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She was baptized on Christmas Day, 1720, in the parish church of St. Gilgen. The entry in the church register duly notes that she was the daughter of Eva Rosina and Nicolaus Pertl, deputy prefect of Hildenstein. Years later, an anonymous hand would add: "Mother of the famous Mozart."
Despite this quite legitimate claim to fame, Anna Maria Mozart remains mostly an unknown quantity, a background presence that rarely takes center stage in accounts of her son's life. Even her name has been the cause of some confusion. Whether through carelessness on the part of parish scribes, or because names once were more malleable than they are now, she is just as likely to be referred to as Maria Anna Mozart.
She married Leopold Mozart on November 21, 1747. Five of their children died in infancy. The strongest survived six months, the weakest six days. Though such a high infant mortality rate may seem shocking to us, in those days it was commonplace and presumably was accepted by Anna Maria and her husband without question or undue heartache. By some miracle, two children survived: Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia and Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Gottlieb.
Though their father was a composer and an internationally recognized violin instructor, nothing could possibly have prepared the children's mother for what was to come. Their prodigious musical talent -- and Leopold's prodigious promotional talent -- would carry Anna Maria far from Salzburg. She and her family visited the courts of Europe and practically rubbed elbows with royalty: Maria Theresa and her son, Joseph, of Austria; Louis XV of France; and George III of England.
Though she was left behind during her son's three tours of Italy, circumstances led to her accompanying him on his fateful job-hunting expedition to southern Germany and Paris: Because the Archbishop of Salzburg would not grant Leopold leave to accompany his son, Anna Maria went instead. They left Salzburg for Bavaria in September 1777.
In her letters home, Anna Maria becomes suddenly tangible. They reveal an intelligent, optimistic woman possessed of a wry, self-deprecating wit. They also give us a good indication of the origin of Mozart's fondness for scatological humor. From Munich, she wrote to Leopold: "Addio, ben mio. Keep well, my love. Into your mouth your arse you'll shove. I wish you good-night, my dear, but first shit in your bed and make it burst. It is long after one o'clock already. Now you can go on rhyming yourself."
When things did not work out as planned in Germany, Leopold urged his wife and son on to Paris. Anna Maria reluctantly agreed, and they left Mannheim in the spring of 1778.
In Paris, the incessant rounds of socializing, teaching and job hunting meant that Mozart had to leave his mother alone for days at a time. She did not speak French. Neglected and isolated, she kept up a brave front. "I don't get out much, it is true, and the rooms are cold, even when a fire is burning," she wrote on May 1. "You just have to get used to it." Her health began to deteriorate. A letter of June 12 is full of gossip but shorter than usual because, she reported, she had been bled the day before and couldn't write much. Her last words to Leopold are in the postscript: "I must stop, for my arm and eyes are aching."
Three weeks later, Anna Maria was dead. "Her life flickered out like a candle," wrote her son to a family friend.
She was buried the next day in the churchyard of the parish of Saint-Eustache in Paris. The register read: "On the said day, Marie-Anne Pertl, aged 57 years, wife of Leopold Mozart, maître de chapelle at Salzburg, Bavaria, who died yesterday at Rue du Groschenet, has been interred in the cemetery in the presence of Wolfgang Amédée Mozart, her son, and of François Heina, trumpeter in the light cavalry in the Royal Guard, a friend."
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