Life of Mozart

——;MADAME DUSCHEK. 121him. She played the pianoforte well enough to pass for avirtuoso, and made some not unsuccessful attempts as acomposer; but her forte lay in singing. Her beautiful, full,round voice was admired equally with her delivery, whichwas especially fine in recitative ; she accomplished the mostdifficult bravura passages with perfect ease, without neglectingthe effect of a perfect portamento; she united fire andenergy with grace and expression—in short, she maintainedin every respect her claim to be ranked with the first Italiansingers of her time. This claim was not, it is true, acknowledgedby Leopold Mozart ;when she was in Salzburg withher husband, in 1786, he wrote to his daughter (April 18) :Madame Duschek sang ; but how ? I cannot but say that she shriekedout an air of Naumann's with exaggerated expression, just as she usedto do, only worse. Her husband is answerable for this ; he knows nobetter, and has taught her, and persuades her that she alone possessestrue taste.Her appearance did not please him either. " She seemsto me to show signs of age already," he writes (April 13)" she has rather a fat face, and was very carelessly dressed."Schiller's unfavourable remarks upon her in Weimar, whereshe was in May, 1788, are quite in accordance with this.-^^She displeased him by her assurance (Dreistigkeit)—he wouldnot call it impudence (Frechheit)— and her mocking manner,which caused the reigning Duchess to observe that shelooked like a discarded mistress.-^^ By favour of the DuchessAmalie she was allowed to give three concerts for the displayof her talent and the general edification. Körner answersSchiller's account of her :-^^The Duchess is not so wrong in what she said of her. She did notinterest me very greatly. Even as an artist, I consider her expressioncaricatured. Gracefulness is, in my estimation, the chief merit of song,and in this she seems to me entirely wanting.10 Schiller, Briefw. m. Körner, I., p. 2S0. She had given a concert in Leipzigon April 22 (Busby, Gesch. d. Mus., IL, p. 668.)" We learn from L. Mozart's letters to his daughter, that Count Clamm," a fine, handsome, amiable man, without cavalier pride," was the " declaredlover " of Frau Duschek, and " kept her whole establishment."^2 Schiller, Briefw. m. Körner, I., p. 294.