From Paris to Peoria: How European Piano Virtuosos Brought Classical Music to the American Heartland

by R. Allen Lott

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.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Robert Poortinga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly researched!! Well written and documented. I would have loved a little more broader perspective but that wasn’t the point of the book :) bravo to the writer for such research and telling

[Boris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting view of the tours of 18th century America by 5 of the leading European pianists, with some additional information and digression on other artists. The pianists were Leopold de Meyer, Henri Herz, Sigismund Thalberg, Anton Rubinstein and Hans von Bulow.

The book is both a scholarly study and a popular history, including excerpts of the musical scores that the artists performed.

This is another modern corrective to the misinformation promulgated by Harold Schonberg in his "The Great Pianists", a work I never recommend to anyone interested in matters piano, even the second and largely uncorrected edition.