Introduction
In 1783, young Irish tenor Michael Kelly embarked upon a tour of Austria. One of his early engagements was a piano recital and supper-party also attended by none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, now twenty-seven, and the two became friendly. Mozart spoke touchingly of his English friend Thomas Linley, a gifted violist who had drowned in a boating accident some five years earlier, aged just twenty-two.
I WENT one evening to a concert of the celebrated Kozeluch’s,* a great composer for the pianoforte, as well as a fine performer on that instrument. I saw there the composers Vanhall* and Baron Dittersdorf;* and, what was to me one of the greatest gratifications of my musical life, was there introduced to that prodigy of genius Mozart.
He favoured the company by performing fantasias and capriccios on the pianoforte. His feeling, the rapidity of his fingers, the great execution and strength of his left hand particularly, and the apparent inspiration of his modulations,* astounded me. After this splendid performance we sat down to supper, and I had the pleasure to be placed at table between him and his wife, Madame Constance Weber, a German lady, of whom he was passionately fond and by whom he had three children. He conversed with me a good deal about Thomas Linley, the first Mrs Sheridan’s brother,* with whom he was intimate at Florence,* and spoke of him with great affection. He said that Linley was a true genius; and he felt that, had he lived, he would have been one of the greatest ornaments of the musical world.*
* Leopold Koželuch (1747-1818) was brought up in Prague, then in Bohemia, but moved permanently to Vienna in 1778, where as composer, pianist and teacher he won widespread acclaim. In 1792 he followed Mozart in the roles of musical director and composer to Emperor Franz II, but was inevitably overshadowed by his illustrious predecessor.
* Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739-1813) was another Bohemian composer, who spent much of his career in Vienna and Italy. Kelly mentions him playing in an alarmingly talented string quartet together with Franz Joseph Haydn, Mozart and Baron von Dittersdorf in 1784.
* Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799), an Austrian musician and composer, and Wanhal’s teacher.
* In music, a modulation is a change from one key to another, such as from C to G. Modulating smoothly during an improvisation (as Mozart would seem to have been doing here) requires considerable skill but it will elicit purrs of approval from a musically-aware audience.
* Elizabeth Ann Sheridan (née Linley) (1754-1792) married Irish playwright and statesman Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1773. Thomas Linley ‘the Younger’ (1756-1778) was her brother.
* Maria Constanze Weber (1762-1842) had married Wolfgang the previous year, in 1782. At the time that she was born, her birthplace of Zell im Wiesental was in Further Austria, though by the time Kelly was writing Further Austria no longer existed and the town is indeed now in Germany.
* Their meeting was recorded by Leopold Mozart in a letter dated April 21st, 1770. The two boys, who (Leopold noted) were of the same age and stature, made music together for two days, Thomas on the violin and Wolfgang on the piano. They became fast friends, and corresponded thereafter.
* Another English musician of whom Mozart had a good opinion was his pupil Thomas Attwood. “Attwood” he told Kelly “is a young man for whom I have a sincere affection and esteem; he conducts himself with great propriety, and I feel much pleasure in telling you, that he partakes more of my style than any scholar I ever had; and I predict, that he will prove a sound musician.”
Précis
At a concert and supper-party in Vienna in 1783, Irish tenor Michael Kelly met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the two musicians fell into conversation. Mozart made a point of telling him about his friend Thomas Linley, who had died some five years earlier, and lamented the loss of such a talent at the age of just twenty-two. (57 / 60 words)
At a concert and supper-party in Vienna in 1783, Irish tenor Michael Kelly met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the two musicians fell into conversation. Mozart made a point of telling him about his friend Thomas Linley, who had died some five years earlier, and lamented the loss of such a talent at the age of just twenty-two.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, despite, must, or, otherwise, whereas, whether.
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