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25-631: The abbey was founded in Ognolles in the Diocese of Noyon by Jean II, Lord of Nesle , in 1202, before his departure for the Fourth Crusade . The abbey was at that time named Notre-Dame-aux-Bois ("Our Lady of the Woods"). It was probably Cistercian since its foundation. With support from French nobility and the local bourgeoisie , the convent grew rapidly. For generations it was protected by popes and kings; in

50-457: A Musical Interlude named La Fête de Mars , whose première was attended by Napoleon in person (4 February 1806). In 1808 he was invited by Tsar Alexander I to Saint Petersburg , succeeding François-Adrien Boieldieu as director of the French Opera in 1811. He remained there for the rest of his life. In 1812, he composed The Conflagration of Moscow , a grand fantasy for piano dedicated to

75-543: A Storm Rondo characterized 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 , Berlin, Dresden , and Prague , he arrived at the end of March 1800 at Vienna , where he is reported to have challenged Beethoven to a trial of skill at the house of Count Moritz von Fries . The oft-quoted account by Ferdinand Ries

100-538: A salon that became one of the largest in the world of European literature. It bolstered the recognition of a number of the young writers who attended, including Alphonse de Lamartine , Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve , and Honoré de Balzac . Chateaubriand, Récamier's friend and former landlord, described his first visit to her fourth-floor quarters in his autobiography, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe : A dark corridor connected two little rooms; I maintained that this hallway

125-427: A Sonata for Cello and Piano instead of just a Piano composition. This did not faze Beethoven at all, as he simply took the score, placed it upside down, and read it backward. He then began improvising on the inversed themes for about 30 minutes, causing Steibelt to furiously storm out before Beethoven had finished. Ries stated that Steibelt had "made it a condition that Beethoven was not to be invited where his own company

150-615: A piano duel. Steibelt was born in Berlin , and studied music with Johann Kirnberger before being forced by his father to join the Prussian Army . After deserting, he began a nomadic career as a pianist before settling in 1790 in Paris, where he attained great popularity as a virtuoso as the result of a piano sonata called La Coquette , which he composed for Marie Antoinette . Also in Paris, his dramatic opera entitled Romeo et Juliette , which

175-556: A prolonged illness. 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 . Despite this, his playing and compositional skills enabled him to build a career across Europe. Grove describes him as "extraordinarily vain, arrogant, discourteous, recklessly extravagant and even dishonest." Such harsh moral judgements are justified by some of

200-459: A theme supplied by their opponent. According to Ries, Beethoven won the first two rounds with ease. The third and final round secured Beethoven's victory. Each player was to sightread a newly written piece from their opponent. Steibelt was given Beethoven's Piano Sonata in Bb Major, Op. 22 , which did earn him some considerable applause. However, Steibelt proceeded to bend the rules and handed Beethoven

225-644: Is a commune in the Oise department in northern France . This Oise geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Daniel Steibelt Daniel Gottlieb Steibelt (22 October 1765 – 2 October [ O.S. 20 September] 1823) was a German pianist and composer. His main works were composed in Paris and in London, and he died in Saint Petersburg , Russia. He once challenged and lost to Ludwig van Beethoven in

250-594: The Kyrie eleison a cappella in the chapel there. He contrasts the starkness of her lone, echoing voice with the crowds and activity of Paris near the end of the Belle Époque . Huysmans felt a personal significance in the demolition of the abbey. He was born in Paris and lived there for most of his life. He rejected the Church at a young age, but in middle age he retired from the Ministry of

275-559: The Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in May 1968; they stayed until 1975. In 1978, public performances at the theatre ceased and it became a rehearsal venue for the Comédie-Française . It shut in 2008 for renovation. 48°51′08″N 2°19′39″E  /  48.8522°N 2.3276°E  / 48.8522; 2.3276 Ognolles Ognolles ( French pronunciation: [ɔɲɔl] )

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300-546: The abbey to ladies of high society . One wing of the abbey was converted to a nursing home . There, socialite Juliette Récamier , affected by a reversal of fortune, lived for 30 years—from 1819 until her death in 1849 at age 71. She first occupied a small, two-room apartment on the fourth floor before moving to a larger first-floor unit (where she could entertain guests) in 1829. This had been sub-let to Mary Clarke and her mother and they had entertained there. In this larger space, she and François-René de Chateaubriand hosted

325-567: The 14th century, a shift in the Hundred Years' War obliged the nuns to relocate. When later wars threatened the convent, it moved several times before settling in Paris in 1654. There, Anne of Austria installed the nuns in their new site: buildings formerly tenanted by the Sisters of the Annunciation of Mary . The convent adopted its present name in 1667. In 1718, the nuns rebuilt the church under

350-595: The Interior and became a novice at Ligugé Abbey . When new association laws dispersed the monks in 1902, Huysmans returned to Paris. Five years later, he sentimentalized the loss of the familiar Abbaye-aux-Bois. In 1919, the Théâtre Récamier was erected on the site of the chapel on rue Récamier. Actor/director Jean Vilar and the Renaud-Barrault Company took up residence there after they were expelled from

375-714: The Opera House. On his way to it, the First Consul Bonaparte narrowly escaped a bomb attack. Steibelt had just published one of his most accomplished sonatas, which he had dedicated to Bonaparte's wife, Josephine. After a second stay in England from March 1802 to March 1805, Steibelt returned to the continent, gave concerts in Brussels (April 1805), and was back in Paris in Summer. He celebrated Napoleon's triumph at Austerlitz with

400-686: The Russian nation. Steibelt generally ceased performing in 1814 but returned to the platform for his Concerto No. 8, which premiered on March 16, 1820, in Saint Petersburg, and is notable for its choral finale. This was four years before Beethoven's unconventional 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). Steibelt died in Saint Petersburg on 20 September 1823 (2 October N.S.), following

425-576: The church was preserved, annexed to the parish of Saint Thomas Aquinas in 1802. In 1831 it was the site of the requiem (funeral Mass) for Father Henri Grégoire . A royal decree of 18 November 1827 permitted a religious order called the Chanoinesses de Saint-Augustin de la Congrégation Notre-Dame ("Saint Augustine's Canons of the Congregation of Our Lady") to use the buildings of the rue de Sèvres. They tutored students, and sublet rooms in one part of

450-567: The final accents of the invocation to the night from Steibelt ’s Romeo and Juliet . A few birds would come and settle on the raised window-blinds. I would merge with the distant silence and solitude, above the noise and tumult of a great city. Antoinette Henriette Clémence Robert 's brief stay at the abbey in 1845 also occurred during this period. Clémence Robert, a writer then in her late forties, had recently published two books. In 1904, French legislation outlawed religious education such as that conducted at abbeys. What remained of Abbaye-aux-Bois

475-509: The invocation of Notre-Dame and of Saint Anthony . It is for these nuns that Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed his Leçons de ténèbres in 1680. Wealthy, aristocratic families paid up to 400 livres a year for their daughters to be educated at the convent. The convent's buildings were expropriated in 1792. As national property ( biens nationaux ), they became a prison during the Reign of Terror , and then were sold for private residence. Only

500-462: The nuns made circuits, and in which the schoolgirls ran about. The summit of an acacia tree reached to eye-level and the hills of Sèvres could be seen on the horizon. The setting sun gilded the picture and entered through the open windows. Madame Récamier would be at the piano; the Angelus would toll; the notes of the bell, which seemed to mourn the dying day: ‘il giorno pianger che si more’, mingled with

525-459: Was desired". Following this supposed public humiliation Steibelt ended his tour. (The date of his departure from Vienna is not known, while Beethoven did leave Vienna at the end of April or the beginning of May: he played in Buda, Hungary, on 7 May.) Steibelt went again to Paris, where he organized the first performance of Joseph Haydn 's oratorio The Creation , which took place on 24 December 1800 at

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550-415: Was destroyed in 1907 during the expansion of the rue de Sèvres. Parts of the abbey site were later converted to a new street (rue Récamier); the site of the nursing home became Roger Stéphane Square. Parisian novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans , too, died in 1907. In an article he wrote about the abbey's impending destruction, he summarizes its history and reminisces nostalgically about a nun he once heard singing

575-459: 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 containing

600-452: Was lit by a gentle light. The bedroom was furnished with a bookcase, a harp, a piano, a portrait of Madame de Staël , and a view of Coppet by moonlight. On the window sills were pots of flowers. When, breathless after climbing three flights of stairs, I entered this little cell as dusk was falling, I was entranced. The windows looked out over the Abbaye garden, around the green enclosure of which

625-453: Was written 37 years later; Ries did not attend it and became only later a student and friend of Beethoven. The duel between Steibelt and Beethoven consisted of multiple rounds as different assessments of each player's skill. The first round was a prepared playing of someone else's composition. For this Beethoven played a Mozart composition, and Steibelt performed a Haydn piece. The next round of competition involved each player improvising over

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