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.

DE SAN JUAN, José (1685-c.1747) - Misa à 8 voces

José de San Juan (1685-c.1747) - Misa à 8 voces | Con Violines y Trompas

Performers: Irasema Terrazas (soprano); Gabriela Thierry (mezzosoprano); Flavio Becerra (tenor); Emilio Carsi (bass); Mexico City Chamber Ensemble; Benjamín Juárez Echenique (conductor)

Drawing: Joan Blaeu (1596-1673) - Scenographia Fabricae S Lavrentii In Escvriali (1665)

Further info: Mexico Barroco - Puebla IV

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José de San Juan

(1685 - Madrid?, c.1747)

Spanish composer. Born in Catalonia, he was trained as a choirboy at the Cathedral of Sigüenza before moving to Madrid, where by 1707 he worked as a composer and instructor for the Royal Chapel. After briefly returning to Sigüenza as maestro de capilla following a competitive examination (oposición), he was appointed maestro de capilla at the royal monastery of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid in 1711, working alongside organist José de Nebra. In the musicological field, he participated in the 'Valls controversy', writing a text that defended Francisco Valls's use of an unprepared dissonance in the Missa Scala Aretina. His surviving works, which include masses, villancicos, and pastorelas, are preserved in Spanish archives such as Montserrat, El Escorial, and the Sanctuary of Arantzazu, with some manuscript copies dating up to 1751.

STAMIC, Jan Václav Antonín (1717-1757) - Sinfonia in D-Dur

Jan Václav Antonín Stamic (1717-1757) - Sinfonia in D-Dur

Performers: Die Prager Virtuosen; Oldrich Vlcek (conductor)

Drawing: Jan Punt (1711-1779) - Lijkstatie van Willem IV (1752)

Further info: Die Prager Virtuosen

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Jan (Johann) Václav Antonin (Wenzel Anton) Stamic [Stamitz]

(Německý Brod [now Havlíčkův Brod], 17 June 1717 - Mannheim, ?27 March, bur. 30 March 1757)

Bohemian composer, violinist and teacher. He received his early schooling in Německý Brod, though his first musical instruction doubtless came from his father. From 1728 to 1734 he attended the Jesuit Gymnasium in Jihlava; the Jesuits of Bohemia, whose pupils included the foremost musicians in Europe, maintained high standards of musical education during this period. Stamitz is known to have spent the following academic year, 1734-35, at Prague University. His activities during the next six years, however, remain a mystery. It seems logical to assume that his decision to leave the university was prompted by a desire to establish himself as a violin virtuoso, a goal that could be pursued in Prague, Vienna or countless other centres. The precise circumstances surrounding Stamitz’s engagement by the Mannheim court are unclear. The date of his appointment was probably 1741, for he remarked in a letter of 29 February 1748 to Baron von Wallbrunn in Stuttgart that he was in his eighth year of service to the elector. The most likely hypothesis is perhaps that Stamitz’s engagement resulted from contacts made late in 1741 during the Bohemian campaign and coronation in Prague of the Bavarian Elector Carl Albert (later Carl VII), one of whose closest allies was the Elector Palatine. In January 1742 Stamitz no doubt performed at Mannheim as part of the festivities surrounding the marriage of Carl Theodor. At Mannheim Stamitz advanced rapidly: in 1743, when he was first violinist at the court, he was granted an increase in salary of 200 gulden; in payment lists from 1744 and 1745 his salary is given as 900 gulden, the highest of any instrumentalist at Mannheim; in 1745 or early 1746 he was awarded the title of Konzertmeister; and in 1750 he was appointed to the newly created post of director of instrumental music. 

The latter promotion came almost two years after the offer of a position at the court of Duke Carl Eugen in Stuttgart with an annual salary of 1500 gulden, an offer that the Elector Palatine probably saw fit to match, as Stamitz remained in Mannheim. In court almanacs for 1751 and 1752 Stamitz is also listed as one of the two Kapellmeisters, but after the arrival of Ignaz Holzbauer in 1753 he appears as director of instrumental music alone. Stamitz’s principal responsibilities at court were the composition and performance of orchestral and chamber music, although he seems also to have composed some sacred music for the court chapel. As leader of the band and conductor Stamitz developed the Mannheim orchestra into the most renowned ensemble of the time, famous for its precision and its ability to render novel dynamic effects. Stamitz was also influential as a teacher; in addition to his sons Carl and Anton, he taught such outstanding violinists and composers as Christian Cannabich, the Toeschi brothers, Ignaz Fränzl and Wilhelm Cramer. In 1744 Stamitz married Maria Antonia Lüneborn. They had five children: the composers Carl and Anton, a daughter Maria Francisca (1746-1799) and two children who died in infancy. In 1749 Stamitz and his wife journeyed to Německý Brod to attend the installation of Stamitz’s younger brother Antonín Tadeáš as dean of the Dean’s church. In February 1750, while the family was still in Bohemia, Stamitz’s brother Václav Jan or Wenzel Johann (1724-after 1771), also a musician, was in Mannheim. Johann Stamitz returned to Mannheim in March 1750, but his wife remained temporarily in Německý Brod, where Anton Stamitz was born on 27 November 1750. Probably in late summer 1754 Stamitz undertook a year-long journey to Paris, appearing there for the first time at the Concert Spirituel on 8 September 1754. He presumably returned to Mannheim in autumn 1755, dying there less than two years later at the age of 39.

AGTHE, Carl Christian (1762-1797) - Concerto a Flauto Traverso (c.1780)

Carl Christian Agthe (1762-1797) - Concerto E. G dur: | Flauto Traverso Principalo: | Violino Primo: | Violino Secondo: | Viola Primo et Secondo: | Oboe Primo: | Oboe Secondo | Cornu Primo: | Cornu Secondo: |

e | Basso è Violoncello (c.1780)

Performers: Gabriele Zucker (flute); Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie; Gerard Oskamp (conductor)

Painting: Jean Grandjean (1752-1781) - Celebration of Spring

Further info: Sinfonien Nr. 4, 8 und 11 - Flötenkonzert

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Carl (Karl) Christian Agthe [Aghte]

(Hettstedt, 16 June 1762 - Ballenstedt, 27 November 1797)

German organist and composer. He first learnt music with his grandfather Johann Michael Agthe, Kantor at the Rathsschule, and his great-uncle Andreas Agthe, a local organist; he later continued his musical studies as a choirboy and as a member of the local Stadtpfeiferei. From 1776 to 1782 he was director of music with the Hündelberg theatrical company in Reval (now Tallinn), where he composed his first Singspiele 'Martin Velten' (1778). He then moved to Ballenstedt to join the court orchestra of Prince Friedrich Albrecht of Anhalt-Bernburg as an organist and harpsichordist. There he became known as one of the best organists of his time and, after further studies with Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, as an active composer of Singspiele, songs and instrumental pieces. His best-known work is a setting of August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue’s 'Der Spiegelritter' (1795), which was first performed by an amateur society in Ballenstedt and several times revived. He also left 11 symphonies, two concertos, and 14 Dances. His son Albrecht Wilhelm Johann Agthe (1790-1873) was a pianist, teacher and composer. 

SACCHINI, Antonio (1730-1786) - Sinfonia in Re maggiore

Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786) - Sinfonia in Re maggiore

Performers: Orchestra da Camera di Napoli

Painting: Thomas Patch (1720-1782) - Florence, A View of Ponte Santa Trinità Crossing the Arno River

Further info: Sinfonie Napolitane

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Antonio (Maria Gasparo Gioacchino) Sacchini [Sachgini, Sacini, Zacchini et al.]

(Florence, 14 June 1730 - Paris, 6 October 1786)

Italian composer. He was taken by his father at an early age to Naples, where he studied violin under Nicola Fiorenza and composition under Francesco Durante at the Conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto. In 1756 he composed his first opera, Fra Donato, which launched his career as a composer of opera in Italy. Although he served for several years as an assistant maestro di cappella at the conservatory, he abandoned his teaching profession by 1763 to concentrate on commissions from throughout the country, eventually establishing a reputation as a dramatic and talented composer. In 1768 while in Venice he became director of the Conservatorio dell’Ospedaletto, teaching singing to students such as Nancy Storace. In 1772 he moved to London, where he obtained a great success with his operas but was known for a dissolute lifestyle. This forced Sacchini to travel to Paris in 1781, where he was caught in the middle of the feud between Niccolò Piccinni and Christoph Willibald von Gluck, both of whose partisans condemned him as a member of the other’s faction. In 1786 he produced his most enduring work, Oedip à Colonne, at the request of Marie Antoinette, but his early death from his lifestyle and acute gout prevented him from realizing its success. As a composer, Sacchini was known for his dramatic musical style, particularly in serious opera. He was able to move fluidly between both the Italian and French styles, often using varied forms and progressive harmonic structures. His works include 47 operas, seven oratorios, two symphonies, six string quartets, six trio sonatas, and 12 violin sonatas or lessons, in addition to numerous insertion arias, Masses, motets, Psalms, and other sacred works.