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The American tours of five visiting virtuoso pianists — Leopold de Meyer (1845-7), Henri Herz (1846-50), Sigismund Thalberg (1856-8), Anton Rubinstein (1872-3), and Hans von Bülow (1875-6) — are examined in this book in regard to their management, itinerary, repertoire, performance style, and reception. The transformation of audiences from boisterous to reverent, the gradual acceptance of the piano recital, the establishment of a canon of masterworks for the piano, and the evolution of concert-giving into a highly organized commercial enterprise are documented. Appendices include the itineraries of these five pianists, totaling almost one thousand concerts in more than one hundred cities, and the repertoire of Rubinstein and Bülow.

The first modern biography in English of Russian composer-pianist Anton Rubinstein, this book places Rubinstein within the context of Russian and western European musical culture during the late 19th century, exploring his rise to international fame from humble origins in Bessarabia, as well as his subsequent rapid decline and marginalization in later musical culture. Taylor provides a balanced account of Rubinstein's life and his career as a piano virtuoso, conductor, composer, and as the founder of Russia's first conservatory. Widely considered the virtuosic heir to Liszt, and recognized internationally as an equivalent cultural icon, he performed with most leading musicians of the day, including Liszt himself, Joachim, Clara Schumann, Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, Saint-Saens, and Ysaÿe.

Bülow's piano recitals of Beethoven sonatas and variations revealed the composer's \"notion of progress\" from \"music inspired by Haydn and Mozart to music that foretold the future\" (354). According to Walker, Bülow's Germanic programs with the Berlin Philharmonic have survived until recent times (379). Walker's book can be highly recommended for its engaging style and its wealth of information about Bülow's up-and-down relations with family members, Wagner and other composers.

de balet a lui P.I. Ceaokovschi: 180 de ani de la nașterea compozitorului Anul acesta se împlinesc 180 de ani de la naşterea compozitorului rus Piotr Ilici Ceaikovski, născut pe 25 aprilie/7 mai 1840 la Votkinsk. Cu această ocazie, Biblioteca Naţională a României organizează expoziţia virtuală Îmbinarea simfonismului cu expresivitatea în muzica de balet a lui Piotr Ilici Ceaikovski, în care vor fi expuse partituri şi fotografii din colecţiile bibliotecii. Ceaikovski a manifestat de mic copil interes pentru muzică, însă vocaţia sa nu s-a dezvăluit decât mai târziu, părinţii îndrumându-l pentru început, către o carieră în magistratură. După ce îşi termină studiile de drept, Ceaikovski ocupă, pentru o scurtă perioadă, funcţia de secretar la Ministerul Justiţiei. Totuşi, pasiunea sa pentru muzică îl face să se înscrie în 1862 la Conservatorul din Moscova, urmând timp de trei ani cursurile acestei instituţii, studiind orchestraţia cu Anton Rubinstein, compoziţia cu Nikolai Zaremba, dar şi instrumente precum pian, flaut sau orgă.

[...] his Manfred, Roméo et Juliette, The Tempest, and Francesco da Rimini give us Tchaikovsky at the very height of his powers. Eugene Onegin (1879), no less popular in Russia than the just-mentioned opera, had two complete performances in America in concert form (New York, 1908, 1911), but its reception was not such as to warrant the expense of scenic production. Besides these, the Voyevoda (1869), The Maid of Orleans (1881), Mazeppa (1882), and Iolanthe (1893) met with success in Russia. . . .

[...] it comes to this, that Tchaikovsky exists for English musicians only as a writer of orchestral and chamber music, and it is curious to note that the great popularity which he now enjoys in this country dates only from the production of his \"Symphonie Pathétique.\" The \"Symphonie Pathétique\" became the rage; the mere announcement of its performance sufficed to pack our concert-rooms from floor to ceiling, and from this work we learnt gradually to appreciate Tchaikovsky's other compositions, so that now his symphonies, suites and symphonic poems are among the most popular in the concert repertoire.

The stylistic versatility of Anton Rubinstein’s compositional oeuvre has often been a cause for controversy and misunderstanding. Its western European reception as a paradigm of exotic Russian national art contrasted sharply from the view propagated in Russia, largely dominated by the Stasov-influenced national school, which stigmatized it throughout the twentieth century as “alien” (ausländisch), a view also applied to the interpretation and reception of Rubinstein’s Twelve Songs from Mirza Schaffy Op. 34. Based on Friedrich Bodenstedt’s German translation, this cycle is purported to have been inspired by numerous aesthetic sources, from Moldavian folklore to Glinka’s traditionalist school. Within Azerbaijani literary criticism, Mirza Schaffy was revered as the nation’s greatest author and thinker, while Soviet musicology considered the songs’ oriental style as typical of nineteenth-century Russian music, specifically the aesthetics of Balakirev’s circle. In fact, the cycle is a reflection of the emerging oriental vogue in German art song at that time. Within this context, their reception serves as an instructive example of the types of strains and contortions bordering on the absurd employed for the constructs of musical nationalism.