Helga Váradi / Plamena Nikitassova / Jörg-Andreas Bötticher NANNERL MOZART

The music and personality of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have always been very close to my heart. I could not have predicted, however, that the late 18th century would become alive to me beyond his music and his life.

In 2017, the Swiss dressmaker Christian Tanner created a historical women’s collection in the style of the 1780s-90s that was completely sewn by hand and for which I became the face and the inspiration. The transformation that came through wearing these gowns, having historical “tower” hairdos created with my own hair, induced a feeling of magical connection between the past and the present that led me to wonder: What must have been the sense of self of a woman at that time? How must she have sat at her instrument, constrained by the tightness of her corset and how could she move her hands? By actively participating in historical reenactments like candle-light soirées, dances and leisurely walks, Mozart’s daily life as I imagined it to be, based on his surviving family correspondences, started to take a clearer shape. Through these experiences, I started feeling connected to the woman who in 1780 was the same age as myself today and who shared a most intimate relationship with Wolfgang, even before his first wife: His sister Nannerl.

Owing to these experiences, it became clear to me that I needed to let the world of Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart come alive on my next CD. The short film Name Day, that I realized after my own concept in the summer of 2018, visually accompanies the music of the CD. I thus created an additional connection for the music-loving listener by portraying a day in the life of the Mozart family in Salzburg as it was documented in authentic sources. Nannerl’s diary entries carry information about whom she spent the 30th of July 1783 – her Name Day – with and they describe the delicious culinary gifts she got from her brother in great detail.1

During the preparations, it became clear to me that the CD should focus not only on Nannerl’s personality, but also on the relationship between the siblings. Their closeness can be seen clearly in the way Nannerl’s extraordinary talent is reflected in her brother’s music that serves as a monument to both of them.