Joseph Leitgeb

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Joseph Leitgeb (also: Leutgeb ; born October 6, 1732 in Neulerchenfeld , † February 27, 1811 in Vienna ) was an Austrian horn player .

Leitgeb was a horn player in Prince Esterházy's chapel in 1763 . In the same year he went to Salzburg and became a member of the chapel of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg . In 1773 he went back to Vienna. Contrary to popular misconception, Leitgeb was never in the cheese business. His father-in-law, the Italian Biagio Plazeriano († 1763), ran a sausage and cheese business in Altlerchenfeld, which was run by his widow Catharina for a short time from 1763. When Leitgeb bought a house in Altlerchenfeld in 1777, which also brought him rental income, the cheese trade had long since ceased. In 1783 he took a permanent position as horn player with Antal Grassalkovich II.

He was not only close friends with his father Leopold Mozart , but also with his son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . They had a very informal relationship with one another, in which Leitgeb almost made himself Mozart's court jester, despite his considerably older age. Leitgeb, who loved Mozart's music more than anything, kept pleading that Mozart should write a horn concerto for him. Eventually Mozart let himself be softened, but made the condition that Leitgeb had to kneel behind the (unheated) stove. Leitgeb actually crawled behind the stove and waited patiently on his knees while Mozart wrote. This is how the Horn Concerto in E flat major, KV 417, was written, to which Mozart added the following comment: "Have mercy on the Leitgeb Esel, Ochs and Narr in Vienna, May 27, 1783".

Leitgeb was also the dedicatee for the other horn concertos KV 447 and 495 and the horn quintet KV 407, and there, too, traces of such Mozart-typical, often crude jokes can be found. But it also becomes clear that Mozart wrote highly virtuoso works that pushed this instrument to its limits and that Leitgeb was obviously able to play. In the fragments of the Concerto KV 495 that have been preserved, the notes are written in blue, red, green and black ink, but the fun also made sense, as Mozart used it to mark very fine shades in the dynamic gradation. In the concert movement (KV 514) in D major, the soloist's part is continuously accompanied by humorous remarks by Mozart: “Adagio - a lei Signor Asino, Animo - presto - su via - da bravo - Corraggio - bestia - o che stonatura - Ahi! - ohime - bravo povretto ”- and at the end:“ grazia al Ciel! basta, basta! ". With all the fun, Mozart reveals here that he was aware of the problems of aging at Leitgeb and the resulting limited ability to play. In the composition from 1791 he dispenses with very high notes.

Leitgeb is listed in the list of members of the Tonkünstler-Societät , Vienna's oldest concert association founded in 1771, as Joseph Leutgeb, but he himself signed his 1801 will "Leitgeb". There was no definitive spelling of proper names in the 18th century. His second, often mentioned first name Ignaz is based on an error by Carl Ferdinand Pohl . Incidentally, he must not be confused with Mozart's temporary administrator Anton Leutgeb , who supported his widow, among other things, with the processing of the estate.

literature

  • Alfred Einstein : Mozart. His character, his work. With music examples. Bermann-Fischer, Stockholm 1947. New edition: Fischer, 1991. ( e-book at Zeno.org)
  • Michael Lorenz : "A Little Leitgeb Research" , Vienna 2013.
  • Karl Maria Pisarowitz: Mozart's Schnorrer Leutgeb. Its primary biography. In: Communications from the International Mozarteum Foundation. VIII, Vol. 3/4, 1970, pp. 21-26.

Individual evidence

  1. Michael Lorenz: "A Little Leitgeb Research" , Vienna 2013
  2. Lorenz [1]
  3. Lorenz [2]

Web links