Daniel Gottlieb Steibelt (October 22, 1765 – October 2 [O.S. September 20] 1823), was a German pianist and composer who died in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
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Daniel Steibelt was born in Berlin, and studied music with Johann Kirnberger before being forced by his father to join the Prussian army. Deserting, he began a nomadic career as a pianist before settling in 1790 in Paris. Here his dramatic opera entitled Romeo et Juliette, which was later highly regarded by Hector Berlioz, was produced at the Théâtre Feydeau in 1793. This is held by many to be his most original and artistically successful composition.
Steibelt began to share his time between Paris and London, where his piano-playing attracted great attention. In 1797 he played in a concert of J. P. Salamon. In 1798 he produced his Concerto No. 3 in E flat containing a Storm Rondo characterised by extensive tremolos, which became very popular. In the following year Steibelt started on a professional tour in Germany; and, after playing with some success in Hamburg, Dresden, Prague and Berlin, he arrived in May 1800 at Vienna, where he challenged Beethoven to a trial of skill at the house of Count von Fries.
Accounts of the contest record it was a disaster for Steibelt; Beethoven reportedly carried the day by improvising at length on a theme taken from the cello part of a new Steibelt piece—placed upside down on the music rack. Following this public humiliation Steibelt quit his tour. In 1808 he was invited by Tsar Alexander I to Saint Petersburg, succeeding François-Adrien Boieldieu as director of the Royal Opera in 1811. He remained there for the rest of his life.
He generally ceased performing in 1814, but returned to the platform for his Concerto No. 8, which was premiered on March 16, 1820, in Saint Petersburg, and is notable for its choral finale. This was four years even before Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and was the only piano concerto ever written (excluding Beethoven's Choral Fantasy) with a part for a chorus until Henri Herz's 6th concerto, Op 192 (1858) and Ferruccio Busoni's Piano Concerto (1904).[1]
Besides his dramatic music, Steibelt left behind him an enormous number of compositions, mostly for the piano. His playing was said to be brilliant, though lacking the higher qualities which characterized that of such contemporaries as Cramer and Muzio Clementi. Grove describes him as 'extraordinarily vain, arrogant, discourteous, recklessly extravagant and even dishonest.' But his playing and compositional skills enabled him to maintain a respectable career and reputation in his time.Such harsh moral judgements are not justified by the facts of Steibelt's life as they have come down to us. These and similar attacks on his character must be viewed with suspicion if a correct image of Steibelt's personality is never to be reconstructed.
At his best Steibelt is an imaginative composer with strong individuality. His operas Cendrillon (1810) and Romeo et Juliette (1793), all his piano concerti, his chamber music, a selection of his numerous sonatas (notably Op. 64 in G - 1809) and some piano pieces (caprices and preludes, studies Op. 78) are of sufficient musical worth to be performed and enjoyed today.
1) Stage
2) Orchestral
3) Chamber
4) Methode de Pianoforte (1805)
5) Songs