Born in Roncole, near Busseto, 9/Oct 10, 1813
Died in Milan, Jan 27, 19011
Era: Romantic
Born in Paris, July 18, 1821
DiBorn 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.1
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
Sources
- Beatrix Borchard, “Viardot [née García], (Michelle Ferdinande) Pauline,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 10, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000029283.
Pieces
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.2
- Along with Gustavo Campa and several other Mexican composers,3 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.4
- Villanueva created the musical genre of danza mexicana. It was partly inspired by the contradanza habanera, popularized by Ignatio Cervantes.5
- Short biography from Naxos
Born in Leipzig, May 22, 1813
Died in Venice, Feb 13, 18836
Born in Strasbourg, Dec 9, 1837
Died in Paris, Feb 12, 19151
Biography from Naxos
Sources
- Andrew Lamb, “Waldteufel [Lévy], (Charles-)Emile,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 20, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000029819.
Pieces
Born in Eutin, c.Nov 18, 1786
Died in London, June 5, 18267
Born in Matanzas, Jan 17, 1836
Died in Paris, 12/March 15, 1918
Born José Silvestre de los Dolores White Lafitte
Also known as Joseph White
- White Lafitte was an Afro-Cuban violinist and composer.
- White Lafitte studied violin at the Paris Conservatory, winning a first prize for violin in 1856.
- White Lafitte’s students included Romanian violinist Georges Enescu (George Enesco).
- White Lafitte toured Europe, the United States, and South America.
- He lived in South America for part of his career, after becoming court violinist to Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil.8
Born in Lublin, July 10, 1835
Died in Moscow, March 31, 1880
- Wieniawski was a Polish violin virtuoso who studied both violin and composition at the Paris Conservatory.
- Wieniawski spent much of his career as a touring virtuoso, often appearing with his younger brother, pianist Józef Wieniawski.9
“Without doubt the greatest violinist of his time.”
Anton Rubinstein on Wieniawski10
Biography from the Henryk Wieniawski Music Society
Pronunciation:
[‘hɛnrɪk vi’njafski]
“HEN-rick veen-YAFF-ski”
Listen
Born in Windischgraz, Styria [now Slovenjgradec, Slovenia], March 13, 1860
Died in Vienna, Feb 22, 1903
- Wolf is best known as a Lied composer in the tradition of Schubert and Schumann, with a post-Wagnerian sense of harmony, and a strong sensitivity to poetry.
- Wolf studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Robert Fuchs. He was friends with fellow student Gustav Mahler. Frustrated with the conservatory’s musical conservatism, he was a difficult student and was expelled (though he later claimed he’d resigned).
- Wolf spent much of his career in Vienna scraping together a living as a music critic, accompanist, and music teacher. His personal and professional life were greatly affected by his early contraction of syphilis, which led to violent mood swings and eventually severe mental illness.1
Sources
Eric Sams and Susan Youens, “Wolf, Hugo.” Grove Music Online (2001). accessed August 13, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052073.
Born in Vienna, May 2, 1843
Died in Vienna, Nov 14, 192211