History of Bertramka

Josefina Dušek, maiden name Hambacher (1754-1824)

Contemporaries knew Josefina Dušek as a really excellent singer with a strong voice and expressive performances. The strict Leopold Mozart even reproached her for this. She had the reputation of being an excellent host, and not only on account of her hospitable home. Good company was always found at the Dušek home, which never shut out anything new and beautiful and where it was possible to speak, play and act in freedom.

Her father was a pharmacist on Old Town Square and her mother came from a respected bourgeois family in Salzburg. At only 12 years of age she lost her father, however she still had the possibility to dedicate herself to the development of her outstanding musical talent. František Xaver Dušek became her teacher of music from the year 1770, and in 1776 they were married. This marriage of a couple of very different ages at that time and to this day evokes a line of tales and questions. However, it is known that Mr. Dušek was a charismatic teacher, who basically influenced all of his students, and at the same time an individual, who enjoyed a natural and deserved authority in the musical world. Josefina at his side could dedicate herself to her love of music in a respectable social position, which the theatre engagements in several of the theatre companies would not have insured her, and, she was able to move within the court and artistic circles.

About their property status witnesses the acquirement of real property. The purchase of Bertramka in 1784 was not the only one. She could also nurture her taste in art and sculpture and increase her art collection. Painters also belonged among her admirers and friends.

Critics compared her singing to the most famous singers of that period. She performed in Prague, several times at individual academies in Germany, mainly in Dresden and Liepzig, and in Vienna. At these concerts there were definitely mainly court audiences, exceptionally also in opera performances. During a stay with relatives in Salzburg in the year 1777 Josefina and her husband met the Mozart family. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was her contemporary. Both liked to joke around and they were close in temperaments. Mozart dedicated to her the aria Ah, lo previdi, and at Bertramka he wrote for her the aria Bella mia fiamma, addio. Josefina on several occasions performed with Mozart, in Vienna in 1786 for the emperor's court attended by Joseph II and in Saxony in the year 1789. She also worked with the young Ludwig van Beethoven. We can say, that the Dušeks remained friends with Mozart to his grave, and it is sure that Constanze Mozart, following her husband's death, entrusted her sons to their care and the voice of Mrs. Dušek was heard at the Memorial Service for Mozart in Prague.

When Mr. Dušek died in 1799, financial burdens began to weigh heavily upon Josefina Dušek. She sold Bertramka and gradually moved to smaller and smaller apartments. However, she continued to sing, and mainly in big works of religious music, masses and oratorios. She died in the year 1824 in relative poverty, and is buried in the same place as her husband, in the Lesser Town Cemetery, not far from Bertramka.

František Xaver Dušek (1731-1799)

He came from a country family. However, his musical talent found support from the owner of the manor, a well-known sponsor of art, the Count Johann Karl Sporck, who made it possible for Dušek's studies and musical education at the Jesuit Gymansium in Hradec Králové. After an accident, which left permanent physical effects, Dušek had to stop his studies and dedicate himself only to music.

He first studied in Prague with Franz Habermann and then in Vienna with Georg Christoph Wagenseil. Later, in the year 1770 he settled in Prague, where he quickly became a known and sought after piano pedagogue, mainly in the noble circles. Among his pupils were also future, excellent professional musicians, such as Leopold Koželuh, Vincenc Mašek, Jan August Vitásek, as well as his future wife, the singer Josefina Hambacher, whom he married in the year 1776. As a teacher and composer he was so sought after, that it was never necessary for him to have permanent employment, which for the majority of musicians at this time represented the single, guaranteed source of income.

Even though there was a big difference in their age, which was the cause of much gossip, the couple was joined by their exceptional musical talent and their wide cultural views, their good financial and community standing, their comparative artistic freedom, their personal charm and the hospitality of their home. Mr. And Mrs. Dušek took in hopeful, beginning artists and famous musicians, who they invited to Prague. From the year 1777, when the Dušeks visited relatives in Salzburg, they kept in personal as well as artistic contact with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his family. For example the obituary of František Dušek in the Prager Neue Zeitung reports that "the great Mozart revered him and used to come to his house as to house of his father."

In composition he dedicated himself to profane music, working with the noble bands of Count Pachta and Count Clam-Gallas, in whose musical archive we can find his compositions. Parts of his piano pieces have an instructive character. His chamber and orchestral work (string quartets, the symphony, and others) show the passage from older, compositional principles to the music at the height of classicism.

W. A. Mozart's First Stay in Prague (January 11-February 8, 1787)

Prague, as a city without a ruling court, did not interest Mozart at first, even when his musician friends of Czech origin, including the Dušeks and Josef Mysliveček, recommended it to him for a long time. His opera, The Marriage of Figaro, had unprecedented success first in Prague, possibly only comparable with the enthusiasm over the Prague performance of The Abduction form the Seraglio, four years before. Mozart then received letters from the orchestra of the theatre as well as from several distinguished individuals inviting him to Prague. He came with his wife, and was the guest of his long term supporter, the Count Thun. The newspapers welcomed him and repeated the appeal for him to put together a concert in Prague. On the 19th of January the premiere of his new Symphony in D-Major was heard in the Nostitz (Estates) Theatre, where Mozart also proved to be a brilliant piano player in his fantasy and amazed audience by his ability to improvise.

Throughout the course of this month stay, Mozart with his wife visited community and musical events, went through the library at Clementinum and wrote the 6 German dances for Count Pachta. He did not meet with Josefina Dušek on this visit. She was on a concert tour in Dresden. Mozart returned to Vienna richer with new friends, good earnings and a commission from the impresario Bondini for a new opera straight for the autumn season.

The Second Stay of W. A. Mozart in Prague (October 3rd - November 13th(?), 1787)

Mozart came to Prague on the 3rd of October the same year again, in order to lead the performance of the new opera Don Giovanni, based on a commission of Bondini. The original date planned for the premiere on the 14th of October, was unable to be met and in its place, due to the enthusiastic response of the public, Mozart directed a performance of The Marriage of Figaro. How hectic this stay progressed is shown to us in Mozart's letters written to his friend, the Jacquin, the regular news of the official Prague press as well as the bits and pieces of the recollections of those who met with him. Alternating with the Director Guardasoni, he led rehearsals in the theatre with the orchestra and the singers, revised the score according to them, consulted on the text with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, and visited the homes of distinguished noblemen, musical friends as well as his favourite Prague hosts. But, he mainly finished in haste the remaining parts of the opera.

Mozart came to Prague with the piece still unfinished. At the beginning of his stay, he stayed in a pub at the Uhelný trh (Coal Market) not far from the theatre. Later he moved in with the Dušeks and went with them into the fall nature of Bertramka, where his composing wouldn't be disturbed. The author doesn't date the finished opera until the 28th October, 1787, which is merely day before the premiere. Through a study of the development of the libretto, as well as of the score and the papers used, it is possible today to successfully identify the parts written only in Prague, for example, several arias, the finale and the overture.

October 29th became the decisive evening, which the entire Prague public looked forward to. The new opera was heard and its success was unheard of. The piece was created which was ahead of its time and rightly bears the title of the opera of operas. The following performance was also successful and Mozart had time for composing smaller compositions for friends, for example, the aria Bella mia fiamma, addio for Mrs. Dušek. He even had time to get to know Prague sights, including the Monastery at Strahov.

Mozart refused the offer to stay in Prague and write another opera. Even with all of his success, Vienna and its court was where he sought his main place. His hope was for the vacant position as court composer, which would secure the financial situation for his family and provide him with new creative opportunities. However, he received only the modest title of "Kammermusicus", which was not accompanied by a commission for further bigger works. Even Don Giovanni was not compassionately received in this city of royal residence. It was not able to reach the level of the Prague production and the opera did not fit the tastes of the court or the regular Viennese public.

Mozart's Last Stay in Prague (August 8- the middle of September, 1791)

This third significant meeting of Mozart with Prague preceded two fleeting, stop over trips on concerts to Berlin in the company of the Prince Karl Lichnowsky in the year 1789. At that time there occurred the negotiations for the profitable commission of a new opera for Guardasoni. However, his company at a later time left Prague and the new opera was abandoned.

Only the planning of the coronation of Leopold II as Czech King brought Mozart back to Prague. According to Guardasoni's commission, the new opera of Mozart's, La clemenza di Tito, was to adorn the coronation ceremony. Mozart with his wife were accompanied on this trip by his student, Süssmayer, who had worked on the recitative for the new opera. Although Mozart was overwhelmed with working on the preparations for this new premiere, he was requested to direct the performance of Don Giovanni on the 2nd of September for the court audience and the opera again had success. He also visited his brothers at the free mason lodge, where the cantata Die Maurerfreude was performed.

On the 6th of September, the day of the coronation, the premiere of Mozart's new opera was not well received by the official public. For Mozart, whose future depended upon the support of the new emperor, it was a big disappointment. These moods are reflected in the aria lo ti lascio, o cara, addio, which he apparently wrote in haste before departing. So for the last time he parted with his Prague friends and quickly returned to Vienna, where work on the preparation for the opera The Magic Flute awaited him. Not long after, Mozart died.

News of Mozart's death on the 5th of December, 1791 painfully affected his friends and supporters in Prague. On the initiation of the members of the theatre orchestra, a memorial service was arranged on the 14th of December in the Church of St. Nicholas in Lesser Town. Here the Requiem by Roesler Rosetti was played under the direction of the conductor of the theatre orchestra, Joseph Strobach, and by 120 participating musicians and singers. Among the soloist who performed was Josefina Dušek. The service was attended by several thousands of people.

Bertramka´s destiny

The area on the southwest from the walls of the city of Prague behind the Újezd gate from the year 1342 belonged to the Carthusian monastery. Even at that time the advantageous location of the surrounding sides moved members of the order to found extensive wineries. From the 16th century the rich Prague bourgeois began the construction of agricultural buildings, as well as well-built residential homes and summer homes with a view. This is how in the area of the present Smíchov an entire area of estates originated, used for farming as well as for rest.

Around the year 1700 a was built today's buildings of Bertramka. The summer residence changed hands several times, and the traditional name acquired "Bertramka" no earlier than the middle of the 18th century, based on the name Franzisca and Franz Berthram of Berthram.

Josefina Dušek bought Bertramka in April of 1784. In this place today there is a busy traffic artery next to a dusty highway Plzeňská street and the creek which flowed through the garden is now under grown. In addition to wine, Bertramka produced fruit, wheat and milk, and of course also foul and vegetables for the needs of the household. Mr. and Mrs. Dušek could then provide their guests with rich hospitality even at their table. The majority of the guests however sought above all a place, where they could freely discuss art and where it was possible to listen to good music. Mozart, who stayed at Bertramka in October of 1787 and at the end of August, beginning of September 1791, found here only an undisturbed peace for his work. Bertramka was the property of Mr. And Mrs. Dušek for fifteen years and during this time Josefina converted it into a comparatively ostentatious residence, which she decorated with her art collection.

After the death of her husband in 1799 Josefina Dušek was forced to sell Bertramka. It isn't known, whether the following numerous owners were aware of the fact, that Mozart stayed in their home. In the year 1838 the business man and Mozart´s admirer, Lambert Popelka with his wife got the house and land at an auction. He shared Bertramka as well as his love of Mozart with his son, Adolf Popelka. Adolf collected treasures of Mozart and gradually took interest in the room, which, according to tradition, is where Mozart stayed. He made contact with Karl Thomas Mozart in 1856, and had a bust of Mozart placed in the gardens. In the year of the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Don Giovanni he organised a memorial gathering at Bertramka, on which also Antonín Dvořák participated. At the turn of 1872-73 Bertramka was affected by a fire, after which it was partially renovated. Mathilda Sliwenská inherited Bertramka after Popelka's widow in the year 1918, who willed Bertramka in very bad condition to the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1925.

After several endeavours it was possible with the support of music enthusiasts and state grants to get Bertramka into the Mozart Society in the Czech Republic in 1929. During the reconstruction in the Protectorate the previous repairs and additions at Bertramka were done away with, such as the raised ceilings, the layers of wall paper were removed down to the original mural paintings, the renovations to the Sala terrena and the discovery of the original painted ceiling beams from the beginning of the 18th century. During the preparations for the Mozart celebration in the year 1956 the reconstruction of Bertramka was completed and the permanent exhibit was put together on the first floor of the previous residential home, as a reminder of the famous period in the history of Bertramka.