Matthew Gardner – författare

In the early eighteenth century, the benefit performance became an essential component of commercial music-making in Britain. Benefits, adapted from the spoken theatre, provided a new model from which instrumentalists, singers, and composers could reap financial and professional rewards. Benefits could be given as theatre pieces, concerts, or opera performances for the benefit of individual performers; or in aid of specific organizations. The benefit changed Britain's musico-theatrical landscape during this time and these special performances became a prototype for similar types of events in other European and American cities. Indeed, the charity benefit became a musical phenomenon in its own right, leading, for example, to the lasting success of Handel's Messiah. By examining benefits from a musical perspective - including performers, audiences, and institutions - the twelve chapters in this collection present the first study of the various ways in which music became associated with the benefit system in eighteenth-century Britain.

In the early eighteenth century, the benefit performance became an essential component of commercial music-making in Britain. Benefits, adapted from the spoken theatre, provided a new model from which instrumentalists, singers, and composers could reap financial and professional rewards. Benefits could be given as theatre pieces, concerts, or opera performances for the benefit of individual performers; or in aid of specific organizations. The benefit changed Britain's musico-theatrical landscape during this time and these special performances became a prototype for similar types of events in other European and American cities. Indeed, the charity benefit became a musical phenomenon in its own right, leading, for example, to the lasting success of Handel's Messiah. By examining benefits from a musical perspective - including performers, audiences, and institutions - the twelve chapters in this collection present the first study of the various ways in which music became associated with the benefit system in eighteenth-century Britain.

The piano features prominently in Schubert's musical output throughout his career, not only as an instrument for solo piano pieces (for two and four hands), but also in Lieder and chamber music as an equal partner to the voice or other instruments. His preference for the instrument is reflected in contemporary reports by his friends and colleagues as well as in iconography, where he is frequently depicted at the piano. In early nineteenth-century Vienna the piano underwent a rapid period of development, allowing composers to experiment with expanded ranges, sonorities and effects that differ substantially from modern concert grands. Schubert's Piano considers the composer's engagement with this instrument in terms of social history, performance and performance practices, aesthetics, sonority and musical imagery, and his approaches to composition across several musical genres, stimulating new insights into the creative interplay among Schubert's piano compositions.