Mozart gets married

Synopsis

As a public service, here’s a reminder for those of you who tend to forget your wedding anniversary. If you’re not sure when it is, maybe now would be a good time to check… before it’s too late!

Chances are that Wolfgang Mozart didn’t forget his wedding anniversary, since it was over his father’s strenuous and repeated objections that he finally married Constanza Weber at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna on today’s date in 1782.

Having decided on a date, Mozart had written to his obstinate father back in Salzburg asking for his blessing. As luck would have it, the letter from Papa didn’t arrive until two days after the wedding. The elder Mozart remained unimpressed with his son’s choice, but, bowing to the inevitable, gave his grudging consent.

“I knew I could count on you,” wrote Mozart in reply. “Now my dear Constanza is looking forward to traveling to Salzburg, and I wager you’ll rejoice in my happiness once you get to know her!”

Well, that might have been a bit of exaggeration… In any case, Mozart’s unfinished Mass in c minor was written as a thanks offering to both Almighty God in heaven and as a peace offering to Papa Leopold back in Salzburg. Portions of it were performed in Salzburg during the young couple’s first visit the following year, with soprano Constanza singing the florid soprano part and Mozart himself conducting.

Music Played in Today's Program

Wolfgang Mozart (1756 - 1791) Mass in c Kathleen Battle, soprano; Vienna Philharmonic; James Levine, cond. DG 423 664

On This Day

Births

• 1875 - Italian opera composer Italo Montemezzi, in Vigasio (near Verona);

• 1901 - Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, in New Orleans; Uncertain of the exact day (or year), Armstrong and his manager came up with the idea of saying he was born on the 4th of July in the year 1900;

• 1910 - American composer William Schuman, in New York; He won the first Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943 for his Walt Whitman cantata, "A Free Song";

• 1912 - American composer David Raksin, in Philadelphia, Pa.; He wrote more than 100 film scores, including the 1944 film noire classic "Laura";

Deaths

• 1930 - German opera composer and conductor Siegfried Wagner, age 61, in Bayreuth; He was the son of the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner, and little Siegfried's birth was celebrated musically in the elder Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll";

Premieres

• 1940 - Milhaud: "Le Cortège funèbre" (Funeral March), on a CBS Radio broadcast conducted by the composer;

• 1972 - Wuorinen: Violin Concerto, for amplified violin and orchestra, at the Tanglewood Festival in Mass., by violinist Paul Zukofsky and the Boston Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting;

• 1976 - Menotti: Symphony No. 1 ("The Halcyon"), at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1998 - Danielpour: Bassoon Quintet, by bassoonist Stephen Walt and the Muir String Quartet, in Williamstown, Mass.;

• 2001 - John Tavener: "Song of the Cosmos," at a Proms Concert in London, by soprano Patricia Rozario, baritone Father Meliton, The Bach Choir and the BBC Philharmonic, Hill conducting;

Others

• 1705 - In Arnstadt, J.S. Bach and a bassoonist named Johann Heinrich Geyersbach cross paths late a night and an argument ensues; Geyerbach threatens Bach with a stick and Bach draws his sword; Both are hauled up before the city magistrate and reprimanded for their behavior (See also: August 9 and 14, 1703)

• 1782 - Mozart marries Constanze Weber at St. Stephen's in Vienna, with the grudging consent of Mozart's father, Leopold.

• 1967 - The scheduled local premiere at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires of Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera's opera "Bomarzo" is cancelled by the military government due to the opera's unacceptable level of sex and violence depicted on-stage; The work had received its world premiere performance on May 19th in Washington, DC.