Music
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In 1787, Saint-George conducted the premières of Joseph Haydn's six "Paris symphonies." Marie-Antoinette had them performed several nights in a row, such that one of these symphonies, No. 85, was subtitled "The Queen," in her honor.
Mozart stayed in Paris in 1778 during the time of Saint-George's triumph.
Saint-George's second opera, La Chasse (The Hunt, now lost), first performed on October 12, 1778, was enthusiastically received by the audience and the press alike.
Saint-George owed his fame as much to his virtuosity as to his compositions. His concertos attracted crowds to the Hôtel de Soubise (now the National Archives), and to performances by the Concert des Amateurs (eighty musicians), led by Saint-George. The composer's operas (including one for which the libretto was written by Choderlos de Laclos) enjoyed undeniable popularity at the Italian Comedy. Saint-George's qualities as a conductor were such that his orchestras were considered to be among the best in Europe.
Read more about this topic: Chevalier De Saint-George
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practise politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“The harp that once through Tara’s halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls As if that soul were fled.”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
“While the music is performed, the cameras linger savagely over the faces of the audience. What a bottomless chasm of vacuity they reveal! Those who flock round the Beatles, who scream themselves into hysteria, whose vacant faces flicker over the TV screen, are the least fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idle, the failures . . .”
—Paul Johnson (b. 1928)