All language subtitles for Lucy Worsley Mozarts London Odyssey

London, 1765.

A scientist had been granted access to an extraordinary specimen.

It was said to possess magical abilities

never before seen in the natural world.

But this specimen did not belong to the animal kingdom.

It was in fact a little boy

by the name of Wolfgang

Amadeus

Mozart.

And he was now to be the subject of a rigorous examination.

With Wolfgang at the keyboard, the scientist went about his work.

He scrutinised Wolfgang's technique,

he dissected his compositions,

placing the boy on musical trial.

But what had Mozart done to deserve such an interrogation?

It was all because of this.

MUSIC: Symphony No.1 by Mozart

While in London, and at just eight years of age,

Mozart had composed this...

his first ever symphony.

It was such an extraordinary achievement by such a young boy

that few people believed that he'd really done it.

That's just beautiful.

I can't quite believe that there hasn't been some sort of trick

or scam here. I just can't believe that he was only eight years old.

But it was true, and this is the fascinating story of the

pivotal year that little Mozart and his family spent in London.

Mozart found it more difficult than he expected when he came to London.

What began with the thrill of a royal performance ended...

in an unexpected way.

But it was here in London

that Mozart found musical inspiration.

I think there is a sense that the musical style that he was

imbibing in London was one that would hold him

in good stead for the whole of his career.

And it was here, 250 years ago,

that Mozart made a musical breakthrough,

blossoming from a child prodigy performer

into a powerful new composer.

His adventures in London changed Mozart's life

and would change the history of music for ever.

I'm lucky enough to work at Hampton Court Palace...

PIANO PLAYS

..and when our visitors have left the building and the gates have

been locked, I can often be found playing at the Chapel Royal's piano.

For me, tickling the ivories with a little bit of Mozart

is one of life's pleasures.

But I have to confess that when I was much younger,

I found Mozart's music a real challenge.

When I was learning the piano, all I really wanted to play was big,

gushy, romantic music with lots of pedal, like this.

But, because my hands were quite small,

my teacher always made me play Mozart.

I thought that it was prissy, uptight, little-girl music,

and because I had to spend so much time with Mozart

when I wanted to be somewhere else,

he was my arch nemesis.

These hands just weren't nimble enough.

Let's face it, they still aren't, really!

Though I still haven't mastered Mozart, I've come to appreciate

his amazing gifts and the great music that he's given to the world.

And what's astounding is the fact that he was writing completed,

perfect pieces of music at the age of just eight years old.

And when he grew up, he fulfilled all expectations - he's given us

some of the greatest symphonies and concertos

and just plain tunes that the world's ever known.

He really was a genius.

But it was in London that Mozart gave us

the first signs that he would become a great composer.

When other eight-year-old boys

were at home playing with their tin soldiers,

little Mozart was whisked away to a foreign land where

he'd compose his very first symphony.

It's an extraordinary tale,

and it begins in Mozart's hometown of Salzburg.

MUSIC: The Magic Flute Overture by Mozart

18th-century Salzburg was a small but proud principality,

nestling in the foothills of the Austrian Alps.

As you make your way along the narrow and winding streets,

you'll come across a grocer's shop and up above it was

the rented apartment that was the home of the family Mozart.

Long before Wolfgang was even a twinkle in his father's eye,

music was made here both day and night.

His mother, Anna Maria, could both read and play.

Their daughter Nannerl was an exceptional keyboard performer.

And at the helm of family life was Leopold - court musician,

composer and, above all, master music teacher.

Now, even if Leopold hadn't been Wolfgang's dad,

we'd still know his name today,

because of this venture.

This is the first edition of a book he published called

The Violin School.

Here's Leopold himself, proudly hogging the frontispiece.

It's a series of tutorials for learning to play the violin.

And as you work through the exercises,

Leopold gets tougher and tougher with you.

But people liked this, the book was a bestseller.

It made him quite a lot of money.

And it's lasted.

If you've studied the violin,

to this day, it's likely that at one point or another,

you will have played one of Leopold's difficult exercises.

With a success like this,

the Mozart family's life seems to be on a comfortable path.

But in 1756, the very same year that this book was published,

their lives would be irrevocably changed.

It was at eight o'clock on the evening of 27th January that

Anna Maria gave birth to a very special child.

He was their seventh,

but five of his predecessors had died in infancy.

As devout Catholics,

the Mozarts had the boy baptised that very same night.

And the name they chose was Wolfgang Mozart.

As he grew up surrounded by music,

he soon began to display extraordinary talents.

Horst Rieschenbock is a Mozart obsessive and he knows how

little Wolfgang gave the first indication of his musical genius.

Horst, can you tell me what's special about this piece of music?

It is out of the notebook Leopold collected for Nannerl,

and Wolfgang heard the piece and wanted to play it, too.

It was surprising for Leopold that this young boy, only four years old,

was able to learn it - learn to play it in half an hour at night.

- In half an hour?
- Yes.

- It only took him half an hour to learn this piece?
- Exactly.

Actually to play that. He didn't memorise it, he just played it.

It was surprising for Leopold.

So Leopold wrote into the notebook,

"Wolfgang learnt this piece on January 24th 1761,

"three days before his fifth year, between 9 and 9.30 in the evening."

- Impressive.
- Yes, it's unbelievable for us.

What is half an hour for such a piece?

What do you think it was like for Leopold?

For Leopold was surprising -

I think he couldn't understand what Wolfgang actually was.

Shall we see how a 40-year-old can do it?

- You're 40 years old?
- I am!

As Leopold watched his son breeze through evermore complex pieces,

he began to plan an epic journey across Europe.

Believing his son to be a genuine gift from God,

he wanted to exhibit Wolfgang's talents to the world.

And as was common for any 18th-century musician,

he hoped to secure a lucrative position for Wolfgang at one

of Europe's wealthy royal courts.

But travel in the 18th century was no mean feat.

The Mozart family would have packed up a huge

amount of luggage for their journey into the unknown.

As well as their clothes and the letters of introduction,

a telescope would have been useful

for spying out the way on strange roads.

I think I can see a highwayman over there(!)

They could expect to be paid in all sorts of different currencies,

and that's where the scales comes in.

If a dodgy-looking Frenchman gives you a Louis d'or, a golden Louis,

then you use this particular weight to check that it's a good one

and that he hasn't short-changed you.

They could have cured practically any illness,

I imagine, with this enormous range of drugs in this dinky little case.

Look at all of them.

And they also needed home comforts.

As an English person, I completely approve of this item - it's a

beautiful case for carrying their sugar and their tea.

In July 1763,

Wolfgang, Nannerl, their mother

and their father Leopold left Salzburg.

Together, they travelled north through the dense forests of Bavaria

and out into the lowlands of Europe.

Munich, Mannheim, Brussels and Paris -

everywhere they went, Leopold had garnered letters of introduction

and palace doors were opened to them.

Kings, queens and aristocrats were amazed at the performances

that Wolfgang put on.

But no matter where they went, Leopold would hear

talk of another place - a musician's paradise with a lucrative

concert scene that was different to anywhere else in Europe.

He heard tell of a city where the inhabitants loved foreign musicians

and showered them with money.

This was a city of unrivalled musical opportunities.

Leopold felt he couldn't possibly miss this, so he changed course -

he took his children across the sea for the first time.

Their destination was London.

In the 18th century,

London was the place to be for any travelling musician.

The city had grown rich on Britain's burgeoning empire,

but it was money that made London's music scene unique.

Elsewhere in Europe, concert life was dominated by the courts,

but here, a wealthy merchant class had emerged.

They had become willing and generous

patrons of music at the forefront of a new fashion for public concerts.

'Conductor Ian Page understands how London was irresistible

'to the Mozart family.'

London had the money. It was the wealthiest,

the biggest, the most successful city in Europe,

- and they just bought people in.
- The star players?

Yeah, so they were the leading composers -

Johann Christian Bach and Abel, two leading German composers,

were living and working full time in London,

and the leading figures of the day were all congregating in London.

You know, they were looking for the best performers,

the best composers and the best entertainment.

MUSIC: Aria by Thomas Arne

In London, little Wolfgang was soon plunged into a new

musical wonderland, which was to have a profound

influence on his entire musical life.

This aria, by the English composer Thomas Arne,

was one of Mozart's favourites.

Listen to the pizzicato by the cellos...

..and the sustained strings accompanying the voice.

These are motifs that Mozart would play with again and again

in HIS later operas.

Barely had the music begun to feed into his prodigious little mind

when Wolfgang was whisked away to give his first big performance.

It wasn't to be in London's fabled West End,

but in yet another royal palace.

Just five days after arriving, Wolfgang and Nannerl

were summoned to play before King George III.

But such a big concert, so early into their stay, was no accident.

Since leaving Salzburg, Leopold had obsessively

begged for letters of introduction.

And one of them, which he'd obtained in Paris,

landed on the desk of the Groom of the Stool.

It's a testament to Leopold's networking abilities

that his letter of introduction was able to penetrate

so deep into the heart of the palace.

The Groom of the Stool was one of the top court officers.

He was intimate with the King.

In centuries gone past,

he'd literally attended the King on the close stool.

Yes, that's his toilet.

By now, the groom's duties were more ceremonial,

but he was still influential.

If you wanted an audience with George III,

this was the man who had the ear of the King.

THEY PLAY THE HARPSICHORD

And the Mozarts now had the ear of the King.

Together, Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl put on a virtuoso display.

With four hands perfectly synchronised on the harpsichord,

they wowed their royal audience.

So Hannah, this duet, we think this is something pretty

much like Wolfgang and Nannerl would have played for the King?

Yes. Certainly while they were in London, they definitely

played with four hands on the same keyboard and, apparently,

they were the first people to actually do that in London.

And how did the evening unfold?

- By all accounts, they had a pretty good time.
- Yes, by all accounts.

They were there for four hours, from six o'clock

until ten o'clock in the evening,

and the King gave Mozart keyboard works for Mozart to play

prima vista - "at first sight". He accompanied Queen Charlotte

while she sang an aria, and a flautist for a solo.

Certainly they went down really well.

Leopold said they were treated with the most extraordinary kindness

and they were so friendly that they were able to forget that they

were the King and Queen of England at all

and then, a few days later,

they'd been out for a walk in St James's Park

and the royal carriage had gone past and the King had

popped his head out of the window to wave to them and greet them, so...

It seems that they got on very well.

Wolfgang must have made his father a very proud parent.

It was just a shame for Nannerl that girls,

however skilful they were, made less of an impression.

And now Leopold dreamt of the rich reward that was

sure to come his way from the royal purse.

But he would be a little disappointed.

George III had the reputation of being rather a frugal king.

He was parsimonious.

The press had great fun with this. They were always mocking him

for it, but to the Mozart family, it wasn't a joke.

They were really counting on George's generosity.

And so, when they opened up the purse that he gave them,

it was a bit disappointing.

It only contained 24 guineas.

Compared to what they'd earned on the Continent,

24 guineas was a paltry sum.

And certainly not enough for life

in an expensive city like London.

From their apartment in Cecil Court in the West End, Leopold

wrote letters home to his banker,

Lorenz Hagenauer, in Salzburg.

What's interesting is that they betray

Leopold's dawning realisation

that Georgian London could be a very unforgiving place.

These letters are fantastic

because they give a complete picture of London as it was in 1764

and, as a foreigner, Leopold takes nothing for granted.

What really strikes you on reading them

is how full of complaints they are about the cost of living.

Leopold complains about the tax on wine, the tax on coffee,

how much money he has to spend to get his laundry done,

he has to buy hair powder...

Even a plain bowl of soup

cost eightpence.

London was a rip-off.

Well, some things don't change.

As his father kept a close eye on the coffers,

Wolfgang practised hard, hoping for his next performance.

It gave him a good excuse not to set foot outside.

For the Mozarts had also discovered

that London wasn't a very friendly place, either.

The streets of Georgian London were full of violence.

Leopold's letters record his amazement at seeing drunken men

fighting in the gutter.

William Byron, the so-called Wicked Lord,

killed a man in a duel in a pub.

And the family also saw 4,000 silk weavers rioting -

they were angry about the importing of French textiles.

Fresh from Paris themselves,

the Mozarts also experienced this hostility.

If you were to walk down the street in French fashion,

as Leopold wrote, all the street urchins would run after you,

shouting, "Bugger French, French bugger!"

But leaving the home sometimes was unavoidable, as Wolfgang

was dragged around to meet wealthy patrons...

..and all the while being laughed at in the clothes his parents

had bought for him in Paris.

Amber Butchart is a fashion historian

and she knows exactly what little Wolfgang was going through.

Amber, what were these French clothes that got Mozart

heckled on the streets of London?

Well, British and French fashions were very,

very different at this time.

The French fashions were incredibly ornate,

and the embroidery on men's clothing

could rival or even exceed

the kind of embroidery that we're seeing on womenswear.

- You can see spangles...
- Sequins. Highly effeminate, if I may say so.

Highly effeminate, and the British public really viewed these

fashions as foppish,

as anti-intellectual,

as just not manly enough.

That was one of the big problems that they had with it.

We know from Leopold's letters that he laid out quite

a lot of money getting new English clothes for his family.

What would they have been like?

Well, English fashion at this time looked very different.

As we can see over here, this is a very small version

that we've got that might have fit a young Wolfgang.

And it was much less decorative.

And crucially, it's made of wool.

Now, it's a lot more practical than silk.

You can go riding in this, walking, hunting.

It really reflects the idea of the country estates.

So, whereas in France you have this very formal court culture built up

around Versailles, in Britain, it's much more about spending time at

your country estate and the outdoor pursuits that go along with that.

You're not telling me that's a pared-down hat, though, are you?

No, it is quite excessive!

Leopold does actually write from London that no woman leaves

the house without wearing a hat, and he talks about the sort

of real variation in shapes and styles and fabrics.

Millinery is a really important feature of fashion at this time,

so where the dress styles themselves may be a bit more pared down...

- You could go to town on the hat!
- Exactly! Exactly, yeah!

Wolfgang was now happy to walk the streets in his smart woollen coat.

But he wasn't quite safe from embarrassment, cringing

at his mother's spirited attempts to embrace the ways of the English.

Mrs Anna Maria Mozart tried to fit in with her English gown

and her crazy English hat.

But there was just one little detail of Englishness which she

could never get a taste for.

Try as she might,

she could not enjoy the local drink - beer.

I don't really like beer either.

It was now high time that little Wolfgang was launched onto

the lucrative London stage.

Public concerts were held almost every night in theatres and salons.

Leopold hoped that the Mozart children

would be able to make a fortune.

But it soon became clear that the concerts were

run by a network of powerful impresarios.

They were the kingmakers of the music scene.

And in 1764, they'd already anointed their superstar of the season...

APPLAUSE

His angelic voice had made all of London swoon and he'd helped to

revive Italian opera, making it the most fashionable music of the day.

He was the great castrato singer Giovanni Manzoli.

Wolfgang and his father went along to see him

star in the opera Adriano In Siria,

and opera singer Randall Scotting knows exactly what

they would have witnessed.

Apparently, he had quite a beautiful, sweet voice.

It was defined as clear and brilliant

but the thing that really struck the audience was how

loud his voice was - it was often described as voluminous.

So we have Manzoli, the smooth Italian superstar...

He hoovers up all the money

and the success of the season, really, doesn't he?

That's true, and I think Leopold Mozart found it a bit more difficult

than he expected when he came to London.

He writes a letter to his friend

and says that Manzoli is the only person who is actually making

any money this season, and his fee for the season was £1,500,

which at the time was an exorbitant sum.

To put it into context,

a maid in London would have made £6 per year.

While Leopold saw Manzoli as a dangerous rival,

Wolfgang was entranced,

and he pestered his father to see the great singer

whenever the chance arose.

And Manzoli too became intrigued by the Prodigy.

They became great friends, apparently,

the admiration was very mutual.

I think Mozart saw Manzoli on stage

and was quite taken with his presentation, but Manzoli,

likewise, was quite interested in the young prodigy Mozart

and he offered him voice lessons and became a friend of the family

while the Mozarts were in London.

That's a friendship that continued to thrive.

To become friends with a superstar like Manzoli had a profound

influence on the young Mozart.

As he became tutored in the intricacies of writing

for the voice, Wolfgang would later cast

Manzoli as the lead in one of his earliest operas - Ascanio In Alba.

APPLAUSE

But as the applause rang around his ears, Leopold Mozart was sure

that his son could rival Manzoli for success on the London stage.

But to do it, he knew that he'd have to return to advertising

and marketing.

Mm, Mozart chocolate cream.

If you go to Salzburg today, you can

pick up all sorts of Mozart memorabilia, like this pencil.

Or...Nannerl liqueur. Mm!

And I think this is my favourite - a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart snow globe.

Now, you might think that this merchandising is a modern idea -

it isn't.

When Leopold arrived in the very commercial world of Georgian London,

he had to use every trick he could to create hype for his family.

He, too, produced merchandising.

You could buy a souvenir print showing them as a harmonious group.

Here's Leopold on his violin,

Wolfgang on the harpsichord,

and Nannerl the singer.

Leopold also placed adverts in the papers.

Here's one announcing a concert at the Great Room in Spring Garden

near St James's Park, and Leopold does write good copy.

The concert's to be for the benefit of Miss Mozart of 11

and Master Mozart of seven years of age, prodigies of nature.

So Leopold is using every trick in the book to try to create

a buzz about these performances.

But I do detect old Leopold in getting a bit carried away here,

because Master Mozart was no longer, technically speaking,

a child of seven years of age.

By this point, he was a slightly less impressive child of eight.

True to his billing, little Wolfgang didn't disappoint.

His first public concert was a resounding success,

pulling in 100 guineas.

It seemed that his conquest of London was well underway.

But the city would not be conquered that easily.

It was during a rush to get ready for a performance that

Wolfgang saw his father fall suddenly, desperately ill.

A simple chill had developed into an alarming case of flu...

..and Leopold became convinced that he was at death's door.

For an eight-year-old boy and his family far from home,

this must have been a terrifying turn of events.

Leopold's illness was a disaster for the family.

Without him, they couldn't organise concerts to earn money, and

they couldn't take Wolfgang about to continue his musical education.

But much worse than that was the risk that Leopold might

actually die, leaving them stranded in London.

Despite the morbid atmosphere that had settled onto the house,

little Wolfgang kept himself busy.

And he would turn this disaster

into the triumphal moment of his early musical life.

With Leopold marooned in bed, Wolfgang had a tiny

taste of freedom from his father's controlling presence.

He couldn't perform in concerts, he couldn't even practise,

because the noise would disturb the sick man.

So, instead, Wolfgang started writing music down,

and I don't mean short little pieces, like he'd done before -

he now wrote his first full-length symphony.

The symphony was the most daunting challenge for any composer,

let alone an eight-year-old boy!

Blending together multiple instruments and sustaining the

magic over three movements, it was a supreme test of skill and invention.

But with the music he'd heard in London still marching

through his mind, Wolfgang picked up his pen and paper.

Conductor Ian Page understands little Mozart's amazing achievement.

Ian, here's a facsimile of what Wolfgang actually wrote.

How does it strike you?

Does it look like the work of an eight-year-old to you?

I find it really beautiful.

I mean, no, you wouldn't know that that was by an eight-year-old,

would you? I mean, the writing... is really interesting.

There are bits of crossings out,

it's playful as an eight-year-old would be.

He slipped into Italian,

he calls himself "Signor Wolfgang a London".

You know, he knows the odd word of Italian!

He knows that it's the language of music.

And then as soon as he starts writing out the notes,

not a blemish, which is really amazing.

When you look at the melody and the way he's harmonised it,

do you see the influence of Georgian London there?

On one level, yes, and on another level, not at all.

It's sort of unique to Mozart.

I think that's what's so interesting about this piece

and the whole of his time in London.

On one hand, these opening three bars...

..they could absolutely be by JC Bach

or any of the composers writing in London.

It's a sort of call to attention.

And Mozart, later in life, would often write similar openings.

Or...

And of course we need to remember that, in those days,

they didn't have electricity, so it needed a device to get

- the audience to shut up and stop talking.
- Oh, right, OK!

So pieces would open with a fanfare,

partly as a mechanism to get attention,

because there wasn't the thing of house lights suddenly going down.

When we get onto this next bit, it seems to me like these

- are really clever, sophisticated chords, is that right?
- Completely.

Basically, we've got a series of chords, there's not really any tune.

And just to give a sense of momentum,

he takes the baseline away from the downbeat.

So, suddenly, there's more momentum and direction.

But then, for me, the thing that makes it totally unique to Mozart

is quite big discords.

- So...
- Yeah. That's...weird.

So...

You just have a sense of someone

seeing how far he can push things

before his dad says, "No, you're not allowed to do that."

And maybe this would have been less good

if his dad had been downstairs, too.

Maybe there's something quite nice about the fact that Dad was...

- Out of the way.
- ..off-limits.
- Yeah.

What's it like for a whole orchestra to be playing this?

- Is it technically easy or difficult?
- Bits are...

Particularly in the last movement, the third movement,

there are bits of second violin writing that are really difficult,

so there are things like...

And it's sort of fussy for them.

So, in later life, he wouldn't have done that.

He would have found a more...

I mean, I think there's something... From a performer point of view,

if music's really difficult, you want it to sound difficult.

Something like this is more difficult to play than it sounds.

Whereas the virtuoso school of writing something that

sounds fiendishly difficult is much more satisfying for the performer,

because people say, "Ooh! That was clever."

- Just before we finish, could we play that really lovely bit again?
- Yeah.

PLAYS WRONG NOTE

- Oh!
- Ew!
- That was my fault.

That's TOO discordant!

THEY PLAY TOGETHER

It's beautiful.

Now recovered, Leopold set to work,

sure that his eight-year-old composer would finally

conquer London.

Working into the night, Leopold struck deals.

He sweet-talked musicians and he spread the hype, pulling together

the pieces of an irresistible event that nobody could afford to miss.

Finally, a date was set.

It was to be on 21st February 1765,

at the Haymarket Theatre,

that Wolfgang's first symphony would be unveiled to the world.

MUSIC: Symphony No.1 by Mozart

The call to attention sounded out, and the music filled the hall.

The layout of the orchestra, with its strings and woodwind

and brass sections, was typical of London.

Already, we can hear Mozart's trademark sounds coming through.

Using period instruments, these performers bring

the vibrancy of Wolfgang's original composition to life.

Hannah Templeton knows what the audience would have witnessed.

Did Wolfgang conduct his own first symphony?

Well, there wasn't a conductor who would stand in the middle,

as we normally have today.

There was a concertmaster,

who was the first violinist,

and he would have led the orchestra in

and maybe directed specific entries.

If there were maybe some untidy moments,

then he might have stepped in to give a little bit more direction.

As for what Mozart did, he may have been playing the harpsichord.

If he did have a role in directing his own symphony,

then he might have been up front with the concertmaster.

I love the idea that there could have been this eight-year-old

going, "And now you, and now YOU!"

THEY LAUGH

As the audience were led into the slow second movement,

they would have marvelled at the prodigy's deft arrangement

and the beautiful chords played by the horns.

But strange as it may seem, it may have been quite difficult to

appreciate Mozart's music at the time, because by today's standards,

the audience got up to some rather shocking things.

They would chat, even when the music was playing, not just in between

movements, so there might have been a constant murmur of chatting.

If they saw somebody else that they wanted to go and talk to,

then they might have got up and walked over to them.

So you would have had people walking around, they would

have had refreshments.

It's astonishing to think then, that during Mozart's

first symphony ever, people might have just been talking.

It's really hard for us to imagine now, isn't it?

If you so much as rustle a programme,

then you get a frown from the person next to you.

At just over ten minutes,

the symphony form was much shorter than we'd expect today.

But as the third and final movement came to a close,

Leopold was in for a shock.

All around him were empty seats.

Hmm.

Despite the big build-up to this night, it's possible that

Leopold was left a little disappointed by his concert.

He'd done everything he could to make it a success.

This had been his big chance

to introduce a new composer to the world.

And he wanted to get what he called "a good catch of guineas".

And yet, only 260 people turned up

to a venue which we believe

held around 800.

Perhaps this was the point at which

Leopold started to believe that dark forces were

working against the Mozart family.

The adulation they'd hoped would follow Wolfgang's

extraordinary musical breakthrough never quite materialised.

And it was now that Leopold became gripped with paranoia.

He had good reason.

In the months following the performance, vicious rumours

began to appear in the inky world of pamphleteers and gossip columnists.

(Malice...)

This gossip attacked the entire Mozart family.

There were stories of deception and daylight robbery.

The accusation was that Wolfgang wasn't quite so young as his father

said that he was. It was claimed that he was really

just a very small man of 30.

Leopold now had no choice but to enter a war of words.

This is a copy of a letter

that appeared in the Public Advertiser in May 1765.

This could be Leopold's writing, it could be a friend of his,

it's unsigned.

But this is basically a fightback in behalf of the Mozart family

against these malevolent remarks that have been circulating.

People have been saying that Wolfgang is not in fact

a child of eight years old, but that he's really a teeny-tiny man

reduced by some defect of nature to an insignificancy of person.

It appears that little Wolfgang had become

the victim of jealousy in the musical world.

Someone, somewhere, it seemed, wanted him out of London's West End.

Leopold's letters home reveal his changed attitude towards

the city that had once promised so much.

"London," he writes, "is a dangerous place, where the inhabitants

"have no religion, and it's filled with evil."

Simon McVeigh is a music historian

who understands Leopold's state of mind.

Something clearly went awry

because he starts to complain

in some of his other references, other letters,

that he wasn't getting the support

that he used to and that he was expecting.

So he started to lose touch in some way and you get a certain sense that

their time in London was unravelling as the months went past in 1765.

He writes as if "there are dark forces

- "working against me", almost, doesn't he?
- Yes, he does.

Um, I mean...

he was somewhat inclined

towards conspiracy theories like this.

Determined to rescue the good name of the Mozart family,

he hatched a plan,

inviting the London public to test Wolfgang's skill for themselves.

Adverts started to appear in the press.

They'd been placed by Leopold,

who now threw down the gauntlet to the London public.

He challenged allcomers to visit the Mozarts at their home

in the West End to see young Wolfgang for themselves.

If you came, you were able to test the boy,

you could try his musical capacity by giving him anything to play

at sight, or test his notation skills - you could sing a tune,

which he will write upon the spot

without recurring to his harpsichord.

LM.

Leopold Mozart.

We don't know how many strange people came knocking at the door

to take up this offer,

but little Wolfgang must surely have noticed one man who seemed

extra specially interested in what he could do.

Daines Barrington considered himself to be one of life's true

Renaissance men and spent his life in constant pursuit of obscure

fields of study he could make his own.

Mr Daines Barrington was a man of wide and rather peculiar interests.

He researched the possibility of travelling to the

North Pole - from the comfort of his own study.

He claimed to have discovered the last surviving

speaker of the Cornish language -

until several others came forward!

And he spent several years conversing with birds in order

to write a book about their language.

Although, as we know, birds can't speak.

"Hello, Mr Barrington."

When he heard of the rumours surrounding Wolfgang,

it fired his imagination.

He aimed to subject the boy to scientific testing that would

sort fact from fiction, and settle the matter once and for all.

Yvonne Amthor is a historian of science.

She's going to subject me to the very same tests

as Barrington set little Wolfgang.

Leopold very specifically in his advertisements addressed

- the lovers of science.
- Yes.

And Daines Barrington would have seen himself as such

and therefore was very much attracted - wanting to

observe the boy, wanting to see his musical abilities.

What were these tests, then,

that Daines Barrington administered?

Well, I'm going to ask you to try a couple of them.

We know for sure about two tests, because he's described them

quite well in his notes,

and he actually asked Mozart to play

by sight-reading a five-part piece.

Now, we haven't got that here,

- so I'm going to ask you to sight-read...
- OK.

..and play a sonatina instead.

A sonatina, OK.

Oh, dear, it's in two sharps!

Unlike me, Wolfgang made short work of this sight-reading test.

But now Barrington turned his attention to the great controversy -

Wolfgang's supposed ability to compose.

- Does it get worse than this?
- It actually does.

One of the tests that Daines Barrington actually asked

Mozart is to make up a love song

in the style of an operatic tune.

A love song in the style of an operatic tune?

- Made up on the spot?
- Made up on the spot.
- OK.

# Here it is!

# My song, a song of love... # YVONNE LAUGHS

# ..Is going wrong... #

She's laughing at my song of love!

I think you can easily turn that into a song of rage now!

- A song of rage?
- That would have been his second task.

SHE WAILS

- Sorry!
- IN A DEEP VOICE: # Rage! #

Yes, he would have very much made up

any kind of nonsense or words just to express those feelings.

The test came to an end when Wolfgang lost interest

and went to play with his hobbyhorse.

In his report to the Royal Society,

Barrington said that Mozart was not a fake.

He wrote that the boy's genius and invention was most astonishing.

Such a report would have restored the Mozarts' credibility

had it not taken Barrington THREE YEARS to publish.

It was now clear that the Mozarts could no longer afford

to keep trying to win over the London public,

and as they scraped together the funds they needed to leave,

Wolfgang was booked to play a final series of concerts.

RECORDING PLAYS

In July 1765, little Wolfgang took to the keyboard to play

not for a king, not for a queen,

a lord or his lady,

but for bleary-eyed drunks in a London pub.

They started putting on performances at the Swan and Hoop tavern

in the City, the other end of town

from the fashionable West End.

In this bewildering world, Wolfgang played daily from 12 till three...

..churning out keyboard tricks to the tune of a couple of shillings.

There's no doubt about it,

this was just off the radar as far as normal events were concerned.

This wasn't the kind of venue that the elite musicians would

frequent for their musical adventures. This was something else.

So he's sucking out the pips of London, really, it's the last dregs.

Yes, it was at the low end

of music-making in London's musical calendar,

there's no doubt about that.

Once feted by royalty,

the boy who would become the world's greatest composer ended

his stay in London by providing the soundtrack to a boozy lunch.

But looking back,

I do think that London gave young Wolfgang a host of experiences

that inspired and influenced his later glittering career.

Firstly, he'd seen perseverance in action -

he'd watched his father working really hard to get some

traction for the Mozart family in a cut-throat musical environment.

Secondly, London had made Wolfgang into an ambitious composer.

He'd arrived as a performer, but he left as somebody

capable of making music from scratch - that happened here.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly,

I like to think that this pub performance taught Wolfgang

something essential - that his music

had to appeal to everybody, from kings...to boozers.

On 24th July 1765,

the Mozart family left London never to return.

But before departing, they made time for some sightseeing.

On a trip to the Royal Menagerie,

little Wolfgang got frightened by the roar of the lions.

But the highlight was a special tour around the newly opened

British Museum, where children normally weren't allowed.

And as if in thanks, little Mozart left the museum a gift,

a gift to the nation, if you like.

It was the manuscript of a short choral work

rarely performed these days,

but he wrote it specially for us.

Uniquely, among all of Wolfgang Mozart's work,

the words are in English.

It says on it "1765 in London".

When you look at the words, I think that they are appropriate

for the Mozart family's quite troubled time in London.

"God is our refuge..." they go.

"He's a very present help in trouble."

But although it's a sad song,

it remains a beautiful little gift to the British people

and an eloquent reminder of that pivotal year that he spent with us.

And when Wolfgang grew up and looks back on his time in London, he

didn't seem to remember the trouble of it, he remembered the joy.

He claimed in later life that he was a dyed-in-the-wool Englishman.