Album insights
About two centuries ago, gladiator-style competitions between two piano virtuosos were highly popular among the Viennese elite. A famous piano duel between Mozart and Clementi took place in December 1781, with no clear winner emerging, though Joseph II later claimed that Mozart had displayed superior taste and finesse. In May 1800, another traveling virtuoso named Daniel Steibelt engaged in a musical showdown with Beethoven at a gathering in Count Moritz von Fries' home. According to Beethoven's student Ferdinand Ries, Steibelt unwisely played a prepared "improvisation" based on a theme from Beethoven's clarinet trio op. 11 variations. Beethoven retaliated by improvising on a theme from Steibelt's piano quintet, played earlier by Steibelt, to which Beethoven had turned the sheet music upside-down. Ries notes that Steibelt left the room humiliated before Beethoven had finished, demanding Beethoven not be invited if they wanted him to stay.
Steibelt, primarily known as Beethoven's challenger in musical history, was celebrated for a quarter of a century as a modern-day piano lion in Northern Europe. Born in Berlin to a German piano maker and a French mother, he received instruction from Johann Kirnberger, a famous composer and music theorist. Although he joined the Prussian army at his father's insistence, Steibelt deserted within a year to pursue a career as a traveling virtuoso, carefully avoiding Berlin. Settling in revolutionary Paris in 1790, he made a name for himself as a "composer-pianist" through an extensive output of piano sonatas, divertissements, waltzes, and, from 1796, a series of eight keyboard concerts. Steibelt, known for being difficult in his youth, was described by contemporaries as vain, arrogant, and ostentatiously extravagant. Despite his challenging nature, his brilliant playing was remarkably captivating during the peak of his career.
After conquering Paris in the mid-1790s, Steibelt journeyed to London to captivate audiences in two concerts arranged by violinist and impresario Johann Peter Salomon. In 1798, he returned to London, performing his most popular composition, Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major, "L'orage," Op. 33, which solidified its immediate popularity through the stormy finale. While in London, Steibelt married an English pianist skilled in tambourine, leading him to incorporate tambourine parts in many of his later works, including his "Grand concerto militaire."
During the late 1790s, Mozart's Vienna piano concertos served as a significant influence on the classical and early Romantic piano concerto. Beethoven was the only one to follow Mozart's lead in integrating piano and orchestra within a symphonic framework. Steibelt roughly followed the formal structure of Mozart's opening movements, yet his approach, similar to other pianist-composers of his time, emphasized grandiose keyboard passages and lacked thematic development. The extensive Allegro of the E major concerto, composed for a large ensemble including a trombone, features a march-like rhythm in the orchestral introduction. The soloist weaves predominantly lyrical themes in response, showcasing impressive virtuosic passages.
Known for his showmanship, Steibelt struggled with composing slow and sustained music. Many of his Andante and Adagio movements incorporated existing melodies, including using Scottish folk tunes for sentimental effect. Variations with embellishments were featured, highlighting Steibelt's skill in blending traditional melodies with intricate decorations. The finale, titled "Rondo pastoral, in which is introduced an imitation of a storm," exploited fashionable picturesque effects, transitioning from rustic sounds to a storm scene with swirling diminished sevenths and tremolos, characteristic of Steibelt's style.
Following a turbulent encounter with Beethoven in 1800, Steibelt split his time between London and Paris in the ensuing years. Alongside numerous piano works, he composed two ballets for the King's Theatre at Haymarket in London and an intermezzo, "La fête de mars," to commemorate Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz. Around the same time, he produced his Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, "À la chasse," Op. 64, marked by elaborate orchestration and reminiscent of his third concerto. His compositions reflected an evolution in style, incorporating thematic variations alongside bravura passages.
In 1808, Steibelt hastily departed Paris for St. Petersburg to assume the role of director at the French Opera, a move precipitated by financial pressures. He remained in St. Petersburg until his death, serving as an operatic director and maître de chapelle to Tsar Alexander I. While focused on opera and ballet in his later years, Steibelt also continued composing, creating concertos such as the 6th to 8th, characterized by innovative structural elements. Notably, his 8th concerto included a choral finale, a concept later echoed in works by Henri Herz and Busoni.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Steibelt, inspired by Dussek and Woelfl, composed his "Grand concerto militaire" in E minor, Op. 64, as a nod to militaristic themes. The concerto encompassed a vast ensemble, featuring punctuated military rhythms and showcasing the piano in brilliant cadenza-like passages. The finale, beginning with a delicate march, evolved into a jubilant collaboration between two orchestras and prominent soloist cascades, culminating in an exuberant musical experience. Steibelt, though increasingly absent from the concert stage, continued to impress audiences, suggesting his enduring vitality as a pianist.