The Classical Music Book

334

piano concertos, which were an

important influence on the young

Mozart, who met Bach in London.

CARL DITTERS VON

DITTERSDORF

1739–1799

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was a boy

prodigy as a violinist in Vienna, but as

an adult he made his name with light-

hearted operas. His most productive

years followed his appointment as court

composer to Philipp Gotthard von

Schaffgotsch, Prince-Bishop of Breslau,

whose castle was an important cultural

and intellectual hub. Dittersdorf’s

greatest operatic success, Doktor und

Apotheker (1786), helped to define the

Singspiel genre (mingling songs and

choruses with spoken dialogue),

which his friend Mozart would take

to new heights in Die Zauberflöte

(The Magic Flute) in 1791.

LUIGI BOCCHERINI

1743–1805

Born in Lucca in central Italy, Luigi

Boccherini had studied and worked in

both Rome and Vienna by the age of 20.

He became composer to the Spanish

king’s music-loving brother, Don Luis de

Borbón, in Madrid, then later was court

composer to King Frederick William II of

Prussia. A cellist by training, Boccherini

wrote symphonies and concertos (mostly

for cello) but is best remembered for

more than 300 chamber works, string

quintets in particular.

ANTONIO SALIERI

1750–1825

The Venetian-born Antonio Salieri went

to Vienna at the age of 16 and remained

there for the rest of his life, as court

composer to the Habsburg emperor and

later imperial Kapellmeister. He made

his name as a composer of operas—of

which the best regarded is Tarare (1787),

written for a Parisian theatre—but in

1804, he abandoned opera and began

writing sacred music and teaching.

The latter was his most important

legacy. His pupils included Beethoven,

Schubert, and Liszt.

JAN LADISLAV DUSSEK

1760–1812

As the Classical movement gave

way to Romanticism, the pianist and

composer Jan Ladislav Dussek was

a major musical figure. Born in Caslav

(in the modern Czech Republic), he

traveled widely in Europe before

settling in London in 1789. Bankruptcy

after the failure of his music publishing

business forced him to leave London

in 1799, and he ended his days in the

household of the French statesman

Prince of Talleyrand. Dussek is best

remembered for his piano sonatas,

which inspired Beethoven.

GIACOMO MEYERBEER

1791–1864

Born into a wealthy Jewish banking

family in Berlin, Giacomo Meyerbeer

won acclaim as a pianist while in his

early 20s, but his real ambitions lay in

composition. After a period of study

in Venice, where he came under the sway

of Rossini’s music, he had some success

with the opera Romilda e Costanza

(1817), but his breakthrough work was

Robert le diable, based on a libretto by

the French playwright Eugène Scribe.

First performed at the Paris Opéra in

1831, it was a massive hit. Alongside

Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (1836) and

Le Prophète (1849), it helped to define the

emerging genre of grand opera, appealing

to the audience’s love of spectacle. His

influence was noticeable in the operas

of Verdi and even Wagner.

GAETANO DONIZETTI

1797–1848

Gaetano Donizetti, born in Bergamo, is

regarded as the most important Italian

opera composer between Rossini and

Verdi. Starting with Enrico di Borgogna,

first performed in Venice in 1818, his

output was prolific, with 65 completed

DIRECTORY

operas in total. His serious works include

Lucrezia Borgia (1833) and Linda di

Chamounix (1842). His comic works

include L’elisir d’amore (The elixir of

love; 1832) and Don Pasquale (1843).

A major influence on Verdi, Donizetti

is credited with introducing northern

European Romanticism into Italian opera.

VINCENZO BELLINI

1801–1835

The Sicilian-born Vincenzo Bellini wrote

10 operas, of which the masterpieces are

La sonnambula (1831), Norma (1831), and

I Puritani (1835). In 1827, Il pirata— the

first of six collaborations with the

librettist Felice Romani—won him

international acclaim at La Scala in

Milan. Encouraged by Rossini, he moved

to Paris where I Puritani was premiered.

With a gift for vocal melody, Bellini

was the master of the Italian bel canto

(“beautiful singing”) style, expressed,

for example, in the famous song “Casta

diva” (“Chaste goddess”) from Norma.

MIKHAIL GLINKA

1804–1857

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka came from

a wealthy Russian landowning family

and abandoned a civil service career to

study music in Italy and Berlin. Back in

Russia, his first opera, A Life for the Tsar

(or Ivan Susanin, 1836), based on the

story of a 17th-century Russian hero,

was well received in St. Petersburg. In

this and later works, Glinka drew upon

folk songs to create music that was

authentically Russian. In 1845, Hector

Berlioz conducted a concert in Paris

with excerpts from Glinka’s works; this

was the first time Russian music had

been played in the West.

CLARA WIECK SCHUMANN

1819–1896

A child prodigy, Clara Wieck won

Europe-wide fame while still in her

teens. Around that time, she fell in love

with Robert Schumann, one of the pupils

of her father, who was a well-known

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