MOZART AND THE PRACTICE OF SACRED MUSIC, 1781-91 a ...

Süssmayr’s relations with Salieri are better attested. 102 Sometime between 1788 and
1791, Süssmayr wrote a Symphony in E flat SmWV 402 that offers an interesting
comparison with Mozart’s contemporary K. 543. The score bears a number of revisions in
pencil and Rötel that appear to be non-autograph; see Figure 5.9. 103 Although these
corrections are not necessarily contemporary with the creation of the score, they do offer the
possibility that Süssmayr was studying with Salieri during Mozart’s lifetime. Süssmayr and
Salieri were certainly known to each other by June 1791, when Süssmayr was hired as a
violinist for high mass on Whitsunday and Whitmonday in the Hofkapelle, replacing Franz
Hofer who was away at Laxenburg. Süssmayr’s receipt, signed also by Salieri and dated a few
days after Leopold II ordered Salieri’s removal from the Burgtheater, records a payment of 2
florins per service, to be paid from the accounts of the National Theatre. 104 At present it is
unknown what music was heard at Pentecost 1791, but it is entirely possible that further
research will uncover the relevant dates written on the Hofkapelle’s large store of performance
materials.
Süssmayr’s association with the Hofkapelle was apparently renewed at the end of the
composer’s life. 105 On 1 November 1802, Süssmayr made a will, leaving all his possessions to
his younger sister Maria Anna (1770-1851), with whom he was living. 106 This document,
which was “removed” from the Archiv der Stadt Wien and is now in the Gesellschaft der
102 See Angermüller, “Süßmayr, Ein Schüler und Freund Salieris.”
103 Duda, SmWV, 219 recognises some of the “foreign” entries, but does not mention the replacement passage
and is unable to identify Salieri as the author of the corrections.
104 Transcription in Angermüller, Dokumente, ii.231. As often, Angermüller does not give the signature of this
document, which is A-Wn, Handschriftensammlung, 7/140-1. Han.
105 A Hofkapelle score dated 1831 of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, A-Wn, HK 2270, has a front cover that reads:
“Stabat mater / von / Pergholese / Vierstimmig gesetzt von Salieri / Mit Harmoniebegleitung v. Süssmayer. /
Posaunen von Ign. Ritter von Seyfried. / Revidirt von Otto Nicolai 1843.” None of the other sources for the
Stabat Mater from the Hofkapelle (A-Wn, HK 1612, HK 2267, HK 2726) make any mention of this Süssmayr
attribution, and I am unaware of any sources from Süssmayr’s lifetime that would support his authorship of the
additional wind parts transmitted in the score.
106 Angermüller, Dokumente, ii.410-11.
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