1790 in music

Events

• January 21 – Mozart holds a rehearsal of his new opera Cosi fan Tutte in the presence of his friends Joseph Haydn and Michael Puchberg.
• January 26 – Mozart's opera Cosi fan Tutte is premiered in Vienna.
• September – The 'Four Great Anhui Troupes' bring Anhui opera, or what is now called Huiju, to Beijing in 1790, for the birthday of the Qianlong Emperor. This is effectively the birth of the Beijing Opera.
• Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven meet for the first time.
• Georg Joseph Vogler brings his invention, the orchestrion, to London.
• Following the death of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, his son disbands the orchestra and the players disperse.
• August Duranowski becomes leader of the Brussels opera orchestra.

Opera

• Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf – Der Teufel als Hydraulikus
• Étienne Méhul – Euphrosine et Corradin ou le Tyran corrigé
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Così fan tutte
• Giovanni Paisiello – Nina (libretto by Giambattista Lorenzi)

Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven – Cantata on the Death of Joseph II
• Johann Ladislaus Dussek – Piano Trio
• Joseph Haydn – String Quartets, Op. 64, "Tost", 'Sonata Hob. XVI No. 49 in E flat major'
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel – Piano Quartet in D
• Claus Schall – Concerto No. 4 for violin and orchestra in D major

Published popular music

• James Hook – "Rosy Hannah"

Births

• February 11 – Ignaz Assmayer, composer (d. 1862)
• February 16 – Chretien Urhan, composer
• March 15 – Nicola Vaccai, composer
• July 23 – Anna Sofia Sevelin, alto
• October 10 – Georg Gerson, composer (d. 1825)
• October 17 – August Ferdinand Anacker, composer (d. 1854)
• October 30 – Karol Lipiński, violinist and composer (d. 1861)
• November 7 – Luigi Legnani, guitarist and composer (d. 1877)
• November 11 – Joseph Kreutzer, violinist, conductor and composer (d. 1840)
• date unknown – Ghanam Krishna Iyer, Carnatic music composer (d. 1854)

Deaths

• February 14 – Capel Bond, composer, 59
• February 19 – Jean-Baptiste Krumphultz, composer, 47
• February 21 – Johann Friedrich Kloffler, conductor and composer, 64
• June 25 – Lovisa Augusti, opera singer, 33
• September 3 – Thomas Norris, composer
• September 28 – Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, patron of Joseph Haydn
• December 16 – Ludwig August Lebrun, composer, 38
• date unknown
  • François-Henri Clicquot, organ builder
  • Simoni Dall Croubelis, composer
  • Lucile Grétry, composer, 18