George Washington Papers

[Diary entry: 12 June 1787]

Tuesday 12th. Dined and drank Tea at Mr. Morris’s. Went afterwards to a concert at the City Tavern.

This benefit concert, with tickets at 7s. 6d., was for Alexander Reinagle (1756–1809), born into a musical family of Austrian descent who lived in England. He was accomplished both as a composer and a performer on several instruments. In 1786 he immigrated to America and soon became Philadelphia’s leading musical impresario. This concert, scheduled to begin at “exactly” 7:45 P.M., opened with an overture by Bach, and included compositions by the then current European composers Sarti, André, Fiorillo, and Piccini as well as pieces by the local musicians Henry Capron and William Brown. The concert concluded with two works by Reinagle, a piano sonata and “a new Overture” (Pa. Packet, 12 June 1787; SONNECK description begins O. G. [T.] Sonneck. Early Concert-Life in America, (1731–1800). Leipzig, Germany, 1907. description ends , 80, 131–32).

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