AUENBRUGGER, Marianna

  Marianna Auenbrugger was an Austrian pianist and composer. She was the daughter of the doctor Leopold Auenbrugger and his wife Anna von Priestersberg and the younger sister of Katharina Auenbrugger. Although already sickly as a young girl, she received a comprehensive education like her older sister with Antonio Salieri, for whose opera Der Rauchfangkehrer his father Auenbrugger wrote the libretto. In addition, regular musical matinees were held in her parents' house, with some distinguished guests including Joseph Haydn as well as Leopold and W. A. ​​Mozart. It can be assumed that both sisters appeared regularly in these matinees. In a letter to his wife, Leopold Mozart mentions “2 daughters, both of whom are special: the older one is incomparable, and completely owns the music” (12 Aug 1773).

Both Auenbrugger sisters were highly valued as pianists by Joseph Haydn, who dedicated his Piano SonatasHob.XVI: 35-39 and 20 to them.

Antonio Salieri composed an ode (Deh si piace voli) on the untimely death of his former student. This came to print in the appendix of her Sonata per il Clavicembalo, the only printed work by Marianna Auenbrugger, whereby Salieri called himself “amico & Ammiratore delle di Lei rare Virtudi” (“friend and admirer of her rare abilities”).