In his music review articles during the 1870s, Tchaikovsky shared with readers his admiration for many works by Mozart, but the one which he invariably dwelt on most enthusiastically was Don Giovanni, "the greatest of all operas". Moreover, as Herman Laroche would later recall, Mozart was for Tchaikovsky "the ideal musician and artist in all aspects" [4] — in particular, he admired Mozart for his spontaneous creativity, which did not, however, exclude a professional attitude to work and allowed Mozart to write a lot of his music to commission, as Tchaikovsky also did. As he put it in an interview in 1892 with a reporter who expressed his surprise that Tchaikovsky could bring himself always to work six hours a day, no matter what: "Young people nowadays wait for inspiration to come to them, but I consider that to be utterly wrong. I mean, would Mozart, who died so young, have managed to write so many wondrous works if he had constantly been waiting for inspiration?" ( TH 325). Similarly, the child-like goodness and lack of envy or spite in Mozart's character were qualities which Tchaikovsky himself aspired to, and it is not surprising that he was so interested in reading about Mozart's life, especially in Otto Jahn's famous biography, which, according to Laroche, never left Tchaikovsky's table.
## Anonymous

### Not logged in

### Search

# Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Tchaikovsky Research

### Namespaces

### More

- More

### Page actions



Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Austrian composer (b. 27 January 1756 [N.S.] in Salzburg; d. 5 December 1791 [N.S.] in Vienna), born Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

## Contents

## Tchaikovsky and Mozart

For Tchaikovsky, Mozart's music was like an incarnation of divine beauty in a human form that inspired love, rather than awe (as was the case with Beethoven), and in a remarkable diary entry of 1886 (quoted below) he described Mozart as a "musical Christ". This adoration of Mozart had its origins in Tchaikovsky's childhood, for when he was not yet five he was moved to tears when he heard the orchestrion that his father had brought from Saint Petersburg play excerpts from Don Giovanni, especially Zerlina's aria "Vedrai, carino". Little Pyotr was so fascinated by the latter melody, even coming from a 'lifeless' mechanical instrument, that his mother showed him how to play it on the piano. Listening to Mozart's music awakened in him a "passionate worship for that genius" which lasted all his life, as his brother Modest observed in his biography of the composer [1].

However, as Tchaikovsky himself admitted in his brief Autobiography (1889), there was a period in his early adolescence when his enthusiasm for Italian bel canto opera, combined with his lack of exposure to the classical canon of German music, had made him suspicious even of Mozart. It was then that at the age of 16 or 17 he happened to attend a performance of Don Giovanni almost by chance. As he recalled in this Autobiography: "It was a pure revelation to me. It is impossible for me to describe the enthusiasm, the delight and intoxication which I was seized by. During several weeks I did nothing but play this opera through from the piano score; even as I fell asleep I could not part with this divine music, which pursued me long into my happy dreams [...] Amongst the great masters, Mozart is the one to whom I feel most attracted; it has been so ever since that day and it will always be like that" [2]. This "revelation" of the music of Don Giovanni on the threshold of adulthood was a crucial factor in his decision a few years later to leave behind him the security of a career in the civil service and to aspire to become a composer. As he later confessed to Nadezhda von Meck in a letter from 1878 (quoted in more detail below): "The music of Don Giovanni was the first music which produced a tremendous impression on me. It awoke a holy enthusiasm in me which would later bear fruit. Through this music I entered that world of artistic beauty inhabited only by the greatest geniuses [...] It is to Mozart that I am obliged for the fact that I have dedicated my life to music. He gave the first impulse to my musical powers and made me love music more than anything else in the world" [3].

In his music review articles during the 1870s, Tchaikovsky shared with readers his admiration for many works by Mozart, but the one which he invariably dwelt on most enthusiastically was Don Giovanni, "the greatest of all operas". Moreover, as Herman Laroche would later recall, Mozart was for Tchaikovsky "the ideal musician and artist in all aspects" [4] — in particular, he admired Mozart for his spontaneous creativity, which did not, however, exclude a professional attitude to work and allowed Mozart to write a lot of his music to commission, as Tchaikovsky also did. As he put it in an interview in 1892 with a reporter who expressed his surprise that Tchaikovsky could bring himself always to work six hours a day, no matter what: "Young people nowadays wait for inspiration to come to them, but I consider that to be utterly wrong. I mean, would Mozart, who died so young, have managed to write so many wondrous works if he had constantly been waiting for inspiration?" ( TH 325). Similarly, the child-like goodness and lack of envy or spite in Mozart's character were qualities which Tchaikovsky himself aspired to, and it is not surprising that he was so interested in reading about Mozart's life, especially in Otto Jahn's famous biography, which, according to Laroche, never left Tchaikovsky's table.

In 1875, Tchaikovsky translated the libretto of Le Nozze di Figaro into Russian for a student performance at the Moscow Conservatory, and this translation was eventually published by Jurgenson in 1884, together with the vocal-piano reduction of the opera (see TH 188). Tchaikovsky liked Figaro very much and went to hear it at least three times during his stay in Paris in 1883. In a letter to Sergey Taneyev, who was also an admirer of Mozart, he recorded his impressions of one of these performances: "My God! how divinely beautiful this music is in its unassuming simplicity!" [5]

The 100th anniversary of the premiere of Don Giovanni was due to be celebrated across Europe in 1887, and already a few years earlier, in the summer of 1884, Tchaikovsky was considering writing an article, in collaboration with Laroche, to pay tribute to Mozart. This article was never written, but Tchaikovsky's determination to contribute something to mark the centenary of Don Giovanni was spurred on by a memorable meeting with Pauline Viardot in Paris on 12 June 1886 [N.S.], when she showed him the original score of the opera in Mozart's own hand! From letters to Taneyev it seems that Tchaikovsky had been intending to contribute three 'gifts' for this notable centenary the following year: a Mozart suite, a translation of the libretto of Don Giovanni, and an essay. In the end only the first of these projects came to fruition: the Suite No. 4 ("Mozartiana") [6].

During his first visit to Prague in February 1888 as part of his concert tour of Western Europe, Tchaikovsky went on an excursion to the Villa Bertramka on the outskirts of the city and saw the room in which Mozart had stayed many times [7]. Later that year, when Tchaikovsky had settled into his new house in Frolovskoye, his publisher Jurgenson asked him whether he would be willing to undertake a translation into Russian of Aleksandr Ulybyshev's three-volume Nouvelle biographie de Mozart (1843). Tchaikovsky made a start on this, but, in view of the enormity of the enterprise and his own limited time, he suggested to Jurgenson that the commission be transferred to his brother Modest, and that he would simply go through the text to ensure that all the musical terms were rendered correctly [8]. He also offered to write a preface to the first volume. Modest duly worked on this translation over the following years, but in the end it was Laroche rather than Tchaikovsky who supplied the preface [9]. As a Christmas present at the end of 1888, Jurgenson secretly arranged for the Breitkopf & Härtel edition of Mozart's Complete Works to be sent to the composer in Frolovskoye. Tchaikovsky was overjoyed and wrote to his publisher of his "enthusiastic gratitude for the best, most valuable and most wonderful present I could ever have hoped to receive. Aleksey carried out everything as you had instructed him, that is, he set up the Christmas tree as a surprise, and around it lay my god, my idol, represented in all his divine works. I was as glad as a child. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!" [10].

When Vladimir Nápravník was the composer's guest at Maydanovo in February 1892, Tchaikovsky would often ask him in the evenings to sit at the piano and play on his own (instead of playing piano duets): "Pyotr Ilyich 'worshipped' Mozart and once, while listening to the Andante from his piano fantasia No. 4, he said that out of this work one could make a splendid vocal quartet" [11]. Tchaikovsky eventually realised this idea the following year, adapting that section of the Fantasie et sonate in C minor, KV 475, into a quartet for singers which he entitled Night, and for which he wrote the verses himself. Tchaikovsky attended the first performance of his quartet at the Moscow Conservatory on 9/21 October 1893. Also present on this occasion was his friend Nikolay Kashkin, who would write in his obituary of Tchaikovsky barely a month later: "There at the Conservatory he also said to me that the beauty of that melody by Mozart was a mystery for him, and that he himself could not explain the irresistible charm of the simple melody of that quartet. Of course, it did not occur to any of those who were present at the Conservatory then that this would turn out to be a valedictory meeting, and that little over two weeks later the bright hope of Russian music would be no more, and that we would never again see this hale and hearty man who, on taking leave from us, had said that he hoped to see us all soon again because he definitely wanted to attend the symphonic concert [in Moscow] on 23 October [O.S.]" [12]. Another good friend of the composer's, Laroche, would later observe how significant it was that at the last concert he conducted before his death (the concert took place in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October 1893), Tchaikovsky acquainted the audience not just with his Symphony No. 6 but also with the dances from Mozart's Idomeneo, which he had recently discovered for himself [13]. This at first glance so strange decision to pair such a stirring work as the Pathétique with these stylized, baroque dances may perhaps be read in the light of what Tchaikovsky had once said in a letter to Nadezhda von Meck on 11/23 January 1883 about how Mozart always had a "beneficial influence" on him.

## Arrangements and Editions by Tchaikovsky

- Ave Verum Corpus, motet (KV 618) — arranged for orchestra as the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4, Op. 61 ("Mozartiana") (1887).
- Eine kleine Gigue for piano (KV 574) — arranged for orchestra as the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4, Op. 61 ("Mozartiana") (1887).
- Fantasie in C minor (KV 475) — music used in Tchaikovsky's quartet Night (1893).
- _Idomeneo "Idomeneo (Mozart)"), ballet music from the opera (KV 367) — alterations to the _Chaconne and Gavotte for a concert performance (1889).
- _Le Nozze di Figaro "The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)")_, opera buffa in 4 acts, KV 492 (1786) — Tchaikovsky translated and edited a new Russian edition of the score (1876).
- Menuett for piano (KV 355) — arranged for orchestra as the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4, Op. 61 ("Mozartiana") (1887).
- Variationen für Klavier über "Unser dummel Pöbel meint" aus Gluck's "Die Pilger von Mekka" for piano (KV 455) — arranged for orchestra as the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4, Op. 61 ("Mozartiana") (1887).

## General reflections on Mozart

Bold references indicate particularly detailed or interesting references.

### In Tchaikovsky's Music Review Articles

- TH 262 — Tchaikovsky praises Mozart's mastery in "musical and dramatic characterization", especially in his "immortally beautiful" opera Don Giovanni.
- TH 266 — refers to Mozart's facility in composing, but emphasizes that this did not stop him from working hard to polish the six string quartets that he dedicated to Haydn.
- TH 276 — emphasizes again how Mozart was unsurpassed as an opera composer.
- TH 284 — compares Mozart as the archetype of a "spontaneously creating artist" with composers like Wagner and Dargomyzhsky who had been "corroded" by reflection and various theories of dramatic veracity.
- TH 305 — compares the "simplicity" and "inexhaustible richness" of Mozart's music to the "bombastic" style of Liszt.

### In Tchaikovsky's Letters

### In Tchaikovsky's Diaries

- Diary entry for 20 September/2 October 1886, in which Tchaikovsky first considers his attitude to Beethoven:

## Views on Specific Works by Mozart

Bold references indicate particularly detailed or interesting references.

### In Tchaikovsky's Music Review Articles

- Die Zauberflöte, opera, KV 620 (1791) — see TH 305
- Don Giovanni, opera, KV 527 (1787) — see TH 262, TH 276, TH 284; Letter 790 to Nadezhda von Meck, 16/28 March 1878 (quoted above several times).
- Le Nozze di Figaro, opera, KV 492 (1786) — see Letter 2253 to Sergey Taneyev, 1/13–3/15 April 1883, quoted above.
- Requiem, KV 626 (1791) — see TH 279
- String Quintet in G minor, KV 516 (1788) — letter 790 to Nadezhda von Meck, 16/28 March 1878:

- Symphony No. 41 in C major (" Jupiter"), KV 551 (1788) — ' TH 300

## Bibliography

## External Links

## Notes and References



## Navigation

### Navigation

### Quick Links

## Wiki tools

### Wiki tools

## Page tools

### Page tools

### User page tools

### More

## Categories

### Categories