Baronin Talleyrand - Musikantiquariat Dr. Ulrich Drüner

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The Talleyrand Music Collection
The Talleyrand Music Collection was probably founded in 1785 by Marie-Louise-Fidèle
Baronne de Talleyrand-Périgord, a very experienced singer and harp player. She married General
Louis-Marie de Talleyrand-Périgord, (1738-1799), the uncle of the “Great Talleyrand”,
(Napoleon Bonaparte’s Chancellor and Minister). General Talleyrand was the French Ambassador
to the King of Sicily, in Naples from 1785, and was intended to be a political counterpart
to the strong English influence at the Neapolitan court.The Talleyrands, one of the great
families in South-Western France since the Middle Ages, was now becoming one of the most
influential in French political life since the late 18th century.Whilst General Talleyrand was
occupied with Neapolitan politics, his wife, however, seems to have spent most of her time
at San Carlo, the most important of the Neapolitan Opera Houses. She was obviously closely
acquainted with Paisiello, since some autographs are included in the Talleyrand Collection.
Through the political connections of the Talleyrands, Paisiello was appointed Court composer
to Napoleon, in 1802. After General Talleyrand’s death in 1799, the family collections
were brought to France and both kept and considerably enlarged by the son, Auguste-Louis
de Talleyrand-Périgord (1770-1832). He became Napoleon’s Chamberlain in 1802, and in
1808, Ambassador in Germany and Switzerland. He was also a serious composer and wrote
five full operas and many other vocal compositions.
An important section of the Talleyrand collection was devoted to the works of Giovanni
Paisiello. Among these fine 68 leather bound volumes (with c. 20,000 pages), written mostly
between 1785 and 1800, are 17 full scores of complete operas (14 of them unpublished);
in addition there are substantial parts or extracts of 36 further unpublished operas. From
Paisiello’s approximate 90 operatic works, 52 are represented in the collection. Since these
manuscripts are among the most important sources for Paisiello’s work outside Neapolitan
and Parisian libraries, they have been considered as a complete entity which cannot be offered
here en détail. – Further large sections of our collection contain operatic manuscripts of
Paisiello’s Italian contemporaries, as well as a large section of French operas from the second
half of the 18th century in full scores, which are now somewhat rare.Among them, there are
30 operas by Grétry, who seems to have had, with the exception of Paisiello, the strongest
influence on Louis Auguste de Talleyrand, as a composer.
Surprisingly, there are a great deal of Viennese music editions, among them many first editions
of works by Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart.When the Talleyrands returned to Paris in
1799, these editions were already “antiquarian” ones since they were mainly printed in the
1780s and 1790s. Several Viennese manuscripts, which may be dated c. 1810-1820, suggest
an explanation: Surely, Louis Auguste de Talleyrand was in the retinue of his celebrated cousin,
Charles-Maurice (who soon became Prince of Benevent) during the Vienna Congress,
1814-1816. But whilst Charles Maurice was brilliantly enhancing French interests, Louis
Auguste seems to have preferred the Viennese music shops, buying Haydn and Mozart
there… – The most recent part of the collection was acquired between 1805 and 1820 and
contains representative series of Parisian publications of the collected chamber music works
by Boccherini, Haydn, Mozart and Pleyel – and finally, works by the young Beethoven as well.
The multiplicity of the Talleyrand collection is the most striking characteristic of its admirable
cohesion: Its roots, Naples, Paris,Vienna, reflect the internationality, the free spirit and
the artistic understanding of that family, which was at the height of French nobility and
among the great names in European politics, during the first decades of the 19th century. At
a time when the continental bourgeoisie already leant towards early nationalist movements,
European spirituality still permeated the Talleyrand family.
In the market of antiquarian music, no library of comparable importance, deriving from
the European nobility, has come to light during the last three decades. Hence, this catalogue
not only reflects the content of that collection, but also attempts to embody the musical life
of such a great family, reflecting their contemporary taste.