ENGEL, Jan (?-1788) - Sinfonia in Es-Dur (1772)

Jan Engel (?-1788) - SINFONIA (Es-Dur) | A | Violini, Oboe, Corni, | Alto, e Basso. | [by hand with black ink: "Due Clarinetti"] | DEDICATA | A SUA ECCELLENZA | II Sig|r: Conte | PRZEZDZIECKI. ... ANNO 1772

Performers: Capella Claromontana; Jan Tomasz Adamus (conductor)

Painting: Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780) - Kosciol brygidek i arsenal

Further info: Musica Claromontana 15

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Jan Engel

(? - Warsaw, 30 June 1788)

Polish composer, printer and music publisher. He served as Kapellmeister at the Cathedral of St. John in Warsaw between 1771 and 1772, during which time he established a printing press on Ulica Krzywe Koło that remained operational until 1776. In 1772, he independently published six of his own symphonies, issued separately with uniform title pages and distributed through the Warsaw booksellers M. Gröll and J.A. Poser; while extant copies of the first three symphonies are preserved in the Pauline Monastery in Częstochowa, the remaining works are known exclusively through contemporary Warsaw press announcements and entries in the Breitkopf (Leipzig) catalogs spanning 1772, 1777, and 1785-1787. The following year, he compiled and published a collection titled 'Mélanges de Musique pour le clavecin par Monsieur Engel', which notably featured works by M. Kamieński alongside what were highly probable to be his own compositions and those of other contemporaries, though this publication was regrettably destroyed during World War II. In tandem with advertising this collection, he offered for sale various manuscripts and prints, including Masses, motets, arias, duets, and oratorios, alongside a novel, proprietary "music printing machine of his own invention" before resigning from his cathedral post on September 1, 1773. A subsequent notice in the Gazeta Warszawska, dated February 14, 1776, documented the relocation of his printworks to the Wędrychowska tenement on ul. Kamienne Schodki and publicized the release of "new Polish dances arranged for the harpsichord" as well as twelve forthcoming pieces. Ultimately, given the scarcity of surviving historical data, evidence suggests that Engel’s publishing endeavors were sporadic, representing the pioneering, independent efforts of a single individual.

STRACH, Leopold (1699-1755) - Missa Solemnis (c.1730)

Leopold Strach (1699-1755) - Missa Solemnis (c.1730)

Performers: Mieke van der Sluis (sopran); Bernhard Landauer (alt); Wilfried Jochens (tenor); Wolf Matthias Friedrich (bass); Kammerchor des Ferdinandeums; Concerto Armonico Budapest; Josef Wetzinger (conductor)

Painting: Michel-François Dandré-Bardon (1700-1785) - Allegorie auf den Frieden von Wien (1735)

Further info: Musik aus Stift Stams XXI

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Leopold Strach [Strach von Treyenfeld, Stroch]

(Kolin, 11 November 1699 - Brixen, 28 June 1755)

Bohemian composer and church musician. His early life and training remain unknown. Born in Kolín, his documented career began in 1727 when he was employed as a bassist and court composer under the Prince-Bishop of Brixen. By 1728, he provisionally assumed the duties of Vice-Kapellmeister for Prince-Bishop Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl, a leadership position over the court and cathedral choir (Hof- und Domkapellmeister) that he officially secured in 1730 and held for the rest of his life. Strach was a prolific creator of sacred music, much of which was performed at the Stams Abbey (Abbatia B. M. V. et Sancti Ioannis Baptistae), but he also composed secular theatrical music for the Brixen Gymnasium, including Conradinus (1737) and Genovefa (1739). Following his death in Brixen in June 1755, he left behind an extensive library of roughly 3,000 sheets of usable musical material, which the cathedral chapter purchased from his widow for 100 florins on the advice of his successor, Simon Judas Thaddäus Mayr. 

MOSSI, Giovanni (c.1680-1742) - Concerto grosso (1727)

Giovanni Mossi (c.1680-1742) - Concerto grosso (XII, g-moll) aus

'[12] Concerti [D, G, B, E, c, A, F, C, b, d, e, g] ... opera quarta, libro primo' (1727)

Performers: Musica Antiqua Köln; Reinhard Goebel (conductor)

Painting: Jan Carel Vierpeyl (c.1675-c.1723) - Portrait of a Man and his Daughter

Further info: Italian Violin Concertos

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Giovanni (Giovannino) Mossi

(Rome?, c.1680 - Rome, 1742)

Italian composer and violinist. Referred himself as Roman, he came from a family of musicians active in Rome. His father, Bartolomeo Mossi, and brother Giuseppe Mossi, and Gaetano Mossi, a tenor at the papal chapel. Introduced into the musical circles of Rome by his father, he was active as a violinist from 1694. His career there can be divided into three periods. An initial phase as an instrumentalist for local courts and churches, a highly productive middle period (1716-1733) during which he published his entire instrumental catalogue in Amsterdam (comprising three sets of sonatas and three of concertos), and a final phase of gradual retirement. Though he briefly served Baldassarre Odescalchi, Duke of Bracciano, his compositions, consisting of solo sonatas and orchestral concertos, remain firmly rooted in the Roman tradition of employing four violin parts, while increasingly favoring the first violin as a soloist. Furthermore, while the long-standing claim that he was a pupil of Arcangello Corelli lacks documentary proof, Corelli's influence on his work is undeniable, even though Mossi maintained a distinct originality and stylistic independence that aligned closely with his contemporary, Giuseppe Valentini.

DREYER, Johann Melchior (1747-1824) - Sonate Concertante (c.1786)

Johann Melchior Dreyer (1747-1824) - Sonate Concertante (III, D-Dur) des

'Six Sonates Concertants pour le Clavecin ou le Forte Piano et violoncelle' (c.1786)

Performers: Roberto Gini (violoncello); Laura Alvini (1946-2005, harpsichord)

Painting: Artist of the 18th century - Children playing music

Further info: Il Violoncello Galante

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Johann (Johannes) Melchior Dreyer [Dreuer, Detriaste, Treÿer et al.]

(Röttingen, bap. 24 June 1747 - Ellwangen (Jagst), 22 March 1824)

German organist and composer. The youngest son of a smith, after study at the Jesuit Gymnasium in Ellwangen, he obtained his only position, the organist and schoolmaster (later choirmaster and Kantor) at the parish church of St Maria, which he retained for over 40 years. After the secularization of the foundation in 1802-03, he remained in his post as organist and Kapellmeister. As a composer, his works include 24 sonatas for organ, chamber sonatas, six Requiems, 24 vesper Psalms, six Tantum ergos, 26 Masses (six published as “simple country Masses” as his Op. 2), six symphonies, three Marian antiphons, and six Misereres. His music, little studied, is characterized by a studied simplicity and nearby to Michael Haydn on style terms. He was one of the most successful composers of sacred music of his time. His music was distributed throughout Europe, Russia and North America. His sons, Heinrich Dreyer and Johann Baptiste Dreyer, were also musicians.

BACH, Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795) - Sinfonia a 10 (c.1794)

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795) - Sinfonia (B-Dur) | a | X par: obl: | Due Violini |

Viola, et Basso | Due Corni | Due Clarinetti | Flauto | et Fagotto (c.1794)

Performers: RIAS Bach Orchestra; Günther Arndt (1907-1976, conductor)

Painting: Unknown - Leipzig (1815)

Further info: Symphonies of the Bach Sons

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Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach

(Leipzig, 21 June 1732 - Bückeburg, 26 January 1795)

German composer. Son of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Anna Magdalena Bach (1701-1760), he was known as the ‘Bückeburg Bach’. He received his musical education from his father and his cousin Johann Elias Bach (1705-1755) at the Thomasschule. After leaving the Thomasschule, he is thought to have studied law briefly, but there is no record of his matriculation at Leipzig University. In 1750, upon the death of his father, he was offered a position as harpsichordist with Count Wilhelm von Schaumberg-Lippe in Bückeburg. In 1759 he was elevated to concertmaster, a position he retained for the remainder of his life. He did not travel, save for a visit to his youngest brother, Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), in London in 1778, preferring the calm surroundings of his small town. He was able to create music that was different from his brothers, thanks both to the intellectual stimulus of people such as Johann Gottfried Herder and his patron’s penchant for Italian music. His son, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach (1759-1845), was trained in this environment, becoming the third direct generation of the family of Johann Sebastian to pursue a career in music. The arrival in Bückeburg about 1793 of the Bohemian musician Franz Neubauer presented Bach with unaccustomed competition in the last years of his life. It inspired him to write new works (including a dozen large-scale symphonies and several double concertos) but it also intensified the latent depression from which he had been suffering since the death of his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) and which may have hastened the course of the chest ailment that brought about his death on 26 January 1795. In his obituary his friend Karl Gottlieb Horstig, superintendent at Bückeburg from 1793, described him as an industrious composer, always ready to be of service, and praised his upright character and ‘kindness of heart’. As a composer, his music, cataloged by Hansdieter Wolfarth (and using BR numbers), includes eight oratorios, a Miserere, nine sacred cantatas, 55 secular cantatas, odes, or other similar works, 79 Lieder, 28 symphonies, 16 piano concertos, three sinfonia concertantes (titled “concerto grosso” by Bach himself), a septet, six flute quartets and six string quartets, 13 trio sonatas, six piano trios, 22 sonatas (for flute, violin, or cello), 43 keyboard sonatas, and around 92 miscellaneous pieces for the keyboard. He was known for his ability to imbue drama into his works, particularly the oratorios, as well as his adherence to sonata principles and a progressive sense of harmony and orchestral color. Although much of his music did not survive the Second World War, what is left demonstrates that he was as innovative in his own way as his siblings. Among the better known of his pupils, in addition to his son Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst, were the future Thomaskantor August Eberhard Müller and perhaps Adolf, Baron von Knigge. For teaching purposes he wrote a number of pedagogically valuable keyboard works, including the 'Sechs leichte Clavier-Sonaten', variations, concertos and sonatas for four hands.