Sibling Composers—Wolfgang and Maria Anna (“Nannerl”) Mozart

From left to right: Portrait of Maria Anna Mozart near the onset of her childhood fame in 1763, and her brother Wolfgang, both attributed to Austrian painter Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni

Another famous set of sibling composers can be seen in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his older sister, Maria Anna (1751—1829). Similar to Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, Maria Anna, or Nannerl as she was called, was Wolfgang’s older sibling by four years.

History tells us that Wolfgang idolized his sister and wanted to study music because of watching their father Leopold’s instruction of her.

While letters from Mozart to Nannerl clearly suggest she did indeed compose music, unfortunately none of her compositions survive today. As a performer however, demonstrated by these two reviews of her performances, she was extremely talented:

Just imagine a girl 11 years of age who can perform on the harpsichord or the fortepiano the most difficult sonatas and concertos by the greatest masters, most accurately, readily and with an almost incredible ease, in the very best of taste. (Intelligenz-Zettel of Augsburg, May 19 1763)

A Kapellmeister of Salzburg, [Leopold] Mozart by name, has just arrived here with two children who cut the prettiest figure in the world. His daughter, eleven years of age, plays the harpsichord in the most brilliant manner; she performs the longest and most difficult pieces with an astonishing precision. (from Baron Friedrich Melchior Grimm, Correspondance littéraire, December 1, 1763)

As was also the case with Fanny Mendelssohn, Nannerl was forced to step out of the spotlight as a performer at age fifteen, with her father becoming more concerned with her earning a living as a teacher. Historian Ruth Halliwell writes:

Though Leopold manifestly wanted Nannerl to be capable of earning money from music when she grew up, it was also an assumption of their society that she would marry for financial support.

 While her celebrated brother would continue to travel, perform, and of course compose, Nannerl went on to marry Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, a twice widowed magistrate with five children from his previous marriages whom she helped to raise, in addition to bearing him three of her own.

 Following her husband’s death, despite being financially solvent, she continued teaching. She died in 1829 at age 78.

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