Wolfgang, Jr.

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1791 Mozart’s sixth child, a son christened Franz Xaver, was born in Vienna. Mozart nicknamed the new arrival “Wowi” and everyone said the baby was the spitting image of papa, even down to the distinctive Mozart ears. The baby’s mother, Constanze, later claimed her husband predicted the child would become a musician when he noticed that it cried in tune with the music he was playing on the piano.

Of Mozart’s six children, only two survived: Franz Xaver and his older brother Carl Thomas, who had no interest in music. Franz Xaver, however, did become a composer and performing musician, just as his father predicted. Wolfgang Mozart died just four months after Franz Xaver was born, so Constanze enlisted the aid of family friends as the child’s first music teachers, and then, as little Franz Xaver showed real talent, enlisted the aid of the leading Viennese composers of her day, including Haydn, Salieri and Hummel.

Franz Xaver made his concert debut in 1805, and early on, Constanze decided to bill her son professionally as “Wolfgang Mozart II.” As a young man Franz Xaver—or Wolfgang II—toured widely, but eventually settled in Lemberg, where he remained for almost 30 years before returning to his native Vienna.

Although his own compositions were well received, and his piano playing praised as very elegant, contemporaries realized Franz Xaver’s talent would never match that of his famous father. When he died in Karlsbad in 1844, his father’s “Requiem Mass” was sung at his funeral.

Music Played in Today's Program

Franz Xaver Mozart (1791 – 1844) Piano Concerto in C, Op. 14 Klaus Hellwig, piano; Cologne Radio Symphony; Roland Bader, cond. Koch-Schwann 311004

On This Day

Births

• 1782 - Irish composer and pianist John Field, in Dublin

• 1791 - Austrian composer and pianist Franz Xaver Mozart in Vienna; He was the sixth child and youngest surviving son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (who died in December of 1791 when Franz Xaver was less than a year old); Franz Xaver studied with Hummel and Salieri, among others

• 1856 - British dramatist and music critic George Bernard Shaw, in Dublin

• 1866 - Italian composer opera Francesco Cilea, in Palmi, Calabria

• 1874 - Russian-born American double-bass player, conductor and new music patron, Serge Koussevitzky, in Vishny-Volochok (Julian date: July 14) ; He was engaged as the permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony, a post he held for 25 years

• 1876 - American composer, conductor and pianist Ernest Schelling, in Belvidere, N.J.

• 1949 - South African-born Irish composer Kevin Volans, in Pietermaritsburg

Premieres

• 1882 - Wagner: opera "Parsifal," in Bayreuth at the Festpielhaus, Herrmann Levi conducting

• 1940 - Henry Cowell: "Pastoral and Fiddler's Delight," by the All-American Youth Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1985 - Elliott Carter: "Penthode" at London's Royal Albert Hall, with the Ensemble InterContemporain and the Paris Orchestral Ensemble conducted by Pierre Boulez