Treasures from the Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg at The Morgan Library & Museum

The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City is hosting a special exhibit of personal effects of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on loan from the Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg.  In what the Museum calls an “unprecedented collaboration,” this exhibit includes items offered for viewing to the United States for the first time.  The exhibit, called Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Treasures from the Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg, includes Mozart’s instruments, letters and other personal objects of Wolfgang and his family, allowing a veritable view of this genius of Salzburg.  Supplementing the exhibit is Morgan’s own permanent collection of music manuscripts and letters from that era.

I just returned from the exhibit and would like to share a few highlights of this magnificent and well-planned presentation. The sheer size and scope of the exhibit, and the way the Museum displayed them, was impressive. Mozart’s life is positioned into two distinct parts:  Act I relates to Mozart’s youth and family in Salzburg and Act II focuses on his adult life as a professional musician and family man in Vienna.  Although parts of the overall Museum are rooted in the Gilded Age of the Museum’s founder, J. Pierpont Morgan, the Mozart exhibit has a Classical esthetic, founded on the ideals of Age of Enlightenment of Mozart’s time: balance, symmetry, restraint, clarity.  Certain items were preserved by Mozart’s widow and his sister and returned to Salzburg after his death in 1791.  

There are many autographed manuscripts (with surprisingly few strikeouts!), including his well-loved Piano Concerto No. 21, the “Jupiter” symphony and piano pieces.  The first publication of his Requiem is also here.  It’s fascinating to see how Mozart identified himself on these scores -- sometimes simply as “Wolfgang Amadeo” or Wolfgango” in the Italian lingua franca of the day.  One is identified “J.G. Wolfgang Mozart de Salzbourg,” the initials standing for Johann Gottleib. He was baptized as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart although his father informally included Gottleib (“loved by God”), which is now typically used in the Latin form as Amadeus. 

And instruments!  There is his well-worn violin with a rich, burnt brown patina, used for composing some of his earliest works.   Positioned prominently in the Vienna segment is Mozart’s clavichord, on which he wrote some of his final, sublime music, including outlines of symphonies and The Magic Flute.  He favored working out the music on this instrument late at night because its soft sound wouldn’t disturb the neighbors.  Mozart’s son, Franz Xaver, who had no heirs, donated this clavichord to the Mozarteum.

His letters – of which there are many in this collection -- lend a deeper perspective into Mozart’s character and personality.  Some are personal to friends and family.  In one cheerful missive to his beloved sister, Maria Anna Mozart, known as Nannerl, Mozart describes his journeys through European capitals and indulges in inside jokes and jolly drawings.  Some are written in Italian. In an affectionate letter to his wife, Constanze, Mozart speaks of missing her and longing to return.  In a particularly touching letter, Mozart comforts his dying father with thoughts of the peace that will greet life’s end, sensitively urging his father to have no fear.  He even expresses his contentment at the thought of death, a particularly eerie sentiment given that his own untimely death was only four years away.  And his letters to courts in which he seeks employment – an ongoing task that was often unsuccessful – were quite poignant in their sincerity, never betraying the frustration and anxiety he must have felt.

Supplementing the exhibit were a few delights: The published manuscript of Frédéric  Chopin’s own variations on “La ci darem la mano,” an aria from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni; a large oil portrait of Lorenzo Da Ponte, the masterful librettist who collaborated with Mozart on three of his grand Italian operas; Ludwig von Köchel’s catalog of Mozart’s music; books of libretti to his operas; and an ornate gold ring bejeweled with colorful gems that was gifted to Mozart from the Prince-Bishop of Augsburg.   There was even a locket said to contain strands of Mozart’s and Beethoven’s hair, although the accompanying placard gently suggested that authenticity may be in question.

The Museum tastefully supplements the exhibit with audio of Mozart’s sublime music to fully immerse visitors (and there were many on a weekday morning) in the 18^th century world that Mozart and his family inhabited, with its exquisite taste and style, its gentility and formality.  Here is proof that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who we may view as a legend or consider a vague, historical figure, was a real, flesh-and-blood person.

Kudos to the Morgan Library & Museum for mounting this valuable and substantial exhibit of a true artist who has transcended time and brought the world such grace and beauty. 

The exhibit is on display through May 31, 2026 at The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. The Museum is closed on Mondays.  Check their website for hours of operation.