Life of Mozart

—WORKS IN VIENNA, 1709. 237CHAPTER XLI."COsi FAN TUTTE."UPON his arrival in Vienna on June 4, Mozart at onceset to work upon a quartet for Frederick William IL ;the Quartet in D major (575 K.) was completed in the samemonth, and in return for it, according to the Berlin Veteran,he received a valuable gold snuff-box with 100 friedrichsdor,and a complimentary letter.^ But this did not materiallyaffect his embarrassed circumstances ; the precarious stateof his wife's health kept him in a state of perpetual anxiety,and the expenses it involved brought him into serious difficulties": I am most unhappy "! he wrote on July 17 to hisfriend Puchberg. The confident expectation of a permanentimprovement in his outward position, which he expressed inhis letters to this constant friend, were grounded, as it seems,upon the overtures which had been made to him in Berlin ;he had informed the Emperor of them, and thought himselfentitled to look for a compensation for his refusal. Butcircumstances were not then favourable, and Mozart wasnot the man to push a claim of the kind. The effect of hisdepression is clearly visible in the want of musical productivityduring this period. His own catalogue contains onlythe following compositions belonging to this year :1789. June. A quartet for his majesty the King of Prussia, in D major(575 K.).July. Sonata for pianoforte alone, D major (576 K.). Rondo inmy opera of " Figaro " for Madame Ferraresi del Bene, " Aldesio (577 K.).August. Aria in the opera " I Due Baroni," for Mdlle. LouiseVilleneuve, "Alma grande e nobil core" (578 K.).September 17. Aria in the opera " Der Barbier von Seviglien,"for Madame Hofer, "Schon lacht der holde Frühling" (580 K.).1N. Berl. Mus. Ztg., 1856, No. 5, p. 35.