Hello everyone and welcome back to Mystery Scoop.
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, often referred to as the "other Mozart" or Mozart Jr., was
the youngest surviving child of the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Franz was also a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher in his own right, but whose life
and career was heavily influenced by his father's legacy.
Let's learn a few interesting facts about the Mozart junior.
- Mozart and Constanze married in 1782 and the couple had six children, of whom only
two survived infancy: Karl and Franz.
Franz was born in Vienna and he was only five months old when his father died at age 35.
- After Mozart's death, Constanze was left in a difficult position, having to care for
two young children as well as debts.
At this juncture, Constanze's economic acumen paid off: she obtained a pension from the
emperor, put on lucrative memorial concerts, and embarked on a campaign to publish the
works of her husband.
These efforts gradually made Constanze financially secure and ultimately, wealthy.
- Although he was baptized Franz Xaver Mozart, he was always called Wolfgang by his family.
Constanze made sure that Wolfgang received excellent education from several illustrious
musicians of the time, who claimed that he too, had a "rare talent" for music.
He learned to play both the piano and violin.
Like his father, he started to compose at an early age, making his concert debut in
Vienna in 1805 at the age of 13.
- Franz Xavier spent most of his life in Western Ukraine (known at the time as Austrian Galicia,
part of the Habsburg monarchy) where he composed, taught aristocratic children and gave concerts,
playing his own and his father's pieces.
In his concerts throughout Europe, he frequently referred to himself as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Jr.
- Unlike his father, he was introverted and self-deprecating.
He constantly underrated his talent and feared that whatever he produced would be compared
with what his father had done.
The realisation that he lacked his father's genius, according to author Agnes Selby, "put
an end to his own aspirations and locked him into an existence of self-doubt and unfulfilled
longing for a greatness he knew he could never achieve."
- However, in Ukraine, Franz Xavier is not remembered as "the other Mozart" but as the
Mozart who was instrumental in the establishment of professional music centers in Lemberg (now
Lviv), and in the creation of the Galician Music Conservatory, the present-day Lviv Academy
of Music.
- Franz never married and died childless.
He died of stomach cancer in Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic) in 1844,
at the age of 53, and was buried there.
Even in death, his father's shadow loomed large over him.
"May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence
of his life," was etched on his tombstone.
Despite not being regarded as a great European composer, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart left
a legacy of baroque classical music.
I hope you've enjoyed this part, now let's bring him to life.