Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)
- Serenade in F-Dur (c.1773)
Performers: Heidelberger Sinfoniker; Timo Jouko Herrmann (conductor)
Further info: Salieri - Strictly Private
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Italian composer, mainly active in Vienna. After studying with his
brother Francesco Salieri, he received further education from Giuseppe
Simone, a student of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini. After the deaths
of his parents between 1763 and 1765, he was taken as a protégé by
Giovanni Mocenjo in Venice. There he continued his studies with Giovanni
Pescetti and Ferdinando Pacini until 1765. The following year he was
taken by Florian Gassmann to Vienna, where in 1770 his first operas were
performed. In 1778 he returned to Italy and succeeded in establishing a
reputation for his works for the stage, and upon his return to Vienna
in 1780 he wrote a German Singspiel, Der Rauchfangskehrer, for his newly
emerging national theatre. Thereafter Christoph Willibald von Gluck
took him on as a disciple, allowing him secretly to compose Les Danaïdes
for Paris. This and work as a tutor to the royal family allowed him to
be appointed as hofKapellmeister in 1788. By 1790 he began to withdraw
from active duty, leaving much of the work to his student, Joseph Weigl,
and although he had a revived career as an opera composer a few years
later, his last work, Die Neger, was written in 1804. As a teacher,
Salieri had numerous pupils who made major contributions to the world of
music, including Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. For many
years he was the head of the Tonkünstlersozietät and in 1815 was
responsible for programming the music that accompanied the Treaty of
Vienna conference. Although his reputation has suffered through mostly
unfounded rumors of his relationship with Mozart, he must be considered
one of the main composers of the entire era. His music demonstrates good
orchestrational skill, dramatic use of harmony, excellent attention to
form, and a good grasp of theoretical principles. A prolific composer,
his works include 41 operas, five oratorios, five Masses, two Requiems,
13 graduals, 31 offertories, 18 introits, seven Psalms, 10 hymns, 12
motets, 17 choruses, 96 insertion or concert arias, 13 secular cantatas,
180 canons, 20 vocal quartets, 70 vocal trios, 50 vocal duets, 45
songs, five ballets, four symphonies, seven concertos and sinfonia
concertantes, five serenades, and a large amount of smaller chamber
works. He cataloged his own sacred music around 1817, but his works have
been cataloged according to A numbers.
