Friendship With Mozart
Through Joseph Haydn, Eybler met Mozart, who gave him some lessons and entrusted him with the rehearsal of his opera Così fan tutte. Eybler also conducted some performances of Così fan tutte.
On May 30, 1790 Mozart wrote a testimonial for the young Eybler: "I, the undersigned, attest herewith that I have found the bearer of this, Herr Joseph Eybler, to be a worthy pupil of his famous master Albrechtsberger, a well-grounded composer, equally skilled at chamber music and the church style, fully experienced in the art of the song, also an accomplished organ and clavier player; in short a young musician such, one can only regret, as so seldom has his equal."
Mozart and Eybler remained friends to the end. As Eybler wrote: "I had the good fortune to keep his friendship without reservation until he died, and carried him, put him to bed and helped to nurse him during his last painful illness."
After Mozart's death, Constanze Mozart asked Eybler to complete her husband's Requiem. Eybler tried but could not complete the commission perhaps, it is thought, because of his great respect for the music of his friend Mozart. (Franz Xaver Süßmayr completed the task).
Read more about this topic: Joseph Leopold Eybler
Famous quotes containing the words friendship and/or mozart:
“Chinese do not repay friendship with death.”
—Joseph O’Donnell, and Clifford Sanforth. Ah Ling, Murder by Television, when he is accused of Perry’s murder (1935)
“No one asks you to throw Mozart out of the window. Keep Mozart. Cherish him. Keep Moses too, and Buddha and Lao tse and Christ. Keep them in your heart. But make room for the others, the coming ones, the ones who are already scratching on the window-panes.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)