Era: Romantic

Romantic German

MEYERBEER, Giacomo

Born in Vogelsdorf, near Berlin, Germany, Sept 5, 1791
Died in Paris, France, May 2, 1864

Meyerbeer was the 19^th century’s most performed opera composer. He was also known as a piano virtuoso.¹
Though born in Germany, Meyerbeer spent much of his career composing French opera for Parisian productions.²
His birth name was Jakob Liebmann Meyer. As adult he added his mother’s maiden name to his surname. His mother Amalia [Beer] Meyer hosted an influential artistic salon where young Meyerbeer met many of the artistic stars of the day.³
Amalia Meyer and Lea Mendelssohn (mother of Felix & Fanny) were cousins.⁴
Meyerbeer and the Mendelssohns both studied with the same composition teacher, Friedrich Zelter, but took divergent creative directions: Felix’s music was deemed more conservative and historically-influenced and Meyerbeer’s was more designed for popular appeal.⁵
Apparently Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer had a family resemblance. During a visit to Paris in 1831, where Meyerbeer was a celebrity opera composer, Mendelssohn’s friend Ferdinand Hiller told him he looked like Meyerbeer, so Felix got a haircut.⁶
- I can definitely see the resemblance in these portraits of Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn.

Pieces

Le Prophète: “Coronation March”

Romantic Puerto Rican

MOREL CAMPOS, Juan

Born in Ponce, PR, May 16, 1857
Died in Ponce, May 12, 1896

Morel Campos was a composer, organist, pianist, and conductor who studied with Puerto Rican composer Manuel Gregorio Tavárez.
Morel Campos was best known as a composer and conductor of the Puerto Rican social dance genre danza. He also composed and directed zarzuelas (Spanish/Latin American operettas): he toured South America as director of the Compañia de Zarzuela Española Bernard y Arabella.³

Biography from AfriClassical

Pieces

Four Puerto Rican Dances

Romantic German Polish

MOSZKOWSKI, Moritz

Born in Breslau [now Wrocław], Aug 23, 1854
Died in Paris, March 4, 1925

Moritz Moszkowski (pronounced “mosh-kov-ski”) was a pianist, composer, and conductor who first gained renown as a touring virtuoso on the keyboard instrument, making his debut in 1873.
In the 1880s, Moszkowski began suffering from a nervous disorder which forced him to retire from touring. Consequently, he began focusing more seriously on composition and conducting.
In 1897, at the height of his fame, Moszkowski permanently moved to Paris after marrying the sister of Cécile Chaminade.
As a composer, Moszkowski was most famous for his piano music. His early influences included Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, though his mature musical voice was highly distinctive and original, showcasing his intimate knowledge of the piano.
In addition to his composing and conducting, Moszkowski was in high demand as a piano teacher and taught Josef Hofmann, Wanda Landowska, and Joaquin Turina, among others.⁷

Learn More

Biography from Hyperion Records

Pieces

8 Morceaux caractèristiques (8 Characteristic Pieces), Op. 36

Romantic Russian

MUSSORGSKY, Modest

Portrait of Modest Mussorgsky (1881) by Ilya Repin

Born in Karevo, Pskov district, March 9/21, 1839
Died in St. Petersburg, March 16/28, 1881

Modest Mussorgsky was born to a wealthy land-owning family. As a child, Mussorgsky showed an exceptional talent for piano. However, as a 13-year-old, the burgeoning musician was forced to enter military training instead. Mussorgsky wouldn’t be able to return to formal musical training for several years.
- In late 1857, Mussorgsky began composition lessons with Mily Balakirev. Under Balakirev, Mussorgsky analyzed works by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Glinka, Bach, Handel, Mozart, and more.
- Mussorgsky’s relationship under Balakirev quickly began to fray, after which the young composer set out on his own, writing pieces based on his own creative instincts and musical tastes.⁸
- In 1861, as a result of the emancipation of the serfs, Mussorgsky’s family estate collapsed, and Mussorgsky was forced to take on side jobs to support his art.
As a composer, Mussorgsky is best known for his opera, Boris Godunov, as well as his songs. Interestingly, despite piano being his primary instrument, Mussorgsky wrote little for the instrument.
For subject matter, Mussorgsky often turned to more realistic depictions of life, even the grittier moments, rather than more traditional topics of love, heartbreak, nature, etc.
- “Mussorgsky’s aim… was to free Russian music from the ‘high-heel inserts and tight shoes’ of Western European music, and to give unaffected expression of the depiction of Russia in its ‘bast sandals.'”⁹
Despite leaving behind a multitude of unfinished works, the influence Mussorgsky had on emerging turn-of-the-century composers cannot be underestimated. For example, Debussy and Ravel were both fascinated by the Russian composer’s “innovative and audacious use of harmony.”¹⁰
Mussorgsky died in poverty at just 42 years old as a result of chronic alcoholism.¹¹

Learn More
Biography via Deutsche Grammophon

Pieces

Romantic German

NICOLAI, Otto

Born in Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], June 9, 1810
Died in Berlin, May 11, 1849¹⁰

Short Biographies via Naxos and Encyclopedia Britannica

Pieces

Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (“Merry Wives of Windsor”)

Romantic French German

OFFENBACH, Jacques

Born in Cologne, June 20, 1819
Died in Paris, Oct 5, 1880

Though he was born in Germany, Offenbach’s father took him and his brother Jules to Paris as a child to study music, and Offenbach spent his career based in France.
The widespread success of Offenbach’s operettas helped establish operetta as an internationally popular genre.
In addition to composing operetta, Offenbach was also a cellist and a conductor of operetta.¹²

Composer biography

Pieces

20th Century Romantic Polish

PADEREWSKI, Ignacy Jan

Born in Kuryłówka, Podolia province in Russian Poland, Nov 6, 1860,
Died in New York, June 29, 1941

[ig-NAT-see yahn pah-de-REF-ski; pronunciation]

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a Polish concert pianist, composer, and politician.
In 1872, Paderewski attended the Warsaw Conservatory and became a professor of piano just a few years later.
In the late 1880s, Paderewski debuted as a concert pianist to much acclaim and developed an overwhelmingly devoted fan following (think Lisztomania).
During WWI, Paderewski became a member of the Polish National Committee. As a representative to the U.S., Paderewski urged President Wilson to support Polish independence, which he did as part of his “Fourteen Points.“¹³
- Fun fact – as a representative of Poland, Paderewski signed the Versailles Treaty in 1919. That same year, he became Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland. By 1922, he resigned all political positions and resumed his musical career.¹⁴
As a composer, the bulk of Paderewski’s oeuvre (unsurprisingly) consists of piano works, though he also wrote orchestral music, chamber music, choral music, art songs, and an opera.¹⁵

Pieces

6 Humoresques de concert, Op. 14

Romantic Italian

PAGANINI, Niccolò

Portrait of Paganini by Eugène Delacroix, 1831

First name also spelled “Nicolò”

Born in Genoa, Oct 27, 1782
Died in Nice, May 27, 1840

Paganini was an early symbol of the romantic artist. His ability to mesmerize audiences with his persona and extreme virtuosity inspired the careers of subsequent 19th century virtuosi, like his friend Franz Liszt.¹⁶
A child prodigy whose first teacher was his father (a mandolinist and dockworker), Paganini’s touring career as a virtuoso took him from Italy to France, Austria, Germany, and Britain.¹⁷
Paganini also enjoyed playing the guitar, and frequently wrote chamber music for that instrument.¹⁸
Regarding the legend about a pact with the devil: during his touring career, the legend cropped up that either Paganini or his mother had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his unusual violin skill. The rumor wasn’t quelled when he died suddenly in 1840 before a priest could arrive to perform last rites. The Catholic church actually refused to allow him a Christian burial until a re-interment in 1876.¹⁹

Short biography from The Strad magazine

Pieces

Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6

Romantic American

PAINE, John Knowles

Born in Portland, ME, Jan 9, 1839
Died in Cambridge, MA, April 25, 1906

Paine’s Oxford Music Online article summarize his two big accomplishments: “He was the first native-born American to win acceptance as a composer of large-scale concert music, and one of the first to be named professor of music in an American university (Harvard).”
Paine was an organist, pianist, teacher, and composer. In his youth he studied with Hermann Kotschmar, a German organist who emigrated to Maine. (The municipal concert organ at Portland City Hall is named after Kotschmar.)
Paine also studied in Germany, where he was affected by the Bach renaissance then in progress. He brought this influence with him when he returned to America as an organist and teacher.
Paine taught at Harvard from 1873-1905 and helped make Harvard’s music program a model for American universities. His many students included John Alden Carpenter, Arthur Foote, and Carl Ruggles.
Paine was a charter member of the American Guild of Organists.¹⁷

Biography from the Library of Congress

Biography from Harvard Magazine

Pieces

Symphony No. 2 in A Major, “Spring,” Op. 34

20th Century Romantic English

PARRY, Sir Charles Hubert Hastings

Born in Bournemouth, Feb 27, 1848
Died in Rustington, Sussex, Oct 7, 1918

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry was one of the foremost English composers, music scholars and teachers of the 19^th century and did much to revitalize music education standards in England.
Parry’s most influential musical mentor was Edward Dannreuther, who was largely responsible for aiding Parry’s passion for Richard Wagner‘s music.
Parry was Director of the Royal College of Music from 1895 to the end of his life. Due to this role, in addition to his position as Heather Professor of Music at Oxford from 1900-08, Parry was essentially the face of British classical music at the time.
- At the Royal College of Music, some of Parry’s pupils included Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge, and John Ireland.
Fun fact: Parry worked for George Grove as a sub-editor for the first edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Parry wrote more than 100 articles in the first Grove’s.¹⁸

“Although Parry’s ceremonial music embodies a sense of strength and confidence, on a deeper level his musical language imparts something much more aspirational – a longing for a better world in which music will help to raise humanity to new heights.”¹⁹

Short biography
Timeline via Google Arts & Culture

Pieces

Romantic Italian

PONCHIELLI, Amilcare

Born in Paderno Fasolaro [now Paderno Ponchielli], Aug 31, 1834;
Died in Milan, Jan 16, 1886²⁰

Short biography from the Kennedy Center

Pieces

La Gioconda

Romantic Austrian

POPPER, David

Born in Prague, June 18, 1843
Died in Baden, Vienna, Aug 7, 1913

Popper was a cellist who performed in the Vienna Philharmonic, was a member of string quartets, and a soloist.
Popper auditioned at Prague Conservatory as a violinist at age 12, but graduated as cellist because they needed more cello students
Popper’s father, Angelus Seifert, was the cantor at two Prague synagogues.
In 1886, Lizst appointed him cello professor at National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music.²¹

Short biography

Pieces

Tarentelle

Romantic Swiss

RAFF, Joachim

Born in Lachen, Switzerland, 27 May 1822
Died in Frankfurt, Germany, 24 June 1882

Learn More
Biographical Sketch

Pieces

Symphony No. 11 in a minor, Op. 214 “Winter”

Romantic German

REINECKE, Carl

Born in Altona, June 23, 1824
Died in Leipzig, March 10, 1910

Carl Reinecke (pronunciation) was a respected composer, conductor, educator, pianist, and violinist whose legacy lies most heavily in his leadership of the Leipzig Conservatory.
As a composer, Reinecke is best known for his piano music. Stylistically, he leaned similarly to Robert Schumann.
- In addition to piano works, Reinecke also wrote chamber music, opera and other vocal music, and pieces for orchestra.
In 1897, Reinecke became director of the Leipzig Conservatory. Under his leadership, the institution rose to significant prominence, becoming one of the most sought-after in Europe.
- His students included Edvard Grieg, Christian Sinding, Leoš Janáček, Isaac Albéniz, Johan Svendsen, Max Bruch, and many others.²²
Fun fact – Reinecke is the earliest-born musician ever to have made a recording of any kind.
- Additional fun fact – While conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Reinecke conducted the premiere of the full version of Brahms’s German Requiem in 1869.²³
Historical context: Reinecke was a contemporary of Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, Jacques Offenbach, and many others.

Learn More

Biography from Hyperion Records

Pieces

Concert Piece (Konzertstück), Op. 33

Romantic German

RHEINBERGER, Joseph

Born in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, March 17, 1839
Died in Munich, Nov 25, 1901

Joseph Rheinberger was a composer, organist, conductor, and educator. He is best remembered today for his masterful teaching firmly based on the Classical tradition. Among his students were Humperdinck, Wolf-Ferrari, Thuille, Sandberger, Kroyer, Trunk, the Pembaurs, Schmid-Lindner, Buonamici, Horatio Parker, G.W. Chadwick, and Furtwängler.
As a composer, Rheinberger is best known for his organ works, including his 20 organ sonatas.
Rheinberger’s wife was esteemed German poet Franziska von Hoffnaass. The composer frequently used his wife’s texts for his vocal works.²⁴

Biography

Pieces

Romantic Russian

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, Nikolai

Portrait of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1898) by Valentin Serov

Born inTikhvin, Mar 6/18, 1844
Died in Lyubensk, near Luga [now Pskov district], June 8/21, 1908

Short biography and Fun Facts

Pieces

Romantic Mexican

ROSAS, Juventino

Born in Santa Cruz de Galeana, 23 or Jan 25, 1868
Died in Batabanó, Cuba, July 13, 1894

Rosas was a member of the Otomí, an indigenous people of Mexico.
Rosas got his start in music as the violinist in his family’s quartet (his father played the harp, one brother played guitar, the other brother sang).
Rosas held several small orchestra appointments and eventually moved to Mexico City and became a successful composer of salon music, including waltzes, polkas and mazurkas.²⁵

Pieces

Sobre las olas (Over the Waves, aka “The Anniversary Waltz”)

Romantic Russian

RUBINSTEIN, Anton

Born in Vikhvatintsï, Ukraine [Podoliya], 16/Nov 28, 1829
Died in Peterhof [now Petrodvorets], 8/Nov 20, 1894

Rubinstein was a Russian pianist, conductor, composer and educator. He and his brother Nicolai Rubinstein were influential forces in the Russian musical culture of the late 19th century.
With Grand Duchess Yelena Pavlovna, Anton Rubinstein founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Before this, most orchestral musicians in Russia had relocated there from Europe (mostly Germany). Nicolai Rubinstein founded the Moscow Conservatory soon afterward.²⁶

Biography from Steinway

Pieces

Melody in F, Op. 3, No. 1

Romantic French

SAINT-SAËNS, Camille

Born in Paris, Oct 9, 1835
Died in Algiers, Dec 16, 1921

Saint-Saëns studied organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory. He also performed and toured as a concert pianist his nearly all his life.
Saint-Saëns helped edit editions of many historical composers’ works, including Gluck, Beethoven and Mozart. His interest in historical music also extended to Bach, and to Handel, whose oratorios inspired Saint-Saëns’s own work in that genre.
Saint-Saëns was organist at the Église de la Madeleine, which was (and remains) one of the most important organist positions in France.²⁷

Short biography

Pieces

Romantic Spanish

SARASATE, Pablo de

Born in Pamplona, March 10, 1844
Died in Biarritz, Sept 20, 1908

Sarasate was a Spanish violin virtuoso who possessed one of the greatest techniques in Europe.
Numerous composers wrote pieces for Sarasate, including Bruch (Scottish Fantasy and Violin Concerto), Saint-Saëns (violin concertos 1 & 3), Lalo (Concerto in F minor and Symphonie espagnole) and Dvořák (Mazurek op.49).
Sarasate made several recordings in 1904, so he’s a 19^th C. virtuoso whose playing we can listen to today.²⁸
Fun Facts about Sarasate: he was so famous that he made several appearances in the arts of his day.
- James Abbott McNeill Whistler painted Sarasate in his Arrangement in Black (1884).
- In “The Red-Headed League” from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes and Watson attend a recital by Sarasate.

Biography

Pieces

Romantic German

SCHUMANN, Clara Wieck

Born in Leipzig, Sept 13, 1819
Died in Frankfurt, May 20, 1896

Clara Wieck was a piano prodigy, the daughter of singer Marianne Tromlitz and piano teacher Friedrich Wieck.
- Clara Wieck’s parents divorced when she was five, and Clara spent her childhood under the sole custody of her father, who conducted her entire education and managed her concert career. Clara Schumann acknowledged that her father was somewhat tyrannical but was also grateful for a disciplined musical education.
Clara Wieck made her professional debut as a pianist when she was 11, and she continued to appear as a concert pianist for the rest of her life. Like most piano virtuosos of the time, her repertoire included her own compositions.
In 1840, Clara Wieck married her father’s former piano student Robert Schumann, despite her father’s strong resistance (the couple had to sue Wieck for the right to marry).
After Robert’s death in 1856, Clara Schumann ceased to compose. Instead, she devoted her energy to supported her family as a touring concert pianist, editing her husband’s compositions, and as head of the piano faculty at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt.²⁹

Short biography from the LA Philharmonic

German-language biography and articles from schumann-portal.de (available translated)

Pieces

Romantic German

SCHUMANN, Robert

Portrait of Robert Schumann (c.1850) by Eduard Kaiser

Born in Zwickau, Saxony, June 8, 1810
Died in Endenich, near Bonn, July 29, 1856³⁰

Biography

Romantic Czech

SMETANA, Bedřich

Born in Leitomischl, Bohemia [now Litomyšl, Czech Republic], 2 March 1824
Died in Prague, 12 May 1884³¹

Often described as “the father of Czech music,” Bedřich Smetana’s [pronunciation] music became synonymous with Czech national musical style in the years following his death. In the Czech Republic, he remains a musical legend.
- Fun fact – Since Bohemia was part of the Austrian Empire for a period of time in the 1800s, Smetana’s first language was German. He didn’t learn to speak Czech until adulthood.
As a composer, Smetana is best known for his operas and his cycle of six tone poems, Má vlast.³²
As a young emerging pianist and composer, Smetana idolized Liszt, to whom he dedicated his first published work, Six morceaux caractéristiques, Op. 1. Liszt would become a significant supporter of Smetana’s music.
While studying and composing abroad during the 1850s, Smetana was faced with the popular opinion that Czechs were incapable of creating music of their own. Such remarks fueled Smetana’s desire to devote himself to creating native Czech music.³³

“Smetana stands forth as a musician of extraordinary imaginative and constructive power, and as a patriot of the genuinely noble ideal, not the pseudo blatant chauvinistic type. Like so many geniuses, Smetana starved in early life and never greatly prospered. Like Beethoven, he became deaf and like Schumann, he died in a lunatic asylum. Struggle, death and transfiguration – martyrdom and canonization; this is the typical fate of the true artist.”
Frederick Niecks³⁴

Learn More
Biography from Deutsche Grammophon

Pieces

Classical Romantic German

SPOHR, Louis

Born in Brunswick, April 5, 1784
Died in Kassel, Oct 22, 1859

Louis Spohr was a violinist, composer, and conductor who was well-known and highly respected during his lifetime. Unfortunately, his music fell into obscurity following his death and has only been resurrected within the last 50 years or so.
Spohr showed immense talent on the violin from an early age and, after some reservations from his father, was soon encouraged to pursue a musical career. As a musician and conductor, Spohr would go on to serve several prominent positions throughout his career, including leader of the orchestra at Gotha, leader of the orchestra at Theater der Wien in Vienna, director of the Frankfurt Opera, and Hofkapellmeister at the city of Kassel.
As a composer, Spohr was quite prolific. He wrote 11 operas, nine symphonies, 15 violin concerti, and many other chamber pieces and Lieder (~300 works in total). Like Beethoven, Spohr’s compositions straddle the Classical and Romantic eras:

“[Spohr’s] work looks… towards both the formalism and clarity of the Classical tradition, and the structural and harmonic experimentation associated with 19th-century Romanticism.”
Grove Music Online

Fun fact – As an important figure in the development of modern violin technique, Spohr invented the violin chinrest.
- Bonus fun fact #1 – Spohr was among the first conductors to use a baton.
- Bonus fun fact #2 – Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde were both composed during Spohr’s lifetime.
Regarding Spohr’s first name – he was christened as “Ludewig,” but given that French versions of names were more fashionable then, he was always known as “Louis.”³⁴

Learn More

In –depth look into the life and works of the composer from Louis-Spohr.com
Short biography from the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

Pieces

Nonet in F Major, Op. 31

Romantic Austrian

STRAUSS JR., Johann

Born in Vienna, Oct 25, 1825
Died in Vienna, June 3, 1899³⁵

Biography

Pieces

Classical Romantic Austrian

STRAUSS SR., Johann

Born in Vienna, 14 March 1804
Died in Vienna, 25 September 1849

Along with composer Joseph Lanner, Johann Strauss Sr. became one of the architect’s of the Viennese Waltz.
As a musician, Strauss was largely self-taught. At 13 years old, Strauss took an apprenticeship with a bookbinder and studied violin on the side.
- As a young teen, Strauss joined Michael Pamer’s orchestra, known for performing light dance music. A few years later, Strauss left Pamer’s orchestra, and together with fellow musician, Joseph Lanner, they started their own ensemble (Lanner was responsible for directing the group).
- By 1825, Strauss left Lanner’s orchestra to start his own… and the rest is history ;). Making a name for himself over the subsequent decades, Strauss received the prestigious title, “Imperial-Royal Director of Music for the Balls at Court,” from the Austrian Emperor in 1846.
Three of Strauss’s children–Johann Jr., Josef, and Eduard–carried on the family music tradition and continued to build on the family’s fame and legacy.³⁶

Pieces

Radetzky March, Op. 228

Romantic Austrian

STRAUSS, Eduard

Born in Vienna, March 15, 1835
Died in Vienna, Dec 28, 1916³⁷

Biography

Pieces

Opern-Soirée, Op. 162

Romantic Austrian

STRAUSS, Josef

Born in Vienna, Aug 20, 1827
Died in Vienna, July 22, 1870

Josef Strauss (nicknamed “Pepi”) was a member of the Strauss musical dynasty – the son of Johann Strauss I and the brother of Johann II and Eduard.
- Johann II is noted to have said, “Josef is the more gifted, and I am simply more popular.”
Josef began his career not as a musician (though he had a musical education as a child) but rather as an architect and engineer. He even published two books on mathematical subjects. However, when his older brother, Johann II, became seriously ill in 1853 due to exhaustion, Josef reluctantly took up his brother’s position as conductor of the Strauss Orchestra. His leadership was enthusiastically received by Viennese audiences.
After Johann II returned to the stage, Josef began his music education in earnest and studied violin and composition.
- In the following years, Josef shared direction of the Strauss Orchestra with his brothers until he died in 1870, likely due to complications from congenital brain damage.
As a composer, Josef wrote ~300 original works and over 500 arrangements of music by other composers.
- He was known to some as the “Schubert of the ballroom” due to his poignant melodies and inspired orchestrations.³⁸

Learn More

Biography from Interlude
Short biography from the Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain

Pieces

Romantic English

SULLIVAN, Sir Arthur

Born in Lambeth, London, May 13, 1842
Died in London, Nov 22, 1900³⁹

Sullivan is best known for his operettas, though he also wrote incidental music to plays, ballet music, orchestral works, choral works, church hymns, and a song cycle.⁴⁰

Biography

Pieces

Romantic Austrian

SUPPÉ, Franz von

Born in Spalato, Dalmatia [now Split, Croatia] April 18, 1819
Died in Vienna, May 21, 1895⁴⁰

Biography

Pieces

Romantic Norwegian

SVENDSEN, Johan

Born in Christiania [now Oslo], Sept 30, 1840
Died in Copenhagen, June 14, 1911

Svendsen was a Norwegian violinist, conductor and composer. He started his career as a boy, playing violin in dance orchestras, and later in the orchestra of the Norwegian Theater.
In 1863 Svendsen was received a government stipend to study at the Leipzig Conservatory.
Svendsen pursued a career as an orchestral conductor in Leipzig before returning to Norway n 1872 to join Edvard Grieg as joint conductor of the Music Society Concerts in Christiania.¹¹⁵

⁴¹

Biography

Pieces

Romantic Polish

SZYMANOWSKA, Maria

Born in Warsaw, Dec 14, 1789
Died in St Petersburg, July 25, 1831⁴²

Maria Szymanowska (pronounced “shim-ah-nof-ska;” IPA: ʂɨmaˈnɔfska) was a Polish composer and piano virtuoso who made a significant contribution to 19th-century Polish repertoire. She composed over 100 pieces, most of which were for the piano.
Fun fact – Szymanowska introduced nocturnes to Poland, so she provided the developmental link between John Field, the originator of the genre, and Frédéric Chopin.
In addition to composing, Szymanowska was also a highly acclaimed concert pianist and spent many years touring around Europe. In 1922, she became “First Pianist” at the Russian Imperial court.
In 1928, the composer settled in St. Petersburg where she continued to give concerts, teach, and host salons attracting the city’s artistic and social elite.⁴³

Biography

Pieces

Romantic Japanese

TAKI, Rentarō

Born in Tokyo, Aug 24, 1879
Died in Ōita, June 29, 1903

Taki was a Japanese composer and pianist who studied at the Tokyo Music School and joined its faculty soon after finishing his course of study.
In 1901, the Japanese government sent Taki to study in Leipzig, but he had to return due to illness and died shortly thereafter. For this reason, Taki did not leave many compositions and probably didn’t reach his full potential as a composer.
Taki is known as the one of the Japanese composers and educators to promote Western music and Western musical style in Japan.⁴³

Short biography from Naxos

Pieces

Kōjō No Tsuki (Moon over the Ruined Castle)

Romantic Spanish

TÁRREGA, Francisco

Born in Villarreal, Castellón, Nov 21, 1852
Died in Barcelona, Dec 15, 1909

[Pronunciation; stress the first syllable of “Tárrega”]

Francisco Tárrega was a Spanish guitarist and composer is best known for his own works for solo guitar as well as arrangements of famous works by other composers for guitar.
Tárrega played an important role in the resurgence of the guitar as an instrument of prominence. Growing up, the piano was much more fashionable, but thanks to the help of a new instrument design by renowned luthier, Antonio Torres, Tárrega was able to showcase the new, more resonant sound in his music and playing.
As a composer, Tárrega wrote 78 original works as well as 120 transcriptions for solo guitar.⁴⁴

Learn More
Biography via the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Pieces

Capricho árabe

Romantic Russian

TCHAIKOVSKY, Peter Ilyich

Born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka province, 25 April/May 7, 1840
Died in St Petersburg, 25 Oct/Nov 6, 1893⁴⁵

Biography

Pieces

Romantic French

THOMAS, Ambroise

Born in Metz, Aug 5, 1811
Died in Paris, Feb 12, 1896⁴⁶

Short biography

Pieces

Hamlet

Romantic Italian

VERDI, Giuseppe

Born in Roncole, near Busseto, 9/Oct 10, 1813
Died in Milan, Jan 27, 1901⁴⁷

Biography

Pieces

Romantic French Spanish

VIARDOT-GARCÌA, Pauline

Born in Paris, July 18, 1821
Died in Paris, May 18, 1910

Pauline Viardot-Garcìa was a mezzo soprano, pianist, and composer from the Garcìa family, a Spanish family of musicians and voice teachers.
- Her father was Manuel Garcìa, a voice teacher and tenor.
- Her mother was soprano María Joaquina Sitches.
- Her elder sister was mezzo soprano and composer Maria Malibran.
- Her brother was Manuel Garcìa II, a baritone and voice teacher.
Viardot-Garcìa made her vocal concert debut in 1837, and her operatic debut in Rossini’s Barber of Seville in 1839. She was one of the greatest bel canto singers of her time.
- Composers who wrote for Viardot-Garcìa include Schumann (Liederkreis, Op. 24), Meyerbeer (the role of Fides in Le prophète) and Brahms (Alto Rhapsody).
- Her expertise as a singer led composers to turn to her for advice in writing vocal works, including Berlioz (Béatrice et Bénédict) and Gounod (Sapho).
Viardot-Garcìa’s artistic circle also included Chopin (whose piano pieces she arranged as songs), George Sand (who wrote a novel inspired by her, Consuelo), and Ivan Turgenev, her close friend (possibly lover) who wrote the texts for many of Viardot-Garcìa’s songs and operas.
Viardot-Garcìa composed over 100 songs, as well as salon operas, chamber music, piano music and choral music.⁴⁸

Biography from Christin Heitmann, cataloger of Viardot’s works (Viardot Werkverzeichnis or VWV)

ACP Arts Blog post on Pauline Viardot-Garcìa
ACP Arts Blog post on Maria Malibran

Pieces

Romantic Mexican

VILLANUEVA, Felipe

Full name: Felipe de Jesús Villanueva Gutiérrez

Born February 5, 1862 in Santa Cruz Tecamac, Mexico
Died May 28, 1893, Mexico City

Villanueva was a Mexican violinist, pianist, and composer. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City.⁴⁹
Along with Gustavo Campa and several other Mexican composers,⁵⁰ Villanueva formed a “Group of Six” dedicated to Mexican nationalism in music. In 1887 Villanueva, Campa and others founded a new Mexican school of music for young people.⁵¹
Villanueva created the musical genre of danza mexicana. It was partly inspired by the contradanza habanera, popularized by Ignatio Cervantes.⁵²
Short biography from Naxos

Pieces

Sueño Dorado: Mazurka

Romantic German

WAGNER, Richard

Born in Leipzig, May 22, 1813
Died in Venice, Feb 13, 1883⁵²

Biography from the English National Opera