5 June 1787
Oh Caro Amadé…
After such success in Prague! My heart goes out to you…
Losing your father & your bird in the same week is too cruel for words! Stanzi said you buried your little pet starling yesterday… he must have had the sweetest bird funeral music ever, if he was laid to rest by the same hands that wrote the gorgeous Grande Masse in C minor. I know what it is to lose a father, but I can’t begin to comprehend what it must mean to you & your little family to be denied the inheritance you gathered with your own childish brilliance all those years ago! How heartless of your sister to cut you off so completely – even if those were your father’s wishes. I hope to God you will be able to claim the autographs you’d sent home to Salzburg! If nothing else, you must keep your music! Oh Amadé, there isn’t a lot I can do for you now, but please know that you have 3 extra sisters, and a darling wife (& son!) who love you beyond belief…
Only the heroic among us dare to give everything for art.
♥A.
(Exerpts from Letters to Mozart © 2006 Kristin Serafini.)