Neukomm, Sigismund von (1778-1858)

Austrian composer. As a chorister at Salzburg Cathedral he was a pupil of Michael Haydn, who in 1798 sent him to J Haydn in Vienna. In 1806 he went to Sweden and Russia, becoming conductor at the Tsar's German theatre in St Petersburg. He returned to Vienna in 1809 and went to live in Paris soon after, succeeding Dussek in 1812 as pianist to Talleyrand. From 1816 to 1821 he was maestro di cappella to Pedro I of Brazil, with whom he returned to Lisbon, after the revolution, afterwards travelling with Talleyrand. In 1829 he visited London, meeting Mendelssohn, and lived there and alternately in Paris for the rest of his life.

Works Opera Alexander in Indien (1804), Niobé (1809), and others;

Church music 48 Masses and Requiem for Louis XVI.

Oratorios Mount Sinai, David, and six others.

Other incidental music for Schiller's Braut von Messina (1805); songs.