Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Phillip Sear plays an 1851 reverie (without opus number) by the Parisian pianist and composer Alexandre-Édouard Goria (1823–1860)
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Born in Paris, Goria entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of seven (!) on 15 November 1830, studying piano with Adolphe-François Laurent and Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman, and harmony with Victor Dourlen. He won the conservatory’s second piano prize in 1834 and the first prize in 1835, completing his studies in 1839 before working as a répétiteur and later as a professor at the Maison Impériale de Saint-Denis from 1854. He spent time in Vienna, where he was on good terms with Carl Czerny, and formed a close friendship with the American pianist-composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, to whom he was linked by mutual admiration; Gottschalk dedicated 'Le Bananier' to him. Goria was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Charles III by the Queen of Spain and died in Paris of a cerebral convulsion and aneurysm.
Goria’s piano music comprises around 130 drawing-room pieces, including études, nocturnes, waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, barcarolles, rêveries, and characteristic genre pieces such as 'Allegrezza', 'l’Attente', and 'Le Calme'. His 31 grand études, particularly those in Opp. 63 and 72 ('Six grandes études artistiques de style et de mécanisme' and 'Le Pianiste moderne'), were highly praised in his lifetime and remain the most substantial part of his keyboard output. He also wrote a well-known Serenade for the left hand, numerous operatic transcriptions (including 'Souvenires du Théâtre Italien', Belisario, and Il Trovatore), and early popular pieces such as the concert-études Opp. 7–8 and the Thalbergian 'Bluette', Op. 1. Stylistically, his works are structured for salon and concert use, favouring brilliant passagework, lyrical melodies, and refined pedal effects, with an emphasis on producing a broad, singing tone without forceful attack.
Goria’s catalogue is confined to piano music, with no known works in other genres, situating him firmly within the mid-nineteenth-century French salon tradition alongside contemporaries such as Thalberg and Prudent. His reputation in his own day rested on his virtuosity and the commercial popularity of his pieces, which were widely published by Heugel and others and frequently performed in concert and domestic settings. (Perplexity AI, 26 August 2026).
Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ).
#frenchmusic #rêverie
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Played by Phillip Sear
psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com
WhatsApp: wa.me/441444483794 ) TikTok: tiktok.com/@pianogems
****See all my latest videos here: tinyurl.com/phillip210 ****
Phillip Sear plays an 1851 reverie (without opus number) by the Parisian pianist and composer Alexandre-Édouard Goria (1823–1860)
---------------------------------------------------
Born in Paris, Goria entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of seven (!) on 15 November 1830, studying piano with Adolphe-François Laurent and Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman, and harmony with Victor Dourlen. He won the conservatory’s second piano prize in 1834 and the first prize in 1835, completing his studies in 1839 before working as a répétiteur and later as a professor at the Maison Impériale de Saint-Denis from 1854. He spent time in Vienna, where he was on good terms with Carl Czerny, and formed a close friendship with the American pianist-composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, to whom he was linked by mutual admiration; Gottschalk dedicated 'Le Bananier' to him. Goria was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Charles III by the Queen of Spain and died in Paris of a cerebral convulsion and aneurysm.
Goria’s piano music comprises around 130 drawing-room pieces, including études, nocturnes, waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, barcarolles, rêveries, and characteristic genre pieces such as 'Allegrezza', 'l’Attente', and 'Le Calme'. His 31 grand études, particularly those in Opp. 63 and 72 ('Six grandes études artistiques de style et de mécanisme' and 'Le Pianiste moderne'), were highly praised in his lifetime and remain the most substantial part of his keyboard output. He also wrote a well-known Serenade for the left hand, numerous operatic transcriptions (including 'Souvenires du Théâtre Italien', Belisario, and Il Trovatore), and early popular pieces such as the concert-études Opp. 7–8 and the Thalbergian 'Bluette', Op. 1. Stylistically, his works are structured for salon and concert use, favouring brilliant passagework, lyrical melodies, and refined pedal effects, with an emphasis on producing a broad, singing tone without forceful attack.
Goria’s catalogue is confined to piano music, with no known works in other genres, situating him firmly within the mid-nineteenth-century French salon tradition alongside contemporaries such as Thalberg and Prudent. His reputation in his own day rested on his virtuosity and the commercial popularity of his pieces, which were widely published by Heugel and others and frequently performed in concert and domestic settings. (Perplexity AI, 26 August 2026).
Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ).
#frenchmusic #rêverie
-------------------------------------------------------
Played by Phillip Sear
psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com
WhatsApp: wa.me/441444483794 ) TikTok: tiktok.com/@pianogems
****See all my latest videos here: tinyurl.com/phillip210 ****
