JOMMELLI, Niccolò (1714-1774) - Simphonie novelle a quatro (1765)

Niccolò Jommelli (1714-1774) - Simphonie novelle (A-Dur) a quatro (1765)

Performers: Orquesta Barroca de la Universidad de Sаlаmаncа

Painting: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Portrait de Niccolo Jommelli

Further info: Simphonie novelle a quatro

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Niccolò (Nicolo, Nicolaus, Nicola) Jommelli [Iommelli, Geomelli, Hijomello, Jummella et al.]

(Aversa, 10 September 1714 - Napoli, 25 August 1774)

Italian composer. Following early musical training as a chorister at the Aversa church, he entered the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio a Porta Capuana in 1725 to study under Ignazio Prota and Francesco Feo. Three years later he transferred to the Conservatorio di Santa Maria della Pietà dei Turchini, where he studied voice and keyboard. During this time he became friends with Johann Adolph Hasse, and in 1737 he had his first opera, 'L’errore amorosa', premiered at the Teatro novo with considerable success. In 1740 a commissioned work for Rome, 'Ricinero di Goti', was performed at the Teatro Argentina, leading to further commissions throughout Italy. In 1741 he arrived in Bologna to produce one of these, and in the process he began sporadic study with Padre Giovanni Battista Martini, eventually being admitted to the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica. In 1745 Hasse recommended him for the post of maestro di capella at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice, but despite the advantages of the position, a year later he was in Rome preparing for the production of one of his most important works, the opera seria 'Didone abbandonata'. A short joint-appointment to the Vatican along with Davide Perez followed, but by 1753 he journeyed north to Vienna and then Stuttgart, where he became Kapellmeister to Duke Karl-Eugen of Württemberg. In 1768 he returned to Naples in retirement, working almost until his death and despite a stroke that debilitated him in 1771. As a composer, his music consists of 80 operas, 12 serenatas, 15 oratorios, 20 Masses, and almost 200 sacred works ranging from Lamentations to Psalm settings. His instrumental music is less prolific but includes four concertos (one flute, three keyboard), six sonatas for flute/violin, five trio sonatas, nine string quartets (and one flute quartet), two divertimentos, and numerous smaller keyboard works. Niccolò Jommelli was regarded as one of the most significant composers of the entire period by his contemporaries; Christian Daniel Friedrich Schubart indeed called him one of the leading musical geniuses of the time. His approach to both comic and serious was highly progressive, reducing the dominance of the voice by increasing the function and texture of the orchestral accompaniment. He was one of the first to introduce expanded finales, and his colorful orchestration, innovative use of dynamics and harmony, as well as his use of obbligato recitative, were all hallmarks that inspired and influenced others throughout Europe. He was an internationally recognized figure. 

LAMOTTE, Franz (c.1750-1780) - Concerto Pour le Violon (1775)

Franz Lamotte (c.1750-1780) - IIe Concerto [D] pour le violon ... mis au jour par M|r Le Duc le jeune (1775)

Performers: Mirijam Contzen (violin); Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie; Reinhard Goebel (conductor)

Painting: Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (1712-1774) - Gesellschaft im Park

Further info: Mozart in Italien

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Franz Lamotte [La Motte, Lamota]

(c.1750 - The Hague, 7 September 1780)

Flemish violinist and composer. According to Charles Burney, he was Flemish and received lessons on the violin from Felice Giardini in London. On 29 December 1766 he performed in the Burgtheater, Vienna. Was then when the Viennese court gave him financial support to undertake a long concert tour. He appeared in Prague and Leipzig, and in 1768 in Padua and Venice. Leopold Mozart referred to a lengthy stay in Naples, but by 1769 he was performing in competition with the violinist Giovanni Giornovichi in Paris. In 1770 or 1772 he returned to Vienna and joined the Hofkapelle of Empress Maria Theresa as a first violinist, though he continued to make concert tours. In 1775 he appeared at the Paris Concert Spirituel, and from 1776 gave concerts in London, including several subscription concerts with Venanzio Rauzzini in 1778-79. He seems to have left London hurriedly in about 1780, probably because of criminal offences, but it remains unclear to what extent the resulting suspicions and reports of scandal are justified. During his short life, he was regarded as a virtuoso of the first rank whose double stopping was particularly remarkable. In 1767 he caused a stir in Prague by performing at sight a violin concerto in F or C major by the Prince of Fürstenberg’s secretary, Bablizeck (Choron and Fayolle claimed that he tuned his violin a semitone higher and ignored the sharps in accomplishing this feat). His bowing technique was also admired and, according to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his staccato playing was long remembered in Vienna. He composed concertos, sonatas and airs for the violin.

KNUPFER, Sebastian (1633-1676) - Was mein Gott will

Sebastian Knüpfer (1633-1676) - Was mein Gott will

Performers: Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble; Arno Paduch (conductor)

Painting: Nicolas Régnier (c.1590-1667) - Young Woman Singing Accompanied by a Lute Player

Further info: Sebastian Knüpfer - Geistliche Konzerte

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Sebastian (Sebastianus) Knüpfer [Knufpher, Knüffer, Knüpffer]

(Asch, [now Aš, Czech Republic], 6 September 1633 - Leipzig, 10 October 1676)

German composer. He studied with his father, a Kantor and organist in Asch. After private musical studies, he took courses in organ as well as academic subjects at the Regensburg Gymnasium Poeticum (1646-54). He then settled in Leipzig, where he taught and was a bass singer in church choirs. He applied for the post of Thomaskantor when Tobias Michael died on 26 June 1657, and he was appointed on 17 July; the four other candidates to whom he was preferred included Adam Krieger. In Knüpfer the Thomaskirche found a Kantor and the city of Leipzig a director of music who approached the musical and intellectual calibre of Sethus Calvisius and Johann Hermann Schein, Tobias Michael’s two predecessors. During his 19-year tenure Leipzig once again became the leading musical city in central Germany following the sharp decline resulting from the Thirty Years War, the long Swedish occupation of the city and Tobias Michael’s protracted illness. Knüpfer thus initiated a final period of musical excellence in Leipzig that culminated in the careers of his three successors, Johann Schelle, Johann Kuhnau and Johann Sebastian Bach. As a composer, he wrote sacred vocal works to both Latin and German texts, and also wrote some secular madrigals and canzonettas. Many are lost, and of those that survive few have been published in modern editions. Most are in the traditional style and form of the 17th-century vocal concerto, incorporating many of the characteristics of similar works by Heinrich Schütz.

LOSY, Jan Antonín (c.1650-1721) - Concertus a 3

Jan Antonín Losy (c.1650-1721) - Concertus (A-Dur) a 3

Performers: Jan Cizmar (lute); Martyna Pastuszka (violin); Krzystof Firlus (viola da gamba)

Painting: Follower of Evaristo Baschenis - Still life of musical instruments

Further info: Lute Music In Prague & Vienna Circa 1700

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Jan Antonín (Johann Anton) Losy 'Count of Losinthal' [Logi, Loschi, Graf von Lozimtal et al.]

(Štekeň Castle, near Strakonice, c.1650 - Prague, 22 August 1721)

Bohemian lutenist and composer. His father had settled in Prague in the 1620s and was raised to the Bohemian nobility for his bravery during the defence of the city against the Swedes in 1648. He studied at Prague University from 1661, taking the doctorate in philosophy in 1668. After this he probably undertook the customary European tour; he is known to have visited Italy, and he probably went to France and the Low Countries as well. He had a great enthusiasm for French music, especially that of Lully, and also for the music of Fux. He played the lute and violin in concerts at his palace in Prague. At the height of his fame (1696-97) he travelled in the German lands and engaged in a friendly musical competition in Leipzig with Pantaleon Hebenstreit and the Thomaskantor Johann Kuhnau, who subsequently dedicated to Losy his 'Frische Clavier Früchte' (1696). His son Adam Philipp Losy (1705-1781), who lived in Vienna and became music director to the imperial court, was a competent double bass player in aristocratic orchestras. Jan Antonín Losy was the best-known and most respected lutenist in late 17th-century Prague. The real measure of his popularity is seen in the number and wide distribution of manuscripts containing his compositions, which also exist in arrangements for mandore, angélique and keyboard.

FRIGEL, Pehr (1750-1842) - Ouvertura in c-moll (1777)

Pehr Frigel (1750-1842) - Ouvertura in c-moll (1777)

Performers: Kungliga Operаns Orkester; Philip Brunеllе (conductor)

Drawing: Seger Tielemans (publisher active 1663-1771) - Stockholm

Further info: Royal Swedish Court: Music from the 18th Century

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Pehr (Per, Peter) Frigel [Frigelius]

(Kalmar, 2 September 1750 - Stockholm, 24 November 1842)

Swedish composer. Son of Pehr Frigelius and his wife Ingrid Helena Wahlberg, in 1755 his father was made vicar of Madesjö, where the family settled until Frigel was enrolled at Kalmar grammar school. During his school years he studied violin, organ and music theory for cathedral organist Hans Björkman Hansson; then from 1770 to 1776 he pursued further studies in Uppsala, where he also served as deputy both for the university’s director musices and for the cathedral organist. In Stockholm he became acquainted with Johann Gottlieb Naumann and Joseph Martin Kraus, both of whom gave him further instruction in composition. In 1778 he was elected to the Swedish Royal Academy of Music, and in 1780 two of his symphonies were performed; he became secretary of the academy in 1794, a post he held for 47 years. His most productive period as a composer was between 1795 and 1815, during which time he wrote overtures, symphonies, numerous cantatas for the Jakobskyrka and the academy. He also collaborated with Carl Stenborg on the incidental music to 'Äfventyraren, eller Resan till Månens ö' (‘The Adventurers, or The Journey to the Isle of the Moon’, 1791), and 'Kotzebue’s Eremiten' (1798). The oratorio 'Försonaren på Oljeberget' (‘The Redeemer on the Mount of Olives’) to a text by Samuel Ödmann, performed at the Royal Opera in 1815, is considered his finest work. His only opera, 'Zoroaster', was never performed, but some arias for French operas were produced at the Royal Opera. He taught music theory at the Swedish Royal Academy of Music from 1814 to 1830. He died in 1842 at the age of 92, having just recently been awarded a medal in his image for his long service to the academy. He composed in a classical style, and he expressed a preference for what he termed 'orthodox' music.