“Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The universe of classical music is jam-packed with musical anecdotes. Frequently these short narratives delineate subtle stories that highlight specific traits of a classical composer or a performer. Often humorous, anecdotes of classical composers don’t simply provoke laughter but can reveal a more general and subtle truth. We find Sophia Corri escaping her inattentive husband in an empty harp case, Beethoven being thrown in jail for vagrancy, and Rossini and Pavarotti both cooking their favorite meals. Napoleon gave free reign to his infatuation with an opera singer, Bach was challenged to a duel, and Frederick the Great had not only a great passion for music but also for a handsome Lieutenant in the Royal Guard. A musical anecdote is part of the process of telling a story, but it means sharing an experience with someone and not simply supplying him or her with information. And don’t worry, embellishment, exaggeration or fictitious invention are all part of the process. Anecdotes of classical composers impart the sense of a lived experience, as they usually involve real people in recognizable places and locations. In fact, musical anecdotes exhibit a special kind of realism and an identifiable historical dimension. Check back with us for more insightful and delightful musical anecdotes.
From the city of Milan, Wolfgang Amadeus wrote to his sister on 26 January 1770, “I rejoice in my heart that you were so well amused at the sledging party you write to me about, and I wish you a
Fromental Halévy (1799-1862) composed roughly forty works for the Parisian state. And while La Juive of 1835 turned out to be his most successful work, Charles VI might be the most dangerous opera in the repertoire. Composed in 1843, it
She was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and everybody knew her as the “Virgin Queen.” Elizabeth I (1533-1603) had various suitors, but in the end she was never swept away by her emotions that
On 17 January 1778, Mozart wrote to his father “Now for another subject. Last Wednesday there was a great feast to which I was also invited. There were fifteen guests, and the young lady of the house was to play
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his mother on 14 January 1775, “God be praised! My opera was given yesterday, the 13th, and proved so successful that I cannot possibly describe all the tumult. In the first place, the whole theatre
On 3 January 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his father from Munich, “My head and my hands are so fully occupied with my third act, that it would not be wonderful if I turned into a third act myself, for
It was one of those memorable evenings in the history of music. Joseph Haydn had come to London at the age of 62 on a second concert tour arranged by the impresario Johann Peter Salomon. And on 2 February 1795,
Romantic artists have long been fascinated with the Orient. Paradoxically, this attraction became even more powerful because it concerned essentially unknown territory. Guided by a more or less imagined Orient, a good deal of music was motivated by the picturesque.
