January 7 - Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 receives its first public performance. Hans von Bronsart is the pianist with Liszt conducting, in Weimar.
January 21 – Giacomo Meyerbeer conducts a work by Mikhail Glinka, at a concert in Berlin attended by the composer. Glinka catches a cold and dies a few weeks later, aged 52; autopsy results are inconclusive.
January 27 - Franz Liszt's Sonata in B minor (Liszt) is given its first public performance. Hans von Bülow performs it in Berlin.
February 7 – Louis Gottschalk leaves New York to begin a concert tour of Cuba.
March 14 – Stephen Foster sells all his copyrights to his music publisher for $1,872.28.
April 28 – Richard Wagner moves into Green Hill at Zürich, a villa owned by Otto Wesendonck.
July 4 – Georges Bizet wins the Prix de Rome.
August 27 – Joseph Joachim writes to Franz Liszt, ending their professional relationship.
October 8 – Irish opera diva Catherine Hayes marries her manager, William Avery Bushnell, in San Francisco; he dies less than a year later.
November 12 – 73-year-old Louis Spohr is forced into retirement from his post at the Hesse-Kassel court.
Gioacchino Rossini begins Péchés de vieillesse.
Hans Von Bulow marries Cosima Liszt daughter of Franz Liszt. They would have two daughters.
"Does He Love Me?" w. Annie Chambers Bradford m. F. W. Smith
"Lorena" w. Reverend Henry D. L. Webster m. Joseph Philbrick Webster
James Pierpont – "Jingle Bells"
Johann Strauss II – Le beau Monde
Charles-Valentin Alkan – Sonate de Concert in E, Op. 47 for cello and piano
Georges Bizet – Herminie (cantata)
Johannes Brahms
Serenade No 1. Opus 11
Eleven Variations on an Original Theme, in D major Opus 21 No.1
Franz Liszt
Dante Symphony
Hunnenschlacht
Die Ideale (premiered on 5 September)
Modest Mussorgsky – Souvenir d'Enfance
Joachim Raff
Ode to Spring: Concert Piece in G major, Op. 76, for piano and orchestra
String Quartet No. 2 in A major; Op. 90
Bedřich Smetana – Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 (revised version – original finished 1855)
Julius Reubke – The 94th Psalm
Karel Miry – Karel V (opera in 5 acts, libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premiered on January 29 in Ghent)
Ambroise Thomas – Le carnaval de Venise
Giuseppe Verdi – Simon Boccanegra
January 17 – Wilhelm Kienzl, Austrian composer (died 1941)
February 28 – Gustave Kerker, German-born composer (died 1923)
March 3 – Alfred Bruneau, French composer (died 1934)
March 4
Gustav Kobbé, American music critic and author (died 1918)
Henry W. Petrie, American songwriter (died 1925)
March 8 – Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian opera composer (died 1919)
April 21 – Paul Dresser, American composer (died 1906)
April 29 – František Ondříček, Czech violinist and composer (died 1922)
May 2 – Frederic Cliffe, English composer (died 1931)
May 9 – Luigi Illica, Italian librettist for Puccini, Catalani, Giordano and others (died 1919)
May 12 – Lillian Nordica, American opera singer (died 1914)
June 2 – Edward Elgar, English composer (died 1934)
June 5 – Árpád Doppler, Hungarian-German composer (died 1927)
August 8 – Cécile Chaminade, French composer (died 1944)
September 8 – Olga Björkegren, Swedish opera singer (died 1950)
October 12 – Paul Lange, German musician, teacher, orchestra and choir leader (died 1919)
November 5 – Joseph Tabrar, English music hall songwriter (d. 1931)
November 14 – Rosalind Ellicott, English composer (died 1924)
December 18 – Rosa Newmarch, née Jeaffreson, English musicologist (died 1940)
December 27 – Charles Manners, né Southcote Mansergh, English operatic bass and opera company manager (died 1935)
December 30 – Sylvio Lazzari, Italian composer and conductor (died 1944)
January 19 – Franz Limmer, conductor and composer (b. 1808)
February 14 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, violinist, conductor and composer (born 1801)
February 15 – Mikhail Glinka, composer (b. 1804)
March 1 – Benjamin Cross, organist, singer, conductor and composer (b. 1786)
April – Alessandro Curmi, pianist and composer (b. 1801)
June 28 – Joseph Fischhof, pianist, composer and music teacher (born 1804)
July 15 – Carl Czerny, pianist and composer (b. 1791)
July 16 – Pierre-Jean de Béranger, songwriter (b. 1780)
August 1 – Emilie Zumsteeg, pianist and songwriter (b. 1796)
October 20 – John Diamond, dancer (born 1823)
October 21 – Ananias Davisson, singing teacher and printer of shape note books (b. 1780)
December 11 – Castil-Blaze, music critic, musicologist and composer (b. 1784)
probable – Ferdinand Prévôt, operatic baritone (born c.1800)
1857 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
