Salomon, Johann Peter

Salomon, Johann Peter , German violinist, impresario, and composer; b. Bonn (baptized), Feb. 20, 1745; d. London, Nov. 25, 1815. He was a member of the Electoral orch. at Bonn (1758–62); after a successful concert tour he was engaged as concertmaster and composer to Prince Heinrich of Prussia at Rheinsberg (1764). When the orch. was disbanded (c. 1780), Salomon went to Paris and then to London, where he settled in 1781. He made his debut at Covent Garden on March 23 of that year; began promoting concerts in 1783, introducing syms. by Haydn and Mozart in 1786. In 1790 he went to Italy to engage singers for the Italian Opera in London, and from there went to Vienna, where he saw Haydn and persuaded him to accept an engagement in London. At Salomon’s behest Haydn wrote the works familiarly known as his “Salomon Symphonies”; it is through his association with Haydn’s 2 visits to England, in 1790–91 and 1794–95, that Salomon’s name remains in the annals of music. He was a founder of the Phil. Soc. in London (1813), conducting its first concert on March 8, 1813. His own works are of merely antiquarian interest and include the operas Les Recruteurs (Rheinsberg, 1771), Le Séjour du bonheur (Berlin, March 5, 1773), Titus (Rheinsberg, 1774), La Reine de Golconde (Rheinsberg, 1776), and Windsor Castle, or The Fair Maid of Kent (Covent Garden, London, April 6, 1795; in collaboration with R. Spofforth). He also wrote an oratorio, Hiskias (1779) and other vocal works, several violin concertos, string trios, string quartets, sonatas for violin and cello, etc.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire