Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1 Robert Schumann's Music in New York City, 1848–1898
- 2 Presenting Berlioz's Music in New York, 1846–1890: Carl Bergmann, Theodore Thomas, Leopold Damrosch
- 3 Liszt (and Wagner) in New York, 1840–1890
- 4 “Home, Sweet Home” Away from Home: Sigismund Thalberg in New York, 1856–1858
- 5 Leopold Damrosch as Composer
- 6 New York's Orchestras and the “American” Composer: A Nineteenth-Century View
- 7 Between the Old World and the New: William Steinway and the New York Liederkranz in the 1860s
- 8 The Development of the German American Musical Stage in New York City, 1840–1890
- 9 Patrick S. Gilmore: The New York Years
- 10 Grafulla and Cappa: Bandmasters of New York's Famous Seventh Regiment
- 11 She Came, She Sang . . . She Conquered? Adelina Patti in New York
- 12 A Confluence of Moravian Impresarios: Max Maretzek, the Strakosches, and the Graus
- 13 An Opera for Every Taste: The New York Scene, 1862–1869
- 14 “Dear Miss Ober”: Music Management and the Interconnections of Musical Culture in the United States, 1876–1883
- Bibliography
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
4 - “Home, Sweet Home” Away from Home: Sigismund Thalberg in New York, 1856–1858
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1 Robert Schumann's Music in New York City, 1848–1898
- 2 Presenting Berlioz's Music in New York, 1846–1890: Carl Bergmann, Theodore Thomas, Leopold Damrosch
- 3 Liszt (and Wagner) in New York, 1840–1890
- 4 “Home, Sweet Home” Away from Home: Sigismund Thalberg in New York, 1856–1858
- 5 Leopold Damrosch as Composer
- 6 New York's Orchestras and the “American” Composer: A Nineteenth-Century View
- 7 Between the Old World and the New: William Steinway and the New York Liederkranz in the 1860s
- 8 The Development of the German American Musical Stage in New York City, 1840–1890
- 9 Patrick S. Gilmore: The New York Years
- 10 Grafulla and Cappa: Bandmasters of New York's Famous Seventh Regiment
- 11 She Came, She Sang . . . She Conquered? Adelina Patti in New York
- 12 A Confluence of Moravian Impresarios: Max Maretzek, the Strakosches, and the Graus
- 13 An Opera for Every Taste: The New York Scene, 1862–1869
- 14 “Dear Miss Ober”: Music Management and the Interconnections of Musical Culture in the United States, 1876–1883
- Bibliography
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Summary
For most European musicians touring the United States in the nineteenth century, New York was the geographic point of arrival—the musical capital in which to make an American debut, establish a base, and launch a national tour and the city that could support the greatest quantity of performances and appreciate the greatest variety of musical offerings. For these reasons, New York became a home away from home for many visiting virtuosos. This was certainly true for the pianist Sigismund Thalberg, who lavished the city with eighty appearances during his two-year tour of the United States from 1856 to 1858 and presented a wider array of his repertoire there than anywhere else in the country.
Thalberg was one of numerous pianists who made substantial American tours in the nineteenth century, and each tour illustrates New York's central role for visiting performers and reveals details about the performance and reception of music in that city. The two most important pianists to precede Thalberg to the United States were the flamboyant Leopold de Meyer (1816–1883) and the more refined (and famous) Henri Herz. De Meyer's tour of 1845–1847 exposed the seamy side of marketing music in New York that was already well in place by the 1840s. The use of claques, deadheads, and self-purchased floral tributes, as well as charges of puffery, sabotage, and blackmail, kept journalists busy but did not prevent listeners from flocking to hear the mesmerizing pianist at the cavernous Tabernacle, then the principal concert hall in New York.
Herz's considerably longer tour of 1846–1850 included appearances in Gold Rush California. Arriving in Boston, then the terminus of the Cunard line, Herz refused to make his American debut there, insisting that New York was the place to begin. The pianist soon engaged the neophyte impresario Bernard Ullman as his manager, reflecting a trend toward a more professional approach to marketing concerts. Ullman later managed the American tours of Thalberg and Hans von Bülow.
Thalberg arrived in New York in 1856, two decades after his triumphs in Paris that included a celebrated showdown with Liszt, which resulted in a draw. His reputation and music had been well-known for some time in the New World.
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- European Music and Musicians in New York City, 1840-1900 , pp. 71 - 91Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006