Overview

It's difficult to imagine Franz Liszt performing in Peoria, but his contemporary and foremost rival, Sigismund Thalberg, did just that. During the mid-nineteenth century, Americans in more than a hundred cities--from Portland, Maine to Dubuque, Iowa to Mobile, Alabama--were treated to performances by some of Europe's most celebrated pianists. From Paris to Peoria deftly chronicles the visits of five of these pianists to the America of Mark Twain. Whether performing in small railroad towns throughout the Midwest or in gold-rush era California, these five charismatic pianists--Leopold de Meyer, Henri Herz, Sigismund Thalberg, Anton Rubinstein, and Hans von Bülow--introduced many Americans to the delights of the concert hall. With humor and insight, R. Allen Lott describes the glamour and the drudgery of the touring life, the transformation of American audiences from boisterous to reverent, and the establishment of the piano recital as a viable artistic and financial enterprise. Lott also explores the creative and sometimes outlandish publicity techniques of managers seeking to capitalize on prosperous but uncharted American markets. The result of extensive archival research, From Paris to Peoria is richly illustrated with concert programs, handbills, caricatures, and maps. A companion website, www.rallenlott.info, includes a comprehensive list of repertoires and itineraries, audio music examples, and transcriptions of selected primary sources. Certain to delight pianists, musicologists, and historians, From Paris to Peoria is an engaging, thoroughly researched, and often funny account of music and culture in nineteenth-century America.

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9780195148831

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Reviews

Lott provides insightful comments ... [he] also provides considerable information about the social conditions and attitudes of mid-nineteenth-century America, in particular in regard to the arts ... Lott's study is meticulously researched, finely crafted, and written in an easy-flowing, straightforward style. The Journal of American History Throughout From Paris to Peoria, records of successive tours are skilfully framed within a broader context of the nation's receptivity to foreign artists, its enduring obsession with the famous, and the growth of indigenous culture of piano virtuosity. Times Literary Supplement ... grateful scholars of the New World appropriation of Old World music will profit - immeasurably - from Lott's industry and discernment. Los Angeles Times

Lott provides insightful comments ... [he] also provides considerable information about the social conditions and attitudes of mid-nineteenth-century America, in particular in regard to the arts ... Lott's study is meticulously researched, finely crafted, and written in an easy-flowing, straightforward style. The Journal of American History Throughout From Paris to Peoria, records of successive tours are skilfully framed within a broader context of the nation's receptivity to foreign artists, its enduring obsession with the famous, and the growth of indigenous culture of piano virtuosity. Times Literary Supplement ... grateful scholars of the New World appropriation of Old World music will profit - immeasurably - from Lott's industry and discernment. Los Angeles Times

Author Information

R. Allen Lott is Professor of Music History in the School of Church Music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

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