Bovy-Lysberg, Charles-Samuel

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Bovy-Lysberg, Charles-Samuel

Bovy-Lysberg, Charles-Samuel, Swiss pianist and composer; b. Lysberg, near Geneva, Feb. 1, 1821; d. Geneva, Feb. 15, 1873. He went to Paris and was one of the few young pianists to study with Chopin (1835). Returning to Switzerland, he settled at Dardagny, near Geneva, in 1848; taught piano at the Geneva Cons., and gave recitals in the French cantons. His opera, La Fille du carillonneur, was produced in Geneva in 1854. He also wrote a romantically inspired piano sonata, L’Absence, but he became known chiefly by his effective salon pieces for piano (numbering about 130), among them La Napolitaine, Le Réveil des oiseaux, Le Chant du rouet, Idylle, Les Ondines, Sur l’onde, etc. His real name was Bovy, but he hyphenated it with Lysberg, the name of his birthplace.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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Bovy-Lysberg, Charles-Samuel

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