GNOCCHI, Pietro (1689-1775) - Messa in Fa maggiore

Pietro Gnocchi (1689-1775) - Messa in Fa maggiore

Performers: Coro Claudio Monteverdi; Ensemble Pian & Forte; Bruno Gini

Drawing: Giovanni Antonio Canal 'Canaletto' (1697-1768) - The Church of SS Domenico e Sisto, Rome

Further info: Pietro Gnocchi (1689-1775) - Messa in Re maggiore (1739)

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Pietro Gnocchi

(Alfianello, 27 February 1689 - Brescia, 9 December 1775)

Italian composer. Most of the information concerning Gnocchi's life derives from his contemporary Cristoni. As the second son of a middle-class family, he became a priest, devoting himself particularly to the study of music. After the death of his younger brother, he went to study in Venice. Before returning to Brescia, he travelled extensively, meeting famous musicians in Vienna and Munich as well as in Hungary, Bohemia and Saxony. He lived a withdrawn and ascetic life in Brescia, writing learned books on epigraphy, geography and ancient history, and earning a wide reputation as a scholar and master of languages. On 16 June 1723 he was appointed maestro di cappella of Brescia Cathedral and in 1733 he competed unsuccessfully for the post of organist there as well. In April 1762 he reapplied for the position and was successful, holding both jobs until his death. From about 1745 to 1750 he also worked at the Orfanelle della Pietà in Brescia. According to Cristoni, Prince Faustino Lechi of Brescia travelled to Bologna as a young man to study with Padre Martini, who expressed surprise that the prince had undertaken such a journey when Brescia possessed ‘un celebre Professore di Musica’ in the person of Gnocchi. Prince Lechi accepted Martini's advice and became Gnocchi's student, friend and patron. The Lechi family purchased Gnocchi's 25-volume history of ancient Greek colonies in the east, and possessed his treatise on Brescian memorial tablets as well as many of his compositions. Gnocchi wrote a great quantity of music, almost entirely sacred, which remains in manuscript. He planned to publish his 12-volume Salmi brevi, but no more was printed than the title-page and dedication. His interest in geography is reflected in some of the titles of his works: for example, Magnificat settings for six voices entitled ‘Il capo di buona speranza’ and ‘Il rio de la plata’, and masses for four voices ‘Europe’, ‘Asia’, ‘Africa’ and ‘America’. In style, Gnocchi favoured the Venetian technique of alternating choirs, treating them in a homophonic rather than imitative style: according to Guerrini, his compositions lack the animation of his Venetian contemporaries Benedetto Marcello and Lotti; the masses for eight-part double chorus are considered his best works.

REJCHA, Antonín (1770-1836) - Overture in D (c.1823)

Antonín Rejcha (1770-1836) - Overture in D (c.1823)

Performers: Prague Philharmonia; Kaspar Zehnder (conductor)

Painting: Eleonore Anne Steuben (attributed) (1788-1869) - Antonin Reicha

Further info: Antonín Rejcha (1770-1836)

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Antonín (Antoine-Joseph, Anton) Rejcha [Reicha]

(Prague, 26 February 1770 - Paris, 28 May 1836)

Czech composer, active in France and Austria. Nephew and pupil of Joseph Reicha (composer and violinist, leader and later Kapellmeister, of the Electoral orch. at Bonn). In 1785 the family moved to Bonn, where Reicha became a member of the Hofkapelle of Max Franz, Elector of Cologne, playing violin and second flute in the court orchestra under his uncle's direction. The young Beethoven entered the Hofkapelle as violist and organist in 1789 and Reicha befriended him. From about 1785 Reicha studied composition secretly, against his uncle's wishes, composing and conducting his first symphony in 1787 and entering the University of Bonn in 1789, where he studied and performed until 1794, when Bonn was attacked and captured by the French. He managed to escape to Hamburg. In 1799 he moved to Paris, hoping to achieve success as an opera composer but in 1801 he moved on to Vienna. Once there, he studied with Antonio Salieri and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. Reicha's life and career in Vienna were interrupted by Napoleon's November 1805 occupation of the city by French troops. Then Reicha decided to move back to Paris. He was soon teaching composition privately, future prolific composer George Onslow being one of his pupils by 1808. This time three of his many operas were produced, but they all failed; yet his fame as theorist and teacher increased steadily, and by 1817 most of his pupils became professors at the Conservatoire de Paris. The following year, Reicha himself was appointed professor of counterpoint and fugue at the Conservatoire with the support of Louis XVIII. In 1818 he married Virginie Enaust, who bore him two daughters. Reicha stayed in Paris for the rest of his life. He became a naturalized citizen of his adopted country in 1829 and Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1835. That same year, he succeeded François-Adrien Boieldieu at the Académie française. Though a prolific composer, he was of particular importance as a theorist and teacher in early 19th-century Paris.

WESLEY, Samuel (1766-1837) - Symphony in E flat-major, No.5 (1784)

Samuel Wesley (1766-1837) - Symphony in E flat-major, No.5 (1784)

Performers: Milton Keynes Chamber Orchestra; Hilary Davan Wetton

Painting: Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) - Skaters on the Serpentine in Hyde Park (1786)

Further info: Samuel Wesley (1766-1837) - Symphony No.6 (1802)

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Samuel Wesley

(Bristol, 24 February 1766 - London, 11 October 1837)

English composer and organist. The son of Charles Wesley (1707-1788) and brother of Charles Wesley II (1757-1834), he studied music under William Boyce in 1774. Samuel showed his musical talent early in life. As a boy, he was recognised as a child prodigy by the British musical establishment, along with his elder brother, Charles. He quickly mastered the violin, harpsichord and organ. By the age of eight, he was becoming known for his composing and improvisational skills. By 1779 he and his brother embarked upon a career giving subscription concerts. In 1784, Wesley converted to Catholicism, focusing his compositional efforts on writing sacred music. An accident in 1787 forced him into a quiet rural life at Ridge near St. Albans for two decades, but after 1808 he returned to become one of the leaders of the English musical establishment, including founding membership in the Royal Philharmonic Society. Wesley worked as a conductor as well as a music teacher and lecturer. He seems to have been one of the pioneers of the British organ recital: prior to his time, entertainment was not considered appropriate for a church building. Despite a reputation as the best improvisor on the organ in England, he never succeeded in obtaining an organist's post though he applied to the Foundling Hospital both in 1798 and 1813 and to St George's, Hanover Square in 1824. From 1815 onwards, he was beset by lack of money and depression. At one stage, he was reduced to asking Vincent Novello for copying work. His ability on the organ was so highly regarded that he was introduced to, and played for Felix Mendelssohn in September 1837, a month before Wesley's death. Mendelssohn gave a recital at Christ Church Newgate, during which Wesley said to his daughter Eliza, "This is transcendent playing! Do you think I dare venture after this?" It seems that Mendelssohn persuaded the old man, who was by now very frail, to play. Mendelssohn stood by his side while he was playing and complimented him, but Wesley replied "Ah, Sir! you have not heard me play; you should have heard me forty years ago". His music is characterized by good harmony and a more progressive sense of style. Works include five Masses, two services, 63 other sacred works, 38 anthems, 51 choruses, two oratorios, 97 hymns (57 of which were published in 1835 in The Psalmist), seven symphonies, 13 concertos, three quartets, nine trios, and 10 violin sonatas, as well as many smaller works.

VON THURN UND TAXIS, Karl Alexander (1770-1827) - Sinfonia C-Dur (1790)

Karl Alexander von Thurn und Taxis (1770-1827) - Sinfonia C-Dur (1790)

Performers: Böhmisches Sinfonieorchester Budweis; Hans Peter Wiesheu (leitung)

Painting: Michael Neher (1798-1876) - Das Rathaus in Regensburg (1841)

Further info: Musik aus der Reichstagszeit

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Karl (Carl) Alexander (Fürst) von Thurn und Taxis

(Regensburg, 22 February 1770 - Schloss Taxis bei Dischingen, 15 July 1827)

German aristocratic from a family of patrons of music. He was the fifth Prince of Thurn and Taxis, head of the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post, and Head of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis from 13 November 1805 until his death on 15 July 1827. With the death of his father on 13 November 1805, he became nominal Generalpostmeister of the Imperial Reichspost until the resignation of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor. Karl Alexander studied at the Universities of Strasbourg, Würzburg, and Mainz and then subsequently went on a European tour. In 1797, he was appointed successor to his ailing father's position as Prinzipalkommissar at the Perpetual Imperial Diet in Regensburg. Karl Alexander also worked for the Thurn and Taxis postal empire, operating during a decline due to the gradual loss of territory as a result of the Napoleonic Wars. He married Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, fourth eldest child and third eldest daughter of Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt, on 25 May 1789 in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Karl Alexander and Therese had seven children. After the end of the Holy Roman Empire, the Thurn and Taxis postal system continued to survive as a private company. Since 1806, Karl Alexander headed a private postal company, the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post. It existed first as a feud of some of the Confederation of the Rhine members, such as Baden, Bavaria, and Württemberg. Bavaria, however, nationalized the postal system two years later. After the Congress of Vienna, Karl Alexander took over the Hessian and Thuringian postal services, as well as those in the Hanseatic League cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck, and Schaffhausen. From 1820, the company began to prosper again, so Karl Alexander began to acquire large amounts of land holdings. He was also an occasional composer and wrote a sinfonia and keyboard music preserved in Regensburg.

AUFSCHNAITER, Benedikt Anton (1665-1742) - Missa Sancti Francisci (1712)

Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter (1665-1742) - Missa Sancti Francisci (1712)

Performers: Neue Innsbrucker Hofkapelle; Detlef Bratschke (leitung)

Engraving: Georg Braun (1541-1622) & Franz Hogenberg (1539-1590) - Passau

Further info: Benedict Anton Aufschnaiter (1665-1742) - Serenade della Pace

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Benedict Anton Aufschnaiter [Aufschneider, Auffschnaidter]

(Kitzbühel, bap. 21 February 1665 - Passau, bur. 24 January 1742)

Austrian composer. His main appointment was in Passau, where he succeeded Georg Muffat as court Kapellmeister in 1705. He spent his early years in Vienna, where he may have been a pupil of Johannes Ebner (a member of the well-known family of organ players and son of Wolfgang Ebner) whom he declared his model. Apparently he came into contact with members of the Viennese nobility, and he may have been employed at a court. In a letter of 1724 to Prince-Bishop Lamberg, while complaining about the quality of the violinists in Passau, Aufschnaiter claimed to have had in Vienna, where he spent many years, ‘16–18 excellent musicians’ at his disposal. His op.1 (of which no copy is extant) was dedicated to Count Ferdinand Ernst von Trautmannsdorf, who may have been his employer. In 1695 his op.2 appeared in Nuremberg with a dedication to Archduke Joseph (later Emperor Joseph I). Under the title Concors discordia it contains six orchestral suites which show Italian concerto grosso structure but also an apparent French influence; they probably followed the example of Georg Muffat. All that is known of op.3 is that it was dedicated to Emperor Leopold I; no copy is extant. Op.4 consists of eight church sonatas published under the title Dulcis fidium harmonia symphoniis ecclesiasticis concinnata, which appeared in 1703 and were dedicated to the four early fathers of the church and the four evangelists. These are orchestral sonatas for two solo violins (which have complicated double stops), two violins ad libitum, viola, violone and organ; they may have been inspired by Heinrich Biber’s works. From 1705, when he became Kapellmeister at Passau, Aufschnaiter was active as a composer of church music (although he was not officially appointed cathedral Kapellmeister as Muffat had been). His opp.5 and 8 comprise vespers for four voices, strings and continuo instruments (1709, 1728), his op.6 five masses (1712) and his op.7 offertories with two solo violas (1719). In all his church works Aufschnaiter favours a more traditional style similar to the Roman cantata style; there are fewer demanding violin passages and double stops than in his earlier works, and he prefers to please with melodic charm. In his theoretical writings he emphasizes the difference between church, chamber and theatre music.

HERSCHEL, Jacob (1734-1792) - Quartetti per il cembalo, No.1 Op.I (c.1770)

Jacob Herschel (1734-1792) - Quartetti per il cembalo, No.1 Op.I (c.1770)

World Premiere Recording

Performers: Sibelius + Harpsichord samples (edited by Pau NG)

Painting: Bartolomeo Bettera (1639-c.1699) - A still life with musical instruments and a globe on a table, a curtain behind

Further info: Jacob Herschel (1734-1792) - Quartetti per il cembalo, No.4 Op.I (c.1770)

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(Heinrich Anton) Jacob Herschel

(Hanover, 30 November 1734 - Hanover, 1792)

German composer. He was the second of the ten children born to Isaac and Anna Herschel of Hanover, and the eldest of their six boys. Five of the boys survived infancy and every one of them showed precocious talent as musicians. Three of the four who survived into adult life had other talents - William in mechanics and astronomy, Alexander in mechanics, and Dietrich in natural history - but Jacob, musically the most gifted of all, found fulfilment in his music. At the early age of fourteen he followed his father into the band of the Hanoverian Guards, a pleasant enough life in peacetime but hazardous and stressful in times of war. It did not compare with the comfort and prestige of a post in the Court Orchestra of Hanover, and in the autumn of 1755 he petitioned for his discharge from the army in expectation of a post in the orchestra. But sadly the discharge had not arrived when the Guards marched out of Hanover, to reinforce England against a French invasion. The Guards eventually sailed for England at the end of March 1756. Later that year Jacob received his discharge and returned to Hanover, a civilian. Before long the French threatened Hanover itself, and on 26 Julu 1757 the Hanoverians and their allies were defeated at the Battle of Hastenbeck and the town occupied by the victors. Jacob spent weeks in hiding, first to escape being pressed into the makeshift defence force being assembled by the burghers, and then to avoid arousing the interest of the occupiers. He eventually slipped out of the town, joined William in Hamburg, and together they took refuge in England. There the brothers at first scratched a living, teaching and copying music. William emerged as a significant figure on the English musical scene, but Jacob preferred to return home in 1779, when peace had returned to the region aroung Hanover. There he successfully auditioned for a post in the Court orchestra; and although he spent extended visits in England in the years ahead, he remained as a leading member of the orchestra for the rest of his days. In 1792 he died by strangulation, murdered in circumstances that somehow involved the fighting then going in Hanover on.

GESSEL, Karl Friedrich (1724-1793) - Cantata 'Sie sind nicht alle dem Evangelio gehorsam'

Karl Friedrich Gessel (1724-1793) - Cantata 'Sie sind nicht alle dem Evangelio gehorsam'

Performers: Dorothee Mields (soprano); Britta Schwarz (alto); Jörn Lindemann (tenor); Klaus Mertens (bass);

Michaelstein Telemann Chamber Orchestra; Ludger Rémy (conductor)

Engraving: Johann Georg Schreiber (1676-1750) - Plan von Bautzen im Jahr (1709)

Further info: Benda, Gessel & Erlebach: Cantatas

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Karl Friedrich Gessel

(Bautzen, 14 June 1724 - Zittau, 1 March 1793)

German composer. Son of Johann Heinrich Gessel, kantor in Bautzen, he probably received an early formation from his father. Although, almost nothing is known of Karl Friedrich's childhood and youth. He attended school in Kamenz and Bautzen, and probably received music lessons there. After studying at the University of Wittenberg, he was appointed kantor in 1746 at the Church of St. Nicholas in Löbau and in 1752 he worked at the Church of St. John in Zittau, place where he remained until his death in 1793. As a composer, he mainly wrote church music but almost all of them are currently lost.

GUIDO, Giovanni Antonio (c.1675-1729) - Concerto B-Dur 'L'hyver' (1728)

Giovanni Antonio Guido (c.1675-1729) - Concerto B-Dur 'L'hyver' (1728)

Performers: La Stravaganza Köln

Painting: Marco Ricci (1676-1730) - A Winter Landscape

Further info: Giovanni Antonio Guido (c.1675-1729)

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Giovanni Antonio Guido

(Genoa?, c.1675 - after 17 September 1729)

Italian violinist and composer active mostly in France. His biography is complicated by his use of both Guido and Antonio as surnames: the privilèges générals of 1707 and 1726 refer to him as ‘Gio. Antonio Guido’, while the compositions they cite are published as by ‘Mr Antonio’. Most 18th-century sources refer to him simply as ‘Antonio’. Coming probably from Genoa, he arrived at Naples and in December 1683 entered the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini, where he studied the violin under Nicola Vinciprova. Five years later his brother Giuseppe was an alto there, but of him we know no more. In 1691 Giovanni Antonio was still in touch with the Conservatorio as a copyist, but during the following years he was employed as a musician of the Royal Chapel. His name was regularly inserted in the list of payments for this institution from September 1698 to 6 January 1702, when he was replaced by Giuseppe Avitrano. After this date Guido travelled to Paris. An account of a concert given at Fontainebleau before the Queen of England in November 1703 (Mercure galant) praises him as an excellent violinist in the service of the Duke of Orléans. Guido belonged to an orchestra supported by the duke until at least 1726, rising to the position of maître de musique. Since his arrival in France he was also esteemed as a composer. Indeed, in October 1704 a composition by him was performed before the King during one of the magnificent feasts given by the Duchess of Maine at Sceaux. Probably during one of these occasions Antoine Watteau painted him. Between 1714 and 1724 he took part in concerts at the home of the financier Crozat. On 23 March 1728 a concerto by him was warmly received at the Concert Spirituel. Nothing further is known of him, with the most unlikely exception of a reference in 1759 to a mysterious Antonio, a successor to a seat in the 24 Violons. As a composer Guido showed an interesting ability to combine Italian and French stylistic qualities; as a violinist he enjoyed considerable repute. Le Cerf de la Viéville included him in a list of famous Italian violin virtuosos in 1705 (Comparaison de la musique italienne et de la musique françoise). Later Titon du Tillet considered him important for familiarizing the French with Italian music, while as late as 1776 Hawkins commented on his international fame. The story that he was also a flautist has been disproved.

PRAETORIUS, Michael (1571-1621) - Magnificat (1611)

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) - Magnificat (1611)

Performers: Huelgas Ensemble

Painting: Master of the Female Half-lengths (16th Century) - Three Young Women Making Music with a Jester

Further info: Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)

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Michael Praetorius [Schultheiss, Schultze]

(Creuzburg an der Werra, ? 15 February 1571 - Wolfenbüttel, 15 February 1621)

German composer, theorist and organist. Wetzel and Walther both stated that Praetorius was born on 15 February 1571 and died on his 50th birthday, but this could be a mistake, since according to a poem appended to his funeral sermon he was only in his 49th year when he died. But 1571 is the most commonly accepted year of his birth. His father, who was also called Michael and came from Bunzlau, Silesia, was from 1534 at the latest a colleague of Johann Walter at the Lateinschule at Torgau. His son Michael was born during a second period of service at Creuzburg that began in 1569, but in 1573 the family moved to Torgau. At the Lateinschule there Praetorius was taught music by Michael Voigt, Walter’s successor as Kantor. In 1582 he matriculated at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, where his brother Andreas was professor of theology. In 1584 he attended the Lateinschule at Zerbst, the home of two of his sisters, and from there he returned to Frankfurt an der Oder. Although he probably had no musical education after leaving school, it is certain that he became acquainted with Bartholomäus Gesius at Frankfurt, with whom he shared a strong interest in Protestant hymns and their melodies as well as in alternatim practice. After the early death of his brother, he was appointed organist of St Marien, Frankfurt, probably at the beginning of 1587. By his own account he held this post for three years, but it is not known why he gave it up or where he went in 1590. According to a later report Praetorius settled at Wolfenbüttel in about 1592-3, but to judge from his own testimony in his Motectae et psalmi (1607) and Polyhymnia caduceatrix (1619) it was not until 1595 that he entered the service, as an organist, of Duke Heinrich Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who had his residence there. In 1596 he took part with the most famous German organists of the day in the consecration of the organ in the castle chapel at Gröningen, near Halberstadt. In 1602 he stayed at Regensburg ‘on his own business’ and as a member of the Wolfenbüttel delegation to the Reichstag. 

In February 1603 he was again in Regensburg on ducal business and is recorded as an organist. In September 1603 he married Anna Lakemacher, who bore him two sons. Praetorius had won such esteem by 1604 that, while retaining the post of organist, he was appointed court Kapellmeister on the retirement of Thomas Mancinus. There is evidence that in 1605 and 1609 he stayed at the court of the music-loving Landgrave Moritz of Hesse at Kassel. This was an extremely busy period for him: most of his collections of music appeared between 1605 and 1613. The sudden death of Duke Heinrich Julius in Prague in 1613 was a turning-point in Praetorius’s life. The Elector Johann Georg of Saxony immediately asked the duke’s successor, Friedrich Ulrich, to let Praetorius spend his year of mourning as deputy for the aging Rogier Michael, Kapellmeister of the electoral court. The year eventually became two and a half years, which Praetorius spent mostly at Dresden. He not only had responsibility for the music at the Assembly of Electors at Naumburg in 1614 and met Schütz in Dresden but also, more importantly, got to know the latest Italian music, which influenced his later work in significant ways; he must also have devoted more and more time to his theoretical work. His period in Dresden officially ended in 1616, but he was there again in 1617 to organize the ceremonial music for the emperor’s visit and for the centenary celebration of the Reformation. From 1614 he was also Kapellmeister to the administrator of the bishopric of Magdeburg. At Easter 1616 he was working at Halle, and in 1617 he built up the Hofkapelle of the counts of Schwarzburg at Sondershausen and also stayed once more with Landgrave Moritz of Hesse at Kassel, this time for a baptismal celebration, for which he wrote a Concertgesang. In 1618 he was summoned, along with Schütz and Scheidt, to Magdeburg Cathedral to mark the reorganization of the music there, and he is known to have visited Leipzig, Nuremberg and Bayreuth (again with Schütz and Scheidt) in 1619. After his death, he left an impressive fortune, most of which was to be used to set up a foundation for the poor. As the son and grandson of theologians he was a firm Christian all his life.

TERRADELLAS, Domènec (1713-1751) - Sinfonia 'Sesostri, re d'Egitto' (1751)

Domènec Terradellas (1713-1751) - Sinfonia (Obertura) 'Sesostri, re d'Egitto' (1751)

Performers: Concerto Brandenburg; Gregor DuBuclet (director)

Painting: Charles François Grenier de Lacroix, dit Lacroix de Marseille (1700-1782) - Mediterranean landscape

Further info: Domènec Terradellas (1713-1751) - Nocturna Procella

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Domènec (Domingo, Domenico) Miquel (Miguel) Bernabé Terradellas [Terradeglias]

(Barcelona, bap. 13 February 1711 - Rome, 20 May 1751)

Spanish composer. He probably received part of his musical instruction from Francese Valls, choirmaster of Barcelona Cathedral. In 1732 he moved to Italy. Sponsored by the Prince of Belmonte, he registered as a student at the music conservatory Poveri di Gesù Cristo in Naples on 23 May, at the same time committing himself to stay in the conservatory, where he studied with Francesco Durante, and to contribute to its music for a period of six years. His first important work, the oratorio Giuseppe riconosciuto, was written in 1736 while he was still a student. His professional career as a dramatic composer began in Carnival 1739 with the production in Rome of his heroic opera Astarto. He then returned to Naples where he wrote his second oratorio, Ermenegildo martire (performed 1739), and his single comic opera, Gl’intrichi delle cantarine (performed 1740). In 1743 he achieved his first outstanding success with the presentation in Rome of his opera Merope. The Neapolitan envoy at the papal court, Cardinal Acquaviva, was so impressed that he wrote a strong recommendation for the composer to the court authorities in Naples, claiming that Merope had obtained a success in Rome ‘the like of which no one can remember for many years’. But the Neapolitan court took no interest, and Terradellas stayed in Rome where he secured an appointment at the church of S Giacomo degli Spagnoli. During his years in this post (1743-5) he wrote many church compositions. According to Carreras, he left S Giacomo in 1745 because of differences with his colleagues. In 1746 he went to London where, in the course of a winter season, he composed two operas and arranged a pasticcio, all for the King’s Theatre. In spring or early summer 1747 he returned to the Continent by way of Paris. By 1750 he was back in Italy. During carnival that year he was at Turin for the production of his new opera Didone, and in May he was at Venice for the production of another new opera, Imeneo in Atene. Sesostri re d’Egitto, his last opera, was performed with great success in Rome in Carnival 1751. The following May he died; how he died is still a mystery. The lurid report in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of 12 March 1800 that, after a period of intense rivalry between him and another composer, Nicolò Jommelli, he was murdered and his body thrown into the Tiber, is nowadays discounted.

ITEN, Wolfgang (1712-1769) - Majestas Domini (1748)

Wolfgang Iten (1712-1769) - Majestas Domini (1748)

Performers: Ensemble Arcimboldo; Thilo Hirsch (leitung)

Painting: Johann Jakob Biedermann (1763-1830) - Zug, von Norden

Further info: Musik aus Schweizer Klöstern mit Tromba Marina

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Wolfgang (Vital) Iten [Itten]

(Unter-Ägeri, near Zug, 18 December 1712 - Auw, 2 January 1769)

Swiss composer. He entered the school of the Benedictine monastery at Engelberg in 1725 and took his monastic vows on 20 February 1729. He was probably taught music by Ildephons Straumeyer, phonascus and choir director at Engelberg, and by the composer Benedikt Deuring between 1733 and 1736. Deuring’s sacred works were almost entirely lost in a fire at the monastery on 29 August 1729, together with works by Italian and south German composers (including Corelli, Steffani and J.V. Rathgeber), and after the fire Iten composed a new repertory. His first dated works are from December 1735. In 1737 he was made principal Kapellmeister at the monastery; he also played the trumpet. The majority of Iten’s 149 extant works are motets, offertories and Marian antiphons for soloists and choir, usually with two violins and organ; two works include parts for the Trumpet marine: Pastorella, 1738, and Aria de S.P.N. Benedicto, 1751. A Missa brevis solemnis, dated 2 February 1739, has also been ascribed to him; it is for four voices and instruments (including two trumpets and timpani). Iten’s music exemplifies the prevailing, Neapolitan-influenced concertante style, including recitatives and arias. It is not without a certain elegance, though marred by the occasional clumsiness. He also provided Latin contrafacta for the 40 Italian arias op.1 by his friend Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee (1720-89) and wrote two German Passion plays. For one of these, intended for use on Good Friday 1757 by his congregation in Auw, where he had become parish priest in 1754, he also supplied songs.

GRÉTRY, André Ernest Modeste (1741-1813) - Sonate a due Cembali

André Ernest Modeste Grétry (1741-1813) - Sonate a due Cembali

Performers: Paule van Parys & Jan Van Mol (cembalos)

Painting: Anonimo - El músico Andre Ernest Modeste Gretry

Further info: André Ernest Modeste Grétry (1741-1813)

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André Ernest Modeste Grétry

(Liège, 8 February 1741 - Montmorency, 24 September 1813)

Belgian composer. As a chorister at the church of St. Denis, he became a student of Jean-Pantaléon Leclerc (1697-1760), also studying keyboard under Nicolas Rennekin and harmony under Henri Moreau. In 1752 the arrival of an Italian opera troupe awakened his interest in theatre music, and following the successful performance of a Mass for the Liège cathedral in 1759 he traveled to Rome to attend the College d’Archis. In 1765 his opera La vendemmatrice was performed in Rome with success, and Grétry decided to go to Paris to compose French opera. Traveling by way of Geneva, where he met and befriended Voltaire, he arrived in Paris in 1767, but it took almost two years before the patronage of Swedish ambassador Gustaf Philip Creutz brought him into contact with Marmontel. Their first collaboration, Le Huron, in 1768, brought him instant fame as the foremost composer of opéra comique. Thereafter, a series of works (Zémire et Azor, 1771; Le caravane du Caire, 1783; and Richard Coeur-de-lion, 1784) brought him international fame, allowing him to transition easily in French intellectual society through the Revolution. In 1797 he was named as an examiner in the newly established Conservatoire, receiving the Légion d’honneur. By 1803 he had been awarded a lifetime pension by Napoleon, which allowed him to live comfortably despite the lack of success of his last operas. Grétry’s popularity as a composer was the result of a good sense of theatre, wherein his music, often using simple or rondo forms, is subordinate to the stage action. His orchestration is often colorful, with unusual instruments and a good sense of harmony and rhythm. His overtures, for example, often have vocal interludes built in (Richard Coeur-de-lion) making them part of the stage action rather than a prelude. He was a prolific composer, writing 68 operas, about 45 romances (songs for voice and keyboard, often with another instrument for color), 12 sacred pieces (mostly hymns or antiphons), a Mass, six Revolutionary odes, a large secular cantata, seven string quartets, seven symphonies, six sonatas, and a flute concerto. He must be seen as the most popular French composer of the late 18th century. His daughter Lucille Grétry (1772-1790) also became a composer.

DE PAULA SOUZA, Joaquim (c.1780-1842) - Missa Grande em Sol Maior (c.1823)

Joaquim de Paula Souza (c.1780-1842) - Missa Grande em Sol Maior (c.1823)

Performers: Orquestra e Coral do Festival Juiz de Fora; Sérgio Dias (regente)

Drawing: Henry Chamberlain (1796-1843) - Barbacena (c.1820)

Further info: Joaquim de Paula Souza (c.1780-1842)

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Joaquim de Paula Souza “Bonsucesso”

(Prados, c.1760 - Prados, 1842)

Brazilian violinist and composer. Almost nothing is known about his life. He probably was related with the brazilian composers José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita and Manoel Dias de Oliveira. He was mainly active as a musician in the Minas Gerais region, where he was musical director of the Arraial de Nossa Senhora da Conceição dos Prados. Among his works are Missa e Credo em Dó Maior, Missa e Credo em Sol, Trezena de Santo Antônio and Responsórios para Encomendação.

MILLARES PADRÓN, Cristóbal José (1774-1846) - Sonata No. 2 & LENTINI, Benito (1793-1846) - Sinfonia

Cristóbal José Millares Padrón (1774-1846) - Sonata No.2 - Adagio maestoso, presto

Benito Lentini (1793-1846) - Sinfonia - Largo, allegro

Performers: Ainoa Padrón (pianoforte)

Drawing: Pieter Holsteyn (1585-1662) - Wilde kanarie

Further info: Cristóbal José Millares Padrón (1774-1846)

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Cristóbal José Millares Padrón 

(Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 6 February 1774 - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 25 March 1846)

Spanish violinist, organist and composer. He initially studied at the Colegio de San Marcial in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. There he received theory lessons by Mateo Guerra (c.1730-1791), organ by Juan de Castro (c.1730-1788) and violin by Francisco Mariano (c.1730-1792). In 1790 he was awarded for an excellent performance on a violin motif which favored the subsequent entry as a violinist in the orchestra of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria cathedral. At that time he married Maria del Rosario Cordero de Salas with whom he had several children. In May of 1803 was named first violin of the musical chapel of the city with the obligation to work as professor in the Colegio de San Marcial. He was later appointed senior organist of the cathedral in a position that would already preserve the rest of his life. As a composer he wrote religious work, including Responsorios de Reyes (1812), chamber works, including a Sextet for clarinets, horn, violins and double bass (1814), and numerous works for keyboard instruments. From 1842 he decreased his activities dying in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in March 1846.

Benito Lentini y Messina 

(Sicilia, 1793 - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1846)

Italian pianist and composer. In 1815, he landed in the Canary Islands as a chapel teacher and as organist. Lentini continued Palomino's work in terms of organizing the orchestra, with which he unveiled two symphonies by Beethoven in 1818, and also became involved in urban planning tasks, becoming a councilor of the City Council. He was the promoter of the existence of "a great theater in Las Palmas", which he would achieve: the Teatro Cairasco. Lentini was the first conductor of the Philharmonic Society and directed the inaugural concert of that institution. Few time later, he died in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

ALBRECHTSBERGER, Johann Georg (1736-1809) - Concertino in D a 5 (1769)

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809) - Concertino in D a 5 (1769)

Performers: Piccolo Concerto Wien

Painting: Leopold Kupelwieser (1796-1862) - Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809)

Further info: Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809)

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Johann Georg Albrechtsberger

(Klosterneuburg, 3 February 1736 - Vienna, 7 March 1809)

Austrian composer, teacher, theorist and organist. From the age of seven he served as a choirboy for the Augustinians in Klosterneuburg, where he learnt the organ and figured bass from the dean, Leopold Pittner. His studies in composition under G.M. Monn (if accurately reported by Albrechtsberger's pupil Johann Fuss) must have taken place during this period. As a student and choirboy at Melk Abbey from 1749 until 1754, he received a thorough training in composition and organ from Marian Gurtler, the regens chori, and Joseph Weiss, the abbey's organist. After a year of study at the Jesuit seminary in Vienna he worked as an organist in various provincial localities: Raab (now Győr, Hungary), 1755–7; Maria Taferl, near Melk, 1757–9; and Melk Abbey, 1759–65, where he succeeded his former teacher Weiss. His precise place of employment in 1766 remains unknown, but Melk sources indicate that he left the abbey voluntarily in November 1765 to join his brother Anton in the service of a Baron Neissen in Silesia (perhaps at what is now Nysa, Poland). Albrechtsberger's activities can be traced from his parents' home in Ebersdorf (near Melk) in 1767 to Vienna, where he married in May the following year. From 1772 he served both as regens chori for the church of the Carmelites (later known as St Joseph's) and as organist in the imperial court orchestra. In addition he was appointed assistant to the Kapellmeister Leopold Hofmann at the Stephansdom in 1791, a position arranged for him by his friend and predecessor Mozart. All of these duties were set aside when he became Kapellmeister following Hofmann's death in 1793. He retained this post – the highest in the empire for a church musician – for the remainder of his life. 

Albrechtsberger was a prolific composer of some 284 church compositions, 278 keyboard works and over 193 works for other instruments. His most interesting and original music was composed during his years as a provincial organist before settling permanently in Vienna. He cultivated a modern, homophonic idiom in the instrumental works of this period and used unusual instrumentation with special effects such as scordatura and slow movements marked ‘con sordino’. The church music is more contrapuntal in conception and occasionally experimental in its treatment of the voices (e.g. alternating solo quartet and chorus, and the use of recitative). Some of his best vocal music is in the early oratorios, several of which belong to the Austrian tradition of Easter sepolcro. At Melk he was considered ‘a most commendable artist in this genre’, although there seems to have been no occasion for him to write oratorios after 1781. After his imperial appointment in 1772 he became increasingly preoccupied with the composition of fugues – over 240 for instruments in addition to numerous examples in the sacred music. His two-movement sonate (slow homophonic, fast fugal), of which he wrote over 120 for various instrumental combinations after 1780, developed out of the Baroque church sonata but were intended for chamber rather than church performance. They had little influence on the already mature sonata form. His approach to Viennese church composition tended, as Weissenbäck noted, towards formal sectionalization or polarization of homophonic and polyphonic textures. In spite of their technical refinements, these late works seem less imaginative than those of his earlier years. Eye-witness accounts by critics such as Maximilian Stadler, Burney, Nicolai and Pasterwitz leave little doubt that Albrechtsberger was an extraordinarily talented organist. Mozart, the most reliable judge of all, considered his playing the standard by which other organists were to be measured (letter to Constanze, 16 April 1789). Towards the end of his life he was recognized as ‘perhaps the greatest organist in the world’.

HOMILIUS, Gottfried August (1714-1785) - Concerto per il Cembalo (c.1761)

Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1785) - Concerto per il Cembalo concertato (c.1761)
Performers: Sibelius + Instruments samples (edited by Pau NG)
Painting: Bernardo Bellotto (1721-1780) - Der Neustädter Markt in Dresden (1749-1750)
Further info: Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1785)

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Gottfried August Homilius
(Rosenthal, 2 February 1714 - Dresden, 2 June 1785)

German composer, organist and Kantor. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he spent his childhood from 1714 in Porschendorf (Pirna district). After his father’s death in 1722 he attended the Annenschule in Dresden, where in 1734 he composed his earliest extant work, the cantata 'Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild'. He sometimes stood in for the organist at the Annenkirche, J.G. Stübner, who was probably his organ teacher. On 14 May 1735 he matriculated at Leipzig University in law; a class report from the professor A. Kästner (16 September 1741) reads: ‘For three years the candidatus juris has availed himself of my praelectionum iudicarum and striven to master the fundamenta iuris. He has, however, always allowed music to be his main task’. At this time he also took lessons from Bach in composition and keyboard playing, as mentioned by J.A. Hiller (Lebensbeschreibungen, 1784) and confirmed by Forkel (Ueber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke, 1802); he was probably also a pupil of, and assistant to, the organist at the Nikolaikirche, Johann Schneider. In 1741 Homilius applied unsuccessfully for the organist’s post of St Petri in Bautzen, submitting five chorale settings for organ of which two had obbligato parts for horn. His first post as organist was granted him in May 1742 by Dresden’s Frauenkirche, which possessed a new Silbermann organ. An application on 5 November 1753 for the post of organist at the Johanniskirche, Zittau, failed. On 10 May 1755, however, he was appointed Kantor at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden and teacher (Collega V) of the Kreuzschule (‘as he is skilled in Greek and all else, but is pre-eminent in music’), and at the same time music director of Dresden’s three principal churches – the Kreuzkirche, Frauenkirche and Sophienkirche; a month later the appointment was ratified by the Dresden town council. After the Kreuzkirche was destroyed in 1760 (during the Seven Years War), Homilius directed his activity mainly to the Frauenkirche. Tirelessly active until an advanced age, he composed a full yearly cycle of cantatas in the last years of his life, and in 1784 dedicated 12 Magnificat settings and a Latin motet (destroyed in World War II) to the Dresden council. He suffered a stroke in December of that year, and in the following March was retired.