Stadtfeldt, Alexander

1826-1853

Pianist and composer; born at Wiesbaden; the son of a military band conductor. His talent asserted itself early and at the age of nine he appeared in public. The King of Belgium gave him means to study at the Brussels Conservatory, where he was a pupil of Fetis in counterpoint, won prizes for piano-playing and harmony and the Grand Prize of Rome for  composition in 1849. He went to Paris for a while, but ill health caused him to return to Brussels, where he died, when only twenty-seven years old. He left the following compositions: The operas, L'illusion, Abu Hassan, La Pedrina, and Hamlet; cantatas, La vendetta and Le songe du jeune Scipio; a lyric scene, Le dernier jour de Marino Faliero; a concert overture and one called La decouverte de 1'Amerique; two concertinos for piano and orchestra; four symphonies; a mass; Te Deum and other church-music.