We arrived here safely yesterday morning at 9 o’clock. – We spent the first night at Vögelbruck; – on the following morning we reached Lambbach – just in time for me to accompany the Agnus Dei on the organ during the mass. – The prelate was most delighted to see me again … We stayed all day, and I played the organ and a clavichord. – Then I was told that an opera would be performed at Ebersperg in the house of the Prefect Steurer, whose wife is the the sister of Frau von Barisani; in other words, nearly all of Linz would be gathered there; – so I decided to join the party, and we drove out there. – Right after we arrived the young Count Thun, the brother of Count Thun in Vienna, came up to me and informed me that his father had been expecting our visit for 2 weeks and I should drive to his house directly because he wanted us to to stay with him. – I said I could easily find an inn – but when we came to the city gate of Linz the next day, a servant was waiting for us to take us to Count Thun the Elder, where, in fact, we are staying at the moment.  – It is hard to describe the wealth of the courtesies that are being showered upon us in this house – On Tuesday, that’s November 4th, I will give a concert at the theatre here. -  and as I didn’t bring one single Simphonie with me, I’ll have to write a a New one in a hurry, for it has to be finished by that time. – I must close now, for I have to start work at once.

Mozart, in a letter to his father, Linz, October 31 1783.

Cited in: Spaethling, Robert (2000) Mozart’s Letters; Mozart’s Life. London: Faber and Faber, p.362.


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