Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

STEIBELT STEIBELT 683
as u full-fledged performer and composer, and
was not long in proving his superiority to his
rival. The reasons for his success are obvious.
Though Hermann's technique, which was that
of the school of C. P. E. Bach, was considered
more correct than that of his opponent, he was,
nevertheless, emphatically a player of the old
style. Steibelt, as emphatically, belonged to
the new. Their different characteristics are
clearly brought out in the very curious Sonata
for the Pianoforte called ' La Coquette,' composed
for Marie Antoinette by the two rivals, each of
whom contributed one movement to it. Hermann's
movement, the first, is good, solid,
rather old-fashioned, harpsichord music ; Steibelt's
movement, the Rondo, by its variety of
phrasing and the minutiES of its marks of expression
reveals in every line an acquaintance with
the resources offered by the pianoforte. The
issue of a contest in which the combatants were
so unequally matched could not be doubtful,
and Steibelt was soon installed as reigning
virtuoso. But no musician who aspires to fame
in France can neglect the stage, and Steibelt
accordingly resolved to essay dramatic composition.
One of his patrons, the Vicomte de Segur,
a littirateur of some pretensions, who had written
for the Opera a libretto founded on Shakespeare's
'Romeo and Juliet,' entrusted the composition
of the music to Steibelt The score was finished
in 1792, but the work was rejected by the
Academic. Its authors, nothing daunted, proceeded
to alter the piece. The recitatives were
suppressed and replaced by prose dialogue, and
in this shape the opera was produced at the
Theatre Feydeau on Sept. 10, 1793, with
Madame Soio as Juliet. The Moniteur of Sept.
23 describes the music as ' learned, but laboured
and ugly'—a criticism which, with the music
before one, it is impossible to understand.
Theatre-goers were of a different opinion, and
'
Romeo et Juliette ' was a decided success. It
was performed with success in Stockholm on Jan.
30, 1815 (and again in 1819), and was revived
with great applause in Paris at the Opera-
Comique in 1 822. It does not appear that it
was ever brought forward on the German stage,
but the overture was played in Vienna in 1841.
The concert given after Steibelt's death for his
son's benefit was closed with the Funeral Chorus
from the third act.
Thesuccess of this operatic venture completely
confirmed Steibelt's position in Paris. His
music, though considered difficult, was extremely
popular, and as a teacher he counted amongst
his pupils the most eminent ladies of the time,
including the future Queen of Holland. On his
first coming to Paris he had been received with
great kindness by Boyer the publisher, who had
not only procured for him powerful patronage
but even took him into his own house. His
services were iU rewarded. Steibelt had already
published some Sonatas for the Pianoforte and
Violin (opp. 1 and 2) at Munich. He now
added to them a violoncello ad libitum part,
which merely doubled the bass of the pianoforte
part, and sold them to Boyer as new works.
The fraud seems to have been discovered about
1796, and though Steibelt made reparation by
presenting to the aggrieved publisher his Pianoforte
Concertos, Nos. 1 and 2, this transaction,
combined with other irregularities, so injured
his reputation that he felt it desirable to leave
Paris, at any rate for a time. England attracted
his attention, and, journeying by way of
Holland, he reached London about the close of
1796.1
By this proceeding Steibelt challenged comparisons
quite as dangerous as those which he
had recently risked by bringing out an opera in
Paris. Pianoforte music had originated in
London a quarter of a century before, and at
Steibelt's arrival no fewer than three players and
composers of the first magnitude were resident
there, dementi, Dussek, and Cramer. Few
particulars of Steibelt's life in London have been
recorded. His first public performance seems
to have been at Salomon's Benefit Concert on
May 1, 1797, and a fortnight later (May 15) he
played »• pianoforte concerto of his own at an
opera concert. Not long after this he wrote the
Pianoforte Concerto in E (No. 3), containing the
'
Storm Rondo. ' Whatever may be thought of
the merits of this work now, its popularity at the
beginning of the 1 9th century was enormous, and
far exceeded that accorded to any other of Steibelt's
compositions. It is not too much to say
that it was played in every drawing-room in
England ; indeed, the notorious ' Battle of
Prague ' alone could compete with it in popular
favour. It was, in all probability, first performed
in public at Salomon's concert on March 19,
1798. At the close of the same year (Dec. 11)
its author again came forward as a composer
for the stage, and again met with a favourable
reception. His work on this occasion was an
English opera, or, as it was described in the
Covent Garden play-bill, ' a new grand Heroic
Romance, in three acts, called Albert and
Adelaide ; or the Victim of Constancy.' It
must have been an extraordinary medley. The
first two acts were a translation from the Gei-man
of Schoerer, who had taken them from the
French, and the third act was added from
another French play. The music was only in
part original, and was eked out by the insertion
of a Quintet from
' Lodbiska ' and the like
expedients. Even the ' original ' music was not
all ^vritten by Steibelt, as Attwood contributed
some of it.^ Yet, after all, the most curious
part of this curious production must have been
1 According to F^tiB, Steibelt did not leave Paris till 1798; bat
Messrs. Broadwood & Sodb have records in their poseeaaion which
prove that he was eatablfshed in London by Jan. 2, 1797. lliig
information is due to the IcindnesB of Mr. A. J. Hipitins.
2 This information ia derived from an adveiiiisement of Longman,
Clementi A Co. in the Morning ChroTii/^ of Jan. 22, 1799. These
pasticcios were common enongh then, and nntil the end of the fir«t
quaiHxt of the 19tb century.