Salzburgerland, Tyrol, Vorarlberg

The establishment in 682 of the monastery of St. Peter marks the beginning of an ecclesiastic and artistic centre that maintained its importance for over eleven centuries. The church was built in the 12^th century and must has been visited by the legendary ‘Mönch von Salzburg’ (14^th c.), one of the last Minnesänger and the composer of the first canon in German, the famous Martinsradel.

In October 1783 Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart appeared here in the first performance of the Mass KV 427.

In 1805 the organ was put through the Simplifikationssystem of Abbé Vogler, by which pipes should produce more than one tone and their number be reduced; the result didn’t answer to the expectations. Only the fine front from 1616 survived.

There are a monument for Michael Haydn and a plaque for Nannerl Mozart, both buried at the adjacent cemetery.

At the picturesque cemetery of St. Peter’s Paul Hofheimer, Michael Haydn and Nannerl Mozart were buried; the grave of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, who worked in Salzburg from 1672 until his death in 1704, is not marked.

The composer and musical theorist Peter Singer (1801-82), a monk of this monastery, constructed an pansymphonicum on which every instrument could be imitated; it is still kept here. Singer plaque outside (Franziskanergasse).Michael Haydn is commemorated in the Haydnzimmer.

Michael Haydn’s house, a property of the monastery; he paid the rent with compositions.

From a tower of the fortress sounds an ‘organ’ with (originally) 135pipes that loudly produces a F-major triad; it is called Salzburger Stier and was made in 1502. In 1560 a mechanical organ was added, for which Leopold Mozart wrote compositions. Daily performances (7 and 11 a.m., 6 p.m.).

The Mozart children were baptized here. Wolfgang worked as organist in 1779-80; his successor was Michael Haydn, his predecessors included Anton Cajetan Adlgasser and Joh. Ernst Eberlin. Of the organ (Egedacher, 1703/06) the front and 23 stops are original; the present disposition covers 120 stops with electric action. Music mass on Sundays at 10 a.m.

Outside a plaque for Georg Muffat, a composer of Scottish descent, who was born in 1653 in Savoy, studied in France and Italy, worked here as organist (1678-90) and died in Passau, Bavaria in 1704.

Leopold and Wolfgang (until 1781) Mozart worked in the magnificent baroque residence of the prince-archbishop; their music sounded in the Audienzsaal, Wolfgang’s operas La finta semplice (1769) and Il Sogno di Scipione (1772) were performed for the first time in the Carabinierisaal. Today other rooms are used for concerts (Rittersaal, Konferenzzimmer). The Salzburg Museum, including a collection of musical instruments, is housed here since 2005. The carillon by Michael de Haze from Antwerp (1702) can be heard daily (7 and 11 a.m., 6 p.m.).

With the erection of the Mozart monument by Ludwig von Schwanthaler the Salzburg ‘Mozart cult’ got on its way; until then Mozart was only seen as a Viennese master. At the unveiling in September 1842, during a three-day festival, Mozart’s sons Carl and Franz Xaver were present; Constanze had died some months before in the house at nr. 8 where she lived with her sister Sophie.

The bronze Papagenobrunnen from 1960 by Hilde Hager portrays the bird catcher from Mozart’s Zauberflöte.

The composer and organist Paul Hofheimer, who worked in Salzburg since 1519, died here in 1537; the plaque was attached in 1886.

Behind the large front of the organ by Egedacher (1696) is an instrument with only one manual and 9 stops. The keyboard has been richly decorated with woodcarving.

Franz Schubert stayed in 1825 with mayor Pauernfeind at Judengasse 9, the plaque however is at the opposite side, the inn Zum Mohren at nr. 8. He found the town ‘gloomy’ ─ it was in a state of decline indeed ─ and visited only Michael Haydn’s grave but didn’t realise that Mozart was born here! (cf. 1.9).

The name Judengasse is linked to the former synagogue at nr. 11. The nr. 13 was the first Salzburg house (1672-84) of Heinrich Biber.

Mozart’s birthplace is a real hotspot for music lovers. The Mozarts lived in this house, a property of the befriended Lorenz Hagenauer, from 1747 until 1773. Since 1880 it is a museum with exhibits from Mozart’s estate, including his favorite Walter piano and other instruments; through Constanze and her sons they ended up at the Mozarteum, which runs the museum.

Birthplace of the composer and globetrotter Sigismond von Neukomm, ° 1778. A pupil of Haydn and a propagandist of Haydn’s and Mozart’s music in many countries, he had also a decisive role in the festivities around the unveiling of the Mozart monument in 1842. He died in Paris in 1858.

Plaque on the site of a house of the composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz (von) Biber (1644-1704).

The composer and violinist Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber lived from 1690 until his death in 1704 in this former malt house.

House of Sigmund Haffner von Imbachhausen, mayor of Salzburg. To Mozart he commissioned two great compositions: the Haffner-Serenade for a marriage in his family in 1776and a second Serenade on occasion of his raising to the peerage in 1782, redrafted into the Haffner-Symphonie.

City house of Georg Sigmund Robinig von Rottenfeld. He was a friend of Leopold Mozart, their children were playmates. The Divertimento KV 340 from 1780 was dedicated to him. His beautiful summer house outside Salzburg is extant too (> 1.46).

House of Mozart’s sister Nannerl (Maria Anna von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg-Mozart) from 1801 until her death in 1829.

House of Mozart’s widow Constanze, with het children and second husband Nissen, 1820-26. The building now belongs to Café Tomaselli, the successor of the luxury café of Anton Staiger ─ since 1764 at Alter Markt 9─ where the Mozarts and Michael Haydn were frequent guests.

The Salzburger Festspiele were established in 1917-20 - its founding fathers include Max Reinhardt, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss - and has grown into one of the most excellent music and theatre festivals in the world. Since the 1990s attempts are made to mitigate its reputation of exclusiveness and glamour. To the traditional summer festival an Easter festival has been added in 1967. The festivals take place in three theatre/concert halls, parts of a former riding school: the first one (1924-26) was built in the Winterreitschule, the second and largest (1960) was hewn out of the Mönchsberg behind the façade of the Hofmarstall, the Felsenreitschule is in use for performances since 1926.

The composer Jan Brandts-Buys, was buried here. The remains of Mozart’s sisters-in-law Sophie Haibel and Aloisia Lange were interred in the family grave of Domkapellmeister Alois Taux.

Depot, research department, library and archive of the Salzburg Museum. The majority of the collection of instruments is kept here for study purposes. > www.salzburgmuseum.at

The German composer Carl Orff drafted his Schulwerk in the 1930s for purpose of an elementary music and movement education; the music is performed vocally and on specially designed, easily playable percussion instruments. At the Orff-Institut, a branch of the Mozarteum University, students are made familiar with all the ins and outs of Orff’s project.(> www.moz.ac.atandwww.orff-schulwerk-forum.org )

The Hellbrunn park is one of the main tourist attractions of Salzburg. Recommendable for music lovers are the Volkskundemuseum, that pays attention to folk music, and the nearby Steintheater from 1615, the oldest open air theatre of Central Europe and once a platform of early opera performances.

Salzburg town, right bank

The respectable institute of the Mozarteum reaches back to 1841, but got its current name Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum in 1880. Its objective includes the research, editing, performance and promotion of Mozart’s oeuvre and the collection of all data about Mozart, objects from his estate and other ‘Mozartiana’. The head quarters house an important library and archive and two concert halls. The institute manages the two Mozart museums and organizes an own festival, the Mozartwoche in January.

(> www.mozarteum.at )

The Marionettentheater is a puppet theatre, established by Anton Aichler in 1913, with opera and ballet performances. The spectacles are accompanied by first rank CD recordings and are very attractive, not only for children. In the same building the Kammerspiele found a platform.

This theatre was built in 1893 and is the successor of the Court theatre from 1775 at Hannibalplatz (today: Makartplatz), that later became the first Landestheater; Schikaneder and Hugo Wolf worked there. Opposed to the Festspielhaus, the present Landestheater offers payable performances the year round.

The Salzburg University of Music and Performing Arts, the former educational department of the Mozarteum, occupies the modern building at nr. 1. (> www.moz.ac.at )

In the Bastionsgarten, a part of Schloßpark Mirabell,there is an open air theatre from the beginning of the 18^th century, in which operas were performed, including Dafne by Caldara (1719) and Weber’s Freischütz (1825). It is a ‘garden theatre’, in which hedges serve as side wings.

The cabin in which Mozart wrote at his last opera, the Zauberflötenhäuschen, stood originally in the garden of the Freyhaustheater in Vienna but was moved to Salzburg in 1874; after some moves within Salzburg, it landed finally in that part of the Bastionsgarten which now belongs to the Mozarteum.

The Mozart family moved in 1773 from the Hagenauer house into the roomier Tanzmeisterhaus. A bombing in 1944 left it a ruin. After the war the left side was reconstructed and became a museum, while the right side was demolished and replaced by a prosaic office building ─ which, after numerous protests and a great sponsoring action, could be razed in the 1990s (see photo) to make space for the rebuilding of the lost wing. Today it houses a comprehensive collection of audio and video recordings of Mozart’s works.

Birthplace of the conductor Herbert (von) Karajan (1918-1989) and monument.

House of Hugo Wolf during the winter of 1881-82, while briefly working at the former Landestheater as assistant of Kapellmeister Carl Muck.

In this cemetery many persons from the Mozart circle were buried: father Leopold (separated from his wife and children), grandma Pertl, Constanze with her second husband Nissen and her aunt Josepha Weber (the mother of Carl Maria!), a daughter of Nannerl and the befriended family Robinig.

Until 1947 the Zauberflötenhäuschen stood here; after its move to the Bastionsgarten (1.34) a Mozart bust marks the spot.

Birthplace of Joseph Mohr, °1792, the poet of the ultimate Christmas song: Stille Nacht (Silent Night).

House of Jan Brandts-Buys from 1928 until his death in 1933. The Dutch composer, member of a family of renowned musicians, had lived in Austria since 1893 and enjoyed a high esteem in his new home.

Anna Mildenburg was a singer and a lover of Mahler during his Hamburg period. She was also one of the founders of the Salzburger Festspiele, as was her husband, the writer Hermann Bahr. From 1912 until 1922 they lived in this Schloß Arenberg, which later became a Max-Rheinhardt-Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte, devoted to the Festspiele. This institute doesn’t exist anymore.

The musical comedy Sound of Music is based on the story of the Trapp family, living in this villa.

A favorite outing of the Mozarts: the summer villa of the befriended Robinig family.

The conservative but versatile composer Hans Pfitzner died here in 1949. The Nazis had launched him as substitute for Mahler, thus causing him great harm during the twilight of his life.

Mozart is said to have composed his Krönungsmesse in 1779 for the Plainer Krönungsfest, at which the crowning by the pope of the miraculous statue of Mary (1752) was commemorated. As for Maria Plain, a performance in 1774 of the Missa brevis KV 192 is more likely. The Krönungsmesse was performed during the imperial coronations of 1791 in Frankfurt and Prague.

Salzburgerland

Among the Christmas songs that do not refer to fir trees or jingle bells, Stille Nacht (Silent Night) is doubtless the best known worldwide. The authors Mohr and Gruber turn up all over Salzburgerland (cf. 1.40, 12, 18, 19), the spreading of their song however started in Tirol (> 34).

The text by vicar Joseph Mohr and the music by schoolteacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber sounded for the first time on Christmas night 1818 in the church of Oberndorf, performed by soloists and choir, with guitar accompaniment owing to a breakdown of the organ. (The shaky organ proved an advantage: through organ maker Mauracher the song became known outside Oberndorf, at first in Tirol, and from there it conquered the world.)

After the church ─ the song’s ‘birthplace’ ─ was demolished, a memorial chapel was built on the spot and a monument erected near the new church.

Franz Xaver Gruber, the composer of Stille Nacht, lived and worked in this school; his apartment on the first floor is now a Gruber museum. On the square a Gruberbrunnen was erected in 1987.

Michael Haydn had close connections with this abbey and donated several autographs. Anton Diabelli was a chorister here. The abbey has the disposal of a rich folklore collection.

Birthplace of the composer and music publisher Anton Diabelli, °1781. On his invitation fifty composers, including Schubert, F.X. Mozart, Czerny and the young Liszt, each made a variation on a waltz of him; as for Beethoven, this invitation resulted in the monumental 33 Diabelli variations op. 120.

Mozart’s mother Anna Maria Pertl was born in 1720 in the regional law-court of St. Gilgen. From 1784 until 1801 her daughter Nannerl, whose husband was a jurist and a successor of her grandfather, lived in the same house. During the summer the house is accessible to the public.

The collection of instruments from the entire world was established in 1962 and is housed today in a former school. There are ca. 1800 instruments, many of them unusual and exotic. (> www.hoerart.at)

In the house where Franz Xaver Gruber lived from 1833 until his death in 1863, a museum is devoted to the authors of Silent Night. The exhibits include the autograph and the guitar, used at its first performance in 1818. Before the entrance is Gruber’s grave.

The reverend Joseph Mohr, author of the text of Silent Night, lived in this presbytery from 1837 until his death in 1848. He was buried at the cemetery near the church (beautiful ironwork cross).

The composer and organist Paul Hofheimer was born in Radstadt in 1459. A plaque at the town hall and a Hofheimerbrunnen from 1987 on the square commemorate him (1). The precise birthplace can be the Lederhäusl outside the wall (not extant) or the house with Hofheimer graffito (2).

During his journey with Vogl in the summer of 1825, Franz Schubert stayed some weeks in the Straubinger Hütte in Gastein and composed the Piano Sonata D 850 and the songs D 151-4. Besides he worked at a Gasteiner Symphonie, that at first was considered lost but today is seen as identical to the famous ‘Great’ Symphony in C. In the meantime friend Vogl was taking a cure in the spa. In addition to the Schubert plaque (1), on the square there are two other plaques: for Johann Strauß, who stayed in Gastein in 1854 and ’55, and for the poet Grillparzer, who stayed here five times.

Mozart never visited Gastein, but his mother did in August 1750 ─ before his birth ─ and his wife Constanze in June 1839 ─ after his death. Hence Mozart got his plaque (2).

At the end of World War II, Anton Webern and his wife moved from Mödling to their daughter in Mittersill (1). On September 15^th 1945 the son-in-law was unmasked as black marketer; in the confusion the composer, standing in the doorway, was shot and killed by an American soldier.

Webern was buried at the local cemetery (2). The graceful ironwork cross was unfortunately replaced in 1972 by a ponderous grave stone.

His wife returned to Mödling and found her house undamaged but plundered. She died in 1949.

TYROL

A real curiosity is the Heldenorgel in the Bürgerturm of Kufstein castle. It was built in 1931 and the sound from its 1813 pipes on 26 stops is said to cover over 6 km. in the valley. The player sits in a cabin 80 meter below the pipes and his fingers must always move in considerable advance of his ears.

Property of the virtuoso pianist Sophie Menter (1846-1918). She was the favourite pupil of Liszt and married with the cellist David Popper. Between 1883 and ’86 she was in St Petersburg and acquainted with Tchaikovsky, who visited her castle in 1892. He orchestrated Ungarische Zigeunerweisen which she had composed. (During World War II, French prisoners of war were kept in captivity here. Their liberation in May 1945 resulted in a bizarre affair. > www.historynet.com/the-battle-for-castle-itter) 

(During World War II, French prisoners of war were kept in captivity here. Their liberation in May 1945 resulted in a bizarre affair. > www.historynet.com/the-battle-for-castle-itter) 

Mozart’s oldest extant letter, dated 14.XII.1769, was written in Wörgl and addressed to his mother; father and son were on their way to Italy and Wolfgang was full of enthusiasm. The place of their stay is not known, Alte Post, Baßlerguat (Bahnhofstraße 15) and Heiligenhaus (Friedhofstraße 21) can be taken in account; the owner of the latter two houses was a distant relative of a Salzburg family with contacts to the Mozarts.

Hugo Wolf wrote his only opera Der Corregidor in 1895 as a guest of the family of Franz Freiherr von Lipperheide. At first he stayed in castle Neumatzen but soon moved to the quieter Jagerhäußl, some 500 m. further on; there he lived on his own, catered from the castle. He wrote the opera between May and July but the instrumentation took him up another five months.

The cattle dealer Joseph Rainer from Fügen established in 1820 a group of singers and instrumentalists for the promotion of pure Tyrolean folk music and soon others from the Zillertal followed his example. They also gave performances abroad and in 1839 appeared in the USA. The Rainer Singers performed Stille Nacht in 1822 in the castle of Fügen before emperor Franz and the Russian tsar and soon made the world acquainted with this ‘ultimate Christmas song’. In the Heimatmuseum in der Widumspfiste an exhibition is devoted to the Zillertaler folklore and to Silent Night. In the same museum the original keyboard can be seen ofthe organ of Bad Hall that Mozart played (> 38).

The first Meistersinger school of Austria was established here in 1532, but it was granted only a short life. Of the organ in the interesting parish church, built in 1737 by Gaudenz Köck, the front in separate parts is magnificent; the inner instrument was altered (now 4 manuals, 44 stops). Frequent organ recitals.

From 1658 until his death, he famous violin maker Joseph Stainer lived and worked in an extant house that is accessible for the public. Stainer died in 1683 and was buried in the local church of St Michael; bronze and marble plaque outside (north wall).

In this beautiful monastery Mozart played the organ on October 26^th 1772. The organ was demolished but the original keyboard survived; now in Fügen (> 34). During the summer concerts are given.

The musical past of the Tyrolean capital had its highlight in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. First rank musicians who worked here include the organists Conrad Paumann and Paul Hofheimer and the Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac; the latter honored the town with his famous song Insprugk, ich muß dich lassen. Their tracks have been erased, the palace and court chapel of their time were demolished.

The leading musician during the baroque era was Antonio Cesti, who worked here intermittently from 1652 until 1666. His operas sounded in the Landesfürstliche Komödienhaus (1655); also Emanuel Schikaneder has worked there. The building was demolished in 1844 and replaced by the present Tiroler Landestheater. At the opposite side a new Kongreßhaus was built in 1969 on the basis of a destroyed old building, that was used as a ballroom and theatre in the first half of the 17^th century.

The Neue Hofkirche (1560), where emperor Maximilian and his Burgundian ancestors were buried, has the disposal of three interesting organs: the one by Jörg Ebert (1561) with 2 manuals, pull-down pedal and 15 stops, is a precious monument of renaissance organ making, likewise the anonymous Italian instrument in the Silberne Kapelle (1600-’14) with 8 stops, of which 6 are from cypress wood. A fine Positiv from ca. 1660 completes the organ treasure.

The adjoining former Franciscan monastery houses today the museum of folk art. Possibly Antonio Cesti has lived here in the 1650s before he moved to his own house, which is not extant.

On December 18^th 1769 the young Mozart appeared successfully at an Akademie, organized by count Leopold Künigl. The concert can have taken place either in the Palais Trapp-Wolkenstein (nr. 38) or in the Palais Fugger-Taxis (nr. 45), both fine baroque buildings.

The Mozarts stayed in December 1769 in the still extant inn Weißes Kreuz.

During a later visit, in 1773, Mozart stayed in the still extant hotel Goldener Adler. On a marble plaque his name can be read among that of other renowned guests, incl. Goethe.

The Tiroler Landesmuseum Fernandeum displays a fine collection of musical instruments, incl. violins by Stainer (> www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at).

The monument of Walther von der Vogelweide (1877) honors the leading representative of the Minnesang tradition,which flourished in Tyrol during the late Middle Ages.

The music academy is an external branch of the Salzburg University of Music and Performing Arts (> www.moz.ac.at). Its department of ancient music is renowned.

The Tiroler Volksliedarchiv, est. in 1905, possesses a large collection of folk songs, in writing and sound.

The bell foundry of Grassmayr was established in 1599. To visitors of its interesting museum also a glance at the foundry-at-work is offered.

The small Chororgel of the monastery church was built in 1757 within the choir stalls and has 10 stops on the manual and 1 stop on the pedal. The maker of this rococo gem is not known.

In 1995 the manuscript of the Toy Symphony was discovered in the library of this monastery. The popular piece was until then ascribed to one of the Haydn brothers or to Leopold Mozart, but the real composer proved to be a certain Edmund Angerer.

The discovery in 2012 of a manuscript with piano pieces from Salzburg, called Sterzing 1780, was a sensation. It contained an unknown Allegro molto by the ‘giovane Wolfgango Mozart’, probably written around 1767. A real gain, not merely a curiosity. Presently the album is in this museum.

The smallest Bundesland (federated province) VORARLBERG cannot boast of a great musical history, but of a lively musical life, especially during the summer months. The yearly Schubertiade deserves special mention. It was established in 1976 by the singer Hermann Prey in Hohenems, moved to Feldkirch in the 1990s - with lectures and picnics (Landpartien) in the surrounding area - and takes place today mainly in Hohenems and Schwarzenberg; top interpreters are contracted.

As for the just established Bregenzer Festspielein in 1946, an appropriate theatre was lacking; Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne was performed on a raft in the lake, while the public looked on from the shore. The Seebühne was born. Today the stage is an artificial island of concrete and steel and the number of seats has been substantially increased. In case of bad weather, the performance is moved to the Festspielhaus (1980). The festival is yearly held in July and August and offers oper(ett)as and concerts.

at8SOUTHEAST AUSTRIA - CARINTHIA, STYRIA, BURGENLAND

 

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