The Czech Museum of Music has revealed a piece written by composers Mozart and Salieri, believed to have been archrivals. A musicologist said the rare cantata "shows a quite friendly outcome" between the two men.
Image: picture-alliance/M. C. Hurek
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A cantata co-written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri and unknown composer Cornetti was played in Prague on Tuesday after being lost for over 200 years.
The Czech Museum of Music, where "Per la Ricuperata Salute di Offelia" was rediscovered, presented the rare piece written by two composers believed by some to have been archrivals.
German musicologist and composer Timo Jouko Herrmann discovered the piece in November while searching the museum's online catalogue.
"We knew the title from advertising from 1795," Herrmann said. "I was thrilled when I read it. I thought: 'Could it be that the piece is in Prague and no one detected it?'"
A belief that Salieri played a part in Mozart's untimely death at the age of 36 in 1791 was a central theme in the Oscar-winning 1984 film "Amadeus" by Czech-born director Milos Forman.
"We all known the film 'Amadeus.' Salieri is mischaracterized in it," said Ulrich Leisinger of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria.
"He didn't poison Mozart. The two composers regularly met up and collaborated in Vienna," Leisinger noted.
'Quite friendly'
Musicologist Herrmann said the piece "shows a quite friendly outcome between the two composers, adding that the rediscovery of the piece could possibly lead to others.
"As far as I know, it's the only piece jointly written by Mozart and Salieri," Herrmann noted.
"But who knows: in a treasure house like this, anything can happen," the German musicologist said, referring to the Czech Museum of Music.
From revolutionary to pop idol
Shortly before his death in 1987, pop-art icon Andy Warhol worked on a portrait of Beethoven. The composer's appearance and character fascinated many artists - inspiring them to create their own renditions.
Image: Getty Images
Charistimatic, but tempermental
A serious look, slightly grim face and a lion's mane: images of Ludwig van Beethoven have imprinted themselves into the collective imagination arguably moreso than any other composer. Yet, it's mainly the late portraits that have shaped today's notions of the revolutionary, combative and difficult artist.
Image: AP
A shooting star in Vienna
Forceful, yet with a hint of smile, a young Beethoven looks out at the viewer in this painting from 1803. By that time, he had already attracted some of the most influential music patrons of the Viennese aristocracy.
Visiting the prince
Prince Carl von Lichnowsky was one of Beethoven's first supporters, with whom he later had a falling-out. In this picture by Julius Schmid from 1900, "Beethoven plays at Lichnowsky," the dispute between the prince and the composer seems to be already underway.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
Proud and confident
Beethoven not only met Goethe in Teplitz, Bohemia, in 1812, but a legendary and scandalous snub also took place: While the poet bowed reverently before the prince, composer Beethoven walked right by him with his head held high. That, at least, is the way Carl Rohling imagined the revolutionary scene.
Image: Wikipedia public domain
Revolutionary composer
Beethoven was not only enthused by the ideas of the French Revolution, but also by new methods of composition. Here, in this image by Willibrord Joseph Mähler from 1804, he seems to be giving expression to them with a wide, sweeping gesture.
Image: picture-alliance/ dpa
The original
There's no doubt that Beethoven was one of the most popular artists of his time - which the countless portraits of him demonstrate. One of the best known is this image created by Joseph Karl Stieler in 1820.
Image: CC
Going pop
Compared to other artists, Stieler portrayed Beethoven less realistically, but instead, in a more idealized fashion. Later, the painting was used as a template for engravings in which the contours became even more pronounced. It is surely no coincidence that Andy Warhol chose this image for his own renditions.
Image: AP/The Andy Warhol Museum
Sprayed on
Bonn - Beethoven's birthplace - is also home to several variations of Stieler's image: as a stone sculpture in front of the Beethoven Hall, sometimes - especially during the Beethovenfest in September - as a painting on the pavement, or as graffiti on a wall - such as here near the Beethoven House, where the composer was born.
Image: DW
Wrestling with each note
The fact that Beethoven did not make it easy on himself while composing was something the music world learned only after his death in 1827. Descriptions by his contemporaries who saw him at work surely influenced the romantic image of the maestro, who worked relentlessly and uncompromisingly in search of musical perfection.
Image: picture-alliance / akg-images
Genius and mania
Contemporaries marveled at Beethoven's works of genius. Subsequent generations of composers, however, were intimidated by them - and afraid they could not live up to Beethoven's standard. This image by Hermann Torggler from 1902 shows the composer in almost demonic fashion - created based on the composer's death mask.
Image: ullstein bild - Lombard
The pop idol
Hardly a composer today is as famous the world over as Ludwig van Beethoven - thanks in no small part to his piano piece "Für Elise." His life has been rendered in film several times, and has even been turned into cartoons and comics.
