Maria Anna Mozart

Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia "Marianne" Mozart (30 July 1751 – 29 October 1829), nicknamed Nannerl, was a highly regarded musician from Salzburg, Austria. In her childhood, she developed into an outstanding keyboard player under the tutelage of her father Leopold. She became a celebrated child prodigy and went on concert tours through much of Europe with her parents and her younger brother Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At age 17, her career as a touring musician came to an end, though she continued to work at home teaching piano and performing on occasion. At age 33 she married, moved to a village six hours by carriage from Salzburg, and there raised her own and her husband's children. On her widowhood in 1801, she returned to Salzburg and resumed teaching and performance. She is known to have composed works of music, though no manuscripts survive. In her later years she contributed to the biographical study of her late brother.

Maria Anna Mozart is known to scholarship from a variety of sources. There are a great number of letters, though virtually all of the surviving ones were written to her or her family, not by her. Particularly for the early years, when she was most famous, there are news reports and other observations, collected and recorded by scholars such as Otto Erich Deutsch. She kept a diary, some of which is preserved, and wrote a brief but informative reminiscence of her brother's childhood. There is very little material to indicate what she thought or felt about the events and people in her life.

Maria Anna Mozart was born in Salzburg to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Mozart. In childhood, she bore the nickname "Nannerl," a name that is often used for her today; later on her informal first name became "Marianne". When Nannerl was seven years old, her father started teaching her to play the harpsichord. She progressed very rapidly, catching the attention of her little brother Wolfgang, whom Leopold soon started teaching as well. By age 13 Nannerl had reached the point where her father, in a letter (8 June 1764), called her "one of the most skillful pianists in Europe."

As it emerged that both children were musical prodigies, Leopold had the idea of taking them on tour to perform. There were several such journeys: first to Munich (January 1762), then Vienna (18 September 1762 – 5 January 1763), then a three-year grand tour of northwestern Europe (9 June 1763 – 29 November 1766), including long stays in London and Paris. Lastly, there was a second journey to Vienna (11 September 1767 – 5 January 1769), but by this time Nannerl no longer qualified as a prodigy and performed little.

Here are some press notices Nannerl received.

Just imagine a girl 11 years of age who can perform on the harpsichord or the fortepiano the most difficult sonatas and concertos by the greatest masters, most accurately, readily and with an almost incredible ease, in the very best of taste. (from the Intelligenz-Zettel of Augsburg, 19 May 1763)

A Kapellmeister of Salzburg, Mozart by name, has just arrived here with two children who cut the prettiest figure in the world. His daughter, eleven years of age, plays the harpsichord in the most brilliant manner; she performs the longest and most difficult pieces with an astonishing precision. (from Baron Friedrich Melchior Grimm's Correspondance littéraire, 1 December 1763)

His daughter, aged eleven, plays the harpsichord in a distinguished manner; no one could have a more precise and brilliant execution. (Paris Avant-coureur, 5 March 1764)