Anyone with children living at home can relate to wanting more space as the family grows.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his sister were born in a modest, five-room home in Salzburg where the family lived for a number of years. It had only one bedroom for all of them. Finally, when Mozart was 17, the family moved across the river to a more upscale part of town into a much larger home.
Known as the Tanzmeisterhaus, the home had a large front room where they made music and where the family entertained friends. Nearly every Sunday the Mozarts had friends over for an afternoon of music, games and Bölzlschiessen – air rifles used to shoot darts across the room to a target.
Today visitors can see a number of famous paintings of Mozart and his family as well as the piano Mozart bought after he moved to Vienna. It’s the piano that Mozart used to compose with and to premiere all of his famous piano concertos after 1781.
In this week’s episode of Mozart Snapshots, pianist Katie Mahan takes us through the Tanzmeisterhaus and gives us insight into how the family lived, worked and entertained in their home.
Pianist Katie Mahan is from Golden, Colorado, but lives in Salzburg now for her concert career. She is following in Mozart's footsteps in his home city every week in this video blog series. Come back each week for a new episode.
Listen to CPR Classical by clicking “Listen Live” at the top on this website, or download the Colorado Public Radio app. Listen on your radio to CPR Classical at 88.1 FM in Denver, or on radio signals around Colorado. You can also tell your smart speaker to “Play CPR Classical."
