Un portal on escoltar i gaudir de l'art musical dels segles XVI, XVII, XVIII i XIX. Compartir la bellesa de la música és l'objectiu d'aquest espai i fer-ho donant a conèixer obres de compositors molt o poc coneguts és el mètode.
Dutch pianist, organist, teacher and composer of German birth. He
received his early music training from his father and elder brother. In
1791 he settled in Amsterdam as a pianist, flutist and teacher, and
later was organist of the United Baptist Church (1823-46). He fastly
became one the foremost composers active in Amsterdam, being on several
committees, including the music faculty of the Koninklijk Nederlandsch
Instituut voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schoone Kunsten (1808-47), and
the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst (1829-41). As a
composer, he was mainly known by his 'Wien Neerlands bloed door d'aderen
vloeit' (1815), the semi-official Dutch hymn of the 19th century. He
also wrote three symphonies, several symphonies concertantes and
concertos, overtures, chamber music, violin and flute sonatas, and
keyboard pieces as well as secular songs and the sacred cantata
'Zahlreiche weitere Gelegenheits' (1814). His style was mostly inherited
by the 18th Century composers with some early Romantic traits.
Bohemian composer. Nothing is known about his youth. The first mention
was in 1721 as a choirmaster at the St. Mary Magdalene church in Prague.
Also there he was documented as musician under the patronage of Count
Wenzel Morzin. According to some sources, he also worked for Count Franz
Joseph of the House of Czernin. In his last years he was appointed
organist at the parish church Jindřichův Hradec, a post he briefly held
before his death in 1730. As a composer, he wrote both concertos and
sacred music following the trends of italian style. His music was highly
praised and can be found in several Bohemian archives.
German composer. He was the second of five children of the organist
Peter Hasse (c.1668-1737) and Christina Klessing, daughter of a mayor of
Bergedorf. He studied in Hamburg before joining the opera company
there. He quickly established himself as a tenor of reputation, but his
career changed when his opera Antioco opened at Brunswick on 1 August
1721. Soon, he left Germany for a long tour of Venice, Bologna,
Florence, and Rome, finally settling in the major opera center of Naples
for six years, until 1730. There he studied with Alessandro Scarlatti
and possibly Nicolo Porpora, worked with the superstar castrato Carlo
Broschi (Farinelli), and his rise in Neapolitan opera was spectacular.
Hasse appeared in Venice for the 1730 Carnival season, a milestone of
his career. In his opera Artaserse, he set a libretto of Metastasio,
later to become his most important collaborator, for the first time. He
also met in Venice another famous singer, the mezzo-soprano Faustina
Bordoni, whom he married in June 1730 and who created many of the female
protagonists in his later operas. Sometime after Carnival but before
Ascension in 1730, he was granted the title of Kapellmeister to the
court of the Elector August I of Saxony at Dresden, but he and Faustina
Bordoni did not arrive there until 6 or 7 July 1731. Although this
appointment lasted until 1763, the couple took frequent and substantial
leaves of absence to various cities of Italy and Vienna to produce
operas that had been commissioned by the nobility of Europe. In 1745,
King Frederick the Great of Prussia visited and heard Hasse’s Te Deum
and opera seria Arminio.
The king, a fine musician, thereafter often invited the composer and his
wife to Potsdam. The Prussian bombardment of Hasse’s Dresden house in
1760, causing the loss of many manuscripts, may have soured this
relationship. Porpora, possibly Hasse’s teacher in Naples, was brought
to Dresden in 1748 to teach the Princess Maria Antonia of Saxony and was
given the title Kapellmeister, but Hasse was promoted to
Oberkapellmeister in 1750. In 1763, Hasse joined the imperial court in
Vienna where he worked closely with Metastasio. In 1775, he and Faustina
Bordoni retired to Venice. Although most of his work was quickly
forgotten after he died, while active, he was the most renowned composer
of Italian opera seria in Italy and German-speaking lands. He composed
at least 58 operas, mostly seria, but also a few comedies, which were
produced in many European opera centers. He was the favorite composer of
the age’s most eminent opera librettist, Metastasio. Hasse composed
fluently, with a particular gift for vocal melody, which he generally
displayed to full advantage without distraction from contrapuntal
textures. Besides the operas, he composed about 11 intermezzi, 11
Italian oratorios, 60 Italian chamber cantatas, and 33 more cantatas for
voice and orchestra. His instrumental music includes 54 concertos,
mostly for transverse flute and strings, and 24 trio sonatas. He also
composed sacred music, most of it for four-voiced choir and orchestra:
15 masses, 2 requiems, 36 single mass ordinary settings, 10 mass
offertories, 21 psalms, 18 antiphons, six hymns, and 38 motets for solo
voice and orchestra.
Spanish composer and organist. He was christened on 24 March 1699 at the
Church of St. James the Great in Sangüesa. He was a choirboy at the
Colegio de Cantorcicos, Madrid, under José de Torres, who in 1717
recommended him for the post of organist at the cathedral of Salamanca,
where he remained for 16 years until 1733. In 1733 he came second in the
competition for maestro de capilla at the cathedral of Málaga, and was
awarded the position when the winner, Manuel Martinez Delgado, died
suddenly. In 1741, Iribarren's salary was raised to prevent him taking
the post of maestro di cappella of the cathedral of Valladolid,
thereafter he remained in Málaga until his retirement, a year before his
death. He was buried in the cathedral. As a composer, he wrote more
than 800 works, mostly sacred and currently preserved in the Málaga
cathedral archive. The style of his music is characterized by an
infrequent use of the polychoral technique. He probably was the most
prolific Spanish villancico composer of the 18th century; since his
entire collection is dated (1722-1766).
German composer and contrabass player. Following studies under Franz
Becker, he became a student of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger in Vienna.
He is said to have made his début as a composer there at the age of 18,
and a symphony and a double bass concerto of his were performed by the
Tonkünstler-Societät in 1778. In 1777 he was employed by Cardinal von
Batthyani in Pozsony (Pressburg, now Bratislava, Slovakia), and in 1783
he became a member of the Kapelle of Count Erdődy in Fidisch. After the
dissolution of the ensemble he made his living as a copyist, as well as
touring both Germany and Italy as a bass soloist. In 1789 he was
appointed to the Kapelle of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, where he
remained for the rest of his life. A supposed period in the service of
Prince Esterhazy under Haydn is not documented. As a composer, he was
well versed in the styles of music of his time, becoming a significant
composer of symphonies in particular. His music consists of 45
symphonies, 22 concertos (18 for double bass), three sinfonia
concertantes, two nonets, an octet and a septet, two sextets, 12
quartets, two keyboard sonatas, 14 other sonatas (duos), five cantatas,
three sacred songs, three hymns, three antiphons, and two offertories,
as well as 50 partitas and several organ fugues. Sperger's reputation as
a leading double bass player is generously acknowledged by critical
writing of the time; his achievements as an executant were generally
accorded more significance than his prolific output as a composer.