Abstract
After the composer’s first English biographer, D. C. Parker found the Symphony in C major at the Conservatoire’s library and following its world premiere in 1935, this youthful work conquered the ballet stage as well, due to the choreography (1947) of George Balanchine. Since then, researchers aim to reveal its possible models. They generally connect and compare Bizet’s First Symphony to that of Gounod’s, both dating from 1855. The Baia-Mare born conductor, musicologist and Bizet’s biographer, Amadé Németh (1922-2001) strongly suggests Mozart echoes. On the one hand, I follow his footsteps. On the other hand, considering the analogies in Bizet’s writings between composers and artists, I challenge if non-musical sources could have also served as models for his symphonies, in particular for the second. In the 1860s, during his stay in Italy as a Prix-winner, the idea of depicting four Italian cities (Venice, Rome, Florence, and Naples) came into Bizet’s mind. What music does resemble and point forward to the so-called “Roma” Symphony (1860-1868)? This paper aims to commemorate 185 years since the birth of Georges Bizet through challenging his own words, quoted in the title: “is imitation a fool’s job”?

Keywords: Bizet, symphony, ballet stage, Prix de Rome, similarities.

About the author
Sára Aksza Grosz, a graduate of the master's program at the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca, is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at the same institution. Laureate of the “Francisc László László” prize awarded by the Romanian Mozart Society, she is interested in interdisciplinary approaches, such as Shakespeare's dramas reflected in Romantic music (studies presented at musicology competitions), personality psychology and chamber music (bachelor's thesis) or pictorial-pianistic portraiture (dissertation). Since 2021 she has working at a member of the Department of Hungarian Music History at the Institute of Musicology, Research Center for Humanities in Budapest.

DOI: 10.47809/MP.2023.38.02.01

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