Maria Wilhelmine von Thun und Hohenstein

Countess Maria Wilhelmine von Thun und Hohenstein, née Uhlfeldt[1] (Vienna 13 June 1744[2] - Vienna 18 May 1800) was a Viennese aristocrat of the 18th century. She is remembered as the sponsor of a musically and intellectually outstanding salon and for her patronage of music, notably that of Mozart and Beethoven.[3]

Biography

She was the daughter of Imperial Count of the Realm Anton Corfiz Ulfeld (also spelled Uhlfeldt; 1699-1770), who "held several high political and court appointments"[4] and his second wife Maria Elisabeth (1726-1786), Princess von Lobkowitz. At age 17 (30 July 1761) she married Count Franz Joseph Anton von Thun und Hohenstein (1734-1801), who later became an Imperial Chamberlain.

In the 1750s, the young Countess Thun may have studied music with the young Joseph Haydn, at the time a struggling freelancer. This is difficult to determine, since the source indicating this only gives the title "Countess Thun," which was held by other women over time as well.[5] Whoever her teacher may have been, the Countess evidently became a very skilled musician. The visiting English musicologist Charles Burney praised her harpsichord playing in print, saying that she "possesses as great skill in music as any person of distinction [i.e., aristocrat] I ever knew."[6]

The salon that developed in her home is described by Clive as "a focal point of the musical and social life of the Viennese aristocracy."[4]

She had six children, of whom four survived into adulthood:

Relations with Mozart and Beethoven

It is possible that Countess Thun first met Mozart in 1762, when she was 18 and he was seven; this was during an early concert tour of the Mozart family, carried out to display their children as musical prodigies; the young Mozart performed in her father's home.[10] In 1781, when the 25-year-old Mozart moved permanently to Vienna to pursue his career, he and Thun became friends (they ate lunch together frequently).[14] Mozart wrote of her to his father Leopold (24 March 1781), "[she is] the most charming and lovable lady I have ever met; and I am very high in her favor."[15] He frequently performed in her home, and she lent him her excellent Stein piano when Mozart performed before the Emperor in competition with Muzio Clementi, 24 December 1781.[14]

Thun may have played an essential role in Mozart's career when she arranged for him to perform extracts from his recent (1780) opera Idomeneo in her home before a set of guests that included Count Orsini-Rosenberg, the manager of the Imperial Theater. The Count "applauded warmly",[16] and not long thereafter gave his agreement to the plans to commission Mozart for the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which turned out (1782) to be his first great success in Vienna. As Mozart composed the work, Countess Thun listened with encouragement to each of three acts of the opera, performed on the piano by Mozart in her home, as he completed them.[3]

According to Kenyon, "after 1782, [Thun] features less often in his activities."[17] After Mozart's death in 1791, it is believed[18] that she helped financially with the schooling of his two surviving sons.

She was the dedicatee of Beethoven's Piano Trio in B flat, Opus 11.[19]

Notes

  1. ↑ Deutsch 1965, 673
  2. ↑ A-Wstm, Taufbuch Tom. B, p. 456
  3. 1 2 Braunbehrens
  4. 1 2 3 Clive 2001, 367
  5. ↑ Braunbehrens, Webster
  6. ↑ Quoted from Irving, 11
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 A-Ws
  8. 1 2 A-Wstm
  9. ↑ Clive 1993, 157; Clive 2001, 367
  10. 1 2 Clive 1993, 157
  11. ↑ Fuller-Maitland and Grove, 132, apparently refers to him as Lord Guilford, a different aristocratic title. A picture of her by Vigee-Lebrun is available.
  12. ↑ Schönfeld, Jahrbuch der Tonkunst für Wien und Prag, 1796
  13. ↑ Marquis de Ruvigny. The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal p. 391
  14. 1 2 Keefe
  15. ↑ Irving 1997, 166
  16. ↑ Source: Abert 2007. Gottfried van Swieten, an important future patron of Mozart, was also in the audience.
  17. ↑ Kenyon 127
  18. ↑ Source: Hoffmeister 196
  19. ↑ Grove

References

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