United States or Tajikistan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The three studies known as Trois Nouvelles Etudes, which appeared in 1840 in Moscheles and Fetis Method of Methods were published separately afterward. Their date of composition we do not know. Many are the editions of Chopin's studies, but after going over the ground, one finds only about a dozen worthy of study and consultation.
Under the guidance of my mentor I found myself compelled to call upon all sorts of newspaper editors and, among other Belgian worthies, a certain M. Fetis pere.
Burney describes Vittoria as 'a songstress of talent. Fetis calls her the Archduchess Vittoria, but both agree that she was beautiful and that she filled the part of the prima donna in 'Roderigo, his first Italian score. At that period, and even later, it was not uncommon to find princes and princesses singing in the pieces which were produced at their courts.
When Perrin and his nephew du Locle opened the package of manuscripts Meyerbeer had left, they were stupefied at finding no L'Africanne. "Never mind," said Perrin, "the public wants an Africanne and it shall have one." He summoned Fétis, Meyerbeer's enthusiastic admirer, and the three, Fétis, Perrin and du Locle, managed to evolve the opera we know from the scraps the author had left in disorder.
These strictures did not extend to the performance, however, and the writer does not fail to acknowledge her marked talent. Fétis bears witness to the "lively sensation" she created on the banks of the Seine, while along the Danube she won victory on victory.
At their house we used to get up 'Il Matrimonio Segreto, scenas from 'Don Giovanni, and many other passages from favorite operas; and Adelaide was always our admired prima donna; for she, as Fetis says of genius, 'invented forms, imposed them as types, and obliged us not only to acknowledge, but to imitate them.
Paisiello's style, according to Fétis, was characterized by great simplicity and apparent facility. His few and unadorned notes, full of grace, were yet deep and varied in their expression. In his simplicity was the proof of his abundance. It was not necessary for him to have recourse to musical artifice and complication to conceal poverty of invention.
Fetis says: "In adopting the ideas of his predecessors, in resuscitating forgotten effects, in superadding what his genius and perseverance gave birth to, he arrived at that distinctive character of performance which contributed to his ultimate greatness.
In 1840, Trois Nouvelles Etudes, by Frederic Chopin, appeared in the "Methode des Methodes pour le piano," by F. J. Fetis and I. Moscheles. It was odd company for the Polish composer.
Fetis says that it was on account of the sudden indisposition of Madame Pasta that the first public appearance of Maria in opera was unexpectedly made, but Lord Mount Edgcumbe and the impressario Ebers both tell a different story. The former relates in his "Reminiscences" that, shortly after the repair of the King's Theatre, "the great favorite Pasta arrived for a limited number of nights.