, you are not recovering, implore you by . . . not to hide it from me, but to tell me the whole truth or get someone to write it to me, so that as quickly as is humanly possible I may come to your arms. I entreat you by all that is sacred -- to both of us." Mozart would never see his father again. On Whit Monday, May 28th, 1787, this intelligent and complicated man died at the age of 68. He has lived long enough to witness his son's brilliance, and he probably understood that he himself had long been eclipsed. His greasiest success was at once his own most bitter personal failure. History has not been kind to Leopold Mozart, it is because it has never forgiven him. Anna Maria Mozart: Born: St. Gilgen, baptized December 25, 1720 Died: Paris, July 3, 1778 She was baptized on Christmas Day, 1720, in the parish church of St. Gilgen. The entry in the church register duly notes that she was the daughter of Eva Rosina and Nicolaus Pertl, deputy prefect of Hildenstein. Some years later, an anonymous hand would add: "Mother of the famous Mozart." Despite her being the son of famous Mozart, she remains an unknown quantity, a background presence that rarely takes center stage in accounts of her son's life. Her name has been the cause of some confusion. Whether through carelessness on the part of parish scribes, or because names once were more malleable than they are now, she is just as likely to be referred to as Maria Anna Mozart. She married Leopold Mozart on November 21, 1747. Five of their children died in infancy. The strongest survived six months, the weakest six days. Though back then, there was a bigger rate of in fact deaths, so it wasn't surprising to have 3 children die. The two children who survived were Maria Anna Walbuga Ignatia and Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Gottlieb. The children's father was a composer and on internationally recognized violin instructor, nothing could possibly have prepared the children's mother for what was to co...
