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 Bulow--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.
Industry Reviews
"From Paris to Peoria is an absorbing, readable book in which music history interacts with social history. The detailed account Lott offers, rich in quotes from primary sources and musical examples, modifies the generalizations and corrects the errors of earlier accounts."--Piano Today
"Lott enables us to look at the question of virtuosi's impact and accomplishments in an entirely new light. [He] has derived a satisfying scheme for the presentation of abundance of information." -- Institute for Studies in American Music Review
"Lott's engaging book...greatly ads to our understanding of music in nineteenth-century America and its role in shaping modern attitudes toward the place of Western European music in American cultural life."--Notes
"Grateful scholars of the New World appropriation of Old World music will profit--immeasurably--from Lott's industry and discernment."--Los Angeles Times
"From Paris to Peoria is an absorbing, readable book in which music history interacts with social history. The detailed account Lott offers, rich in quotes from primary sources and musical examples, modifies the generalizations and corrects the errors of earlier accounts."--Piano Today
"Lott enables us to look at the question of virtuosi's impact and accomplishments in an entirely new light. [He] has derived a satisfying scheme for the presentation of abundance of information." -- Institute for Studies in American Music Review
"Lott's engaging book...greatly ads to our understanding of music in nineteenth-century America and its role in shaping modern attitudes toward the place of Western European music in American cultural life."--Notes
"Grateful scholars of the New World appropriation of Old World music will profit--immeasurably--from Lott's industry and discernment."--Los Angeles Times
"Vividly brings to the reader a rich panorama of early concert life in the United States. Lott's meticulously researched and highly readable book is a treasure-trove of information about this largely undiscovered chapter of American concert life, and should be a 'must read' for anyone interested in the history of great pianism."--Joseph Banowetz, pianist and author of The Pianist's Guide to Pedaling
"An engaging history of social life and evolving musical taste in mid-nineteenth century America."--Richard Zimdars, translator of The Piano Master Classes of Hans von Bülow and The Piano Master Classes of Franz Liszt
"Well thought-out and well written and thoroughly documented. Lott has done a splendid job of comparing and contrasting the experiences of these musicians in the US and of tracing their influences on the development of American musical culture. Reading this book gives a vivid account of 'high-brow' musical life in the nineteenth century, as the United States sought to respond to and compete with European domination in the arts."--R. Larry Todd, Professor of
Music, Duke University
"A first rate book. Displays Lott's torough knowledge of his topic, including the context, performance styles, repertoires, reception, and long-term impact on musical life in the United States."--Adrienne Fried Block, author of Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian The Life and Work of an American Composer, 1867-1944
