Maria Theresa von Paradis
Encyclopedia
Maria Theresia Paradis (also von Paradies) (May 15, 1759 – February 1, 1824), was an Austria
n music performer and composer
who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom Mozart
may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18
in B flat major.
, for whom she was named. The Empress, however, was not her godmother, as was often believed. Between the ages of 2 and 5 she lost her eyesight. Paradis was treated from late 1776 until the middle of 1777 by the famous Franz Anton Mesmer, who was able to improve her condition temporarily until she was removed from his care, amid concerns on the one hand of possible scandal, on the other hand at the potential loss of her disability pension. In either case, on this departure from Dr Mesmer the blindness came back for good.
She received a broad education in the musical arts from:
in various Viennese
salons and concerts. She commissioned various works to perform, most notably:
On K.456, while this concerto is believed to be the one intended for Paradis, there are continuing questions concerning this. From Ruth Halliwell's The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context, we read:
In any event, Paradis had an excellent memory and exceptionally accurate hearing, as she was widely reported to have learned over 60 concertos by heart, as well as a large repertoire of solo and religious works.
. In 1783, she set out on an extended tour towards Paris and London
, accompanied by her mother and librettist
Johann Riedinger who invented a composition board for her. In August they visited the Mozarts in Salzburg of that year, though Nannerl's diary seems to place this meeting in September. She played in Frankfurt
and other German
cities, then Switzerland
. Paradis finally reached Paris in March of 1784. Her first concert there was given in April at the Concert Spirituel
; the review in the Journal de Paris for it remarked: "…one must have heard her to form an idea of the touch, the precision, the fluency and vividness of her playing." In all she made a total of 14 appearances in Paris, to excellent reviews and acclaim. She also assisted in helping Valentin Haüy
("the father and apostle of the blind") establish the first school for the blind, which opened in 1785.
She traveled to London in late 1784, and performed over the next few months at court, Carlton House
(the home of the Prince of Wales
), and in the Professional Concerts at Hanover Square
, among other places. She played Handel
fugue
s to George III and later accompanied the Prince of Wales, a cellist
. However, her concerts lost ground, being less well received and attended in London than in Paris. She continued to tour in Western Europe, (including Hamburg
where she met Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
), and after passing through Berlin
and Prague
, ended up back in Vienna in 1786. Further plans were made to give concerts in the Italian states and Russia
, but nothing came of these. She returned to Prague in 1797 for the production of her opera
Rinaldo und Alcina.
, to whom much of her music is often mistakenly attributed. Her earliest major work in existence is the collection Zwolf Lied
er auf ihrer Reise in Musik gesetzt, composed between 1784-86. Her most famous work, the Sicilienne in E flat major for piano quartet, is unfortunately spurious, as it is derived from a Carl Maria von Weber
violin sonata (Op. 10 No. 1) and is believed to have been concocted by its purported discoverer, Samuel Dushkin
.
By the year 1789, Paradis was spending more time with composition than performance, as shown by the fact that from 1789 to 1797 she composed five operas and three cantata
s. After the failure of the opera Rinaldo und Alcina from 1797, she shifted her energy over more and more to teaching. In 1808, she founded her own music school in Vienna where she taught singing, piano and theory to young girls. A Sunday concert series at this school featured the work of her outstanding pupils. She continued to teach up until her death in 1824.
When composing, she used a composition board invented by Riedinger, her partner and librettist, and for correspondence a hand-printing machine invented by Wolfgang von Kempelen
. Her songs are mostly representative of the operatic style, which displays coloratura and trills. Salieri's influence may be seen in the dramatically composed scenes. Much of the stage work is modeled on the Viennese Singspiel
style, while her piano works show a great influence by her teacher Leopold Kozeluch
.
Cantatas
Instrumental works
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n music performer and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18
Piano Concerto No. 18 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat Major, KV. 456 is a concertante work for piano, or pianoforte, and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In Mozart's own catalogue of his works, this concerto is dated 30 September 1784....
in B flat major.
Early life
Maria Theresia Paradis was the daughter of Joseph Anton Paradis, Imperial Secretary of Commerce and Court Councilor to the Empress Maria TheresaMaria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...
, for whom she was named. The Empress, however, was not her godmother, as was often believed. Between the ages of 2 and 5 she lost her eyesight. Paradis was treated from late 1776 until the middle of 1777 by the famous Franz Anton Mesmer, who was able to improve her condition temporarily until she was removed from his care, amid concerns on the one hand of possible scandal, on the other hand at the potential loss of her disability pension. In either case, on this departure from Dr Mesmer the blindness came back for good.
She received a broad education in the musical arts from:
- Carl Friberth (music theoryMusic theoryMusic theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
and composition) - Leopold KozeluchLeopold KozeluchLeopold Kozeluch was a Czech composer and teacher of classical music. He was born in the town of Velvary, in Bohemia .-Life:...
(pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
) - Vincenzo RighiniVincenzo RighiniVincenzo Maria Righini was an Italian composer, singer and kapellmeister.- Biography :Righini was born at Bologna and studied singing and composition with Padre Martini in his home town. Initially he performed as a singer in Florence and Rome , however, according to Fétis he made his debut as a...
(singingSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
) - Antonio SalieriAntonio SalieriAntonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
(singing and composition) - Abbe Vogler (music theory and composition).
Commissions
By 1775, Paradis was performing as a singer and pianistPianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
in various Viennese
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
salons and concerts. She commissioned various works to perform, most notably:
- an organ concertoOrgan concertoAn organ concerto is a piece of music, an instrumental concerto for a pipe organ soloist with an orchestra. The form first evolves in the 18th century, when composers including George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach wrote organ concertos with small orchestras, and with...
by Antonio SalieriAntonio SalieriAntonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
in 1773 (which is missing its second movement); - a piano concertoPiano concertoA piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...
(probably No. 18, K.456Piano Concerto No. 18 (Mozart)The Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat Major, KV. 456 is a concertante work for piano, or pianoforte, and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In Mozart's own catalogue of his works, this concerto is dated 30 September 1784....
) by Mozart in 1784; - a piano concerto by Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
(HXVIII: 4), which was possibly premiered in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1784, but appears to have been composed in the 1770s, the original manuscript now lost.
On K.456, while this concerto is believed to be the one intended for Paradis, there are continuing questions concerning this. From Ruth Halliwell's The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context, we read:
It is not certain which concerto this was. LeopoldLeopold MozartJohann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
[in a letter from Vienna] simply described it to NannerlMaria Anna MozartMaria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart , nicknamed "Nannerl", was a musician, the older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and daughter of Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart.-Childhood:...
as a ‘glorious concerto’ and said it had been written for Maria Theresia von Paradis ‘for Paris.’ His description suggests that neither he nor Nannerl knew it already; if this is so, it must have been a later one than K.453, which seems to have been the newest they had in SalzburgSalzburg-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
at this date.
In any event, Paradis had an excellent memory and exceptionally accurate hearing, as she was widely reported to have learned over 60 concertos by heart, as well as a large repertoire of solo and religious works.
Touring Europe
However, Paradis did not stay confined to ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. In 1783, she set out on an extended tour towards Paris and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, accompanied by her mother and librettist
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
Johann Riedinger who invented a composition board for her. In August they visited the Mozarts in Salzburg of that year, though Nannerl's diary seems to place this meeting in September. She played in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
and other German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
cities, then Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Paradis finally reached Paris in March of 1784. Her first concert there was given in April at the Concert Spirituel
Concert Spirituel
The Concert Spirituel was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790; later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, London and elsewhere...
; the review in the Journal de Paris for it remarked: "…one must have heard her to form an idea of the touch, the precision, the fluency and vividness of her playing." In all she made a total of 14 appearances in Paris, to excellent reviews and acclaim. She also assisted in helping Valentin Haüy
Valentin Haüy
Valentin Haüy - 19 March 1822 in Paris) was the founder, in 1784, of the first school for the blind, the Royal Institution for the Young Blind in Paris . In 1819, Louis Braille entered this school....
("the father and apostle of the blind") establish the first school for the blind, which opened in 1785.
She traveled to London in late 1784, and performed over the next few months at court, Carlton House
Carlton House
Carlton House was a mansion in London, best known as the town residence of the Prince Regent for several decades from 1783. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St. James's Park in the St James's district of London...
(the home of the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
), and in the Professional Concerts at Hanover Square
Hanover Square, London
Hanover Square, London, is a square in Mayfair, London W1, England, situated to the south west of Oxford Circus, the major junction where Oxford Street meets Regent Street....
, among other places. She played Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
s to George III and later accompanied the Prince of Wales, a cellist
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
. However, her concerts lost ground, being less well received and attended in London than in Paris. She continued to tour in Western Europe, (including Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
where she met Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
right|250pxCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach...
), and after passing through Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, ended up back in Vienna in 1786. Further plans were made to give concerts in the Italian states and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, but nothing came of these. She returned to Prague in 1797 for the production of her opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Rinaldo und Alcina.
Compositions and later life
During her tour of Europe, Paradis began composing solo music for piano as well as pieces for voice and keyboard. The earliest music attributed to her is often cited as a set of four piano sonatas from circa 1777, but these are really by Pietro Domenico ParadisiPietro Domenico Paradisi
Pietro Domenico Paradisi , was an Italian composer, harpsichordist and harpsichord teacher, most prominently known for a composition popularly entitled "Toccata in A"....
, to whom much of her music is often mistakenly attributed. Her earliest major work in existence is the collection Zwolf Lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er auf ihrer Reise in Musik gesetzt, composed between 1784-86. Her most famous work, the Sicilienne in E flat major for piano quartet, is unfortunately spurious, as it is derived from a Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
violin sonata (Op. 10 No. 1) and is believed to have been concocted by its purported discoverer, Samuel Dushkin
Samuel Dushkin
Samuel Dushkin was an American violinist of Polish birth.Dushkin was born in Suwałki, Poland. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris as well as with Leopold Auer in New York City and Fritz Kreisler...
.
By the year 1789, Paradis was spending more time with composition than performance, as shown by the fact that from 1789 to 1797 she composed five operas and three cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s. After the failure of the opera Rinaldo und Alcina from 1797, she shifted her energy over more and more to teaching. In 1808, she founded her own music school in Vienna where she taught singing, piano and theory to young girls. A Sunday concert series at this school featured the work of her outstanding pupils. She continued to teach up until her death in 1824.
When composing, she used a composition board invented by Riedinger, her partner and librettist, and for correspondence a hand-printing machine invented by Wolfgang von Kempelen
Wolfgang von Kempelen
Johann Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen de Pázmánd was a Hungarian author and inventor with Irish ancestors.-Life:...
. Her songs are mostly representative of the operatic style, which displays coloratura and trills. Salieri's influence may be seen in the dramatically composed scenes. Much of the stage work is modeled on the Viennese Singspiel
Singspiel
A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
style, while her piano works show a great influence by her teacher Leopold Kozeluch
Leopold Kozeluch
Leopold Kozeluch was a Czech composer and teacher of classical music. He was born in the town of Velvary, in Bohemia .-Life:...
.
List of works by Maria Theresa Paradis
Stage works- Ariadne und Bacchus, melodrama, 20 June 1791 (lost)
- Der Schulkandidat, 5 Dec. 1792, pt of Act 2 and all of Act 3 (lost)
- Rinaldo und Alcina, Zauberoper, 30 June, 1797 (lost)
- Große militärische Oper 1805 (lost)
- Zwei ländliche Opern (lost)
Cantatas
- Trauerkantate auf den Tod Leopolds II, 1792 (lost)
- Deutsches Monument Ludwigs des Unglücklichen, 1793
- Kantate auf die Wiedergenesung meines Vaters (lost)
Instrumental works
- Pianoforte Concerto in G (lost)
- Pianoforte Concerto in C (lost)
- 12 Piano Sonatas, 1792 (lost)
- Pianoforte Trio, 1800 (lost)
- Fantasie in G, pf, 1807
- Fantasie in C, pf, 1811
- Keyboard Variations (lost)
- An meine entfernten Lieben, pf (lost)
- Various songs and lieder totaling at least 18 works, of which two are lost.
Further reading
- Rudolph Angermüller: Antonio Salieri. Dokumente seines Lebens. 3 Bde. Bock, Bad Honnef, 2002.
- Marion Fürst: Maria Theresia Paradis – Mozarts berühmte Zeitgenossin. Böhlau, Köln, 2005.
- Stanley Sadie (Hrsg.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. (2. Auflage) Grove Dictionaries, New York, 2000.
- Ruth Halliwell: The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context. Claredon Press, Oxford, 1998.
- Alexander Mell: Encyklopädisches Handbuch des Blindenwesens Verlag von A. Pichlers Witwe und Sohn, Wien, Leipzig, 1900, S. 576-578.
- BBI (Hrsg.): 200 Jahre Blindenbildung im deutschen Sprachraum. Wien 2004, S. 56.