Life of Mozart

—276 LABOUR AND POVERTY.two passions were music and the chase ;^ and the instrumentwhich he most affected was the lute. In his honour anew opera by Weigl ("La Cafetiera Bizarra") was performed(September 15); ' the Emperor made his first appearance atthe opera with King Ferdinand, when SaHeri's " Axur " wasplayed (September 21) ; in honour of the weddings, opentable was held in the great Redoutensaal, and a concertperformed in the gallery under SaHeri's direction, in whichCavalieri and Calvesi and the brothers Stadler took part,and a symphony by Haydn was performed which the Kingknew by heart, and sang out loud as it was played ; Haydnwas introduced to him, invited to Naples, and honouredwith commands for compositions ; ^ and all this time Mozartremained unnoticed, and was not even summoned to playbefore the King of Naples, a neglect which wounded himdeeply. His condition was painful in the extreme ; hiswife's delicate health showed no signs of improving; andas his expenses increased his income gradually diminished.In May he had only two pupils, and was obliged to appealto his friends to assist him in raising the number to eight.His continual and pressing embarrassments exhausted eventhe resources of his ever-generous friend Puchberg, and hewas obliged to apply to money-lenders, and to embark inspeculations which did but hasten his financial ruin (Vol. II.,p. 301). The weight of these cares crippled his energies forwork, as he himself complains, and no period of his lifeis so poor in artistic production as this year. His owncatalogue contains, after the completion of *'Cosi fanTutte " in January, 1790, only :May. Quartet for two violins, viola and violoncello in B flat majorJune.(589 K.).Quartet in F major (590 K.).July. Handel's "Cecilia" and "Alexander's Feast," arranged (591,592 K.).6 An official table was published, showing that during the King's stay in theimperial dominions, from September 3, 1790, to March 18, 1791, he followed thechase thirty-seven times, and himself shot 4,110 head of game (Wien. Ztg.,1791, No. 29).">Wien. Ztg., 1790, No. 75, Anh.8 Mus. Corresp., 1790, p. 145. Griesinger, Biogr. Not., p. 36.