ANTONIO SALIERI MUSICIAN (in ENGLISH)

Antonio Salieri

                                                                   di Gino Carbonaro

                                         Tr.  in English  prof. Douglas Ponton

     Antonio Salieri, musician,  was born in Legnago (Verona) in 1750. Died in Vienna in 1825. He was "Kapellmeister" and "Court Composer" at the Habsburgs. Famous in his day, had as pupils Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Meyerbeer, Czerny, and the son of Mozart, Franz Xavier Wolfgang.

     The Habsburgs, who held him in high regard, in 1778 commissioned him to compose "Europe recognized" opera with which it opened the Theater "La Scala" in Milan.

     Salieri è presente in the film “Amadeus” by Milos Forman, which tells the life of Mozart. In Vienna of the time, the Czech Director presents an imperial court lazy, dull, sleepy, whose favorite music died, it would be then that of Salieri, but could not understand the greatness of Mozart.

     And yet, in a final step of the film, Salieri is passed as responsible for the death of the great musician of Salzburg. The damage done to the figure of the composer of Legnago, by this director, and as a whole, by Peter Shaffer scriptwriter, and producer Zaentz, was inexcusable.

    The film in question, emphasized the greatness of Mozart on the one hand, and the dull malice and envy of a man who would have employed assassination to eliminate the hated rival. Findings of the more serious because not justified, as we shall see, and not tried.

The injury of Antonio Salieri

  

  Today, Antonio Salieri is known almost only musician in the world of professionals. He is known, but not much studied. And, what is known about him comes to us indirectly, by reading some biography of Mozart. Always, though, someone has had the suspicion that anything negative is handed down today on behalf of Salieri was the result of suspicion and backbiting that after Mozart's death someone has circulated to art in Vienna in time.

      A comparison with Mozart, the judgment of Antonio Salieri was not always positive. Mozart was the divine, the genius, the right hand, while Salieri was presented as opportunistic character, almost evil, and left with a halo.

    Clearly nell'accingerci to listen again after centuries Salieri's music was subjected to an "inference" that disturbs the serenity of judgment. And it is clear that, if you want to be objective in listening, you have to remove the boulder in a decisive manner the pre-judgment that lurks within us. Clean the slate of mind from any possible interference. And this is not easy.

     To enter the world of our author, you must first understand why the imperial court of the Hapsburgs had appointed Antonio Salieri, "Kammercomponist" Composer of the Court, in preference to other musicians that history has then filtered as worthy of fame.

Some hesitancy

     The question that arises is the following: they were really clueless these protagonists of the Habsburg court, which among other things were great listeners of music? (1) Our reference is the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who in 1774 appointed the "twenty-four" Kapellmeister Salieri, giving for years to come the task of composing "Europe recognized", opera by which August 3, 1778 was inaugurated in Milan the "New Royal Ducal Theatre", ie the current "La Scala".

          At the time, Salieri is only 28 years old.

The question still remains, if it was just as incompetent Emperor Joseph II, a great lover and patron of the opera, which in 1786 named him "Kammercomponist" Composer of the Court, and in 1788 he wanted to reward him with a gold medal for the ' It works "Axur king of Ormus", considered in his opinion "the best opera ever composed." And was the highest of honors.

      And 'a must wonder, which jealousy could have from a musician Mozart esteemed and protected by the Emperor of Austria, and more highly decorated? And one wonders why, at the first of the "Magic Flute" (Die Zauberflöte) "(1791), two months before his death, Mozart wrote the following letter to his wife Constanze, who's pregnant sixth son (Franz Xavier Wolfgang ) he was at the spa of Baden bei Wien:

 "Beloved wife,

     Yesterday, at six I went to take Salieri and Katherina Cavalieri (famous soprano note) and I brought them into the stage. You can not imagine how they were both kind, how they liked not only my music, but the booklet and the whole. They said it is a work worthy of being represented on the occasion of the most solemn holidays in front of the greatest monarchs, and that certainly would have revised other times, never having seen a show nicer and more pleasant. He (Salieri) listened and watched carefully, and the last symphony chorus there was no song that he has not torn a "good" or "good", and they never stopped to thank me for the pleasure I got them."

    The "Magic Flute" was inaugurated at the "Theater aut der Wieden" in Vienna on September 30, 1791. Mozart died two months later.

Relations between Salieri and Mozart

     Relations between the two musicians were formally cordial, Mozart and Salieri was very keen judgment, considered the musical expertise that was recognized by all and the status he derived from two prestigious roles within the Habsburg imperial court. And, as evidenced by a letter written to his wife, that being privately supposedly truthful.

   Good relations, therefore, confirmed by the fact that during the "nominations" to Master of composition (1786) Salieri had directed "The Marriage of Figaro" opera composed by Mozart soon. But, it will happen sometimes that Salieri direct works of Mozart, as well as 15 November 1790, on the occasion of the coronation of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, when Salieri heads in church two sacred works of Mozart.

DA QUI --- However, in support of these appointments "Imperial" is a piece of news that can not be underestimated: the fact that Salieri was master of Schubert, Meyerbeer, Liszt [2], Czerny, and Beethoven (who dedicated three sonatas) , composers who were not the last to arrive in the music of all time. And except Schubert and Czerny, none of the above-named musicians was Austrian. In fact, Liszt was Hungarian, the other Germans were transferred to Vienna to take lessons of Salieri, as well as to reside in what was considered the cradle of musical culture of the time. But, we still know that Salieri gave music lessons and counterpoint at the same son of Mozart! [3]

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart

1791-1844

Composer, Pianist, Conductor And,

If he gave lessons to Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, who later became a composer, pianist and orchestra, it is clear that every rumor or suspicion negative on account of our not had come to the ears Constanze, his beloved wife of Mozart, who gave his son the great and recognized Kapellmeister, "after" the death of Mozart. If anything, it could be just the opposite: that the resentment (if ever there were) were just that of Mozart, always in financial straits (died 3000 florins debt) had to say when he found himself slipping in hand the task of master harpsichord Princess Wurttemberg. A post he was assigned to Salieri. Nevertheless, we must not forget that in a day of snow and frost that on December 5, 1791, in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Salieri was one of the few present at the funeral Mozart.

The scapegoating What then Mozart, always in poor health, he died because of a poisoning, it is probably true, but it was not of "arsenic water", as Wolfgang complained to his wife, but of "mercury" that doctors of the time prescribed with extreme lightness to their patients. Just remember the end of Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) suffering from syphilis, and its common knowledge-based care "mercurial medicines", which slowly but surely harmful to the kidneys, causing the consequent poisoning of the patient. Yet, the medicine of the time prescribed mercury as a purgative, deworming, antiluetico, and even against lice, fleas and lice. A kind of antibiotic in the short time that cared, but in the long term carried the sick to the grave. Unbelievable but true, this drug a "miracle" was used in medicine until the early twentieth century, and for syphilis until the fifties of the last century (see, "barrels of Campailla" in Modica, Sicily). It took a long time before we understand what were the "effects"