1816 in music

Events

• January 9 – Ludwig van Beethoven obtains custody of his nephew Karl, after a legal battle with the boy's mother.
• January 12 – The première of Gioacchino Rossini's new cantata, Giunone, takes place at the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, where the composer is musical director.
• February 12 – The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples burns down; reconstruction starts almost immediately, at the behest of King Ferdinand IV.
• February 20 – Rossini's opera, Almaviva, ossia L’inutile precauzione, receives its première at the Teatro Argentina, Rome.
• March 21 – Prominent Jewish couple Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn arrange for their four children, Fanny, Felix, Rebecka and Paul, to be secretly baptized as Lutherans in the Jerusalemkirche, Berlin.
• April 9 – Returning to Prague after a twenty-year absence, Johann Nepomuk Hummel gives a public recital.
• April 17 – Josef von Spaun writes to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe for permission to have his poems set to music by the youthful Franz Schubert.
• April 29 – Luigi Cherubini's cantata Inno alla primavera, commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, is given its première in London, a year later than scheduled and without the composer present.
• June 16 – In recognition of the 50th anniversary of his arrival in Vienna, Antonio Salieri is presented with a gold medal by the Lord Chamberlain on behalf of the Emperor Francis II.
• July 13 – Carl Maria von Weber meets Count Vitzthum von Eckstädt at Carlsbad; the encounter leads to Weber being appointed Kapellmeister at Dresden.
• October 2 – Johann Nepomuk Hummel is offered a post at Stuttgart by Duke Frederick I of Württemberg.
• October 18 – Louis Spohr and Niccolò Paganini meet in Venice.
• November 19 – Carl Maria von Weber becomes engaged to soprano Caroline Brandt.
• November 25 – Muzio Clementi leaves London after a six-month stay.

Popular music

• "The Clown's Bazaar" aka "Grimaldi's Bazaar" sung by Joseph Grimaldi in ''Gnomes and Fairies or Harlequin Hurry Skurry''

Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• *An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98
• *Der Mann von Wort, Op. 99
• *Piano Sonata No. 28
• *Sehnsucht, WoO 146
• Luigi Cherubini – Requiem in C minor
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel – Septet No.1, Op. 74
• Conradin Kreutzer – String Quintet, Op. 62
• Franz Krommer – 3 String Quartets, Op. 92
• Joseph Mayseder – Polonaise No.3, Op. 12
• Giacomo Meyerbeer – Gli amori di Teolinda
• Ignaz Moscheles – Grande sonate, Op. 41
• George Onslow – 3 String Quartets, Op. 9
• Franz Schubert
• *Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen, D. 343
• *Stabat Mater in F minor
• *Overture in B-flat major, D.470
• *String Trio in B-flat major, D 471
• *Lieder: Stimme der Liebe, D.412; 3 Gesänge des Harfners, Op. 12, D.478; Der Wanderer, D.489; Loda's Gespenst, D.150; Die Erwartung, D.159
• Jan Václav Voříšek – 6 Impromptus, Op. 7
• Carl Maria von Weber – Divertimento assai facile, Op. 38

Opera

• François Adrien Boieldieu
• *La fête du village voisin
• *Charles de France
• Michele Carafa – Gabriella di Vergy
• Gaetano Donizetti – Il Pigmalione
• Étienne Méhul – La journée aux aventures
• Gioachino Rossini
• *Il Barbiere di Siviglia
• *Otello
• Franz Schubert – Die Bürgschaft, D.435
• Carlo Soliva – La Testa di Bronzo
• Louis Spohr – ''Faust''

Births

• February 26 – Franz Krenn, composer and music teacher
• March 19 – Johannes Verhulst, conductor and composer
• April 13 – William Sterndale Bennett, pianist and composer
• April 26 – Eugène Albert, woodwind instrument maker
• July 16 – Antoine François Marmontel, French pianist
• August 17 – Benjamin Bilse, conductor and composer
• September 4 – François Bazin, opera composer
• November 17 – August Wilhelm Ambros, composer and music historian
• November 24 – Matteo Salvi, composer
• December 8 – Edvard Helsted, composer
• date unknown – Edward Edwards, musician and composer

Deaths

• February 10 – Jean Paul Egide Martini, composer
• February 19 – Margareta Alströmer, singer and artist
• March 16 – Giuseppe Jannaconi, composer
• March 23 – Ignaz Vitzthumb, conductor and composer
• May 4 – Marie-Madeleine Guimard, ballerina
• May 25 – Samuel Webbe, composer
• June 5 – Giovanni Paisiello, composer
• July 31 – Josef Fiala, musician and composer
• December 15 – Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz, patron of Beethoven
• date unknown – João José Baldi, pianist and composer