1859 in music

Events

• January 14 – Hans von Bülow interrupts a performance of Franz Liszt's Die Ideale at the Berlin Singakademie to ask for hostile elements in the audience to be silent.^[1]
• January 22 – The First Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hanover.
• February 8 – Count Michael Wielhorsky invites musical associates to his home in an attempt to revive the Symphonic Society; this indirectly results in the formation of the Russian Musical Society, under the patronage of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and her protégé, Anton Rubinstein.^[1]
• March 4 – Charter of the French Opera House, New Orleans, which opens on December 1 of the same year with a gala performance of Rossini's William Tell.
• March 11 – Giuseppe Verdi announces his retirement to friends at a dinner party.^[1]
• March 12 – The Prelude to Act 1 of Tristan und Isolde receives its first public performance at the Sophieninselsaal in Prague, in a charity concert in aid of poor medical students, conducted by Hans von Bülow, who provided his own concert ending for the occasion.
• April 3 – Richard Wagner takes up residence in Lucerne, Switzerland.^[1]
• April 4 – Bryants Minstrels give the first performance of "Dixie" at Mechanics' Hall, New York City.
• April 4 – Tannhäuser is performed at the Stadt Theater in New York City under the musical direction of Carl Bergmann. It is the first performance of a Wagner opera in the United States.
• May 6 – At the first concert of the Victoria Philharmonic Society, its future conductor John Bayley is a soloist on both clarinet and violin.^[2]
• July 1 – A monument to George Frideric Handel (by Hermann Heidel) is unveiled in his birthplace, Halle; Franz Liszt is among those present.
• October 23 – Richard Wagner and an ailing Hector Berlioz meet in Paris and make up their differences.^[1]
• December 19 – César Franck inaugurates the new organ at the basilia of Sainte-Clotilde, Paris, an instrument built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.^[1]
• Alexander Borodin begins a period of chemical research at Heidelberg, working on benzene derivatives.
• Alberto Mazzucato becomes musical director of La Scala opera house.
• Richard Wagner finishes his opera Tristan und Isolde. The Prelude to Act 1 receives its first public performance on March 2.

Published popular music

• "Darling little blue eyed Nell" w. B. E. Woolf m. Frederick Buckley
• In 1859, John Freeman Young published the English translation of Silent Night that is most frequently sung today.

Classical music

• Charles-Valentin Alkan – Concerto for Solo Piano
• Mily Balakirev – Overture to King Lear^[3]
• Johannes Brahms
  • Piano Concerto No. 1
  • Serenade No. 2 in A
• Max Bruch – String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 9
• Felix Draeseke – Helges Treue
• Edvard Grieg
  • 23 Little Piano Pieces, EG 104
  • Siehst du das Meer, for voice and piano
• Fromental Halévy – Italie (cantata)
• Franz Liszt
  • Totentanz
  • first version of Psalm 23
  • Prelude after a theme from Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen for piano
  • Deux Épisodes d'apres le Faust de Lenau (orchestral arrangement)
  • Te Deum for chorus, organ, brass and percussion

Opera

• César Cui – The Mandarin's Son
• Léo Delibes – L'Omelette à la Follembuche
• Charles Gounod – Faust first performed in Paris. Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on a work by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
• Giacomo Meyerbeer – Le pardon de Ploërmel
• Giuseppe Verdi – Un ballo in maschera

Musical theater

• Jacques Offenbach – Les vivandières de la grande armée

Births

• January 26 – W. O. Forsyth, pianist and composer (died 1937)
• February 1 – Victor Herbert, cellist, conductor and composer (died 1924)
• April 3 – Reginald de Koven, US composer (died 1920)
• April 5 – Wilhelm Harteveld, composer (died 1927)
• April 11 – Basil Harwood, organist and composer (died 1949)
• May 13 – August Enna, composer (died 1939)
• June 22 – Frank Heino Damrosch, founder of Institute of Music (died 1937)
• June 27 – Mildred J. Hill, composer of "Happy Birthday to You" (died 1916)
• July 21 – Charles H. Taylor, lyricist (died 1907)
• September 21 – Otto Lohse, conductor and composer (died 1925)
• September 24 – Julius Klengel, cellist, composer (died 1933)
• October 14 – Camille Chevillard, conductor and composer (died 1923)
• October 20 – Guglielmo Zuelli, opera composer (died 1941)
• October 26 – Arthur Friedheim, Russian-born pianist
• November 15 – Joseph Vidal, composer (died 1924)
• November 19 – Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, conductor and composer (died 1935)
• November 22 – Cecil Sharp, folk music revivalist (died 1924)
• November 30 – Sergei Lyapunov, pianist and composer (died 1924)
• December 21 – Max Fiedler, conductor and composer (died 1939)
• December 23 – Adrian Ross, English lyricist (died 1933)
• December 27 – William Henry Hadow, musicologist (died 1937)
• December 30 – Josef Bohuslav Foerster, composer (died 1951)

Deaths

• January 7 – Peter Ferdinand Funck, violinist and composer (born 1788)
• January 13 – Francisco José Debali, composer (born 1791)
• February 6 – Jane Stirling, pianist and friend of Frédéric Chopin (born 1804; ovarian cyst)
• March 14 – Nicola Tacchinardi, cellist and operatic tenor (born 1772)
• April 14 – Ignaz Bösendorfer, piano manufacturer (born 1796)
• July 23 – Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, actress, singer and poet (born 1786)
• July 29 – Auguste Mathieu Panseron, composer and singing teacher (born 1796)
• August 18 – Antonio D'Antoni, opera composer and conductor (born 1801)
• August 28 – Edward Holmes, musicologist, music critic, pianist and music educator (born 1797)
• October 16 – John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland, soldier, politician, diplomat and musician (born 1784)
• October 22 – Louis Spohr, violinist, conductor and composer (born 1784)
• November 7 – Carl Gottlieb Reißiger, Kapellmeister and composer (born 1798)
• December 13 – Daniel Liszt, son of Franz Liszt and Countess Marie d'Agoult (born 1839; tuberculosis)
• December 31 – Luigi Ricci, composer (born 1805)
• Date unknown – Lewis Henry Lavenu, conductor, composer and impresario (born 1818)

References