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  Love - Liebe - Amore: Classical StyleLove means the same in all languages. It's something nobody can live without. But it has to be learned by example and stimulation like many other things we experience as children. So never forget to give and show love to your children and brethren, at any time, at any age. It's what keeps us all alive. And love was equally important 200 years ago, when our famous classical composers lived. They were not always loved and appreciated like they are today. But they were seeking love as much as we do. And I chose three composers whose works I perform frequently. Click each face to hear me sing. All recordings are from my 1999 live concerts.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born in Salzburg, my hometown, in 1756, 200 years before me, a genius (and that's where the similarties end). But to get right to the point: here is what I know about Wolferl's love life... ...Mozart was now twenty-one years old - a child prodigy no longer. The music world had in the past lavished its adoration upon a little pug-nosed child who could achieve miraculous musical feats and dazzle them with specially crafted parlor tricks. Now that the child had entered manhood, he had lost his great appeal.
These disappointments, however, did not smother Wolfgang's high spirits. Now a man, he found consolation from his disappointments in frequent love affairs. In Augsburg, there was his cousin, Maria Anna Thekla Mozart whom he calls "Bäsle," his first genuine love. "Bäsle," he wrote to his father, "seems to have been made for me, and I for her - for both of us have that little bit of badness in us."
1881: Mozart stayed in Vienna as a free-lance musician, barely able to support himself. In the beginning he lived as a guest of the Weber family (who had moved to Vienna). The result was that Mozart was married to Konstanze Weber - the youngest sister of his one-time beloved Aloysia - on August 4, 1782 at St. Stephen's Cathedral. Ende gut, alles gut!
Born in 1797 in Vienna. In his eleventh year, Schubert passed the entrance examinations for the Convict School, which trained choristers for the Imperial Court Chapel. He was completely absorbed in music study, finding therein endless fascination and adventure. In 1813, Schubert's voice broke; he was now compelled to leave the Convict school and return to his father's home. 1815: At this time, Schubert made several friendships which persisted until the end of his life. All male. They held frequent social evenings devoted to music and entertainment - called "Schubertiaden" - which furnished Schubert the few moments of contentment and happiness he knew in his life. An intimate friend of Franz Schubert has left us vivid word pictures of the great composer. "Schubert was not of a very striking appearance. He was very short, somewhat corpulent, with a full, round face. Because of his near-sightedness, he always wore eyeglasses which he never removed, not even while sleeping." There remains but to add that Schubert was something of a practical jokester, that he was fond of smoking his assortment of pipes, and fonder still of dancing; that, though he was fond of women, his natural shyness and self-conciousness made it impossible for him to associate with them freely; that his few love affairs were essentially of a schoolboyish nature; that his intellectual horizon was considerably limited -- he knew little of painting, literature, philosophy, or politics. Since this is all very dry stuff - the opposite of Mozart's love life, let me add a little story about one specific girl, one of three sisters. Schubert wrote a love song for her, but he wasn't really a singer. So he asked his friend Schober, a tenor, to help him. Schubert invited the girl, accompanied Schober on the piano for the world premiere of the art song. After the song was over, Franz Schubert shyly stood up, only to witness that the girl embraced the tenor instead of him!
Born in Bonn, Germany, in 1770. Lived in Vienna more than half of his life. When Beethoven was about 30 years old, he learned to control his craft and develop the music into new undiscovered grounds. But he also suffered from reminders of the pains of real life. Early in life he discovered that his hearing wasn't what it should be, and the disorder got worse as time went by. This hearing disorder seems to have affected Beethoven's social life to a great extent. He became difficult to handle in social interactions. If that is the reason for his troubles with women, I don't know, but the fact is that he never got involved with a woman in a normal relation. Beethoven seems to have been attracted to women he couldn't get. The best example is a mysterious relationship to a married woman. After Beethoven's death, three love letters were found which don't include a year or the name of the "immortal beloved." Here are some juicy quotes:
If you want more you can read all three love letters with background info. Special Invitation: still looking for the big love of your life? You are not alone. Please come and smell the Vienna coffee in our Konzerthaus Café where we editors of Vienna Online hang out every day! On this message board you can cry your heart out. Post a love letter. Which composer do you love best? Let us know everything. After all, you, the reader, are the boss. What would we do without you? Join in, or just come for the pastry!
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Charles, the last Austrian emperor, died in 1922. Learn more about that special
