1791 in music

The year 1791 in music involved some significant events.

Events

• January 1 – Austrian composer Joseph Haydn arrives in England at the invitation of London resident impresario Johann Peter Salomon; here his concerts are huge successes. On March 11, the first of his London symphonies, Symphony No. 96, is premièred at the Hanover Square Rooms. On July 8 he is awarded an honorary doctorate of music at the University of Oxford and probably conducts his Symphony No. 92 in the Sheldonian Theatre as part of the ceremonials.^[1][2]
• Mid-July – An emissary of Count Franz von Walsegg commissions a Requiem for the late Countess Anna from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• August 24 – Official opening of the Teatro Riccardi opera house in Bergamo, Lombardy, with a production of Pietro Metastasio's Didone abbandonata set to music by multiple composers including Ferdinando Bertoni, Giacomo Rampini, Johann Gottlieb Naumann, Giuseppe Gazzaniga and Giovanni Paisiello.
• September 6 – Première of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera seria La clemenza di Tito ("The Clemency of Titus", K. 621, with libretto adapted by Caterino Mazzolà after Metastasio) at the Estates Theatre in Prague with Mozart conducting and the castrato Domenico Bedini playing Sesto. It has been written in around 18 days (after most of The Magic Flute has been completed) to a commission by Domenico Guardasoni to mark the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia, after Salieri had declined the commission.
• September 30 – Première of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Singspiel opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte, K. 620) at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in suburban Vienna with Mozart conducting, probably from the keyboard,^[3] the librettist (and theatre proprietor) Emanuel Schikaneder playing Papageno and Mozart's sister-in-law Josepha Hofer playing the Queen of the Night.
• December 5 (01:00) – Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, age 35, at his home in Vienna of fever; on a mild and misty December 7, following a funeral service in St. Stephen's Cathedral, he is buried in a common grave (as customary at this time) in St. Marx Cemetery in the presence of Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten (his patron) and two other musicians.^[4]

Classical music

• Franz Anton Hoffmeister – String Quartet in F
• Joseph Haydn
  • Symphony No. 93 in D major
  • Symphony No. 94 in G major, The Surprise
  • Symphony No. 95 in C minor
  • Symphony No. 96 in D major, The Miracle
• Leopold Kozeluch – String Quartets, Op. 33
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Adagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello (K⁶. 617) and Adagio in C for Glass Harmonica (K⁶. 617a)
  • Ave verum corpus, motet in D major (K. 618)
  • Clarinet Concerto in A major (K. 622)
  • Horn Concerto No. 1 in D major (K. 412)
  • Menuets (K. 599, 601 & 604)
  • Piano Concerto No. 27 in B♭ major (K. 595)
  • String Quintet No. 6 in E♭ major (K. 614)
  • Freimaurerkantate: "Laut verkünde unsre Freude" ("Kleine Freimaurer-Kantate, Little Masonic Cantata"; K. 623)
  • Requiem in D minor (K. 626; unfinished)
• Franz Xaver Süssmayr – Concerto Movement in D major for basset horn

Opera

• Marcello Bernardini – L'amore per incanto
• Luigi Cherubini – Lodoïska
• Étienne Méhul – Alonzo et Cora
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • La clemenza di Tito
  • The Magic Flute
• William Shield – The Woodman

Births

• January 28 – Ferdinand Hérold, French operatic composer (d. 1833)
• February 20 – Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d. 1857)
• March 9 – Nicolas Levasseur, French operatic bass (d. 1871)
• May 11 – Jan Václav Voříšek, Bohemian pianist, organist and composer (d. 1825)
• May 29 – Pietro Romani, Italian singing teacher (d. 1877)
• July 26
  • Francisco José Debali, Hungarian-born composer (d. 1859)
  • Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer and pianist (d. 1844)
• September 5 – Giacomo Meyerbeer, born Jacob Liebmann Beer, German-born operatic composer (d. 1864)
• October 7 – Friedrich Wilhelm Grund, German composer (d. 1874)
• October 31 – Ferdinand Huber, Swiss composer (d. 1863)

Deaths

• February 2 – Frantisek Kotzwara, Czech-born double bassist and composer (b. 1730) (erotic asphyxiation)
• February 5 – John Beard, English operatic tenor (b. c. 1717)
• March 22 – Carlo Besozzi, Italian oboist and composer (b. 1738)
• April 4 – Elisabeth Lillström, Swedish operatic soprano (b. 1717)
• May 14 – Francesca Lebrun, German singer and composer (b. 1756)
• August 12 – Isabella Young, English operatic mezzo-soprano and organist
• August 25 – Pietro Domenico Paradisi, Italian harpsichordist and composer (b. 1707)
• October 25 – Giovanni Battista Ferrandini, Italian composer (b. 1710)
• December 5 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1756)
• date unknown – Marie-Anne-Catherine Quinault, French singer and composer (b. 1695)

References