This Week in Classical Music: May 13, 2023. Monteverdi and more. We’ll be brief this week, not that we’ve been too loquacious lately. Of the composers, the great Claudio Monteverdi, widely considered the most important composer of the end of the 16th – early 17th century, was born this week in 1567. He was baptized on May 15th in a church in Cremona, so most likely he was born a day earlier, on May 14th. In 2017, on Monteverdi’s 450th anniversary, we posted an entry about him. You can read it here.
Maria Theresia Paradis, born May 15th of 1759 in Vienna, was a blind piano virtuoso. As a composer, she is remembered for one piece only, her Sicilienne, even though she authored several operas and cantatas. It was performed on the violin and cello, and served as the favorite encore piece to many, from Nathan Milstein to Jacqueline du Pré (here). The problem is that most likely, the Sicilienne wasn’t written by Paradis at all but is a hoax perpetrated by Samuel Dushkin, a Polish-American violinist. Dushkin claimed that he found it among Paradis’ piano pieces and arranged it for the violin, but such a manuscript was never found. Sill, Paradis helped to establish the first school for the blind (in 1785, in Paris) and should be remembered if not as a composer, then as a pioneering blind musician.
Also, Otto Klemperer, one of the most important German conductors, was born on May 24th of 1885 in Breslau, then the capital of German Silesia, now Wrocław, Poland. He was one of many Jewish musicians who escaped Germany after the Nazis took power in 1933. He left for Switzerland but ended up in the United States where he led several major orchestras, including the LA Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony. After WWII, Klemperer reestablished his career in Europe, especially in London. He died in Zurich in 1973.
Monteverdi, 2024
This Week in Classical Music: May 13, 2023. Monteverdi and more. We’ll be brief this week, not that we’ve been too loquacious lately. Of the composers, the great Claudio Monteverdi,
widely considered the most important composer of the end of the 16th – early 17th century, was born this week in 1567. He was baptized on May 15th in a church in Cremona, so most likely he was born a day earlier, on May 14th. In 2017, on Monteverdi’s 450th anniversary, we posted an entry about him. You can read it here.
Maria Theresia Paradis, born May 15th of 1759 in Vienna, was a blind piano virtuoso. As a composer, she is remembered for one piece only, her Sicilienne, even though she authored several operas and cantatas. It was performed on the violin and cello, and served as the favorite encore piece to many, from Nathan Milstein to Jacqueline du Pré (here). The problem is that most likely, the Sicilienne wasn’t written by Paradis at all but is a hoax perpetrated by Samuel Dushkin, a Polish-American violinist. Dushkin claimed that he found it among Paradis’ piano pieces and arranged it for the violin, but such a manuscript was never found. Sill, Paradis helped to establish the first school for the blind (in 1785, in Paris) and should be remembered if not as a composer, then as a pioneering blind musician.
Also, Otto Klemperer, one of the most important German conductors, was born on May 24th of 1885 in Breslau, then the capital of German Silesia, now Wrocław, Poland. He was one of many Jewish musicians who escaped Germany after the Nazis took power in 1933. He left for Switzerland but ended up in the United States where he led several major orchestras, including the LA Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony. After WWII, Klemperer reestablished his career in Europe, especially in London. He died in Zurich in 1973.