On 11th of October each year, the United Nations celebrate International Day of the Girl Child, emphasising the needs and challenges that girls face. So this year I was interested in looking over my own posts on Fanny Hensel (1805–47), Felix Mendelssohn’s sister, composer and under-valued musical advisor. Unfortunately I didn’t find very much.
However it did get me onto a totally different search: for Maria Anna Mozart (1751–1829) aka Nannerl, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)’s older sister. They were the children of musician and composer Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Pertl of Salzburg.
Maria Anna was taught harpsichord by her father Leopold. So they enjoyed a great childhood, indulging their musical creativity and creating their own musical world. In fact Leopold took the two children to tour the most cultural cities across Europe, performing together as child prodigies. According to all reports, the youngsters impressed both audiences and critics.
But it was possible that the Mozart girl was really the better musician. Leopold Mozart confirmed it in writing, saying “My little girl plays the most difficult works which we have… with incredible precision and so excellently. What it all amounts to is this, that my little girl, although she is only 12 years old, is one of the most skilful players in Europe.”
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Wolfgang and Nannerl Mozart
by Eusebius Johann Alphen
portrait miniature on ivory, c1765
However it did get me onto a totally different search: for Maria Anna Mozart (1751–1829) aka Nannerl, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)’s older sister. They were the children of musician and composer Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Pertl of Salzburg.
Maria Anna was taught harpsichord by her father Leopold. So they enjoyed a great childhood, indulging their musical creativity and creating their own musical world. In fact Leopold took the two children to tour the most cultural cities across Europe, performing together as child prodigies. According to all reports, the youngsters impressed both audiences and critics.
But it was possible that the Mozart girl was really the better musician. Leopold Mozart confirmed it in writing, saying “My little girl plays the most difficult works which we have… with incredible precision and so excellently. What it all amounts to is this, that my little girl, although she is only 12 years old, is one of the most skilful players in Europe.”
by Eusebius Johann Alphen
portrait miniature on ivory, c1765
Birthplace Museum, Salzburg
As Nannerl and Wolfgang’s musical talents developed, her adoring younger brother loved her work. At a concert, when Wolfgang announced that the piece he has just played was written by his sister, Leopold was furious. He ordered Nannerl to never compose music again!
Clearly Nannerl must have composed. Note in 1762 when the two children played for aristocrats in Munich, Count Karl von Zinzendorf wrote: “The little child from Salzburg and his sister played the harpsichord. The poor little fellow plays marvellously. He is a child of spirit, lively, charming. His sister’s playing is masterly, and he applauded her.” When Wolfgang was in London working on his first symphony during 1764-5, she wrote it all down and orchestrated it for him. And when she sent one of her compositions to her brother in 1770, he responded in a delightful letter, filled with admiration for her work. So why are we not familiar with the music Nannerl composed?
Note the oil painting commissioned by Leopold Mozart at Salzburg and created by Johann Nepomuk della Croce. Wolfgang and Nannerl were shown playing four hands on a forte-piano. Leopold had his violin and quill, showing that he was both a musician and a writer. The portrait on the wall was of the late Mrs Mozart. And the figure of Apollo represented the family’s music talents.
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Leopold had already stopped Nannerl from touring across Europe and from then on, Leopold focused all his attentions on Wolfgang. Despite being noted as an outstanding forte pianist, her father thought it inappropriate for his daughter to have a professional career, regardless of her talent. Leopold explained that only noble women were allowed to play, unpaid, at their own dinners and cultural salons. Yet Nannerl had to remain at home and give piano lessons to wealthy students, to finance her brother’s Italian tour! Nannerl obeyed her father, but became very depressed.
By the time Nannerl reached marriageable age, her father vetoed her first choice of husband. So she did not marry her eventual husband, the magistrate Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg (1736-1801), until 1784.
Then there were huge demands on Nannerl’s energy. Berchtold’s first two wives had died and he had been left with five children, whom Nannerl helped raise. Plus they had three children of their own: Leopold (born 1785), Jeanette (born 1789) and Maria Babette (born 1790).
Did Nannerl stop composing? None of her music was known to have survived, so there are three possibilities. 1] She did continue composing, but the material was lost or destroyed, 2] she did continue composing, but her works were wrongly or sneakily attributed to Wolfgang, or 3] she never composed again. All that is certain is that while Wolfgang became world renowned, Nannerl did not.
New research by Australian scholar-conductor Prof Martin Jarvis identified Maria Anna’s musical handwriting, a discovery that suggested she composed works used by her younger brother to learn piano. It has long been known that the notebook was used as a pedagogical aid by Mozart’s father, to teach Wolfgang to play piano - particularly the pieces the lad used early in his (short) career.
Nannerl and Wolfgang’s relationship was beset by years of separation and the preference of their father for his son, over the needs of his daughter. Nannerl’s dreams were over, and it seemed as if her depression was deepened by the ever-growing distance from the Mozarts. The siblings wrote to each other after Leopold’s death, but Wolfgang's letters to her dealt only with the formal disposition of Leopold's estate. I am not even sure if she associated with Wolfgang’s wife Constanze Weber and their children.
When Wolfgang Mozart died in 1791, Nannerl dedicated herself to honour her brother by collecting all his compositions and erecting monuments to him. After her husband Berchtold died in 1801, Maria Anna returned to Salzburg and supported once again by giving piano lessons! How ironic! She died in 1829, and was buried in Salzburg.
Sylvia Milo’s play The Other Mozart: the forgotten genius of Mozart’s sister, opened in 2015. Milo wrote it because she had visited Mozart’s house in Vienna and saw a painting of the two siblings together. It showed a woman sitting next to Wolfgang Mozart, clearly looking like his equal.
As Nannerl and Wolfgang’s musical talents developed, her adoring younger brother loved her work. At a concert, when Wolfgang announced that the piece he has just played was written by his sister, Leopold was furious. He ordered Nannerl to never compose music again!
Clearly Nannerl must have composed. Note in 1762 when the two children played for aristocrats in Munich, Count Karl von Zinzendorf wrote: “The little child from Salzburg and his sister played the harpsichord. The poor little fellow plays marvellously. He is a child of spirit, lively, charming. His sister’s playing is masterly, and he applauded her.” When Wolfgang was in London working on his first symphony during 1764-5, she wrote it all down and orchestrated it for him. And when she sent one of her compositions to her brother in 1770, he responded in a delightful letter, filled with admiration for her work. So why are we not familiar with the music Nannerl composed?
Note the oil painting commissioned by Leopold Mozart at Salzburg and created by Johann Nepomuk della Croce. Wolfgang and Nannerl were shown playing four hands on a forte-piano. Leopold had his violin and quill, showing that he was both a musician and a writer. The portrait on the wall was of the late Mrs Mozart. And the figure of Apollo represented the family’s music talents.
Mozart family: Nannerl, Wolfgang, father Leopold and portrait of their late mother,
by Johann Nepomuk della Croce, 1780-81
Leopold had already stopped Nannerl from touring across Europe and from then on, Leopold focused all his attentions on Wolfgang. Despite being noted as an outstanding forte pianist, her father thought it inappropriate for his daughter to have a professional career, regardless of her talent. Leopold explained that only noble women were allowed to play, unpaid, at their own dinners and cultural salons. Yet Nannerl had to remain at home and give piano lessons to wealthy students, to finance her brother’s Italian tour! Nannerl obeyed her father, but became very depressed.
By the time Nannerl reached marriageable age, her father vetoed her first choice of husband. So she did not marry her eventual husband, the magistrate Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg (1736-1801), until 1784.
Then there were huge demands on Nannerl’s energy. Berchtold’s first two wives had died and he had been left with five children, whom Nannerl helped raise. Plus they had three children of their own: Leopold (born 1785), Jeanette (born 1789) and Maria Babette (born 1790).
Did Nannerl stop composing? None of her music was known to have survived, so there are three possibilities. 1] She did continue composing, but the material was lost or destroyed, 2] she did continue composing, but her works were wrongly or sneakily attributed to Wolfgang, or 3] she never composed again. All that is certain is that while Wolfgang became world renowned, Nannerl did not.
New research by Australian scholar-conductor Prof Martin Jarvis identified Maria Anna’s musical handwriting, a discovery that suggested she composed works used by her younger brother to learn piano. It has long been known that the notebook was used as a pedagogical aid by Mozart’s father, to teach Wolfgang to play piano - particularly the pieces the lad used early in his (short) career.
Nannerl and Wolfgang’s relationship was beset by years of separation and the preference of their father for his son, over the needs of his daughter. Nannerl’s dreams were over, and it seemed as if her depression was deepened by the ever-growing distance from the Mozarts. The siblings wrote to each other after Leopold’s death, but Wolfgang's letters to her dealt only with the formal disposition of Leopold's estate. I am not even sure if she associated with Wolfgang’s wife Constanze Weber and their children.
When Wolfgang Mozart died in 1791, Nannerl dedicated herself to honour her brother by collecting all his compositions and erecting monuments to him. After her husband Berchtold died in 1801, Maria Anna returned to Salzburg and supported once again by giving piano lessons! How ironic! She died in 1829, and was buried in Salzburg.
Sylvia Milo’s play The Other Mozart: the forgotten genius of Mozart’s sister, opened in 2015. Milo wrote it because she had visited Mozart’s house in Vienna and saw a painting of the two siblings together. It showed a woman sitting next to Wolfgang Mozart, clearly looking like his equal.