In the hope of improving his circumstances, Mozart resumed his plan of taking a professional tour; the coronation of Leopold II. in Frankfort, on October 9, attracted a large number of strangers to that city, and seemed to render it a favourable place for the experiment. Salieri, as court kapellmeister,[9] Ign. Umlauf as his deputy, and fifteen chamber musicians, were sent to Frankfort among the retinue of the Emperor.[10] Mozart was not included among the number, and thus was deprived of the advantage of the imperial patronage. On September 23 he set off, after pawning his silver plate to defray the expenses of his journey (Vol. II., p. 301) in company with his brother-in-law, the violinist Hofer, whom he took with him out of compassion, and with the intention of sharing the expected profits together; they travelled in their own carriage, and, arriving in Frankfort on the 23rd, had considerable difficulty in finding a lodging, owing to the overflow of strangers into the town. On October 14, at noon, Mozart gave a concert in the Stadt-theater.[11] The contrabassist Ludwig, long since dead, who took part in the concert, used to tell how the piano stood upon the stage, and how during the rehearsal the restless, agile little man was continually leaping over the prompter's box into the orchestra to chat in a friendly way with the various performers, and then climb back again on to the stage. Mozart's own compositions were exclusively performed at this concert; he played the concertos in F major (459 K.) and D major (537 K.). Margarethe Hamel, afterwards Frau Schick, was the vocalist, and so charmed Mozart by her voice and delivery that he is said to have exclaimed repeatedly: "I never wish to hear any other singing {LABOUR AND POVERTY.} (278) than this."[12] It is also said that he played a pianoforte concerto as a duet with old "Papa Beecké" (Vol. I., pp. 151,368), whom he met again here.[13] He acquaints his wife with the friendly reception accorded him, and tradition has it that he struck up a friendship with the concertmeister Hoffmann, and generally spent the evening with him at Gran's tavern in the Bleidenstrasse. Hesse became acquainted in Frankfort, as he tells us,[14] with an old superannuated organist of the Katharinenkirche, who in 1790 had been the pupil of his predecessor; the old man said:-- One Sunday, after service, Mozart came into the choir at St Katharine's, and begged the old organist to allow him to play something. He seated himself on the stool and gave the reins to his fancy, when the organist suddenly pushed him off the stool in the rudest manner, and said to the pupil standing by: "Mark that last modulation which Herr Mozart made; how can he profess to be a musician and commit such grave offences against correct composition?" The pupil had remembered the modulation, and Hesse thought it a fine one, and not even unusual.