Maria Anna Mozartaus classic

Maria Anna Mozart (* 30 July 1751 in Salzburg; † 29 October 1829 ibid.), later Maria Anna Baroness von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, known as ‘Nannerl’ among family and friends, was a Salzburg pianist, piano teacher and composer.

Life

She was the older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by five years and the daughter of Anna Maria (née Pertl) and Leopold Mozart.
In her youth, she performed as a pianist with her brother Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in concerts throughout Europe and was already playing the most difficult sonatas and concertos on the piano at the age of eleven. Although she had the same extraordinary musical talent as her brother, she never stepped out of his shadow. This was due to her father’s encouragement, who focussed entirely on Wolfgang after Nannerl reached marriageable age and thus, in the opinion of the time, had other goals to pursue, such as running the household. As a result, only small compositional exercises have survived from her, but no compositions of her own, as in later years she concentrated on her family and her work as a piano teacher.

After her father had not approved of her marriage to the chamberlain Franz Armand d’Ippold, she entered into a marriage of convenience on 23 August 1784 with Johann Baptist Reichsfreiherr Berchtold von Sonnenburg (1736-1801), who was 15 years her senior. He was an official successor to her maternal grandfather, and so she lived with him in St. Gilgen in his official residence, the house where her mother was born. Her husband had five children from two marriages and she gave birth to three children. After her husband’s death in 1801, she returned to Salzburg with her two surviving children, Leopold and Jeanette, where she was a highly esteemed piano teacher.

At the age of 74, she went blind, whereupon her source of income dried up ‘as she could no longer give instruction in the emergency of her blindness’.

Maria Anna’s diaries, letters and memoirs were and are valuable sources for Mozart research. They were one of the reasons for the visit of the London couple Mary (Maria Sibylla) and Vincent Novello (A Mozart Pilgrimage) to her flat in Salzburg in 1829. The English couple had previously read about the child prodigy journeys she had described in the Mozart literature published at the time. The couple had also learnt that Maria Anna was no longer doing so well, so they brought her a gift of money donated by English music lovers. She died in the same year and was buried in St Peter’s Cemetery in Salzburg at her own request.

Based on letters written by Wolfgang to his sister, scholars are certain that Marianne composed musical pieces herself. In one of the passages he wrote to her, he states, “My dear sister! I am in awe that you can compose so well, in a word, the song you wrote is beautiful.” Besides these texts, there is no evidence of her writing her own music because none of her manuscripts have survived.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Anna_Mozart