1857 in music

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Events

January 7 - Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 receives its first public performance. Hans von Bronsart is the pianist with Liszt conducting, in Weimar.
January 21 – Giacomo Meyerbeer conducts a work by Mikhail Glinka, at a concert in Berlin attended by the composer. Glinka catches a cold and dies a few weeks later, aged 52; autopsy results are inconclusive.^[1]
January 27 - Franz Liszt's Sonata in B minor (Liszt) is given its first public performance. Hans von Bülow performs it in Berlin.
February 7 – Louis Gottschalk leaves New York to begin a concert tour of Cuba.^[1]
March 14 – Stephen Foster sells all his copyrights to his music publisher for $1,872.28.^[1]
April 28 – Richard Wagner moves into Green Hill at Zürich, a villa owned by Otto Wesendonck.^[1]
July 4 – Georges Bizet wins the Prix de Rome.
August 27 – Joseph Joachim writes to Franz Liszt, ending their professional relationship.^[1]
October 8 – Irish opera diva Catherine Hayes marries her manager, William Avery Bushnell, in San Francisco; he dies less than a year later.^[2]
November 12 – 73-year-old Louis Spohr is forced into retirement from his post at the Hesse-Kassel court.^[1]
Gioacchino Rossini begins Péchés de vieillesse.
Hans Von Bulow marries Cosima Liszt daughter of Franz Liszt. They would have two daughters.

Charles-Valentin Alkan – Sonate de Concert in E, Op. 47 for cello and piano
Georges Bizet – Herminie (cantata)
Johannes Brahms
- Serenade No 1. Opus 11
- Eleven Variations on an Original Theme, in D major Opus 21 No.1
Franz Liszt
- Dante Symphony
- Hunnenschlacht
- Die Ideale (premiered on 5 September)
Modest Mussorgsky – Souvenir d'Enfance
Joachim Raff
- Ode to Spring: Concert Piece in G major, Op. 76, for piano and orchestra
- String Quartet No. 2 in A major; Op. 90
Bedřich Smetana – Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 (revised version – original finished 1855)
Julius Reubke – The 94th Psalm

Karel Miry – Karel V (opera in 5 acts, libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premiered on January 29 in Ghent)
Ambroise Thomas – Le carnaval de Venise
Giuseppe Verdi – Simon Boccanegra

January 17 – Wilhelm Kienzl, Austrian composer (died 1941)
February 28 – Gustave Kerker, German-born composer (died 1923)
March 3 – Alfred Bruneau, French composer (died 1934)
March 4
- Gustav Kobbé, American music critic and author (died 1918)
- Henry W. Petrie, American songwriter (died 1925)
March 8 – Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian opera composer (died 1919)
April 21 – Paul Dresser, American composer (died 1906)
April 29 – František Ondříček, Czech violinist and composer (died 1922)
May 2 – Frederic Cliffe, English composer (died 1931)
May 9 – Luigi Illica, Italian librettist for Puccini, Catalani, Giordano and others (died 1919)
May 12 – Lillian Nordica, American opera singer (died 1914)
June 2 – Edward Elgar, English composer (died 1934)
June 5 – Árpád Doppler, Hungarian-German composer (died 1927)
August 8 – Cécile Chaminade, French composer (died 1944)
September 8 – Olga Björkegren, Swedish opera singer (died 1950)
October 12 – Paul Lange, German musician, teacher, orchestra and choir leader (died 1919)
November 5 – Joseph Tabrar, English music hall songwriter (d. 1931)
November 14 – Rosalind Ellicott, English composer (died 1924)
December 18 – Rosa Newmarch, née Jeaffreson, English musicologist (died 1940)
December 27 – Charles Manners, né Southcote Mansergh, English operatic bass and opera company manager (died 1935)
December 30 – Sylvio Lazzari, Italian composer and conductor (died 1944)

January 19 – Franz Limmer, conductor and composer (b. 1808)
February 14 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, violinist, conductor and composer (born 1801)
February 15 – Mikhail Glinka, composer (b. 1804)
March 1 – Benjamin Cross, organist, singer, conductor and composer (b. 1786)
April – Alessandro Curmi, pianist and composer (b. 1801)
June 28 – Joseph Fischhof, pianist, composer and music teacher (born 1804)
July 15 – Carl Czerny, pianist and composer (b. 1791)
July 16 – Pierre-Jean de Béranger, songwriter (b. 1780)
August 1 – Emilie Zumsteeg, pianist and songwriter (b. 1796)
October 20 – John Diamond, dancer (born 1823)
October 21 – Ananias Davisson, singing teacher and printer of shape note books (b. 1780)
December 11 – Castil-Blaze, music critic, musicologist and composer (b. 1784)
probable – Ferdinand Prévôt, operatic baritone (born c.1800)