The Jean-Lucien Hollenfeltz collection is the result of a bequest to the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, of this specific collection focusing on Mozart and his son, which belonged to the doctor, humanist and erudite musician Jean-Lucien Hollenfeltz. Amongst these books and music scores can be found several autograph works by Constance Mozart (1762-1842) and by Wolfgang Amadeus’ second-oldest son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791-1844).
Born in Arlon in 1898, Dr Hollenfeltz made his mark on history thanks to his acts of resistance during the Second World War, leading to his being killed near his home by a group of German soldiers. Hollenfeltz was a general practitioner, regional president of the Red Cross, but also an archeologist and musicologist who showed a special interest in the music of the eighteenth century, more particularly that of Mozart and his entourage. As a member of associations such as the "Société française de musicologie", the "Société internationale de musicologie" or the "Société d'études mozartiennes", he was a founding figure in the musical life of Arlon, and was in frequent contact with a large number of musicologists who specialised in questions related to this illustrious Austrian composer.
In April 1944, knowing that his days were numbered, he decided to bequeath most of his private collection to the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles.
Hollenfeltz’s enormous library of works on musicology, consists of 425 documents and is impressive for the number of very old and unpublished works of great value, comprises journals and works on musicology, bibliographic works, studies and biographical notes, along with original editions and autograph manuscripts. The collection also includes 73 copies of original scores in Dr Hollenfeltz’s own hand, prepared for the performance of these works at the concerts of « La Renaissance » which he organised, presented and conducted in his home town.
The highlight of the collection is, without doubt, Constance Mozart’s Album of memories – a small manuscript in an in-octavo oblong format, consisting of 166 pages, dated 1789 and covering the period from 1801-1823, carefully bound, partially illustrated, it is a kind of ‘poesie’, or album, containing reflections, poems or impressions on the theme of friendships in German, French, English, Italian and Latin.
Alongside this jewel, the collection also contains an autograph Travel journal, almost three-hundred pages long, by Mozart’s son Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, and also autograph correspondance in the form of letters written Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart and addressed to his mother, to his brother Karl Thomas Mozart, to his father-in-law beau-père Georg Nikolaus von Nissen and to certain music publishing houses in Leipzig including Carl Friedrich Peters and Breitkopf & Härtel, dated between 1802 and 1843.
The collection also comprises around twenty printed editions of works by the aforementioned F.X.W. Mozart (1791-1844), which have largely been forgotten, such as the Rondo for pianoforte in F major from 1802, of which the first 16 bars were written, and then abandoned by his illustrious father.
The items in this bequest are of major interest for musicological research related to Mozart, and the collection also includes an abundance of related iconography – engravings, lithographs and even a small number of photos.