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This chapter observes and relocates the role of the arts in Mazzini's political reflections, seeing in it a kind of prelude to the aesthetic dimension of politics generally explored in the 20th century. Through a close analysis of his large output of literary and musical criticism (1826–44), it shows how the language of the arts, and especially drama as ‘the social art par excellence’, was considered by the Italian thinker to be the main means to communicate to the public – in a forceful and emotional way – political and national goals. Mazzini believed that, in the specific case of Italy, opera, with its active power to move, thrill, and provoke enthusiasm in Italian theatres, could play a crucial political role.

This chapter summarizes the musical criticism of Beethoven's works, among which Hoffman's works stand at the head of the line. The reviews of Beethoven's works have translated his heroic style into Romantic terms, leaving a compelling portrait of Beethoven as mystic visionary and conquistador of the spirit world. However, his late works did not enjoy the same journalistic coverage. It was a century after his death that literature dedicated specifically to the late period arose, which critical tradition emerged in tandem with modernism, the objectivist, anti-Romantic movement during the end of World War I. At the same time avant-garde composers were turning back to classical forms, pioneers of the early-music movement were challenging Romantic interpretations, and critics became intensely interested in the late works of Beethoven. It was then that the modernists rediscovered Beethoven's late music, analyzed its style, and cleared a space for criticism.

Alberto Mazzucato was a key figure in nineteenth-century Italian musical criticism. This chapter assesses Mazzucato as a critic of Verdi and examines the general problem of aesthetics in opera, which helps in establishing the fundamental tenets of his critical approach.

Over the life of Dwight’s Journal of Music (DJM) (1852–1881), many readers witnessed or read about sensational concerts given by child prodigies such as Madame Louise Abel, Adelina Patti, Arthur Napoleon, and Willie Barnesmore Pape. This chapter examines earliest appearances of the Venezuelan pianist and composer Teresa Carreño (1853–1917) on the concert stage in the northeastern United States. Primary sources documenting her reception over a two-year period (1862–1864), specifically in the pages of DJM, are examined. Dwight’s mixed reviews of Carreño, who was dually portrayed as a talented musician and as a child who should be sheltered and whose gifts should “not to be prostituted for mere gain,” are discussed in context with other primary sources that aim to provide a better understanding of the circumstances leading to her entrance onto the concert stage and the beginning of what ultimately became a lengthy and prolific career.