From Paris to Peoria: How European Piano Virtuosos Brought Classical Music to the American Heartland / Edition 1

by R. Allen Lott

Overview

It's difficult to imagine Franz Liszt performing in Peoria, but his contemporary and foremost rival, Sigismund Thalberg, did just that. During the mid-nineteenth century, Americans in more than a hundred cities—from Portland, Maine to Dubuque, Iowa to Mobile, Alabama—were treated to performances by some of Europe's most celebrated pianists. From Paris to Peoria deftly chronicles the visits of five of these pianists to the America of Mark Twain. Whether performing in small railroad towns throughout the Midwest or in gold-rush era California, these five charismatic pianists—Leopold de Meyer, Henri Herz, Sigismund Thalberg, Anton Rubinstein, and Hans von Bülow—introduced many Americans to the delights of the concert hall. With humor and insight, R. Allen Lott describes the glamour and the drudgery of the touring life, the transformation of American audiences from boisterous to reverent, and the establishment of the piano recital as a viable artistic and financial enterprise. Lott also explores the creative and sometimes outlandish publicity techniques of managers seeking to capitalize on prosperous but uncharted American markets. The result of extensive archival research, From Paris to Peoria is richly illustrated with concert programs, handbills, caricatures, and maps. A companion website, www.rallenlott.info, includes a comprehensive list of repertoires and itineraries, audio music examples, and transcriptions of selected primary sources. Certain to delight pianists, musicologists, and historians, From Paris to Peoria is an engaging, thoroughly researched, and often funny account of music and culture in nineteenth-century America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195148831
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/06/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	9.56(w) x 6.44(h) x 1.13(d)
Lexile:	1510L (what's this?)

About the Author

R. Allen Lott is Professor of Music History in the School of Church Music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Table of Contents

	Prelude: The New World Beekons	3
Part 1	Leopold de Meyer (1845-47)	9
Chapter 1	The Lion Stalks America	11
Chapter 2	De Meyer in the South and Midwest	29
Chapter 3	The Lion Tamed	39
Part 2	Henri Herz (1846-50)	53
Chapter 4	A Refined Parisian Pianist	55
Chapter 5	With Sivori and Knoop	75
Chapter 6	French Pianos, Italian Opera, and California Gold	91
	Interlude I	105
Part 3	Sigismund Thalberg (1856-58)	113
Chapter 7	A Rival of Liszt	115
Chapter 8	At the Matinees	133
Chapter 9	Henry Vieuxtemps and a Troubled Season	147
	Interlude II	161
Part 4	Anton Rubinstein (1872-73)	169
Chapter 10	"The Shaggy Maestro"	171
Chapter 11	Wieniawski	187
Chapter 12	Rubinstein's "Magnificent Faultiness"	197
Chapter 13	Joint Venture with Theodore Thomas	215
Part 5	Hans von Bulow (1875-76)	231
Chapter 14	Eseape to the New World	233
Chapter 15	"Unfortunately ... He Also Talks"	251
Chapter 16	The Midwest and Baek	271
	Postlude	289
Appendix A	Itineraries	295
Appendix B	Rubinstein's and Bulow's Repertoire in America	303
	Notes	311
	Bibliography	347
	Index	357

Editorial Reviews

"From Paris to Peoria is an absorbing, readable book in which music history interacts with social history. The detailed account Lott offers, rich in quotes from primary sources and musical examples, modifies the generalizations and corrects the errors of earlier accounts."—Piano Today

"Lott enables us to look at the question of virtuosi's impact and accomplishments in an entirely new light. [He] has derived a satisfying scheme for the presentation of abundance of information." — Institute for Studies in American Music Review

"Lott's engaging book...greatly ads to our understanding of music in nineteenth-century America and its role in shaping modern attitudes toward the place of Western European music in American cultural life."—Notes

"Grateful scholars of the New World appropriation of Old World music will profit—immeasurably—from Lott's industry and discernment."—Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher