Anton Ferdinand Titz (1742-1810)
- Sinfonia in C-Dur
Performers: Pratum Integrum Orchestra
Further info: Instrumental Music
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German violinist and composer. He was orphaned at an early age and was
taught painting in Nuremberg by his uncle and aunt. By the age of 16 he
was a violinist at St Sebaldus’s church there. After an unhappy love
affair a few years later he went to Vienna, where he played in the opera
orchestra and may have studied with Joseph Haydn. In 1771 he became a
member of the Hofkapelle in St Petersburg; Catherine the Great paid him
the highest salary of any of her court musicians. He also taught at the
theatre school, gave the future Tsar Aleksandr I violin lessons,
directed a court chamber orchestra (which included the clarinettist
Joseph Beer and other outstanding musicians), and performed publicly,
for instance in 1782, but most of his performances were at court, as a
violinist and viola d'amore player. Later in life he suffered a mental
disorder that sometimes prevented him from working, but he was
encouraged and protected by Senator Aleksey Grigoryevich Teplov, a St
Petersburg amateur musician. He dedicated three string quartets to
Teplov and three more to Aleksandr I. Ludwig Spohr remarked in 1803 that
his former technique, noted particularly for sensitivity in adagios,
had largely vanished. His salon cantata, 'Le pigeon bleu et noir gémit',
was a favorite with private audiences in St. Petersburg on into the
19th century. Anton Ferdinand Titz established a reputation in Europe
for his development of the string quartet, of which he composed 18.
Other works include 11 violin sonatas, 10 string quintets, three duos
for two violins, a symphony, and a violin concerto. Other works composed
for the Russian court have been lost. He has often been confused with
the Dresden violinist Ludwig Tietz (1774-1827).
