The Mirabell Palace in Salzburg occupies a special place in the history of classical music. It was in the Palace’s Marble Hall that the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus von Colloredo, would often showcase the prodigious talents of his protégé, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, playing to a standard beyond his years for the Prince-Archbishop’s admiring guests.
Today, music-lovers can enjoy hearing Mozart’s most famous works played in the very same Marble Hall in which he performed, a space that has been so beautifully preserved that it is indistinguishable from the surroundings in which Mozart would have dazzled audiences with his prowess at both the violin and the keyboard.
The Mirabell Palace Concerts are given by a host of expert chamber orchestras and ensembles, including Orchester 1756, Quartett 1791 and the Trio Mirabell. And many of the concerts at the Palace are played on period instruments in order to authentically capture the magic of Mozart’s music. Bach, Handel, Haydn and Vivaldi, as well as less well-known composers of the baroque period such as František Xaver Dušek and Giuseppe Tartini, also feature in the Palace’s programmes.
Famously, Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus’ father, embarked upon a three-year tour of Europe with his wife, Anna Maria, and his two children when Wolfgang’s sister, Nannerl, was eleven years old and Wolfgang himself just seven. Maybe, by becoming his patron, von Colloredo hoped to keep the brilliant young Mozart to himself, but Mozart was a talent too great to serve just one master and he would eventually leave Salzburg to achieve great success across the continent.
Mozart may have found fame and fortune in Prague and Vienna, but Salzburg is where his story began. A performance of his music in the Marble Hall of the Mirabell Palace is an event that every concertgoer should include on their musical itinerary.
