STAMIC, Jan Václav Antonín (1717-1757) - Lytaniae Lauretane

Jan Václav Antonín Stamic (1717-1757) - Lytaniae Lauretane et De Nomine Jesu

Performers: Monika Frimmer (soprano); Sylvia Schlüter (alto); Harry van Berne (tenor); Tom Sol (bass);

Alsfelder Vokalensemble; Barockorchester Bremen; Wolfgang Helbich (1943-2013, conductor)

Drawing: Georg Balthasar Probst (1732-1801) - Prospect des Churfürstl. Schloß zu Mannheim (1780)

Further info: Jan Vàclav Antonín Stamic (1717-1757) - Organ concertos

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

(Německý Brod [now Havlíčkův Brod], bap. 19 June 1717 - Mannheim, ?27 March, bur. 30 March 1757)

Composer, violinist and teacher. He ranks among the most important early Classical symphonists and was influential in making the court of the Elector Palatine at Mannheim a leading centre of orchestral performance and composition. 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.

GOLABEK, Jakub (c.1739-1789) - Sinfonia D-Dur (c.1780)

Jakub Gołąbek (c.1739-1789) - Sinfonia D-Dur (c.1780)

Performers: Orkiestra Kameralna Poznanskiej; Robert Satanowski (1918-1997, conductor)

Painting: Jan van Os (1744-1808) - Flowers

Further info: Jakub Gołąbek (c.1739-1789) - Sinfonia C-Dur

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Jakub Gołąbek

(Silesia, c.1739 - Kraków, 30 March 1789)

Polish composer and singer. He was active in Kraków from at least 1766 (in which year he was married), first in the chapel choir of St Mary’s, later (c.1774) as singer and composer for the Wawel Cathedral choir. From 1781 to 1787 he also worked as a teacher at the Kraków singing school run by the priest Wacław Sierakowski, and took part in concerts of oratorios and cantatas organized by Sierakowski, modelled on those of the Concert Spirituel, Paris. Gołąbek’s music is significant in the formation of a Polish Classical style, as is evident in the forms he used (two-subject expositions, short development and recapitulation), thematic structure, treatment of the bass part (clearly following the tradition of the basso continuo), and the use of galant elements in slow movements (for example in his Parthia). There are four extant, unaccompanied masses, conforming to the type ‘missa sine credo’, mostly composed in a homophonic style but containing some polyphony. Gołąbek’s instrumental music is characterized by a non-schematic approach to composition combined with a degree of melodic ingenuity. His sacred works, as well as his symphonic works, were well known in his day and were highly regarded, not just in the Kraków region.

LOBO DE MESQUITA, José Joaquim Emerico (1746-1805) - Dominica in Palmis (1782)

José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita (1746-1805) - Dominica in Palmis (1782)

Performers: Choeur Henri Duparc; Ensemble Musica Antiqua

Painting: Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770) - Joseph receiving Pharaoh's Ring

Further info: José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita (1746-1805) - Missa em Fá Maior

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José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita

(Vila do Príncipe [now Serro, Minas Gerais] 12 October 1746 - Rio de Janeiro, April 1805)

Brazilian composer and organist. Son of the Portuguese José Lobo de Mesquita and his slave Joaquina Emerenciana, he was active in the province of Minas Gerais during the latter part of the 18th century, spending most of his life at Arraial do Tejuco (now Diamantina), where he settled in about 1776, and Vila Rica (Ouro Prêto). In 1788 he entered the brotherhood of Nossa Senhora das Mercês dos Homens Crioulos in Arraial do Tejuco, confirming that he was a mulatto. He served as organist at the church of S Antonio (1783-4), at the Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Carmo (1787-95) and was apparently the first organist of the Irmandade do Ss Sacramento, all in the same city. In 1798 he moved to Vila Rica, where he worked as a composer, conductor and organist of the same Ordem Terceira brotherhood as well as for the brotherhood of the Matriz (main church) of Nossa Senhora dos Homens Pardos. There he was appointed alferes (a military rank corresponding to second lieutenant) of the Terço de Infantaria dos Homens Pardos. In 1801 he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he held the post of organist at the church of Nossa Senhora de Carmo until his death. Mesquita was the most prolific composer of the Brazilian captaincy. The oldest manuscripts found to this date bear the date 1779 (Antiphona regina coeli laetare and Antiphona zelus domus tuae), but many works were copied throughout the 19th century in Minas Gerais and São Paulo as well. Mesquita cultivated primarily an individual homophonic concertante style, whose components often recall European Classical practices, and ‘possessed an extraordinarily expressive and advanced technique for his epoch’ (Lange, 1965). He is the only composer whose works are found in all of the sacred music archives of Minas Gerais, in several regional centres. In recognition of his importance, he was made the patron of Chair no.4 of the Brazilian Academy of Music.

SCHICKHARDT, Johann Christian (c.1682-1762) - Flötensonate h-moll

Johann Christian Schickhardt (c.1682-1762) - Flötensonate h-moll

Performers: Susanne Ehrhardt (flöte); Armin Thalheim (cembalo); Irene Klein (gambe)

Painting: Edwaert Collier (c.1640-1708) - Vanitas still life with an upturned lute, a globe turned to the Pacific Ocean, an open copy of Rider Cardanus' The British Merlin , and an engraving of Caesar Octavianus Augustus

Further info: Johann Christian Schickhardt (c.1682-1762) - Sonatas for guitar

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Johann Christian Schickhardt [Schickhard]

(Brunswick, c.1682 - Leiden, before 26 March 1762)

German composer and instrumentalist. He received his musical training at the ducal court in Brunswick. The early part of his career was spent in the Netherlands in the service of Friedrich of Hessen-Kassel, Henriette Amalia of Anhalt-Dessau, and Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange. By 1711 he was in Hamburg, the city with which he was associated by Walther (1732) and Hawkins (1776), and lived there until at least 1718. But by 1717 he had connections with Johann Friedrich, Count of Kastel-Rudenhausen, and around 1719 with Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar and Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. In the early 1720s he was probably in Scandinavia. In 1732, having ‘lately arrived from Germany’, he gave a concert in London consisting of his own concertos and chamber music for ‘the small flute’ (i.e. recorder). He stayed in London long enough to issue by subscription his collection of 24 sonatas, op.30, in all keys; most of the subscribers were Dutch, although the local contingent included such notables as Handel, P.A. Locatelli, Pepusch and De Fesch. 12 guitar suites of his appear in a manuscript compiled by Nathanael Diesel, a lutenist at the Danish Court, 1736-44, suggesting a connection with Copenhagen. He was attached to the University of Leiden in 1745; the Album studiosorum for that year gives his age as 63. After his death Schickhardt's daughter applied to the university authorities for assistance with burial expenses and from the subsequent act of Senate (26 March 1762) it is seen that he had been ‘a master of musical arts and a member of the Academy’. Dart's suggestion that Schickhardt was related to the London instrument maker J.-J. Schuchart has proved unfounded. Schickhardt had close associations with Estienne Roger, the Amsterdam publisher, and his successors, Jeanne Roger and Michel-Charles Le Cène. He not only provided the firm with a constant stream of original compositions, but also acted as its Hamburg agent around 1712 and undertook occasional editorial projects such as the arrangement of Corelli's op.6 for two recorders and continuo. A woodwind player himself, Schickhardt produced instruction manuals for both the recorder and oboe. But he was known primarily through his chamber music. His sonatas, although written in a conventional, post-Corellian idiom, reveal fine melodic gifts, striking harmonic touches, and a Handelian directness of expression. The widespread popularity of these works in the early 18th century is attested by both the flood of publications from Amsterdam and the speed with which they were pirated in London.

DE MAJO, Giovanni Francesco (1732-1770) - Overture 'Motezuma' (1765)

Giovanni Francesco de Majo (1732-1770) - Sinfonia (Overture) 'Motezuma' (1765)

Performers: La Cappella della Pietà de' Turchini; Antonio Florio (conductor)

Painting: Antonio Joli (1700-1777) - Departure of Charles III from Naples (1759)

Further info: Giovanni Francesco de Majo (1732-1770) - Gesù sotto il peso della croce

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Gian (Giovanni) Francesco de [di] [‘Ciccio’] Majo [Maio]

(Naples, 24 March 1732 - Naples, 17 November 1770)

Italian composer. He studied with his father, Giuseppe de Majo (1697-1771), who from 1745 was primo maestro of the royal chapel in Naples, his uncle Gennaro Manno and his great-uncle Francesco Feo. As a boy he assisted his father in the royal chapel in Naples as organista soprannumerario without salary. In 1750, on the death of Pietro Scarlatti, he was appointed to a salaried position, though still on the same supernumerary basis, at one ducat per month, and by 1758 he was second organist, with a salary of eight ducats. Two settings of Qui sedes, both dating from 1749, are his earliest known compositions, two of the many sacred works which he composed for the various services of the royal chapel. His first opera, Ricimero, re dei goti, was given in Parma and Rome (1759). Goldoni, in his memoirs, recorded Majo’s overwhelming reception in Rome: ‘A part of the pit went out at the close of the entertainment to conduct the musician home in triumph, and the remainder of the audience staid in the theatre, calling out without intermission, Viva Majo! till every candle was burnt to the socket’. Early in 1760 an attack of tuberculosis forced him to renounce the commission to set Stampiglia’s libretto Il trionfo di Camilla for the Teatro S Carlo, Naples. Seemingly restored to health after several months’ cure at Torre del Greco, he returned to the court at Naples, where he resumed his duties in the royal chapel. Shortly thereafter he set Astrea placata, a componimento drammatico, performed at the S Carlo in June 1760 with Raaff, Manzuoli and Spagnuoli. With the enthusiastic reception of Cajo Fabrizio at the S Carlo in November his fame was firmly established, and he was called on to compose operas for Livorno, Venice and Turin. 

During his stay in northern Italy (April 1761 to February 1763) Majo studied with Padre Martini, although an apologetic letter to the master implies that his studies were erratic because of amorous distractions. After another brief stay in Naples he left in February 1764 for Vienna, where he was invited to compose an opera to celebrate the coronation of Joseph II as Holy Roman Emperor. From Vienna he proceeded to Mannheim, where his Ifigenia in Tauride was presented. By May 1766 he was back in Naples but left shortly after for invitations in Mannheim, Venice and Rome. Beset by his old illness he returned to Naples in August 1767, where he sought to strengthen his position at court so as to succeed his father as primo maestro; Piccinni had also returned to Naples and was competing for the post. Discouraged by the king’s procrastination and constrained by financial need, Majo was forced to undertake further trips to northern Italy to fulfil commissions for new operas. Again in Naples in January 1770 he resumed his activities as second organist and composer of church music. In that year the Teatro S Carlo’s new impresario Tedeschi commissioned him to set Eumene to celebrate the queen’s birthday on 4 November, but by September he was so weak that the opera had to be postponed until the following January. He rallied long enough only to complete the first act, and the opera was finished by Insanguine (Act 2) and Errichelli (Act 3). He died a year and a day before his father, leaving his family destitute.

BESOZZI, Carlo (1738-1791) - Concerto à Oboe obligato (c.1756)

Carlo Besozzi (1738-1791) - Concerto à Oboe obligato in Fa maggiore (c.1756)

Performers: Jan Adamus (oboè); Prague Chamber Orchestra

Painting: Pierre-Jacques Volaire (1729-1799) - Coastal landscape near Naples (1780)

Further info: Oboe Concertos

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Carlo Besozzi [Besuzzi, Bezocy, Bezozi, et al.]

(Naples or Dresden, 1738 - Dresden, 22 March 1791)

Italian oboist and composer, son of Antonio Besozzi (1714-1781). His father was undoubtedly his teacher. He must have displayed phenomenal ability for in 1755 he became a regular member of the Dresden court orchestra, a position which he retained throughout his life. His tours of Europe with his father included visits to Paris (1757) and Stuttgart (1758–9). He was judged favourably by Burney and by Leopold Mozart, who heard him play in Salzburg in 1778. Schubert heard Carlo in Augsburg and referred to him as the monarch of oboists and a great, ‘but somewhat unusual’, theorist. Even though none of Carlo’s music was printed during his lifetime, 23 concertos, 26 sonatas and a divertimento have survived. The concertos were clearly written for Carlo to play himself, and while conceived to display his skill, they rarely indulge in virtuoso display per se. The final movements are more serious than was common at that time and often introduce Sturm und Drang characteristics. There is an emphasis on novelty, frequently of an unexpectedly chromatic nature. The works for wind ensemble are, with one exception, in major keys and each of the four movements is usually in the tonic key. Carlo’s son Francesco (Dresden, 1766 - 23 March 1810 or 1816) succeeded him as oboist in the Dresden royal chapel in 1792. Francesco was one of the best-known oboists of his time but no compositions by him are known to have survived.

LUCHESI, Andrea (1741-1801) - Confitebor tibi, Domine

Andrea Luchesi (1741-1801) - Confitebor tibi, Domine

Performers: Manuela Meneghello (soprano); Ivana Grapiglia (contralto);

Orchestra Luchesi; Agostino Granzotto (direttore)

Drawing: Jacques Stella (1596-1657) - An angelic chorus, study for a decorative wall painting

Further info: Andrea Luchesi (1741-1801) - Piano Concerto in F

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Andrea Luchesi [Lucchesi]

(Motta di Livenza, 23 May 1741 - Bonn, 21 March 1801)

Italian composer. By 1757 he was in Venice where, according to Neefe, he was trained ‘in the theatrical style’ by Gioacchino Cocchi, and ‘in the church style’ by Padre Giuseppe Paolucci and Giuseppe Saratelli, the maestro di cappella of S Marco. From 1765, with the support of his patron, the music theorist Count Giordano Riccati, Lucchesi made a name for himself in Venice as an opera composer and wrote sacred and secular occasional works on commission. In 1771, like many of his colleagues, he went to Germany as the director of a travelling opera company. A decree of 26 May 1774 from the Elector Archbishop of Cologne appointed him court Kapellmeister in Bonn, succeeding Beethoven's grandfather. In 1775 he married into the distinguished d'Anthoin family. As the opera company had dispersed and the court theatre had been closed, Lucchesi was now principally active as a composer of church music. Nonetheless, he still wrote a few small-scale stage works, and in 1785 composed a serenata for the elector on the occasion of his consecration as bishop. However, the musical direction of the Nationaltheater in Bonn, built in 1778, was in the hands of the court organist C.G. Neefe, while instrumental music at the court was the responsibility first of the violinist Gaetano Mattioli and later Josef Reicha. Apart from a visit in 1783–4 to Venice, where Lucchesi produced his opera seria Ademira, and where he probably received the title of director of the Accademia Musical de' Tedeschi, Lucchesi remained in Bonn until the court was dissolved after the French occupation of the Rhineland in 1794. In 1787 he was appointed Titularrat. From 1782 to 1792 the young Beethoven was a member of the court Kapelle, first as assistant organist, then as harpsichordist and viola player. In addition to Neefe's teaching and his experience in Reicha's orchestra, Beethoven's musical development must have been considerably influenced by Lucchesi, who, as Kapellmeister, determined the repertory of sacred music performed at the court. After the elector's flight in 1794 and in the event of the court returning, plans for church music on a smaller scale were entrusted to Lucchesi. However, they came to nothing, and his final years were spent in poverty and obscurity. 

 In line with his career, Lucchesi's works can be divided into the operas and instrumental works of his time in Venice and early years in Bonn, and his sacred music for the electoral Kapelle. His secular works were performed in many different European cities. While he had been most famous for his organ works in Italy, according to La Borde his symphonies were held in particularly high esteem in Germany, a notable achievement for an Italian at this time. Leopold Mozart, writing in his 1771 diary of his Venetian travels, described Lucchesi as a maestro di cemballo and liked to use one of his harpsichord concertos when teaching. Although only a few of Lucchesi's works appeared in print, his Sei sonate op.1 for harpsichord and violin (1772), was the first music to be printed in Bonn. Lucchesi's sacred music, apart from the early works (mostly lost), is now at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, together with a large part of the manuscript and printed music from the elector's collection. Apart from many compositions for liturgical use, his sacred works include a Passion to a Metastasio libretto for concertante performance during Holy Week. Various contemporary assessments of Lucchesi's style have come down to us. Burney called him ‘a very pleasing composer’, while La Borde speaks of ‘a particularly graceful style, concise and energetic arrangement of the parts, and new ideas’. Neefe described him as ‘a light, agreeable and lively composer, whose counterpoint is cleaner than that of many of his countrymen’, adding, however, that in his sacred works he ‘does not always confine himself to the strict style’. Lucchesi's approach to sacred music reconciled the stile antico and the stile moderno, combining an early form of the imitation of Palestrina with the secularized, fashionable operatic style of the 18th century. It was entirely in the spirit of the contemporary theory of church music that he had learnt from his teacher Paolucci (a pupil of Padre Martini) and from Vallotti in Padua.

HERMANN, Johann David (c.1760-1846) - Sonata in F, No.3 Op.1 (1785)

Johann David Hermann (c.1760-1846) - Sonata in F, No.3 Op.1 (1785)

World Premiere Recording

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

 Painting: Louis Léopold Boilly (1761-1845) - The Movings (1822)

Further info: Johann David Hermann (c.1760-1846) - Sonata in B-flat major, No.2 Op.1 (1785)

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Johann (Jean) David Hermann

(c.1760 - Paris, 1846)

German composer and teacher. His early years remain unknown. In 1785, he settled in Paris where he published his opus 1 'Trois sonates pour le piano forte et 'accompagnement de violon ad libitum (1785)' and performed as keyboardist at the 'Concert Spirituel' with great success. After that, he was appointed the Queen Marie Antoinette private teacher. Since then he was devoting himself as a keyboard teacher the rest of his life. That years in Paris he was highly praised as keyboardist, being comparable to Daniel Steibelt (1765-1823) with whom competed at the Paris salons. As a composer, he wrote at least five piano concertos, two harp concertos, chamber and keyboard pieces. After a long career as a musician, he died in Paris in 1846.

MEDER, Johann Gabriel (1729-1800) - Sinfonia VI, Op.I (1764)

Johann Gabriel Meder (1729-1800) - Sinfonia VI, Op.I (1764)

Performers: Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra; Anthony Halsstead (conductor)

Painting: Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde (1638-1698) - The town hall on the Dam, Amsterdam

Further info: Dutch symphonies

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Johann Gabriel Meder

(Zimmernsupra, 27 July 1729 - Amsterdam, bur. 3 Dec 1800)

German composer, active in the Netherlands. His relationship, if any, to Johann Valentin Meder has not been established. About 1760 he settled in Amsterdam, where he organized concerts, often working with Italian singers. Several concerts included his own works, particularly his cantatas and oratorios. He composed the cantata La contesa e la pace for the marriage of Stadholder Willem V to Wilhelmina of Prussia in 1767, and a symphony to be performed during their visit to Amsterdam the following year. None of Meder's larger vocal works has survived, nor his singing method Principes de musique pour le chant (1800). His symphonies, however, are well written in a mature pre-Classical style.

TELEMANN, Georg Philipp (1681-1767) - Overture (Suite) in D

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) - Overture (Suite) in D

Performers: Orquestra Barroca Juiz de Fora; Luis Otávio Santos (conductor)

Painting: Hans Simon Holtzbecker (1610-1671) - Barockgarten des Caspar Anckelmann (1660)

Further info: Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) - Cantata 'Uns ist ein Kind geboren'

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Georg Philipp Telemann

(Magdeburg, 14 March 1681 - Hamburg, 25 June 1767)

German composer. A few singing lessons and two weeks of organ instruction taken at the age of 10 apparently comprise all of Telemann’s formal education in music. He taught himself composition by transcribing scores, as well as recorder, zither, and violin, which became his principal instrument. By age 12, he had already completed several motets, arias, instrumental works, and one opera, Sigimundus. His mother, alarmed that Georg might forgo a more secure livelihood for music, confiscated his instruments and forbad further study, to no avail: Telemann’s teacher at school, Casper Calvoer of Zellerfeld, encouraged his obvious musical aptitude by introducing him to the relationships of music and mathematics. In 1697, he entered the prestigious Gymnasium Andreanum in Hildesheim and graduated in 1701. In the meantime, he had taught himself thoroughbass composition and the instruments flute, oboe, chalumeau, viola da gamba, violone, and bass trombone. Then, he entered the University of Leipzig to study law. But, according to Telemann’s own account, his roommate chanced upon one of his psalm settings, and after it was performed, the mayor of Leipzig hired Telemann to compose music for the city’s two principal churches, the Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche. Then he founded the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, with 40 student musicians, and gave public concerts of instrumental music. In 1702, Telemann was appointed music director of the city’s Opernhaus auf dem Brühl. In June 1705, he left Leipzig to become Kapellmeister to Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at Sorau, and began to study intensively the works of Jean Baptiste Lully and André Campra. In December 1708, he became secretary and concertmaster to Duke Johann Wilhelm of Saxe-Eisenach. In 1712, he moved again, to become the director of music in Frankfurt and Kapellmeister for the city’s Barfüßkirche. From this period, comes a significant portion of Telemann’s instrumental repertory. On 13 October 1709, he married Amalie Louise Juliane Eberlin. They had one daughter together, but his wife died in January 1711. In his autobiography, Telemann confesses a religious awakening at this time. On 28 August 1714, he married Maria Catharina Textor. They had eight sons and a daughter together, and yet the marriage seems to have broken up by 1736, when Maria Catharina left Telemann for a convent in Frankfurt.

On 10 July 1721, the Hanseatic city-state of Hamburg invited Telemann to become the city’s cantor. He accepted and was installed on 17 September. This position demanded all of Telemann’s prodigious productivity. He was responsible for all the music in the city’s five churches. He was required to compose two new cantatas for each Sunday, one to be sung before the Gospel reading and another after, as well as a new passion for Lent, in addition to various occasional works for civic celebrations. He directed the city’s collegium musicum, and these public concerts became so popular that their number had to be doubled from weekly to twice weekly. If all this were not enough activity, in 1722, he became director of the Hamburg Gänsemarkt Opera, where he performed operas by Keiser, Handel, and himself, among others. Some in Hamburg objected to his connection with the opera, and friction increased to the point where, in 1722, Telemann applied for the position of cantor in Leipzig to replace the deceased Johann Kuhnau. He was the Leipzig city council’s first choice, but he declined their offer after Hamburg offered him a higher salary to stay, leaving Leipzig with J. S. Bach as their third choice. He undertook the publishing of 43 collections of his own music and often engraved the plates himself. Some of these, like J. S. Bach’s publications, are conceived as encyclopedic surveys of genres and techniques of his own time. For the Societät der musikalischen Wissenschaften, he wrote a theory of enharmonic and chromatic relationships, the Neues musikalisches System (1752). In the mid-1740s, Telemann seems to have withdrawn into semiretirement. By then, he was, along with Handel, the most famous German musician alive. From October 1737 to May 1738, he had visited Paris. Yet he still provided the required passion for Hamburg every year until his death and, in fact, increased his output of sacred music late in life when new sacred poetry arrived on the scene. Telemann died in his home of “a chest illness” on 25 June 1767.

GOETZ, Florian (1793-1866) - Missa 'Sancto Joanne Nepomuceno' (1816)

Florian Goetz (1793-1866) - Missa 'Sancto Joanne Nepomuceno' in C (1816)

Performers: Bogumila Dziel-Wawrowska (soprano); Katarzyna Krzyzanowska (mezzosoprano); 

Aleksander Kunach (tenor); Tomasz Pietak (bass);

La Tempesta (choir and orchestra); Jakub Burzynski (conductor)

Painting: Marcin Zaleski (1796-1877) - Wnetrze kosciola OO.Dominikanów w Krakowie (1849)

Further info: Florian Goetz (1793-1866) - Missa pro festo Sanctae Caeciliae (1816)

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Florian (Cyryl Florian) Goetz [Gieczyński]

(Rusin Novy, 3 May 1793 - Niegów, 15 March 1866)

Moravian composer. He attended the schools in Opava and Freiberg where was considered a proficient student, but the origins of his musical education remain unknown. He arrived in Częstochowa after graduating. On 21 September 1814 he entered as a 'novititate' and one year later he took his monastic vows and assumed the name Cyril. As a monk he attended the lectures of philosophy and theology in the General School of the Polish province in Jasna Góra and in the monastery of Warsaw. After two years he was ordained and he assumed the cantor post of the order in Jasna Góra. In 1817 he was transferred to the St. Sigismund monastery in Częstochowa and later to the church in Konopiska. From there he came back to Jasna Góra where he resumed his musical activity until 1819. Since 1820 he assumed a post of preacher and confessor of the Francis Xavier German Brotherhood in Warsaw. There he translated his surname to Gieczyński. In 1823 he left the order and assumed a priest post in Niegów, where he remained the rest of his life. As a composer he mainly wrote sacred music when he was active at Jasna Góra. His extant output comprises 2 masses as well as other minor religious works.

ARNE, Thomas Augustine (1710-1778) - Harpsichord Concerto in G (1793)

 Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778) - Harpsichord Concerto in G (1793)

Performers: Benedikt Celler (harpsichord); Domberg Kammerorchester; Wolfgang Kiechle (leitung)

Drawing: Thomas Bowles II (c.1689-1767) - Gezicht op de stad Londen, Robert Sayer (1751)

Further info: Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778) - Organ, Cembalo & Pianoforte concertos

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Thomas Augustine Arne

(London, 12 March 1710 - London, 5 March 1778)

English composer, violinist and keyboard player. He was the most significant figure in 18th-century English theatre music. As a youth, Arne persisted in learning music despite parental disapproval, eventually coming under the influence of Michael Festing, who taught him violin and oversaw his musical education. He also attended Eton College, and upon graduating practiced law for three years, before he, his brother Robert, and his sister Susannah made their debut in his masque Rosamund in 1733. By 1737 he was employed as composer in residence at Drury Lane Theatre, and later, in 1750, moved to Covent Garden after a dispute with the former’s manager, David Garrick. In 1741 he sued a publishing company over copyright, and although the issue was settled privately, it marked one of the first instances where a composer brought action in defense of his artistic rights. Arne’s personal life was difficult; in 1755 he and his wife separated (to be reconciled only a few months before his death), and he was overbearing to theatre staff and relations. His adopted son, Michael Arne (c.1740-1786), was also active as a composer. His composition was focused almost exclusively on the stage, for which he composed around 90 works, including incidental music, masques, operas, pasticcios, and so forth. Several of these achieved considerable fame, including the 1740 masque Alfred (later in 1755 turned into a three-act opera), written for George II that included a vaudeville finale, which included a patriotic tune “Rule Britannia”; one of the first through-sung comic operas, Thomas and Sally, from 1760; a popular English seria, Artaxerxes, from 1762; and a parody of Alexander’s Feast, titled Whitington’s Feast, from 1776. His other surviving music includes 16 sonatas or lessons for the keyboard (1756-1757), 27 odes and cantatas, well over 60 songs (many published in collections), at least 20 catches and glees (including 11 written for the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club), two Masses, two oratorios (Judith and The Death of Abel), and several miscellaneous sacred works. The 12 “symphonies or overtures” are derived from his music for the theatre, as are the six keyboard concertos, which were arranged and published in 1793. Arne’s style is noted for the simple harmonies and textures but also for the colorful and innovative orchestration. Arne’s music was vastly popular throughout the British Empire of the period, with performances throughout the world and especially in the various colonies.

BERNABEI, Giuseppe Antonio (1649-1732) - La Fiera (1691)

 Giuseppe Antonio Bernabei (1649-1732) - La Fiera (1691)

Performers: Tölzer Knabenchor; Convivium Musicum München; Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden (leitung)

Painting: Unknown artist (17th Century) - Cat orchester

Further info: Musik am Hofe des Kurfürsten Max Emanuel von Bayern

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Giuseppe Antonio Bernabei

(Roma, 1649 - Munich, 9 March 1732)

Italian composer. Elder son of Ercole Bernabei (1622-1687) and brother of Vincenzo Bernabei (1660-c.1735). He presumably studied with his father, and probably replaced him at the organ of S Luigi dei Francesi from July 1665 to April 1667. He then went to work with him as vice-Kapellmeister in Munich, a post he assumed on 24 June 1677. After his father’s death he became Hofkapellmeister there. During the first 15 years of his career at Munich he regularly wrote operas, but the political situation then cut short this activity. When the production of opera was resumed Pietro Torri became the principal composer, Bernabei – who was a priest – restricting his output to sacred music. A large number of his sacred works are listed in the 1753 catalogue of the Munich Hofkapelle together with 30 sinfonias and three ‘Sinfonie, e Pastorel’.

MYSLIVECEK, Josef (1731-1781) - Violin Concerto in D (1770)

Josef Mysliveček (1731-1781) - Violin Concerto in D (1770)

Performers: Ernö Sebestyen (violin); Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Drawing: Anonymous (18th Century) - The Colosseum with an artist sketching at left foreground

Further info: MYSLIVECEK, Josef (1731-1781) - Concertino in E & Sinfonia in C

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Josef Mysliveček [Mysliweczek, Misliweczek, Misliveček]

(Praha, 9 March 1737 - Roma, 4 February 1781)

Czech composer. The elder of identical twin brothers, he grew up in Prague in the households of his father and stepfather, both prosperous millers. Although it is believed that Mysliveček’s father arranged musical instruction for his sons before his death in 1749, there is no evidence to confirm speculation that they were taught by Felix Benda, a near neighbour. Reports that the twins attended the Dominican Normalschule at the Church of St Giles (Jiljí) and the Jesuit Gymnasium in the Clementinum are conjectural, but their enrolment in the philosophy faculty at Charles-Ferdinand University (now Charles University) is confirmed in surviving matriculation records. Owing to a lack of academic success, Mysliveček withdrew from the university in March 1753 without graduating. The following May, the twins became apprentice millers; they were admitted into the Prague millers’ guild as journeymen in 1758 and became master millers in 1761. In the early 1760s, Mysliveček abandoned the family business to devote himself to music. Probably he began studies in composition with Franz Habermann, but soon transferred to Josef Seger, organist at the Týn Church in Prague. According to Pelcl, Mysliveček completed six symphonies named after the first six months of the year within six months of study with Seger (no symphonies with evocative titles survive to confirm the legend, however). It seems that he established an excellent reputation as a violinist; nonetheless, there is no evidence to support reports that he was employed as a church violinist. In November 1763, Mysliveček left for Venice to study operatic composition, funded at least partly by his twin brother Jáchym and his long-standing patron Count Vincenz von Waldstein. His studies there with G.B. Pescetti brought quick (and impressive) results in the form of a first opera, Semiramide, performed in Bergamo in 1765 and Alessandria in 1766. The librettos confirm that he was by then referred to as ‘Il Boemo’ by Italians, who had difficulty pronouncing his name.

Mysliveček achieved his first great operatic success in 1767 with 'Il Bellerofonte' at the Teatro S Carlo in Naples. The cast included Caterina Gabrielli, a singer with whom Mysliveček’s name has been linked romantically even though there is no evidence of a love affair either with her or with Lucrezia Aguiari earlier at Parma. From this time onwards Mysliveček lived mainly in Italy, where he travelled continually in order to fulfil operatic commissions, almost always at major houses with excellent casts. In 1771 he was admitted into the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna after befriending Padre Martini. Mysliveček made at least three trips to northern Europe after establishing himself in Italy. The first, a triumphant return to Prague in 1768, was probably occasioned by his mother’s death in 1767 and the settlement of his father’s estate. His second trip, in 1772, may have been intended to establish his reputation in Vienna. If so, the effort clearly failed, but he did meet Charles Burney in September. Mysliveček ventured north for the last time at the invitation of Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, in 1777-78 (reports of an earlier trip to Munich in 1773 cannot be verified). While in Munich, he witnessed successful productions of his opera Ezio and his oratorio Isacco and sought surgical treatment for what is believed to have been venereal disease, with the result that his nose was burnt off. On his return to Italy in 1778, Mysliveček enjoyed operatic successes in Naples and Venice, but his final decline was signalled by the failure of both of the operas that he prepared for Carnival 1780 ('Armida' for Milan and 'Medonte' for Rome). He died in Rome, in abject poverty; his funeral at the church of S Lorenzo in Lucina was paid for by a mysterious Englishman named Barry, a former pupil.

KURPINSKI, Karol (1785-1857) - Henry VI at the Hunt

Karol Kurpiński (1785-1857) - Henry VI at the Hunt

Performers: Teresa May-Czyzowska (soprano); Romuald Spychalski (1928-2018, tenor); Z. Krzywicki (bass); Witold Malcuzynski (baritone); R. Werlinski (tenor); S. Michonski (bass); J. Stocka (mezzosoprano); Zygmunt Jankowski (bass);

Lódz Opera Orchestra; Lódz Opera Chorus; Zygmund Latoszewski (1902-1995, conductor)

Painting: Aleksander Ludwik Molinari (1772-1831) - Portret Karola Kurpińskiego (1825)

Further info: Karol Kurpiński (1785-1857) - Henry VI at the Hunt

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Karol Kazimierz Kurpiński

(Włoszakowice, 6 March 1785 - Warsaw, 18 September 1857)

Polish composer and conductor. He studied with his father Marcin Kurpiński, an organist at Włoszakowice, and himself became organist at Sarnów nearby in 1797. In 1808 he took a post as tutor to the Rastawiecki family in Lwów, where he heard a number of Italian and German operas, and in 1810 he settled in Warsaw. There he met the dramatist Wojciech Bogusławski, known as the ‘father of Polish theatre’, through whose influence he was appointed deputy conductor at the National Theatre. In 1824 he was appointed principal conductor (on the dismissal of Józef Elsner) and in that capacity he presented a repertory of the highest quality, notably Mozart and Rossini, to Polish audiences. In addition to opera he regularly conducted orchestral concerts in the city; these included the first performances of Chopin's two piano concertos. Kurpiński was also active as a teacher, establishing (1835) the School of Singing and Declamation at the National Theatre as a replacement for the conservatory, which had been closed down after the 1830 insurrection. He also founded and contributed regularly to the journal Tygodnik muzyczny (‘Music Weekly’; later Tygodnik muzyczny i dramatyczny), the main forum for musical debate in Warsaw in the first half of the century. In 1823, just before his appointment as principal conductor at the National Theatre, he embarked on a European tour that took in all the major musical centres. Kurpiński's creative work slackened noticeably following the tour, and it seems possible that he felt his own music to be somewhat anachronistic in relation to the new musical styles of the 1820s. His later life was given over mainly to teaching, and by the time of his death he was largely forgotten. 

Although he composed in many genres, Kurpiński's contribution was mainly to opera. He was the major Polish opera composer before Moniuszko, and his output (most of it composed for the National Theatre in Warsaw) was considerable. Many of his operas received only a few performances before disappearing from the repertory, but some had more lasting success, notably Szarlatan, czyli Wskrzeszenie umarłych (‘The Charlatan, or The Raising of the Dead’), Jadwiga królowa Polska (‘Jadwiga, Queen of Poland’) and Zamek na Czorsztynie, cyli Bojomir i Wanda (‘The Castle of Czorsztyn, or Bojomir and Wanda’). For the most part his stage works were vaudevilles or Singspiele, interleaving songs and choruses with spoken dialogue. Nine of Kurpiński's 26 known stage works survive complete, and there are extracts from a further eight. It is clear from the surviving works that the stylistic profile of his music was distinctly Italian, responsive both to such late 18th-century composers as Cimarosa and Paisiello and to such later masters as Rossini. At the same time Kurpiński laid some of the foundations of a national operatic style by drawing on themes from Polish history and folklore and making use of Polish national dances and folksongs. His most ambitious stage work was probably Jadwiga, a full-scale opera rather than a vaudeville, and similar in its broad design to the historical operas of Spontini. In the 1990s attempts were made to revive some of Kurpiński's operas in Poland, with notable success in the cases of Pałac Lucypera (‘Lucifer's Palace’), Szarlatan and Zabobon.

FEYZEAU, Jean-Baptiste (1745-1806) - Sonata IV, Op.I (1764)

Jean-Baptiste Feyzeau (1745-1806) - Sonata IV, Op.I (1764)

World Premiere Recording

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

Painting: Joseph-Antoine Batanchon (1738-1812) - Portrait of a musician, possibly Jean-Baptiste Feyzeau (1745-1806)

Further info: Jean-Baptiste Feyzeau (1745-1806) - Sonata VI, Op.I (1764)

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Jean-Baptiste Feyzeau

 (Bordeaux, 31 July 1745 - Bordeaux, 5 March 1806)

French organist, teacher and composer. Son of luthier Jean Feyzeau and Anne Timbaudy, his young life is unknwon. When he published his opus 1 -Pièces de clavecin en sonates (1764)- he presents himself as a disciple of Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809). October 20, 1771 he married Marie-Françoise Bordes and a half year later, he was appointed organist of the Saint-André cathedral with a salary of 600 pounds per year. In 1775 he composed his first comic opera, entitled "Lucette". In 1779 with Jacques Matoulet and a certain Magnouac, he founded the "Société des amateurs de musique de Bordeaux". From 1779 to 1785, he worked as a teacher, mainly organ, fortepiano, harpsichord and sometimes timpani. In 1782 he published his second comic opera, entitled "Suzette ou le préjugé vaincu". In 1786 he joined the masonic lodge of "L'amitié". After 1790, his life is unkown but he probably worked as a teacher until his death in 1806.

AMARAL VIEIRA, José Carlos (b.1952) - Te Deum in stilo barocco (1986)

José Carlos Amaral Vieira (b.1952) - Te Deum in stilo barocco (1986)

Performers: Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir; Mario Kosik (conductor)

Drawing: Johann Jacob Steinmann (1800-1844) - Largo do Paço (1839)

Further info: Te Deum in stilo Barocco / Missa Choralis

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José Carlos Amaral Vieira 

(São Paulo, 2 March 1952)

Brazilian composer, pianist and musicologist. He studied piano with Souza Lima and composition with Artur Hartmann in Brazil. Vieira later studied in France at the Paris Conservatory with Lucette Descaves and Olivier Messiaen; in Germany at the Freiburger Musikhochschule with Carl Seeman and Konrad Lechner; and in the United Kingdom with Louis Kentner. In 1977 he returned to Brazil to embark on the career of a virtuoso performer, while introducing his own compositions in concert programmes. He has achieved international acclaim both as a concert and recording artist, composer, and musicologist, and has appeared throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Among his honors, Vieira has been the recipient of the Arthur Honegger International Composition Award, a Grand Prix International (Fondation de France), Hungary's Liszt Award, and Japan's Min-On Award. He has performed more than 72 recordings, focused on Liszt's work and on his own compositions.

WAGENSEIL, Georg Christoph (1715-1777) - Orgelkonzert C-Dur, Nr.1

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) - Orgelkonzert C-Dur, Nr.1

Performers: Stefan Johannes Bleicher (orgel);

Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim; Vladislav Czarnecki (leitung)

Painting: Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) - Jack in his Glory a Hackney Coach Driven by Drunken Sailors

Further info: Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777)

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Georg Christoph Wagenseil

(Vienna, 29 January 1715 - Vienna, 1 March 1777)

Austrian composer, keyboard player and teacher. He can be considered one of the pivotal figures in the development of the Classical style in Vienna with a compositional career that spanned a period from Fux, his teacher, to Haydn and W.A. Mozart, for whom he served as a precursor. Wagenseil’s father and maternal grandfather were functionaries at the Viennese imperial court. In his teens he began to compose keyboard pieces and to receive keyboard instruction with the organist of the Michaelerkirche in Vienna, Adam Weger. His accomplishments brought him to the attention of the court Kapellmeister, Johann Joseph Fux, who recommended him for a court scholarship in 1735; for the next three years he received intensive instruction in keyboard playing, counterpoint and composition from his sponsor and from Matteo Palotta. As a result of an enthusiastic endorsement from Fux, Wagenseil was appointed composer to the court on 6 February 1739, a post he held until his death. He also served as organist from 1741 to 1750 in the private chapel of Empress Elisabeth Christine (widow of Charles VI), and in 1749 became Hofklaviermeister to the imperial archduchesses. To the latter he dedicated four sets of divertimentos, which were engraved and issued as opp.1-4 by Bernardi of Vienna (1753-63). Wagenseil travelled to Venice in 1745 to supervise the production of his first opera, Ariodante, and in 1759-60 he was in Milan for a performance of Demetrio. In the mid-1750s uncommonly generous publication privileges granted by Parisian printers brought about a flood of instrumental compositions, particularly symphonies (see illustration), which raised him to international prominence, and which were undoubtedly responsible for Burney’s high opinion of him. Among those acquainted with his music was the young Mozart, who played one of Wagenseil’s concertos before Maria Theresa in 1762 and several keyboard pieces at the English court in 1764. Haydn was likewise familiar both with numerous instrumental works, as entries in the so-called Quartbuch show, and with Wagenseil’s operas, which found their way to Eisenstadt. Wagenseil was also renowned as a keyboard virtuoso, and elicited the highest praise from contemporaries such as C.F.D. Schubart (who remarked that Wagenseil ‘played with extraordinary expressive power and was capable of improvising a fugue with great thoroughness’). But from about 1765 steadily worsening lameness and an attack of gout which affected his left hand curtailed his activities at court and eventually confined him to his quarters where, according to Burney, who visited him on several occasions, he continued to compose and to teach. Among Wagenseil’s pupils were Leopold Hofmann, J.A. Štěpán, F.X. Dušek, Johann Gallus-Mederitsch, G.A. Matielli, P. le Roy, the brothers Franz and Anton Teyber, and J.B. Schenk. The last, who began instruction in 1774, provided in his autobiography a detailed account of his mentor’s teaching methods which, not surprisingly, were based on Fux (a legacy Schenk was then to transmit to Beethoven later in the century) but which were also remarkable for their time in drawing on Handel and Bach.