Author: David Hackett

There is a temptation to regard social progress as an inevitable part of history, whereas it is often much more fragile than we think and all too easy to put into reverse. In later blog posts we will encounter several mid-nineteenth century female composers …

Etienne Méhul must have been a resilient man. His career spanned countless political upheavals in his country – the French Revolution, the post-Revolution Terror, the First Republic, the Directory, the Consulate, the First Empire and then the Bourbon Restoration – and yet he not only survived each regime intact …

Alessandro Rolla is best known today for having supposedly taught famous violin virtuoso, Niccolò Paganini, even if some doubt remains over whether he actually did so. The story goes that Paganini’s father took his 13-year-old son to see Rolla, with the young prodigy recalling …

A talented, dynamic colossus of a man, Johann Nepomuk Hummel was a key musical figure across the first three decades of the nineteenth century. Alongside Beethoven, he served as the other all-important link between Mozart and the early Romantics. He excelled at writing music for his instrument…

Beethoven’s deafness was getting worse. Fearing for the future, as well as his basic credibility as a musician, he briefly contemplated suicide. But even as nature failed him, he decided he still had too much to live for through his art: fate “shall certainly not crush me completely” he declared to a friend….

A composer can be born with certain advantages. You might be tall and handsome, with an agreeable demeanor, prodigious talent and enormous piano-playing hands which can stretch more than an octave and a half. And God might have smiled on you in other ways …

Mention the name Antonio Salieri and most people will immediately think of the sneering, scheming villain of the 1980s Hollywood film, Amadeus, as he plots the downfall and demise of his great musical adversary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart …

For reasons best known to himself, Anton Reicha hated having his compositions either performed or published during his lifetime. The inevitable result was that most of his music would fall into complete obscurity after his death …

Aside from Ludvig Van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn had one other celebrated pupil – or at least celebrated in his day. Although now somewhat forgotten, Ignaz Joseph Pleyel was one of the most popular European composers of the late eighteenth century. For a time, it seemed, his music filled countless salons …

Feted, celebrated and widely regarded as the grand old man of European music… yet Joseph Haydn hadn’t always had it so good. His long career had been something of a “rags to riches” story, offering up plenty of hurdles and hardships to be overcome along the way.