Mozart starts keeping track

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1784, in the city of Vienna, Wolfgang Mozart finished one bit of work and started another — which he would continue until the end of his life.

After Mozart put the finishing touches to his Piano Concerto No. 14, he entered this work as the first item in a ledger, which he titled, “A List of all my works from the month of February, 1784 to the month of...” Mozart then left a blank space on his title page for the concluding month and wrote just the number “1” in the space left for the concluding year of his catalog — with the reasonable expectation that he would live long enough to see the turn of the new century. He then signed his title page: “Wolfgang Amadé Mozart by my own hand.”

On the catalog’s unruled left-hand pages Mozart wrote the date and description of his subsequent works, and occasionally, in the case of his operas and vocal pieces, the names of the singers who premiered them. The right-hand side of the page was lined with music staves, and here Mozart would write the opening measure of each piece.

The very last entry in Mozart’s ledger book is dated November 15, 1791, just one month before his death. This final entry notes the completion of a cantata written for Vienna’s New-Crowned Hope Masonic Lodge.

Music Played in Today's Program

Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791): Piano Concerto No. 14; Murray Perahia, piano and conductor; English Chamber Orchestra CBS/Sony 415

Freemason Cantata; Boston Early Music Festival; Andrew Parrott, conductor; Denon 9152

On This Day

Births

• 1834 - German composer Franz Xaver Witt, in Walderbach, Bavaria

• 1885 - Austrian composer Alban Berg, in Vienna

• 1909 - German composer Harald Genzmer, in Blumenthal, near Bremen

Deaths

• 1740 - German composer, organist and teacher Vincent Lübeck, 85, in Hamburg

• 1812 - German composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 57, in Vienna

• 1960 - Hungarian composer Ernö (Ernst von) Dohnányi, 82, in New York City

Premieres

• 1722 - ; first documented concert performance of Handel: “Water Music” at the Stationer’s Hall in London (Gregorian date: Feb. 20); Handel’s “Water Music” had been premiered on July 17/28, 1717, during a famous royal barge excursion on the river Thames;

• 1727 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 84 ("Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke") probably performed on Septuagesimae Sunday as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27);

• 1728 - Gay & Pepusch: ballad-opera, “The Beggar’s Opera,” in London (Julian date: Jan. 29);

• 1812 - Beethoven: private premieres of "The Ruins of Athens" and "King Stephen" Overture and Incidental Music, as part of a production at the opening of a new theater in Pest, Hungary (see also Feb. 10 for offical public premiere);

• 1886 - Mussorgsky (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov): opera “Khovanschchina,” posthumously, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Feb. 21);

• 1893 - Verdi: opera, "Falstaff," in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala; This was Verdi's last opera;

• 1909 - Albéniz: piano suite, "Iberia," in Paris;

• 1919 - Chadwick: symphonic poem "Angel of Death" in New York;

Others

• 1784 - Mozart finishes his Piano Concerto No. 14 in Eb, K. 449, and enters it as the first item in his own catalogue of his compositions; The concerto may have been performed by Mozart in Vienna on March 17 that year, and also outside Vienna at the home of Barbara von Ployer, one of Mozart's pupils, for whom the work was written.