Charles Neustedt: Idylle #1, Op.82
Phillip Sear plays an idyll from around 1869 by the French composer and piano teacher Charles Neustedt.
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The French composer Charles Neustedt (1838-1908) seems to have written a few popular gavottes, tyroliennes and operatic fantasies, but I cannot find much information on his life. Probably born in Saumur, he was a sometime 'professor' at the Couvent des Oiseaux and College Rollin. The first of these institutions was a famous Parisian gaol of the French revolution, which was turned into a convent in 1824. The second was a private college in the Rue Lhomond. I guess he may have been what we would now call a peripatetic music teacher. He was obviously well regarded, as I have seen several works by other composers dedicated to him. In 1879, he took over the Flaxland piano manufacturing business for a few years. Neustedt wrote several idylls, which come across to me as a mixture of Mendelssohn and bel canto. This one was dedicated to Madame Heldewier, possibly the wife of a Dutch diplomat.
Thumbnail photo from Piqsels ( https://tinyurl.com/y8da2su5 ).
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Played by Phillip Sear
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