Persona(e) of Interest: Die vielen Gesichter der Catharina Cibbini-Koželuch

Abstract

The public perception and biographical reception of pianist Catharina Cibbini-Koželuch (1785–1858) has been subject to significant changes, even during her lifetime. Struggling with financial issues in the aftermath of her husband’s death, Cibbini became Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Maria Anna of Austria, which triggered a gradual reinterpretation of both her family history and personality. The nimbus of power attributed to her grew, making her a potentially influential and sought-after protector of some of the most important artists of the time, among them Clara and Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Frédéric Chopin; however, it later gave Cibbini dubious fame as a feared and hated part of the Hofkamarilla, as well as one of its leading exponents, during the years of revolution in 1848/49. Shortly after Cibbini’s death, widely-read German writer Clara Mundt (a.k.a. Luise Mühlbach) used the Cibbini-myth for her series of novels Erzherzog Johann und seine Zeit, turning the late musician into an Italian undercover-revolutionary from a family of carbonari. This article explores the circumstances and possible implications of the strange development through the changeable and somewhat anecdotal reception and representation of the once highly estimated, but then forgotten musician.