Little Po

On this day (8th Sep), the Duchesse de Polignac, a favourite of queen Marie Antoinette, was born in Paris. The queen’s other favourite, the Princesse de Lamballe, was also born on the same day.

Mark Swartzentruber, Pianist

I. Allegro

Paris and Versailles 2015 Pictures by MHilarius

Paris and Versailles 2015 Pictures by MHilarius

Marie Antoinette behind the scenes

Happy birthday, Anna Amalia!

But in 1789, the French Revolution forced her into exile, a victim of the libels against the Queen and her inner circle, notably criticising their lavish spending. She left Marie-Antoinette with deep sadness and continued to correspond with the Queen from Switzerland, Italy and then Austria. Marie-Antoinette was also pained by the absence of her good friend: “Farewell my most tender friend; it is terrible to say, but I must; I barely have enough strength left to send you a kiss,” she wrote. The Duchess of Polignac died in Vienna on 5 December 1793, fifty days after the Queen.

The Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, was composed in Salzburg in 1775, Mozart was only 19 at the time. He had developed an enthusiasm for violin concertos, producing a series of five (the only ones he ever wrote), which steadily increased in their musical sophistication.

On this day (8th Sep), the Duchesse de Polignac, a favourite of queen Marie Antoinette, was born in Paris. The queen’s other favourite, the Princesse de Lamballe, was also born on the same day.

Paris and Versailles 2015 Pictures by MHilarius

Versailles, July 2015. 

(born November 2, 1755, Vienna, Austria—died October 16, 1793, Paris, France), queen consort of King Louis XVI of France (1774–93). Imprudent and an enemy of reform, she helped provoke the popular unrest that led to the French Revolution and to the overthrow of the monarchy in August 1792. The 11th daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa, Marie-Antoinette was married in 1770 to the dauphin Louis, grandson of France’s King Louis XV. The timid, uninspiring Louis proved to be an inattentive husband; by the time he ascended the throne in 1774, Marie-Antoinette had withdrawn into the companionship of a small circle of court favourites. Her extravagant court expenditures contributed—though to a minor degree—to the huge debt incurred by the French state in the 1770s and ’80s. Louis XVI’s inability to consummate their marriage and the queen’s resultant childlessness in the 1770s inspired rivals—including the king’s own brothers, who stood to inherit the throne if she did not produce a legitimate heir—to circulate slanderous reports of her alleged extramarital affairs. These vilifications culminated in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace (1785–86), in which the queen was unjustly accused of having formed an immoral relationship with a cardinal. The scandal discredited the monarchy and encouraged the nobles to oppose vigorously (1787–88) all the financial reforms advocated by the king’s ministers. During these crises, as in those to come, Marie-Antoinette proved to be stronger and more decisive than her husband. [read more]