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3 months ago
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MOZART. The name is singular, but the person was many things: a child prodigy. A musical genius. A prolific and influential composer, whose wondrous tickling of the ivories led them to became the toast of Europe’s most discerning audiences. Then, a mystery for the ages: virtually overnight, Mozart faded from view. A composer who never got their flowers.
Hang on there chief, we hear you say. Mozart’s SUPER famous. Like, household name famous. To which we’d respond, yes – Wolfgang Mozart is. But we’ve been describing the far lesser celebrated Maria-Anna Mozart. And this symphonic story is one of a duo, not a soloist.
If you’ve never heard of Mozart’s sister, you’re not alone. Born five years earlier than her little brother Wolfgang, she had an extraordinary ear for music from an early age. When Wolfgang arrived, it was clear they were a pair of prodigies. Together, they toured British palaces and French courts, wowing royalty with their skills as pianists and composers. Forget Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran – the Mozarts were the 18th century’s version of music megastars.
Wolfgang went on to become arguably the most renowned classical composer in all of human history, producing over 600 works, many of them beloved. Yet his sister, despite outliving her famous brother by nearly four decades, remains shrouded in obscurity.
This beautifully produced (and surprisingly compelling) documentary is a self-described “musical mystery” – yes, like an episode of CSI: Symphony, handwriting analysis does get involved! But it’s really more than that. It’s a story of oppression from the past, and how that oppression robbed us of some spectacular fruits from fertile creative soil.
If you’re thinking that all sounds a bit more adagio elegy than vivace allegro, take heart – Mozart's Sister is also a stirring look at the scraps of Maria-Anna’s story that HAVE survived, and how she’s inspired a new set of geniuses today. As one interviewee puts it: “The thought of having ANOTHER Mozart blew my mind.”
Told through a sophisticated blend of gorgeous reenactments and tasty interviews with contemporary experts, Writer, Director and Producer Madeleine Hetherton-Miau injects Mozart's Sister with a curiosity that’s infectious. This isn’t a dreary plod through a long-dead world. You don’t need a symphony orchestra membership to enjoy the film, or to appreciate its potent message: our past prejudices mean that we’ve already lost the work of many talented women. Let’s not repeat our mistakes.
Together, Director Hetherton-Miau and Producer Rebecca Barry made a smart choice tapping 19-year old British composer, pianist, violinist, conductor and former child prodigy Alma Deutscher for narration duties. Her melodic young voice instantly ties Maria-Anna’s fate, as a woman in the 18th century, to Deutscher’s own today. "If I had lived in the time of Mozart,” she ponders, “who knows what my life would have been like? Maybe I'd have had to give it all up."
The film does an excellent job of bringing the Mozart children to life, first as wunderkinds on the piano, then as brilliant touring musicians in their pre-teens (arranged by their father, Leopold). The reenactments are, of course, speculation. But it's intriguing to witness how much of a guiding force Maria-Anna played, as an older sibling, in enabling her brother’s talent – and to hear the opinions of experts who suggest it was an enormous amount.
Alma’s voiceover explains that the Mozart siblings “grew up in a world of endless possibilities”. It definitely feels that way when you learn that Wolfgang and Maria-Anna earned more for one single Royal Court performance than their father did in an entire year. If this was today, they’d definitely be travelling by private jet. The dark irony was that for Maria-Anna, those “endless possibilities” pretty much vanished at age 15.
Yep. While extraordinary children were celebrated, performing for money as a woman in the 18th century was considered improper, unladylike. In some countries, a woman playing an instrument was even akin to prostitution. It simply wasn’t done. So while there were jobs for male musicians, it was unthinkable that Maria-Anna could earn money that way (and as a composer?! Forget it). There was no future in it for her, and she never toured again.
Instead, the focus swung to Wolfgang, and the rest is history. What’s palpable is the freedom of equality that Maria-Anna must’ve experienced in those early years touring with Wolfgang, and then the sudden stop – to our modern eyes, it seems infuriating, unfair and absurd.
We’re left to wonder, did Maria-Anna accept this with grace (because she had no choice), or was she in a world of hidden hurt at losing her spectacular creative outlet? As Alma points out, “The sad thing is, we don't know how much we lost from all these very talented female composers and musicians who were never taken seriously.”
Mozart’s Sister does include one fascinating exception to the women in music ban: cloistered nuns could compose and perform their own songs, because they weren’t seen in public. But no trace of the nuns’ music has survived – because they themselves didn’t think anything they created could have any real value. That’s the destructive power of gendered perceptions and socialisation. Ironically, the abbey with this 1000-year history of women’s music is perched atop a beautiful hill in Salzburg, Austria… overlooking the Mozart family home.
Across classical music composers, women's participation remains stubbornly low.
For all its focus on cracking the modern-day glass ceiling, Mozart’s Sister is a pretty cracking investigative story too. The fact that Maria-Anna Mozart stunned the upper classes of Europe with her talent isn’t up for debate. So why do we know so little about her? We know she continued composing after her brother went touring without her – so where is her music? And even more intriguingly, were some of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s famous works actually composed by Maria-Anna, and credited to him instead?
Hetherton-Miau puts her camera in front of music historians, artistic directors and conductors to tweeze out the answers, and the groupthink is illuminating. In one scene, Paul Dyer AO, the Artistic Director of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, describes the stylistic difference between the movements of a Mozart symphony as a clue that the piece could be a collaboration between them. “The exquisite, slow chords in the second movement make me think that it was her speaking”, he explains. “The fun & exuberance of Wolfgang comes in the first and third movement!"
Other experts point to the astonishing orchestration, or the pieces that rely on four hands to play in a duet, as evidence that Maria-Anna composed far more of Wolfgang Mozart’s work than previously recognised. One thing they all agree on is that she didn't just transcribe Wolfgang’s compositions without saying a word. “It's obvious from how close they were musically, they would've swapped ideas and opinions”, acclaimed British conductor Dame Jane Glover tells us. “It's safe to say it was a collaboration.”
“I love that Wolfgang was always a keen supporter of his sister, praising her and writing music that showcased her virtuoso keyboard skills. It seems he was able to step beyond the social conventions of the time and recognise her as an artist.”
~ Madeleine Hetherton-Miau, Writer, Director & Producer
But as any Hollywood lawyer will tell you, when there’s credits at stake, things get serious. The tone gets all Da Vinci Code when we meet the founder of the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, Professor Martin Jarvis (bet you didn’t know Darwin had a symphony orchestra, did you). He’s so determined to define Maria-Anna’s genuine works that he teams up with an American forensic handwriting analyst, who’s more familiar with espionage cases than sheet music.
It’s a fiendish puzzle to unlock. For one thing, lots of the manuscripts were dated and labelled after Mozart’s death, aged just 36. Others are too faded or damaged to properly analyse (where was a good photocopier in 1791 when you needed one?). But the bigger question is, even if the real authorship is proven, what does it mean for the legacy of these works, and to those who appreciate them? Are they better, more enjoyable? Does it truly matter?
For classical music lovers like Martin Jarvis, the answer is simple: “If we finally had a concert of music by Maria-Anna Mozart, that would make me feel very happy”. But a clinical expert like Heidi Harralson – who matches handwriting samples with no “skin in the game” – risks making a determination that could change history. She even hints that some classical music experts don’t WANT to learn their favourite symphony may have been composed by a woman. “There does seem to be a cognitive bias problem in the art world,” she suggests, in an echo of the repression Maria-Anna faced 250 years ago. “It's hard to shift the bias – especially if that belief system has been going on for hundreds of years.”
There’s a huge (and hugely frustrating) misperception about classical music. Because the vast majority of the canon was composed by men, people STILL subconsciously think that “only men compose classical music.” Like a default setting. It’s also a Catch-22: as the saying goes, “you can’t be it if you can’t see it”, and since there’s so few compositions by female composers being performed, there’s less inciting sparks for young women to launch their own careers.
Through her experts and their stories, Hetherton-Miau is is keen to redress this, reinforcing the message that this landscape has never been an easy path for women to tread. “No composer is able to write great work without someone encouraging them and saying, write more”, says music historian Sarah Fritz. “So that's what women were lacking.”
Award-winning Brazilian operatic soprano and activist Gabriella Di Laccio puts it even more starkly. She describes the lack of women composers’ work being programmed and heard in concert halls as curious, saying “87% of the repertoire is composed by dead white men. This bias creates this lack of courage for women to pursue this career.”
But while the sheer lack of visibility (or should we say, audibility) of women in classical music kept the doors shut, the reverse can also be true. At London’s Royal Academy of Music, we join an exclusive conducting tutorial led by Dame Jane Glover, who seems fizzy with excitement when she admits, “Things have really changed since I've started. There's much more opportunity for women to train.”
At the other end of the age spectrum, 19 year old Alma Deutscher conducts with the bravura skill of a maestra with decades more experience. It’s a metaphorical passing of the baton that Maria-Anna never got the chance to wield. But perhaps she’s there on the concert stage in spirit? “Even though she may not have fully realised her talents,” Alma tells us, “the idea that Maria-Anna also composed, inspired me to compose myself.”
It’s a wonderful coda to see Alma turn to her audience and, when she asks if anyone has a suggestion for her next piece, a young girl of around 10 bounces up to the stage. The implication is pretty clear: she may be still in her teens, but Deutscher is already inspiring the next generation. While it’s fair to feel an emptiness over the music we’ll never hear, listen to new work being produced today and try not to feel stirred. As the Mozart’s Sister credits roll over Deutscher’s stunning Waltz of the Sirens, inspired by the sounds of Austria’s busy modern streets, it’s easy to imagine Maria-Anna herself leaping to a proud standing O.
This story is a reminder of the status of women in the world, and the personal and social cost of discrimination. There is a critical debate underway about women in the arts and in our society generally, which Mozart’s Sister is now a part of.”
~ Madeleine Hetherton-Miau, Writer, Director & Producer
For a story that delves into the groaning shelves of musicologists’ archives and researchers’ records, you might expect this doco to be equally creaky and dusty. Mozart’s Sister is anything but. A lively and enchanting watch, it goes without saying that classical music lovers will be in raptures. For non-classical buffs (even if you can’t tell a piccolo flute from a piccolo latte), you’ll be struck by this film and its clarion call for gender equity.
No-one with ears would question Wolfgang Mozart's longevity and influence. It’s obvious what his vibrant catalogue of musical works means to the conductors and composers interviewed on screen. What Mozart’s Sister takes the time to ponder is how Maria-Anna Mozart's life could have unfolded if she lived in a time where her own talents were allowed to flourish alongside her brother’s. Could she have enjoyed an equal share in Wolfgang’s legacy and success?
It’s an unanswerable question, but asking it is important when we consider what the next era in modern classical music looks like. There are so many more avenues for music to be shared and enjoyed now: gaming, streaming, even in virtual reality. In the same way that Alma Deutscher was inspired by Maria-Anna to create, Mozart’s Sister reinforces that music can (and should) be a platform for anyone. Push aside the “default setting”, and it’s obvious that in the world of classical music, the only thing of importance between your legs is a cello.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for an international soprano, Gabriella Di Laccio voices the message beautifully in the closing stages of the film. “If we don't encourage women now, it repeats,” she says firmly on camera. “Why don't we think their music would be great? Because I truly believe it would be better than what we could possibly imagine.”
Secure advanced tickets to Mozart's Sister – including select Q&A screenings with filmmakers and leading Australian composers – in one easy step with good.film.
Hit the link and select your state to find a screening near you!
BOOK MOZART’S SISTER TICKETS