The Cambridge Companion to Mozart (review)

Page after page, this admirable volume attests to the healthy state of Mozart research. Indeed, the field is so large and rich that its gathering of familiar authorities does not even begin to exhaust the pool. Presumably we will be hearing from some of the others (and more from the some of the current contributors) in another expected collaborative compilation: the volume on Mozart in the Oxford Composer Companions series. But the promise of this publication should in no way detract from the present offering, which is most welcome. It splendidly fulfils its stated objectives of providing 'students, scholars and music lovers alike' with 'new, up-to-date scholarship' and aiming to 'bridge the gap between scholarly and popular images of the composer by enhancing a reader's appreciation of Mozart and his remarkable output regardless of musical aptitude or prior knowledge of Mozart's music' (p. 2).

To the editor Simon P. Keefe we owe the volume's sound four-part design. In conformity with the format of the Cambridge Companions, an introductory chronology synopsizes Mozart's life and career. Part I ('Mozart in Context') explores Mozart's career in relation to the musical institutions of Salzburg and Vienna, the two cities in which he principally worked, demonstrates the impact on his music of the singers for whom he wrote, and catalogues the Enlightenment writers that he and his father might have read. Part II ('The Works') surveys the main genres in which he composed. Part III ('Reception') chronicles changing perceptions of Mozart and his music throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Finally, Part IV ('Performance') discusses Mozart as performer and offers today's performers practical, historically grounded advice on a range of performance practice issues.

A very high standard is set from the start with Cliff Eisen's 'Mozart in Salzburg'. Frequently drawing upon unfamiliar sources, he surveys the city's rich musical life, notes the impact of local traditions on Mozart's Salzburg compositions, and contrasts the priorities of the two prince-archbishops who employed the Mozarts: Schrattenbach and Colloredo. The Mozarts may reasonably have been distressed that the latter was relatively uninterested in music at court and imposed limitations on church music, that he was stingy, and favoured Italian musicians. But Eisen argues that Colloredo's behaviour should be understood interms of his larger ambition to modernize Salzburg, shore up the court's finances, reform education, and attract artists, writers, and scientists to the court by promoting toleration and freedom of the press. Since the city offered musical opportunities outside the court (and it was imprudent, in any circumstance, to frustrate an employer's expectations), Eisen concludes: 'It was not Colloredo who was primarily responsible for their misery, but the Mozarts themselves' (p. 9).

Dorothea Link picks up the story with 'Mozart in Vienna' and similarly challenges the popular image of Mozart as a 'neglected Romantic artist'. Indeed, she argues that he was 'emerging from four financially difficult years' at the time of his death and had achieved considerable success in Vienna: a court position, noble patronage, the promise that he would succeed the kapellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, and acclaim as a freelance performer, composer, and teacher. These accomplishments are identified within detailed and lively accounts of the various means of employment available to the city's musicians. Link notes, for example, that the opera company at court commissioned four operas from Mozart, a number second only to Salieri's seven during the same eleven-year period. Also, his appointment in 1787 as composer in the court's Kammer Musik provided him with a generous salary yet required virtually no specific duties, since the Emperor was soon occupied with fighting a war. On the other hand, the war also adversely affected Mozart's income as it caused the nobility to curtail their customary support of musical activities. This was among the factors that contributed to the composer's financial hardships towards the end of his life, though...