The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume IIThayer, Alexander Wheelock
History
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume II
Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827
The Prince of Wales, afterwards King George IV, took the youth into his
service as first violinist in the Pavilion at Brighton. The next piece
of information which reached Thayer told of Bridgetower’s first concert
in Dresden on July 24, 1802. A second concert was given on March 18,
1803, at which a brother of the violinist, who played the violoncello,
took part. A letter from Friedrich Lindemann, a member of the Prince of
Wales’s orchestra, dated January 14, 1803, contained the information
that a letter of Bridgetower’s forwarded to Brighton by a certain
“Billy” Cole had been placed in the hands of the Prince, who read it at
once, appeared to be highly satisfied, and granted the writer’s request
to be permitted to go to Vienna. Thayer did not learn the dates of
Bridgetower’s birth or death, but Dr. Riemann in his revision of the
second Volume says that he died “between 1840 and 1850.” This is an
error.
In the May number for 1908 of “The Musical Times” (London) Mr. F. G.
Edwards printed the results of an investigation into Bridgetower’s
life, and provided some new and definite information from a collection
of letters and documents in the possession of Arthur F. Hill,
F.S.A. From this article it appears that Bridgetower was a pupil of
Barthélemon, Giornovichi, Thomas Attwood and--as he claimed--Haydn.
If he really was a pupil of Haydn, he must, as Mr. Edwards pointed
out, have been in the neighborhood of Vienna before he had completed
his tenth year. To this the present writer adds that if he had been
a pupil of Haydn’s the latter would not have omitted his name in the
list of names which he made of the London musicians on his first visit
to the English metropolis, for he included “Clement ~petit~,” who was
then between ten and eleven years old. (See, “Music and Manners in
the Classical Period,” by H. E. Krehbiel, p. 77.) He made his first
public appearance in Paris at a Concert Spirituel on April 13, 1789.
In the announcement of this concert he was described as “Mr. Georges
Bridgetower, né aux colonies anglaises, âgé de 9 ans.” (Yet his
passport issued by the police authorities, gives Biala in Poland as his
birthplace.) A concert for his benefit was given on May 27, 1789, at
the Salle du Panthéon. Soon thereafter he crossed the channel and, if
his father is to be believed, he played for the first time in England
before George III and his court at Windsor Castle. Next he appears at
Bath, the “Morning Post” of November 25, 1789, reporting “Amongst those
added to the Sunday promenade were the African Prince in the Turkish
attire. The son of this African Prince has been celebrated as a very
accomplished musician.” The same newspaper, on December 8, a fortnight
later, tells of a concert given on the Saturday morning immediately
preceding the publication which was “more crowded and splendid than has
ever been known at this place, upwards of 550 people being present.
Rauzzini was enraptured, and declared that he had never heard such
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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