Addenda zu Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens, Neue Folge.

Rice, John A.

Edited by Cliff Eisen. (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Neue Ausgabe samtlicher Werke. Serie X, Supplement; Werkgruppe 31, Nachtrage; Band 2.) Kassel: Barenreiter, 1997. [xvii, 206 p. ISBN 3-7618-1292-2.]

Otto Erich Deutsch pioneered the documentary biography with his publications on Franz Schubert (Die Dokumente seines Lebens [Munich: Muller, 1914]; English translation, Schubert: A Documentary Biography, trans. Eric Blom [London: Dent, 1946; reprint, New York: Da Capo, 1977]), George Frideric Handel (Handel: A Documentary Biography [London: Black, 1955; reprint, New York: Da Capo, 1974]), and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Deutsch, a Viennese who spent some of his most productive years in England, was a cosmopolitan scholar interested in communicating with a wide variety of literate music lovers and confident that documents concerning great composers would be of interest to amateurs and specialists alike. He actively participated in the production of the English-language versions of all three documentary biographies. Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1961) was published as part of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe four years before its English translation (Mozart: A Documentary Biography, trans. Eric Blom, Peter Branscombe, and Jeremy Noble [Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1965; reprint, London: Simon & Schuster, 1990]). The delay allowed Deutsch to include in English thirty-eight documents not in the original edition. The Neue Mozart Ausgabe published these, and a few others, in their original language in Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens: Addenda und Corrigenda (ed. Joseph Heinz Eibl [Kassel: Barenreiter, 1978]).

In the spirit of Deutsch's multilingual enterprise and in anticipation of the bicentennial of Mozart's death in 1991, Cliff Eisen set out in the 1980s to produce a supplement to Deutsch's documentary biography of Mozart that would appear more or less simultaneously in two versions: one to be published by the Neue Mozart Ausgabe, with all the documents in their original language, and one to be published in English translation.

Eisen had no better luck than Deutsch in coordinating the publication of his two editions. The English version came out as originally scheduled (New Mozart Documents: A Supplement to O. E. Deutsch's Documentary Biography [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991]; reviewed by the present writer in Opera Quarterly 9 [1994]: 122-24). But the Neue Mozart Ausgabe postponed its edition, which was not published until 1997 and, partly as a result of this delay, differs from New Mozart Documents as much as the English version of Deutsch's documentary biography differs from the version published by the Neue Mozart Ausgabe. (In the discussion that follows, I refer to New Mozart Documents as "Eisen 1991" and to the collection of documents in their original language, the volume under review, as "Eisen 1997").

Both books are divided into two major sections: the first concerns Mozart's life, the second the reception of his works, including their publication and performance outside of Mozart's immediate orbit. This organization (not used by Deutsch) and the large number of new documents related to Rezeptionsgeschichte reflect the growing interest of scholars in this kind of musicological research. It also reflects Eisen's painstaking work of sifting through enormous numbers of late-eighteenth-century newspapers in English, French, German, and Italian, which had much more to say about the performance and publication of Mozart's works than about the man himself.

Given the intensive research on Mozart's life by first-rate scholars for more than a century, it is perhaps not surprising that Eisen's biographical section does not tell us much new about the composer's career, personality, or relations with others. One of the few documents that really expands our knowledge of the man is a letter from Thomas Attwood, Mozart's former pupil, to an unknown correspondent (Eisen 1997, p. 90). It is interesting not only for what it tells us about Mozart's habits and musical tastes but also because it confirms what scholars have earlier had to surmise: that Mozart performed the scena "Ch'io mi scordi di te?" (K. 505) with Nancy Storace as part of her benefit concert. Another document that tells us something new about Mozart the man - and raises many more questions than it answers - is the record of a lawsuit filed against him in 1791 by Prince Karl Lichnowsky (Eisen 1997, p. 73), one of several documents discovered by Walther Brauneis during his work in Viennese archives in the early 1990s.

But more important for our understanding of Mozart's place in eighteenth-century musical life is the wealth of new reception documents. I was surprised to learn of the frequency with which Mozart's symphonies were performed in Paris during the late 1770s and 1780s. London newspapers reveal that in the mid-1780s, English music lovers enjoyed performances of Mozart's symphonies, piano concertos, and sonatas, and that German musicians in London - Friedrich Hartmann Graf (who knew Mozart personally), Wilhelm Cramer, and especially the pianist Johann Baptist Cramer - championed Mozart's music.

A comparison of Eisen 1991 and Eisen 1997 reveals that an editorial committee appointed by the Neue Mozart Ausgabe (consisting of Dietrich Berke, Faye Ferguson, and Wolfgang Rehm) made some important editorial interventions in preparation for the publication of the 1997 edition. The role of Eisen himself in this regard is unclear, but it seems likely that he had much more control over the editing of Eisen 1991. Documents there are arranged in an order that follows the chronology of the events to which they refer, whereas Eisen 1997 returns to Deutsch's policy of arranging documents according to when they were written or published. Several documents in the biographical part of Eisen 1991 appear in the Rezeptionsdokumente section of Eisen 1997. Eisen 1991 includes entries from eighteenth-century music catalogs that mention Mozart's music; Eisen 1997 excludes these. Most important, Eisen 1997 includes numerous documents discovered or published since the completion of the typescript for Eisen 1991.

The commentary in Eisen 1997 refers to some secondary literature published too recently for inclusion in Eisen 1991. But such references are limited almost entirely to literature in German, which is surprising, given the productivity of Mozart scholarship by American musicologists during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Very few references are made to secondary literature published after 1993, a fact suggesting that editorial work was substantially complete by 1994. I found only one egregious editorial slip: a charming description of the first production of Die Zauberflote by an English visitor to Vienna in 1792 (John Owen, Travels into Different Parts of Europe in the Years 1791 and 1792 [London, 1796]), quoted in Eisen 1991 (pp. 76-77), was inadvertently omitted. Readers will want to consult Eisen 1991 not only for translations but for a substantial number of other documents omitted from Eisen 1997. They will need to consult Eisen 1997 as well to find some of the Mozart documents discovered since the late 1980s. Those who use Eisen 1997 as a guide to the secondary literature should keep in mind that its coverage of English-language scholarship since 1989 is extremely weak.

In his introductions to both volumes, Eisen emphasizes that he has produced a supplement to, not a completion of, Deutsch: "a 'complete' documentary biography is probably something to which scholarship can only aspire" (Eisen 1991, p. xv). There will always be new documents to discover. Particularly in the relatively young field of reception history, Eisen has left plenty of work for others to do. Several years ago, investigating the visit to London of the blind flutist Friedrich Ludwig Dillon, I collected photocopies of musical items in several London newspapers for winter and spring 1786. Since this happens to have been a period in which Mozart's instrumental music was being advertised and performed with some frequency in London, my old photocopies allowed me to sample the accuracy and comprehensiveness of Eisen's documentary record. I found the transcriptions in Eisen 1997 to be scrupulously accurate, but the comprehensiveness of its coverage brought to mind Eisen's prefatory caveat. In surveying musical life in London during 1786, Eisen perused the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser and the Daily Universal Register, but although he mentions the Morning Herald as well, he may not have read it as thoroughly as the other two papers. Its documentation of performances of Mozart's music and advertisements of published works represent a useful supplement to Eisen's supplement of Deutsch.

To the many London concerts documented in Eisen 1997 that included performances of symphonies by Mozart, we can now add Johann Peter Salomon's concert at Hanover Square on 2 March 1786:

ASSEMBLY ROOMS, HANOVER SQUARE. MR. SALOMON most respectfully acquaints the Nobility and Gentry, that his First Concert will be on Thursday next, the 2d of March. ACT I. Overture, Mozard; song, Miss Chanu; concerto German flute, Mr. Graeff . . . (Morning Herald, 27 February 1786)

The firm of Longman & Broderip advertised several works by Mozart well before announcing its publication of the sonatas K. 284, 333, and 454 on 17 October 1786 (Eisen 1997, p. 151):

MUSIC. A Complete Register of New Publications, imported from different parts of Europe, by LONGMAN and BRODERIP, No. 26, Cheapside; and No. 13, Hay-Market . . . . Mozatt's Sonatas Op. 1, 7s.6p. ditto Op. 2, 6s. ditto Concertos, No. 1, and 2, each 4s . . . (Morning Herald, 4 March 1786)

From Eisen 1997 (pp. 153-54) we know that Johann Baptist Cramer performed "an harpsichord lesson" by Mozart at a concert of the Anacreontic Society in December 1787; from an advertisement in the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, we learn that he played a Mozart sonata more than a year earlier and that he was accompanied by his father, the violinist Wilhelm Cramer:

NEW MUSIC, This Day is Published, By Preston, at his Music Warehouse, No. 92, Strand . . . . A favourite Sonata for the Harpsichord, with an accompaniment for a Violin Obligato, as performed by Messrs. Cramers, at the Anacreontic Society, composed by W. A. Mozart, price 5s . . . (Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, 29 March 1786)

We know from Eisen 1997 (pp. 149-50) that Cramer played Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 414 at Hanover Square (13 February 1786) and at the Anacreontic Society; from the Morning Herald we learn that a Miss Parke also played a piano concerto by Mozart at a concert organized for the benefit of the oboist Mr. Parke on 6 April 1786:

Mr. PARKE's CONCERT. Ancient Music Rooms. . . . Miss Parke's finished performance of a CONCERTO pianoforte, composed by Mozart, demands particular notice: it was recommended by the most elegant expression, and brilliant fingering . . . (Morning Herald, 7 April 1786)

I cite these documents (published here, to the best of my knowledge, for the first time) not to demonstrate the incompleteness of a work that Eisen himself has suggested can never be complete, but rather to suggest that interesting discoveries are still to be made as we join Eisen in exploring Mozart's vast and fascinating world. His meticulously edited supplement to Deutsch's documentary biography will serve as an essential tool for every scholar involved in that exploration.

JOHN A. RICE Houston, Texas