1857

    3 January 1857 Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, Archbishop of Paris, is stabbed by Abbé Jean-Louis Verger in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Paris.  Verger, immediately detained, claims he did it to oppose the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, but he is probably deranged.

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow attends Sigismond Thalberg’s (44) first concert in Boston and the two meet afterwards.  Longfellow finds him quite likeable.

    7 January 1857 Franz Liszt’s (45) Concerto for piano and orchestra no.2 is performed for the first time, in Weimar, conducted by the composer.

    10 January 1857 Louis Moreau Gottschalk (27) gives his first and only concert with the New York Philharmonic.  He performs the first movement of Adolf von Henselt’s (42) Concerto in f minor op.16.  The critics are not kind.

    13 January 1857 Switzerland releases the Neuchâtel prisoners taken last September, thus diffusing a tense international situation.

    15 January 1857 400 Europeans in Hong Kong become sick from eating bread laced with arsenic.  The poison kills no one since the dose is so large it can not be kept down.  Over 500 Chinese will be arrested.

    Les trois baisers du diable, an operetta by Jacques Offenbach (37) to words of Mestépès, is performed for the first time, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.

    17 January 1857 Abbé Jean-Louis Verger is convicted in a Paris court of killing Archbishop Sibour on 3 January.

    20 January 1857 Paroxysmen op.189, a waltz by Johann Strauss (31), is performed for the first time, in the Sophiensaal, Vienna.

    21 January 1857 At a court concert in Berlin, Giacomo Meyerbeer (65) conducts the trio from A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (52).  The composer is present and is greatly honored, but after the concert he catches a cold.

    Demi-Fortune op.186, a polka française by Johann Strauss (31), is performed for the first time, in the Sperl Ballroom, Vienna.

    22 January 1857 The Sonata in b minor for piano by Franz Liszt (45) is performed for the first time, in Berlin, by Hans von Bülow.  The public is very appreciative.  The critics hate it.  This is the first time a Bechstein grand piano has been heard in public.

    26 January 1857 Psyché, an opéra comique by Ambroise Thomas (45) to words of Berbier and Carré, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre Favart, Paris.

    27 January 1857 Controversen op.191, a waltz by Johann Strauss (31), is performed for the first time, in the Sophiensaal, Vienna.

    28 January 1857 Allied Central American forces take San Jorge, east of Rivas, from the Walkerites.

    29 January 1857 An effort by Walkerites to retake San Jorge is repulsed with heavy losses.

    30 January 1857 Abbé Jean-Louis Verger is executed in Paris for killing Archbishop Sibour on 3 January.

    2 February 1857 La Berçeuse op.194, a quadrille by Johann Strauss (31), is performed for the first time, in the Sophiensaal, Vienna.

    3 February 1857 Herzel-Polka op.188 by Johann Strauss (31) is performed for the first time, in the Sperl Ballroom, Vienna.

    4 February 1857 Author and philosopher Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoyevsky visits Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (52) in his sick room in Berlin.  Glinka gets out of bed and plays a new composition, claiming he is not really sick.

    A second attempt by Walkerites to retake San Jorge is defeated.

    5 February 1857 A new constitution for Mexico is signed incorporating principles of liberalism, especially limiting the powers of the military and the church.  It goes into effect on 16 September.

    7 February 1857 Louis Moreau Gottschalk (27) leaves New York for Havana and a concert tour of Cuba.  He will spend the next five years in the Caribbean.

    8 February 1857 About 40 whites are killed or captured by Dakota Indians near Spirit Lake, Iowa.

    11 February 1857 Une Bagatelle op.187, a polka mazur by Johann Strauss (31), is performed for the first time, in the Sperl Ballroom, Vienna.

    12 February 1857 Croquefer, ou Le dernier des Paladins, an operetta by Jacques Offenbach (37) to words of Jaime and Tréfeu, is performed for the first time, by the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.

    Louis Moreau Gottschalk (27) arrives in Havana from New York aboard the steamer Quaker City.

    14 February 1857 A doctor attending Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (52) in Berlin reports that, although his life is in danger, the composer will not die soon due to his “unusually strong bodily frame.”

    15 February 1857 05:00  Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka dies in Berlin, probably of carcinoma of the stomach, aged 52 years, eight months and 14 days.

    Symphonie en fa “Urbs Roma” by Camille Saint-Saëns (21) is performed for the first time, in Paris.

    16 February 1857 The National Deaf Mute College is incorporated in Washington.  It is the first institution of higher education for the deaf in the world.  The name will later be changed to Gallaudet College.

    17 February 1857 An autopsy is performed on the body of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, which he insisted on several times when alive.  One account says he died of an “adipose liver” and would surely have died soon anyway.  Another account said that his illness was not fatal but that he died of starvation because he was unable to take in food for weeks.

    Phänomene op.193, a waltz by Johann Strauss (31), is performed for the first time, in the Sophiensaal, Vienna.

    18 February 1857 The mortal remains of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka are laid to rest in Berlin, in the presence of nine people, including Giacomo Meyerbeer (65) and an official from the Russian embassy.

    Liebestreu op.3/1, a song by Johannes Brahms (23) to words of Reinick, is performed for the first time, in Göttingen.

    23 February 1857 Wien, mein Sinn! op.192, a waltz by Johann Strauss (31), is performed for the first time, in the Sperl Ballroom, Vienna.

    24 February 1857 Giacomo Meyerbeer (65) is appointed a member of the Academy of Arts in Florence.

    25 February 1857 News of the death of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka is published in St. Petersburg.

    3 March 1857 US President Franklin Pierce signs the Atlantic Cable Act, pledging money and assistance to Cyrus Field for the laying of a transatlantic cable.

    4 March 1857 Great Britain and Persia agree to peace in Paris.  Persia recognizes the independence of Afghanistan.

    James Buchanan replaces Franklin Pierce as President of the United States.  The Thirty-Fifth Congress convenes in Washington.  President Buchanan’s Democratic Party regains the majority in the House of Representatives with the new Republican Party forming the opposition.  The American (Know-Nothing) Party wins only 14 seats and is disintegrating, while the Whig Party disbanded before the election.  Democrats retain their majority in the Senate but now the opposition is formed by Republicans.

    6 March 1857 In the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, the United States Supreme Court holds that a slave taken to a free state does not thereupon become free.  The decision further fuels animosity over slavery.

    7 March 1857 A memorial service for Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (†0) fills the Konyushnaya Church, St. Petersburg.

    8 March 1857 Ruggiero (sic) Giacomo Maria Giuseppe Emmanuele Raffaele Comenico Vincenzo Francesco Donato Leoncavallo is born in Naples, second of three children born to Vincenzo Leoncavallo, a police magistrate, and Virginia D’Auria.  (The birth certificate states that he was born on 23 April 1857.  Leoncavallo often claimed that he was born 8 March 1858.)

    12 March 1857 Simon Boccanegra, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi (43) to words of Piave and Montanelli after García Gutiérrez, is performed for the first time, in Teatro La Fenice, Venice.  The work is a critical success but its failure with the audience precludes financial reward.

    14 March 1857 Stephen Foster (30) sells all the copyrights he currently holds to his publisher Firth, Pond & Co. for $1,872.28.

    16 March 1857 Bedrich Smetana (33) conducts his first performance as director of the Harmonic Society in Göteborg.

    A third attempt by Walkerites to take San Jorge, Nicaragua is repulsed by allied Central American troops.

    19 March 1857 Military Overture by Stanislaw Moniuszko (37) is performed for the first time, in Vilnius.

    20 March 1857 In the Hall of the Nobility, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society gives a concert in honor of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (†0) consisting entirely of his music.

    21 March 1857 An earthquake strikes Tokyo and starts fires which consume the city.  About 107,000 people die.

    23 March 1857 At a building on the corner of Broadway and Broome St. in New York, inventor Elisha Otis installs the first passenger elevator in a public building.

    27 March 1857 Allied Central American forces begin a siege of Rivas, the last stronghold of William Walker and his mercenaries.

    1 April 1857 Marco Spada, ou La fille du bandit, a ballet by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (75) to a story by Scribe and Delavigne, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra.  This is a rewriting of his 1852 opéra-comique Marco Spada.

    Willliam Foster sells the family home in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania.  Brother Stephen (30) and his family are forced to move to a boarding house in Pittsburgh.

    6 April 1857 After six days of fighting in Caborca, Mexican forces defeat a group of North American filibusters seeking to rule Sonora.

    9 April 1857 Le Docteur Miracle, an operetta by Georges Bizet (18) to words of Battu and Halévy, is performed for the first time, for a competition sponsored by Jacques Offenbach (37) and the Bouffes-Parisiens at their theatre in Paris.

    15 April 1857 Gioachino Rossini (65) dedicates his Musique anodine to his wife, Olympe.

    21 April 1857 Mass op.4 for chorus, orchestra and organ by Camille Saint-Saëns (21) is performed for the first time, in the Church of Saint Merry, Paris.

    23 April 1857 Sigismond Thalberg (45) plays in Canada for the first time, in Toronto.

    24 April 1857 A month of voting in the British general election concludes today.  The Whig Party of Viscount Palmerston wins almost two-thirds of the total vote and a comfortable majority in seats.

    27 April 1857 Sonata for cello and piano op.47 by Valentin Alkan (43) is performed for the first time, in Salle Erard, Paris, the composer at the keyboard.

    28 April 1857 Richard Wagner (43) takes up residence at Green Hill, Otto Wesendonck’s villa overlooking Lake Zürich.  His cottage is called Asyl (True Refuge) by Wesendonck’s wife, Mathilde.  The main house is still under construction and the Wesendonck’s will move into it in August.

    Tarantelle op.6 for flute, clarinet and orchestra or piano by Camille Saint-Saëns (21) is performed publicly for the first time, in Salle Pleyel, Paris, the composer at the piano.

    30 April 1857 Dragonette, an opérette-bouffe by Jacques Offenbach (37) to words of Mestépès and Jaime, is performed for the first time, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.

    1 May 1857 Commander Charles E. Davis of the USS St. Mary negotiates safe conduct out of Nicaragua for William Walker and his mercenaries.  The plan is not agreed to by many Central American leaders.  Others simply want Walker out of the country.  In the almost two years since Walker’s arrival from the United States, thousands of Central Americans have died.

    3 May 1857 Ewas Kleines op.190, a polka française by Johann Strauss (31), is performed for the first time, in Ungers Casino, Vienna.

    9 May 1857 Indian cavalry troopers in the British army, having been court martialed for refusing to touch fat cartridges, are publicly stripped of their uniforms in Meerut, 65 km northeast of Delhi.  Both Hindu and Moslem troopers object to biting off the tips of the rifle cartridges, Hindus because they are smeared with cow grease, Moslems because they are smeared with pig fat.

    10 May 1857 Three regiments of the British army mutiny in Meerut, kill all their British officers and march on Delhi.

    11 May 1857 Delhi falls to mutineers who proclaim the Mogul Emperor Bahadur Shah as their leader.  This will be followed by risings of Indian troops throughout the northern subcontinent who kill their British officers and Europeans in general.

    13 May 1857 Carl Christian Hall replaces Carl Christopher Georg Andrae as Prime Minister of Denmark.

    16 May 1857 Vent du soir, ou L’horrible festin, an operetta by Jacques Offenbach (37) to words of Gille, is performed for the first time, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.

    24 May 1857 Bedrich Smetana (33) arrives in Prague from Sweden, his wife and child seriously ill.

    26 May 1857 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia signs a treaty in Paris giving up all claims over the canton of Neuchâtel, thus allowing it to join the Swiss Confederation.

    The earthly remains of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (†0) are disinterred in Berlin for transport to St. Petersburg.

    31 May 1857 Franz Liszt (45) conducts the first of three concerts he is to give at the Lower Rhine Music Festival in Aachen.

    1 June 1857 John Knowles Paine (18) performs professionally for the first time, accompanying the violinist Carl Gartner in a concert in Lancaster Hall, Portland, Maine.  Advertisements for the performance, which includes several other musicians, do not mention Paine’s name.

    2 June 1857 Edward William Elgar is born in Broadheath, five km northwest of Worcester, the fourth of seven children born to William Henry Elgar, organist and piano tuner, and Anne Greening, daughter of a Herefordshire farmer.

    3 June 1857 The earthly remains of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (†0) arrive in Kronstadt aboard the steamship Vladimir from Stettin (Szczecin).

    5 June 1857 After a memorial service at the Alyeksandr Nevsky Monastery, St. Petersburg, attended by a large crowd, the earthly remains of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (†0) are laid to rest in a private ceremony at the Tikhvinsky Cemetery of the monastery.

    7 June 1857 Sepoys lay siege to Cawnpore (Kanpur).

    11 June 1857 Edward Elgar (0) is baptized at St. George’s Roman Catholic Church in Worcester.

    12 June 1857 Six weeks after being rescued by an American naval vessel, former dictator of Nicaragua William Walker is received by President James Buchanan at the White House.  Walker will later claim that Buchanan urges him to return to Nicaragua.

    13 June 1857 This is the date predicted by a German astrologer that a comet will strike the Earth.  There has been a great deal of panic, especially in Paris.  No comet strikes the Earth.

    Carl Czerny (66) draws up his will.  He leaves everything to his housekeeper and her brother, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, and various charitable organizations.

    20 June 1857 Sepoys lay siege to Lucknow.

    22 June 1857 Arthur Sullivan (15) is dismissed from the Chapel Royal.  His voice has broken.

    23 June 1857 Franz Liszt (45) is admitted to the Order of St. Francis by the Hungarian Franciscans.

    25 June 1857 Prince Albert, spouse of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, is created Prince-Consort.

    Charles Baudelaire publishes Les Fleurs du mal, a collection of poems.  He and his publishers are almost immediately indicted for offense to public morals.

    John Knowles Paine (18) makes his first public appearance as organist, in Portland, Maine.

    26 June 1857 Besieged British and Indians in Cawnpore (Kanpur) are granted safe conduct by the Sepoy rebels, but as they leave the Sepoys open fire killing all men and many women and children.  Those surviving are imprisoned.

    30 June 1857 At St. Martin’s Hall, London, Charles Dickens gives the first public reading from his works.  In spite of the season, he chooses A Christmas Carol.

    4 July 1857 Georges Bizet (18) wins the Prix de Rome in Paris.

    5 July 1857 A second round of voting takes place in the French legislative elections.  Supporters of Emperor Napoléon III win all but seven of the 283 seats.

    7 July 1857 A British force sets out from Allahabad to relieve Lucknow.  In the next two-and-a-half months they will fight twelve battles before reaching their goal.

    15 July 1857 The women and children survivors of Cawnpore (Kanpur) are stabbed to death by their Sepoy captors.

    Carl Czerny dies in Vienna, aged 66 years, four months and 24 days.

    17 July 1857 A revised version of Heil, Vater! dir zum hohen Feste, a cantata by Anton Bruckner (32) to words of Marinelli, is performed for the first time, at St. Florian.

    27 July 1857 Une demoiselle en lôterie, an operetta by Jacques Offenbach (38) to words of Jaime and Crémieux, is performed for the first time, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.

    31 July 1857 Antonin Dvorák (15) wins a Leaving Certificate from the secondary school at Böhmisch-Kamnitz (Ceská Kamenice), 95 km north of Prague.  His father sent him there to strengthen his German, the language used at the Prague Organ School.

    1 August 1857 In accordance with the sentence of a military court executed in Peshawar, 40 of the Sepoy mutineers are strapped to the muzzles of Her Majesty’s artillery and blasted into oblivion for the instruction of the 55th Regiment, BHI.

    2 August 1857 Mustafa Naili Pasha replaces Mustafa Resid Pasha as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

    3 August 1857 Louis Pasteur delivers a paper to the Lille Society in Lille announcing he has discovered that fermentation is caused by biochemical action of tiny organisms.

    6 August 1857 The Haydn Society of Portland, Maine, votes to hire John Knowles Paine (18) as organist.

    9 August 1857 At the Wesendonck villa outside Zürich, Richard Wagner abruptly stops the composition of Siegfried.

    16 August 1857 Aroldo, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi (43) to words of Piave, is performed for the first time, in the Teatro Nuovo Comunale, Rimini.  It enjoys a warm reception from the audience.

    18 August 1857 Cosima Liszt, second child of Franz Liszt (45), marries the conductor Hans von Bülow in a Roman Catholic ceremony in the Hedwigskirche, Berlin.

    20 August 1857 Having stopped the composition of Siegfried two weeks ago at the Wesendonck villa outside Zürich, Richard Wagner (44) begins writing Tristan und Isolde.  Otto and Mathilde Wesendonck will move into the new house in two days.

    22 August 1857 Otto and Mathilde Wesendonck move into their new villa outside Zürich.  In their cottage on the grounds, Richard Wagner (44) has just begun the writing of Tristan und Isolde.

    24 August 1857 A financial panic begins in the United States, precipitated by the failure of the New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance Company.  4,932 businesses will fail this year.

    27 August 1857 Joseph Joachim writes from Göttingen to Franz Liszt (45) in Weimar.  It is his formal break with Liszt and his music.  “Your music is entirely antagonistic to me; it contradicts everything with which the spirits of our great ones have nourished my mind from my earliest youth.”

    3 September 1857 Weimars Volkslied by Franz Liszt (45) to words of Cornelius (32) is performed for the first time, in Weimar for the dedication of the Goethe and Schiller Memorial.

    4 September 1857 The Festvorspiel for orchestra by Franz Liszt (45) is performed for the first time, in Weimar, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Grand Duke Carl August, grandfather of the present Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

    5 September 1857 Two orchestral works by Franz Liszt (45) are performed for the first time, in Weimar, conducted by the composer:  the symphonic poem Die Ideale and Eine Faust-Symphonie in drei Charakterbildern.  They celebrate the unveiling today of the Goethe-Schiller Monument in Weimar.  One of those in attendance, Hans Christian Andersen, an admirer of Liszt the performer, is less enthusiastic about his music.  “[Liszt’s music] was wild, melodious, and turbid.  At times there was a crash of cymbals.  When I first heard it, I thought a plate had fallen down.  I went home tired.  What a damned sort of music.”

    6 September 1857 The waltz Telegrafische Depeschen op.195 and the quadrille Le beau monde op.199, by Johann Strauss (31), are performed for the first time, in Pavlovsk.

    11 September 1857 During the Utah War between Mormons and the United States government over non-Mormon settlement of Utah, Mormons kill 120 emigrants bound for California at Mountain Meadow.

    14 September 1857 British forces attack Sepoy mutineers in Delhi.

    16 September 1857 A new liberal Mexican constitution goes into effect.

    17 September 1857 Bedrich Smetana (33) arrives in Sweden from Prague.

    18 September 1857 Richard Wagner (44) finishes the poem of Tristan und Isolde at Asyl and presents it to Mathilde Wesendonck.  He will shortly read it to a private audience which includes his wife Minna, Otto and Mathilde Wesendonck, and the newly married Hans and Cosima von Bülow, all of whom are unaware of how their lives will intersect over the next ten years.

    19 September 1857 British forces recapture Delhi after six days of street fighting.

    21 September 1857 Le cheval de bronze, by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (75) to words of Scribe, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra.  This is a revival of Auber’s 1835 opéra as an opéra-ballet.

    25 September 1857 Lucknow is temporarily relieved by the British.

    3 October 1857 Georges Bizet’s (18) Prix de Rome-winning setting of the cantata Clovis et Clotilde to words of Burion is performed for the first time, in Paris on the night he is awarded the prize.

    15 October 1857 Francisco Armero y Fernández Peñaranda, marqués de Nervión replaces Ramón María Narváez y Campos, duque de Valencia as Prime Minister of Spain.

    19 October 1857 Giuseppe Verdi (44) sends the outline of a new opera, Gustavo III, to Vincenzo Torelli, secretary to the impressario of Teatro San Carlo, Naples in order that it might gain approval by the censors.  They will disapprove it.  See 28 January 1858.

    22 October 1857 Blandine Liszt marries Emile Ollivier in Florence Cathedral on her father’s 46th birthday.  M. Ollivier will one day become Prime Minister of France.

    23 October 1857 Mustafa Resid Pasha replaces Mustafa Naili Pasha as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

    1 November 1857 The first issue of the Atlantic Monthly is published in Boston, edited by James Russell Lowell.

    7 November 1857 Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia by Franz Liszt (46) is performed for the first time, in Dresden, directed by the composer.  With only one rehearsal, the performance is an unmitigated disaster.

    9 November 1857 Charles Latour Rogier replaces Pierre Jacques François de Decker as head of government for Belgium.

    10 November 1857 Franz Liszt’s (46) symphonic poem Héroïde funèbre is performed for the first time, in Breslau (Wroclaw).

    12 November 1857 Louis Spohr (73) receives a message from the Hesse-Kassel court that he is being “allowed to retire” due to his age, at three-quarters of his present salary.

    13 November 1857 Les deux pêcheurs, a bouffonnerie musicale by Jacques Offenbach (38) to words of Dupeuty and Bourget, is performed for the first time, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.

    15 November 1857 A setting of the Pater noster for chorus by Giacomo Meyerbeer (66) is published in La maîtrise.

    22 November 1857 Louis Spohr (73) directs at performance of his opera Jessonda in Kassel.  It is his last act as Hofkapellmeister in Kassel, a post he has held for 35 years.

    Messe solennelle by Ambroise Thomas (46) is performed for the first time, in St.-Eustache, Paris.

    25 November 1857 Athanasios Andreou Miaoulis replaces Demetrios Georgiou Voulgaris as Prime Minister of Greece.

    27 November 1857 Clara Schumann (38) writes to Joseph Joachim that she has had to cancel several concerts because of intense rheumatism.  Opium has been prescribed.

    29 November 1857 A setting of O salutaris hostia for vocal quartet by Gioachino Rossini (65) is performed for the first time.

    3 December 1857 Camille Saint-Saëns (22) inaugurates the Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Church of Saint Merry, Paris.

    6 December 1857 British forces recapture Cawnpore (Kanpur).

    7 December 1857 Camille Saint-Saëns (22) takes up his duties as organist at the Madeleine, Paris.

    9 December 1857 Le carnaval de Venise, an opéra comique by Ambroise Thomas (46) to words of Sauvage, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre Favart, Paris.

    20 December 1857 Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria decrees that the ramparts around Vienna’s inner city be torn down and the moat replaced by a wide street.

    21 December 1857 Georges Bizet (19) leaves Paris for Rome as winner of the Prix de Rome.

    23 December 1857 Träume for violin and small orchestra by Richard Wagner (44) is performed for the first time, in Zürich, outside Otto Wesendonck’s villa, on the birthday of Mathilde Wesendonck.  This is an arrangement of the fifth of the Wesendonck lieder.  See 30 July 1862.

    25 December 1857 John Knowles Paine (18) is involved in his first concert with the Haydn Association of Portland, Maine.  It is a performance of Messiah by George Frideric Handel (†98) and Paine plays the entire orchestral score at the organ.

    26 December 1857 Nice à Stephanie, a cantata for soprano and chorus by Giacomo Meyerbeer (66) to words of Pillet, is performed for the first time, in Nice for the birthday of Archduchess Stephanie of Baden.

    27 December 1857 French and British warships open fire on Canton.  The bombardment lasts 27 hours and sets the city on fire.

    It is about this date that Modest Musorgsky (18) begins musical studies with Mily Balakirev (20) in St. Petersburg.

    Retired for only a month, Louis Spohr (73) trips over the steps at the museum in Kassel and suffers a broken arm.  Although he will recover, he will never perform on the violin in public again.

    Gesang der Geister über den Wassern for male octet and strings by Franz Schubert (†29) to words of Goethe is performed for the first time, in Vienna.

    29 December 1857 French and British ground forces take control of the gates and defenses of Canton.

    Hunnenschlacht, a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt (46), is performed for the first time, in Weimar, conducted by the composer.

    ©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger

    11 August 2012

    Last Updated (Saturday, 11 August 2012 05:20)