Page "Antonio Salieri" Paragraph 43

However, even with Mozart and Salieri being rivals for certain jobs, there is very little evidence that the relationship between the two composers was at all acrimonious beyond this, especially after 1785 or so when Mozart had become established in Vienna.

Rather, they appeared to usually see each other as friends and colleagues and supported each other's work.

For example, when Salieri was appointed Kapellmeister in 1788 he revived Figaro instead of bringing out a new opera of his own ; and when he went to the coronation festivities for Leopold II in 1790 he had no fewer than three Mozart masses in his luggage.

Salieri and Mozart even composed a cantata for voice and piano together, called Per la ricuperata salute di Ophelia, which celebrated the return to stage of the singer Nancy Storace.

This work has been lost, although it had been printed by Artaria in 1785.

Mozart's Davide penitente ( 1785 ), his Piano Concerto in E flat major ( 1785 ), the Clarinet Quintet ( 1789 ) and the great Symphony in G minor ( 1788 ) had been premiered on the suggestion of Salieri, who supposedly conducted a performance of it in 1791.

In his last surviving letter from 14 October 1791, Mozart tells his wife that he collected Salieri and Caterina Cavalieri in his carriage and drove them both to the opera ; about Salieri's attendance at his opera The Magic Flute, speaking enthusiastically: " He heard and saw with all his attention, and from the overture to the last choir there was not a piece that didn't elicit a ' Bravo!

' or ' Bello!

' out of him [...].