier-player in Vienna, if he would come to Salzburg.

Kozeluch refused, as Mozart wrote to his father (July 4, 1781), because he was better off in Vienna, and he had said to his friends: "The affair with Mozart is what chiefly alarms me; if he could let such a man as that leave him, what would become of me?"

L.

Mozart, much against his will, was obliged to reconcile himself to the step his son had taken.

[1] He was full of {WORK IN VIENNA, 1781.

} (187) anxiety, caused by his conviction of Wolfgang's incapacity in matters relating to his own advancement, by his fear lest he should not be able to withstand the seductions of the pleasure-loving capital, and also, perhaps, by an unconscious feeling of annoyance at his son's independent demeanour.

This caused him to express his affectionate and really justifiable concern in so perverse a manner that, instead of lightening Wolfgang's difficult position, he embittered his life with reproaches and objections, which were generally exaggerated, and often entirely unreasonable; for he was weak enough to place easy faith in rumours and gossip.

He had so long been accustomed to undertake the care of all Wolfgang's affairs that he could not bring himself quietly to resign all interference in them.

Mozart did not allow himself to be over-persuaded;

he held fast to his independence, as well as to his reverence and love for his father, whose reproofs and accusations he repeatedly disclaimed.

At first, indeed, the father's gloomy forebodings seemed more likely to be verified than the brilliant hopes of the son.

Summer had arrived, most of the nobility had gone to their country seats, and there was little to be done in the way of lessons or concerts.

The Countess Rumbeck (_née_ Cobenzl), who was afterwards considered a first-rate clavier-player,[2] remained his only pupil, since he would not abate his price of six ducats; but he managed to exist in spite of all.

He consoled himself by the reflection that it was the dull season, and that he must employ his leisure by preparing for the winter.

He worked diligently at six sonatas for the clavier, which were to be published by subscription; the Countess Thun and other ladies of rank undertook to collect subscriptions.

They secured seventeen during the summer, and hoped for more in the autumn.

He set to work to arrange a concert to be given during Advent; Rossi wrote the words for an Italian cantata which was to be composed for the occasion.

But what lay nearest his heart was the composition of an opera in Vienna; his conviction of his vocation as a dramatic composer having been strengthened {FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA.

} (188) by the performances at the Vienna theatre, and the lively interest taken in them by the public.

"My only entertainment," he writes to his sister (July 4, 1781), "consists in the theatre.

I wish you could see a tragedy performed here!

I know no other theatre where every kind of play is given to perfection.

Every part, even the smallest and the worst, is well filled."

The performances of the Vienna stage had, in point of fact, reached the highest level of excellence known at that time.

[3] Since the time when the stage had joined in the struggle which ended in the triumph of German literature and art over buffoonery and extemporised pieces, the theatre had remained the gathering-point of literary interests.

The best authors of the day wrote for the stage with the avowed object of improving taste and aiding the spread of culture;

such were Klemm, Heufeld, Ayrenhoff, and Gebler, and their efforts were ably seconded by such actors as Müller and the brothers Stephanie.

[4] The new and difficult task appointed for them spurred the actors to extraordinary efforts.

A general feeling of sympathy and esteem began to replace the contempt in which the dramatic art had been held, and the stage was soon looked upon as the gauge of a nation's moral and intellectual cultivation.

This elevation of the art as a whole benefited the artists as individuals, the interdict which society had laid upon them was removed, and actors became favoured members of the best and most cultivated circles.

[5] The Vienna theatre in especial, since Joseph II.

in the year 1776 had saved it from the weakening influence of variable private patronage, and had constituted it the court and national theatre, had rapidly reached to an unprecedented height of excellence.

This monarch looked upon the theatre as an important means of national cultivation, took a lively interest in it, and shared himself in its practical management; he also watched over the talents and the destinies {THE VIENNA STAGE.

} (189) of his actors with shrewd penetration and warm sympathy.

[6] He was careful, by lowering the prices of admission,[7] to make attendance at the theatre more general than it had hitherto been; and an entertainment, which had borne almost exclusively the character of a court festival or an assembly of persons of rank, was thus placed within the reach of the citizen class.

[8] Literary criticism too, let loose by the introduction of the liberty of the press, turned its attention to the drama, and enlightened the general reader on the quality of the entertainment afforded to him by the author and by the actor.

In this way a public was educated without reference to rank or class, to whom the poet and musician could appeal as an independent artist, instead of ministering as heretofore exclusively to the entertainment of his patrons--a state of affairs which must have had important influence on the position of artists, more especially of musicians.

The theatrical public of Vienna at the time of which we are speaking had the reputation of being attentive, discerning, and appreciative, ready and liberal in its acknowledgment of what was good.

[9] And in truth it had cause.

Shortly before Mozart came to Vienna, Schroder and his wife had set the crown on admirable acting; and associated with them were Müller, Lange, Weidman, Brockmann, Jacquet, Bergopzoomer, the brothers Stephanie, Mesdames Weidner, Adamberger, Jacquet, Sacco, Stierle, Rouseul--affording proof that Mozart did not overrate the talent of his contemporaries.

[10] In the same spirit in which he had founded the national theatre Joseph II.

abolished the costly spectacular ballet and the Italian opera.

In the place of the latter he instituted a "national vaudeville," as he called the German {FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA.

} (190) opera.

[11] In December, 1777, he resolved to make a modest beginning with the forces which he had at his command.

Umlauf, tenorist in the orchestra, had written the little operetta of "Die Bergknappen," in which only four characters appeared.

The principal part was intended for Mdlle.

Cavalieri, the second for Madame Stierle; the male parts were to be undertaken by Ruprecht, the tenor singer, and Fuchs, the bass;

the chorus was composed of church choristers, and the management was entrusted to Müller, the actor.

The rehearsals were very carefully made, and the Emperor having expressed his satisfaction at a dress rehearsal, the German opera was opened with "Die Bergknappen" on February 18. 1778. The performance was highly successful,[12] and in the course of the following year fourteen operas or vaudevilles were performed, partly translations, with Italian or French music, such as "Robert und Kalliste" ("La Sposa Fedele"), by Guglielmi; "Röschen und Colas," by Monsigny; "Lucile," "Silvain," "Der Hausfreund," by Grétry; "Anton und Antonette," by Gossec; and partly original pieces composed in Vienna, such as "Die Apotheke," by Umlauf; "Die Kinder der Natur," by Aspelmeyer; "Frühling und Liebe," by Ulbrich; and "Diesmal hat der Mann den Willen," by Ordonnez.

The only singer of lasting reputation who took part in the first opera was Katharina Cavalieri (1761-1801).

Daughter of a poor schoolmaster named Cavalier in Währing, her talent was perceived and cultivated by Salieri, and she appeared in Italian opera as early as 1775. She soon became a bravura singer of the first rank.

[13] It was clearly necessary that she should be well supported if the opera was to compete with the drama proper.

The first wife of the {GERMAN OPERETTA.

} (191) actor Lange, Mariane Schindler, was secured; but after having achieved great success in Grétr's "Hausfreund" and "Lucile," and bidding fair to become a main support of the opera, both by her singing and acting, she died in the winter of 1779. [14] The following summer, through the intervention of the ambassador, Count Hardeck, Aloysia Weber was summoned from Munich, and took her place, not only on the stage, but in the affections of Lange, who shortly after made her his second wife.

Aloysia Weber made her _début_ in the part of the Rosenmädchen of Salency, and was received with general approbation.

[15] It was evident, therefore, that Mozart was not blinded by youthful inclination when, he declared her one of the first singers of her time, a judgment which posterity has ratified.

The second parts had been allotted before her arrival to Theresa Teyber, afterwards Madame Arnold, who pleased by her fresh, youthful voice, while that of Madame Fischer (_née_ Strasser), from Mannheim, a clever singer and good actress, was already somewhat past.

In the summer of 1781 they had been joined by Madame Bernasconi (p. 130), by the desire, as it was said, of Gluck, who had used the influence of Count Dietrichstein to press her on the Emperor; but the position was not well suited to her talent.

Mozart gives his opinion as follows (August 29, 1781):-- In the great parts of tragedy Bernasconi remains inimitable.

But small operettas are not in her style at all; and then (as she acknowledges herself) she is more Italian than German, speaks on the stage with the same Viennese accent as in common life (just imagine!

), and when she occasionally makes an effort it is as if one heard a princess declaim in a marionette theatre.

And she sings so badly that no one will consent to compose for her.

And even before this (June 27, 1781) he had written derisively:-- She has three hundred ducats salary because she sings all her songs a division higher than they are written.

It is really a great art, for she keeps well in tune.

She has now promised to sing them half a tone higher, and then of course she will be paid more.

{FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA.

} (192) There were male singers also, who were quite on an equality with these female vocalists.

Soon after the opening of the opera the tenors Souter and Dauer, a whimsical actor with a fine voice,[16] were engaged, and at a later date Adamberger, one of the most admirable tenors, a singer of artistic style and cultivation, and a "very respectable" actor of lovers' parts.

Fischer was secured as a bass; the compass, strength, and beauty of his voice and his artistic cultivation, both as a singer and an actor, placed him in the very first rank among the singers of Germany.

With him were associated Günther and Schmidt as bass singers, and Saal as a baritone.

[17] There were thus all the materials required for the production of German operas, except a composer who could write them.

Umlauf and some others who imitated him were not the men for such an undertaking.

Gluck had composed nothing since his "Iphigenia in Taurus," and contented himself with putting on the stage, in 1780, "Die Pilgrimme von Mekka," a comic opera which had been written for Vienna with French words ("La Rencontre Imprévue") in 1764, and which was often played in its German adaptation.

[18] In the following year, by the express command of the Emperor Joseph, Salieri wrote a German comic opera, "Der Rauchfangkehrer"[19] ("The Chimney-Sweep"), the text of which, by Dr. Auembrugger, was unusually bad;[20] but Salieri was too much of an Italian to have {GERMAN OPERA.

} (193) much effect on German opera.

The operetta was assiduously cultivated in North Germany, and a long list of those which were produced might be given.

But the contrast between North and South Germany, founded on their political and religious differences, was visible unpleasantly enough in literature and art, and had a marked influence on their musical sympathies and antipathies.

[21] Nicolai relates that he had heard in Vienna many genuine and accomplished musical connoisseurs speak of Ph.

Em.

Bach not only with indifference, but with absolute dislike, and place Kozeluch and Steffan before all other clavier-players.

[22] Adamberger, when asked his opinion concerning a celebrated singer from North Germany, answered that she sang like a Lutheran; and on being pressed for an explanation, replied, "I call it singing like a Lutheran to have a beautiful voice as the gift of nature, and even to have received a good musical education, as is frequently the case in North Germany, but to show no signs of study in the Italian school of music, through which alone the true art of singing can be learnt."

[23] There was little demand in Vienna, therefore, for the compositions which Hiller's successful enterprise with German opera had brought into being;

the works of men such as Benda, Schweitzer, Wolf, Neefe, André, and Reichard; their operas were not performed, and still less was there any prospect of a field for their future labours in Vienna.

Schweitzer was not summoned, in spite of Wieland's pressing recommendation (Vol. I.

, p. 406).

G.

Benda had shown himself not disinclined to remove to Vienna,[24] and report had pointed to him as probable kapellmeister in 1778,[25] but he had never been seriously thought of.

It appeared, therefore, that a most fitting career stood open for Mozart, and he himself wished nothing more than to prove his powers in this branch of his art.

He had brought with him his operetta {FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA.

} (194) "Zaide," in the hope of having it performed.

The libretto, as he had feared, proved a stumbling-block (Vol. II.

,p. 115); but the younger Stephanie, at that time inspector of the opera, formed so favourable an opinion of the music, that he promised to give Mozart a new and good piece, which he was to compose for the Vienna stage.

His father warned him that Stephanie was not to be depended upon; and he was right.

Stephanie the younger was an arrogant, selfish man, who had made himself hated everywhere by his intrigues and pretensions.

Mozart knew that he was in ill repute, and was upon his guard.

He resolved to write no opera without the express commission of Count Rosenberg, who had had supreme direction of the theatre since 1776; but Stephanie continued friendly, and there seemed no actual cause for personal distrust.

Count Rosenberg had received Mozart well whenever he had waited upon him, and had joined in the applause of other connoisseurs upon the occasion of the performance of "Idomeneo" at the house of Countess Thun, Van Swieten and Sonnenfels being also among the audience.

It was not long, therefore, before Mozart was able to announce to his father the good news (June 9, 1781) that Count Rosenberg had commissioned Schroder, the distinguished actor, to look out a good libretto, which was to be given to Mozart for composition.

A few days afterwards Stephanie told him of a piece he had found in four acts, of which the first was excellent, but the others fell off, so that it was doubtful whether Schroder would undertake the adaptation of it.

"They may settle that between them," wrote Wolfgang (June 16, 1781).

The book was rejected, but the matter did not rest; the Emperor was evidently anxious to give Mozart an opportunity of trying his powers as a German operatic composer; and at the end of July the latter found himself at the goal of his wishes, and able to inform his father (August 1, 1781):-- Yesterday young Stephanie gave me a book for composition.

It is very good; the subject is Turkish, and it is called "Belmont und Constance," or "Die Entführung aus dem Serail."

The overture, the chorus in the first act, and the concluding chorus I shall compose in Turkish music.

Mdlle.

Cavalieri, Mdlle.

Teyber, M. Fischer, {THE "ENTFÜHRUNG.

} (195) M.

Adamberger, M. pauer, and M. Walter are to sing in the opera.

I am so delighted at having it to compose that the first songs for Cavalieri and Adamberger and the terzet at the close of the first act are already finished.

The time given is short, certainly, for it is to be performed in the middle of September, but the attendant circumstances will be all the more favourable.

And indeed everything combines to raise my spirits, so that I hasten to my writing-table with the greatest eagerness, and it is with difficulty I tear myself away.

The favourable circumstances which made Mozart so hopeful chiefly consisted in the expected visit of the Grand Duke Paul and his wife; the opera was to be among the festivities given in their honour, and it was safely to be expected that the Emperor and Count Rosenberg would consider it to his credit if he prepared the work in such haste for them; but all this was to be a secret.

It was now very convenient to him to be in a house with good friends who would provide him with dinner and supper, and so enable him to sit writing all day.

"You know of old how hungry I get when I am composing."

He continued in this whirl of excitement, and was able to write on August 8:-- I have just finished the chorus of Janizaries.

Adamberger, Cavalieri, and Fischer are thoroughly pleased with their songs.

I let the Countess Thun hear as much as is ready.

She told me afterwards that she was ready to stake her life on it that what I had written so far would please.

On this point, however, I listen to no man's praise or blame before the whole has been heard or seen, but I follow entirely my own feelings--only you may see from it how greatly she was pleased with the music herself.

On August 22 he wrote that the first act was finished; soon after he learnt, to his relief, that the Grand Duke was not coming until November, so that he could write his opera "with greater deliberation" (September 5, 1781).

Shortly afterwards he informs his father (September 26, 1781):-- The first act was ready three weeks ago, and an aria in the second act and the drinking duet, which consists of nothing but my Turkish tattoo;

but I cannot do any more at present, the whole thing being upset, and by my own desire.

At the beginning of the third act there is a charming quintet, or rather finale, and this I mean to transfer to the end of the second act.

But it will necessitate considerable alterations and the introduction of a fresh intrigue, and Stephanie is over head and ears in work.

{FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA.

} (196) Another circumstance also interfered with the completion of Mozart's opera.

It was proposed in honour of the distinguished visitors to perform two of Gluck's operas, viz.

: "Iphigenia" in a German adaptation, and "Alceste" in Italian, "in order," as a contemporary announcement puts it, "to show what we Germans are able to accomplish."

[26] Certainly the choice was well made with this object in view, although it was said in Vienna, as Mozart wrote to his father (August 29,1781), that it had been difficult to persuade the Emperor into it, for he was at heart as little partial to Gluck as to Gluck's favourite singer, Bernasconi.

[27] The projected performance of these operas disturbed all Mozart's calculations.

The applause which had been bestowed on his "Idomeneo" by capable and influential judges, and the readiness of the singers to appear in it, had raised the hope of producing it on this occasion in a German adaptation, which would have involved alterations in the composition; but a third grand opera would have been too much, and it could not have been studied together with Gluck's. Even the comic opera had to be temporarily laid aside until Gluck's two operas were ready--"and there is plenty of study to be got through still," he wrote to his father (October 6, 1781).

He was at work at it again in the middle of November; but the original intention of having it completed by the arrival of the Grand Duke was no longer feasible.

On November 21 "that grand animal, the Grand Duke," arrived under the name of Count von Narden, and on the 25th a brilliant festival was given at Schonbrunn.

"Tomorrow 'Alceste' is given at Schonbrunn,"[28] writes Mozart, {ARCHDUKE MAXIMILIAN.

} (197) sorrowfully (November 24, 1781).

"I have been looking up Russian popular songs, in order to play variations on them."

Shortly before the arrival of the Grand Duke, the Duke of Würtemberg, with his consort, the Princess Elizabeth, intended bride of the Archduke Franz, and her brother, Prince Ferdinand, had entered Vienna.

"The Duke is a charming man, and the Duchess and Princess also; but the Prince is an octogenarian stick, and a real blockhead," was Mozart's concise description (November 17, 1781); but the arrival of the trio opened a favourable prospect for him.

The Princess, who had come to have the finishing touches put to her education in Vienna, required a teacher of music, and this position, which, besides making a welcome addition to his income, would bring him into contact with very influential persons, Mozart hoped to obtain.

His chief supporter was the Emperor's youngest brother, the Archduke Maximilian, at that time Coadjutor of the Elector of Cologne.

The Archduke was musical, and had an excellent band of wind instruments in his pay;[29] he had a favourable remembrance of Mozart from his visit to Salzburg in 1775, and proved a very warm patron.

Mozart wrote to his father (November 1781):-- Yesterday at three o'clock I was summoned by the Archduke.

When I went in he was standing in the first room by the stove, and he came straight up to me and asked if I had anything to do to-day?

"No, your royal highness, nothing at all; but even were it otherwise, I should be delighted to place my time at the disposal of your Royal Highness."

"No, no; I do not want to disturb anybody."

Then he said that he had a mind to give a concert in the evening at the Würtemberg court, and would like me to play something and to accompany the songs; I was to go to him again at six o'clock.

I played there last evening accordingly.

At the same time, Mozart could not conceal from himself that the Archduke had changed very much to his disadvantage:-- Before he was a priest he was much wittier and more intellectual, and spoke less but more sensibly.

You should see him now!

Stupidity stares out of his eyes, he talks and chatters without stopping, and all in a sort of falsetto voice; he has a swollen neck; in short, the whole man is transformed!

{FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA.

} (198) Nevertheless he continued to patronise Mozart, drew him out on every occasion, and if he had only been Elector of Cologne, Mozart would have been kapellmeister by this time, as he told his father.

He had used his influence with the Princess to take Mozart as her music-master, but received for answer that if it depended on herself she would certainly have chosen him, but the Emperor--"he cares for no one but Salieri," cries Mozart in disgust--had recommended Salieri to her on account of his singing, and she felt obliged to engage him, to her great regret.

It was quite true that Salieri stood high in the favour of Joseph II.

He had been pupil of the Emperor's special favourite Gassmann, and had in a sense grown up under the royal eye;[30] he was regularly engaged at the imperial private concerts, and retained possession of his patron's favour by means both of his music and his personal demeanour.

It was plain, therefore, that the preference for Salieri shown by the Emperor on this occasion did not arise from any ill-will towards Mozart; he was in close personal intercourse with Salieri, and esteemed him highly as a vocal composer, while Mozart was only known to him as a clavier-player.

As such he had great admiration for him, and Mozart informed his father (December 26, 1781) that the Emperor had lately "passed the greatest _éloge_ on him in the words 'C'est un talent décidé.'

" He had also (on December 14) commanded Mozart to play at court, and had arranged for him a contest of skill with Clementi, who had come to Vienna with the reputation of a clavier-player of unheard-of excellence.

Clementi relates the encounter to his pupil L. Berger:[31]-- I had only been a few days in Vienna when I received an invitation to play before the Emperor on the pianoforte.

On entering the music-room I beheld an individual whose elegant attire led me to mistake him for an imperial valet-de-chambre.

But we had no sooner entered into conversation than it turned on musical topics, and we soon recognised in each other with sincere pleasure brother artists--Mozart and Clementi.

{MOZART AND CLEMENTI, 1781.

} (199) Mozart continues the description of the scene (January 16, 1782):-- After we had paid each other all manner of compliments, the Emperor gave the signal that Clementi should begin.

"La santa chiesa cattoüca!"

said the Emperor--Clementi being a native of Rome.

He preluded, and played a sonata.

"It is worthy of note here," says Berger, "that Clementi was peculiarly fond of extemporising long and very interesting and elaborate interludes and cadenzas in the pauses of his sonatas; it was this propensity which led him to select a sonata for performance which lent itself easily to such treatment, although in every other respect this sonata stands behind his earlier compositions of the same kind.

It was the following--[See Page Image] and we have perhaps to thank this subject for the allegro in the overture to the 'Zauberflote,' a composition never surpassed of its kind: [32]-- The Emperor then said to me: "Allons, d'rauf los!"

("Now then, fire away!"

) I preluded, and played some variations.

Then the Grand Duchess[33] produced some sonatas by Paesiello (in his own miserable manuscript),[34] of which I was to play the allegro and Clementi the andante and rondo.

Then we each took a subject and carried it out on two pianofortes.

By the way, I had borrowed the Countess Thun's pianoforte for myself, but only played upon it when I played alone.

The Emperor wished it to be so.

The other instrument was out of tune, and had three of its keys sticking.

"Never mind," said the Emperor.

I look upon it that the Emperor knows my musical powers and knowledge, and wishes to do me justice in the eyes of the foreigners.

I know upon very good authority that he was thoroughly satisfied with me.

{FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIENNA.

} (200) Dittersdorf confirms this view, and extracts the following from a conversation with Joseph II.

:[35]-- _Emperor_: "Have you heard Mozart?"

_Myself_: "Three times already."

_Emperor_: "How do you like him?"

_Myself_: "As every connoisseur _must_ like him."

_Emperor_: "Have you heard Clementi also?"

_Myself_: "I have heard him also."

_Emperor_: "Some people prefer him to Mozart, which makes Greybig wild.

What is your opinion?

speak out."

_Myself_: "In Clementi's playing there is merely art, but in Mozart's both art and taste."

_Emperor_: "That is just what I said myself."

After the competition, the Emperor sent Mozart fifty ducats, "which were very acceptable at the time."

Clementi was delighted with Mozart's playing:-- I had never heard so delicate and graceful an execution.

I was especially delighted with an adagio, and with several of his extemporised variations.

The Emperor gave the subject, and we varied it, alternately accompanying each other.

On the other hand, Mozart's judgment of Clementi was sharp and severe:-- Clementi is a good player, and that is all one can say.

He plays well as far as the execution of his right hand is concerned.

His forte lies in passages in thirds.

But he has not an atom of taste or feeling, in fact he is a mere mechanist.

When his sister in Salzburg had made acquaintance with Clementi's sonatas, he wrote to her (June 7, 1783):-- Now I must say a word to my sister on the subject of Clementi's sonatas.

Every one who plays them must be aware that as compositions they are valueless.

There are no striking passages, except the sixths and octaves, and I should strongly advise you not to be too much taken with these, for they are the ruin of a firm and quiet hand, and would soon deprive it of its lightness, flexibility, and flowing rapidity.

For what is the object of these passages after all?

They must be executed with the utmost rapidity (which not even Clementi himself can accomplish), and a lamentable hash is the result--nothing else in the world, Clementi is a charlatan, _like all the Italians!

_ He writes _presto_ on a sonata, or even _prestissimo or alia breve_, and plays it _allegro_ in three-four time.

I have heard him do it!

What he does {STRACK AND COURT MUSIC.

} (201) really well are passages in thirds--he worked at them day and night in London--but he can do nothing else, and he has not the least execution or taste, and far less any sentiment in his playing.

[36] In justification of this censure, Berger mentions Clementi having told him that, at the time of which Mozart writes, he devoted his attention to brilliant execution, and in particular to double runs and extemporised passages; it was only later that he adopted a more expressive style, which was perfected by the study of the best vocal music of the day, and by the gradual improvements made in the instrument known as the English pianoforte, the primitive construction of which had been too defective to allow of an expressive legato execution.

Berger remarks further that Mozart's honourable and upright character prevents any suspicion of underhand motives for the severity of his judgment.