Maria Wilhelmine Thun

Countess Maria Wilhelmine Thun-Hohenstein, née Uhlfeldt [Deutsch 1965, 673] (Vienna 13 June 1744 - Vienna 18 May 1800) [A-Wstm, Taufbuch Tom. B, p. 456] was a Viennese aristocrat of the 18th century. She is remembered as the sponsor of a musically and intellectually outstanding salon and for her patronage of music, notably that of Mozart and Beethoven. [Braunbehrens]

Life

She was the daughter of Imperial Count of the Realm Anton Corfiz Ulfeld (also spelled Uhlfeldt; 1699-1770), who "held several high political and court appointments" [Clive 2001, 367] and his second wife Maria Elisabeth (1726-1786), a princess of the Lobkowitz family. At age 17 (30 July 1761) she married Count Franz Joseph Anton Thun-Hohenstein (1734-1801), who later became an Imperial Chamberlain.

In the 1750's, the young Countess Thun may have studied music with the young Joseph Haydn, at the time a struggling freelancer. This is difficult to determine, since the source indicating this only gives the title "Countess Thun," which was held by other women over time as well. [Braunbehrens, Webster] Whoever her teacher may have been, the Countess evidently became a very skilled musician. The visiting English musicologist Charles Burney praised her harpsichord playing in print, saying that she "possesses as great skill in music as any person of distinction [i.e., aristocrat] I ever knew." [Quoted from Irving, 11]

The salon that developed in her home is described by Clive as "a focal point of the musical and social life of the Viennese aristocracy." [Clive 2001, 367]

She had six children, of whom four survived into adulthood:

*Maria Theresia (3 August 1762-1763) [A-Ws]
*Maria Elisabeth (25 April 1764-1806) [A-Ws] on 4 November 1788 [A-Wstm] married Count (later Prince) Andrei Kyrillovich Razumovsky, who became Russian ambassador in Vienna (1793-1799) and was a patron of Beethoven. [Clive 1993, 157; Clive 2001, 367]
*Maria Christiane Josepha (25 July 1765-1841) [A-Ws] on 24 November 1788 [A-Wstm] married Prince Carl Alois Nepomuk Vinzenz Leonard, Fürst Lichnowsky. She was a "fine pianist" (Clive 1993) and was a patron of both Mozart and Beethoven. [Clive 2001, 367]
*Ferdinand Joseph (29 August 1766-1768) [A-Ws]
*Joseph Johann (5 December 1767-1810) [A-Ws] succeeded his father as Count. [Clive 1993, 157]
*Maria Carolina Anna (19 May 1769-1800) [A-Ws] married (1793) an English aristocrat, Lord Guilford. [Fuller-Maitland and Grove, 132] She "excelled as a singer and guitarist" [Schönfeld, Jahrbuch der Tonkunst für Wien und Prag, 1796] .

Relations with Mozart and Beethoven

It is possible that Countess Thun first met Mozart in 1762, when she was 18 and he was seven; this was during an early concert tour of the Mozart family, carried out to display their children as musical prodigies; the young Mozart performed in her father's home. [Clive 1993, 157] In 1781, when the 25-year-old Mozart moved permanently to Vienna to pursue his career, he and Thun became friends (they ate lunch together frequently). [Keefe] Mozart wrote of her to his father Leopold (24 March 1781), " [she is] the most charming and lovable lady I have ever met; and I am very high in her favor." [Irving 1997, 166] He frequently performed in her home, and she lent him her excellent Stein piano when Mozart performed before the Emperor in competition with Muzio Clementi, 24 December 1781. [Keefe]

Thun may have played an essential role in Mozart's career when she arranged for him to perform extracts from his recent (1780) opera "Idomeneo" in her home before a set of guests that included Count Orsini-Rosenberg, the manager of the Imperial Theater. The Count "applauded warmly", [Source: Abert 2007. Gottfried van Swieten, an important future patron of Mozart, was also in the audience.] and not long thereafter gave his agreement to the plans to commission Mozart for the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail", which turned out (1782) to be his first great success in Vienna. As Mozart composed the work, Countess Thun listened with encouragement to each of three acts of the opera, performed on the piano by Mozart in her home, as he completed them. [Braunbehrens]

According to Kenyon, "after 1782, [Thun] features less often in his activities." [Kenyon 127] After Mozart's death in 1791, it is believed [Source: Hoffmeister 196] that she helped financially with the schooling of his two surviving sons.

She was the dedicatee of Beethoven's Piano Trio in B flat, Opus 11. [Grove]

Notes

References

*A-Ws, baptismal records.
*A-Wstm, marriage records
*Abert, Hermann (2007) "W. A. Mozart". Yale University Press. (New edition of a much old biography)
*Braunbehrens, Volkmar (1990) "Mozart in Vienna".
*Clive, Peter (1993) "Mozart and His Circle: A Biographical Dictionary", Yale University Press.
*Clive, Peter (2001) "Beethoven and His World: A Biographical Dictionary", Oxford University Press.
*Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965) "Mozart: A Documentary Biography". Stanford University Press.
*Fuller-Maitland, John and George Grove (1880) "A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450-1880)". Macmillan.
*"Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", on line edition, article "Ludwig van Beethoven", work list. Copyright 2007 by Oxford University Press.
*Hoffmeister, Gerda (2002) "Mythos Mozart: Versuch einer persönlichen Annäherung". Books on Demand.
*Irving, John (1997) "Mozart's Piano Sonatas: Contexts, Sources, Style", Cambridge University Press.
*Keefe, Simon P. (2006) "Thun-Hohenstein family," in Cliff Eisen and Simon P. Keefe, eds., "The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia", Cambridge University Press.
*Kenyon, Nicholas (2006) "The Pegasus Pocket Guide to Mozart", Pegasus Books.
*Webster, James. Article "Joseph Haydn," in "Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", on line edition, article "Ludwig van Beethoven", work list. Copyright 2007 by Oxford University Press.