MOZART, Franz Xaver (1791-1844) - Klavierkonzert Es-Dur, Nr.2 (c.1819)

Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844) - Klavierkonzert Es-Dur, Nr.2 (c.1819)

Performers: Grant Johannesen (1921-2005, piano); The Chicago Sinfonietta; Paul Freeman (1936-2015, conductor)

Painting: English School (19th Century) - A family in their drawing room

Further info: Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844) - The Other Mozart

---

Franz Xaver Wolfgang (‘Wolfgang Amadeus’) Mozart

(Vienna, 26 July 1791 - Carlsbad, 29 July 1844) 

Composer and pianist, the sixth child and younger surviving son of Wolfgang Amadeus and Constanze Mozart. He received his first piano instruction in 1796 from František Xaver Dušek in Prague, where he lived with the Dušek family. In Vienna he continued his studies under Sigismund Neukomm, Andreas Streicher, J.N. Hummel, Antonio Salieri, G.J. Vogler and J.G. Albrechtsberger. His first compositions, which include the Piano Quartet op.1, appeared in 1805. On 30 March 1807 Salieri declared his pupil to possess ‘a rare talent for music’, and prophesied a career for him ‘not inferior to that of his celebrated father’. On 22 October 1807 Franz Xaver went to Lemberg (now L'viv). In Podkamien he accepted a post as tutor in the home of Count Viktor Baworowski, a position he held until December 1810. In 1811 he became a music teacher in the home of the imperial chamberlain, Janiszewski, in Sarki (near Lemberg). He gave up that post in 1813 and lived as a freelance musician in Lemberg, where he supervised the training of Julie Baroni-Cavalcabò. From 1819 to 1821 he undertook an extended concert tour during which he played in Kiev, Warsaw, Copenhagen (where he saw his mother and his stepfather, Georg Nikolaus Nissen), Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden (where he visited his cousin, Carl Maria von Weber), Prague, Vienna, Venice, Milan (where he visited his brother Carl), Zürich, Berne, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Augsburg, Munich and Salzburg (where he visited his aunt, Maria Anna).

In 1822 he returned to teach in Lemberg; in 1826 he went to Salzburg to see his mother. In the same year he renewed his studies in counterpoint with Wagenseil’s pupil, Johann Mederitsch, who bequeathed him all his compositions. Also in that year he founded the Cäcilien-Verein in Lemberg, but in 1838 he left Lemberg and settled in Vienna. In 1841 he was made honorary Kapellmeister of the Dommusikverein and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and in 1842 he stayed with his brother there during celebrations on the unveiling of the Mozart memorial; at the festival concert he played his father’s D minor Piano Concerto k466. In December of the same year the Congregazione ed Accademia di S Cecilia in Rome named him maestro compositore onorario. In his will Franz Xaver stipulated, among other things, that any of his father’s autographs found in his papers, his father’s portrait and piano, as well as his own library, should be given to the Dommusikverein and the Mozarteum as a lasting memorial to his father. This Mozart-Nachlass passed partly to the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum and partly to the consistorial archive in Salzburg. The brilliant pianistic figuration prominent in Franz Xaver’s music reveals the particular influence of his teacher Hummel. The more relaxed quality and richer sonority of his piano writing, as reflected especially in his Second Piano Concerto (1818), however, hint at the characteristic piano style of Chopin and Liszt.

GRAGNANI, Filippo (1768-1820) - Quartetto en La maggiore, Op.8 (c.1808)

Filippo Gragnani (1768-1820) - Quartetto en La maggiore, Op.8 (c.1808)

Performers: Nedyalko Petkov (clarinet); Fabian Bertoncelo (violin); Edgar Ocampo (guitar); Jonas Kubickas (guitar)

Painting: Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) - An Allegory of Air

Further info: Filippo Gragnani (1768-1820) - Musica da camera con chitarra

---

Filippo Gragnani

(Livorno, 3 September 1768 - Livorno, 28 July 1820)

Italian guitarist and composer. The son of Antonio Gragnani and coming from a family of notable luthiers and musicians, he studied music in his home town with Giulio Maria Lucchesi, first studying the violin then later devoting himself to the guitar, becoming known as a virtuoso performer. Gragnani first published works for guitar and chamber music in Milan around the beginning of the 19th century with the publishers Ricordi and Monzino. During these times he travelled to Germany and eventually settled in Paris by 1810. There he befriended and became a pupil of Ferdinando Carulli, to whom he dedicated three of his guitar duets and who in turn also dedicated some duets to Gragnani. Little is known about Gragnani after 1812. The "Registro dei Morti" (Register of Deaths) of the Church of St. Martino di Salviano in Livorno indicates he died on 28 July 1820.

ENDLER, Johann Samuel (1694-1762) - Sinfonia (in D) à 6 strumenti (1757)

Johann Samuel Endler (1694-1762) - Sinfonia (in D) à 6 strumenti (1757)

Performers: Otto Sauter (trumpet); Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen; Simon Wright

Engraving: Anoniem - Allegorie op de overwinningen van de Geallieerden in 1704

Further info: Johann Samuel Endler (1694-1762) - Sinfonia D-Dur, Nr.11

---

Johann Samuel Endler

(Olbernhau, 26 July 1694 - Darmstadt, 23 April 1762)

German composer. His father was organist and schoolmaster at Olbernhau. No documents concerning Endler's schooling are known, but many circumstances, including his connections to Christoph Graupner, suggest that he attended the Thomasschule in Leipzig. He enrolled at the university there in 1716. Archival documents regarding the Neukirche show Endler, still a student, substituting there as organist and director of church music in 1720. From 1721 to 1723 he directed Fasch's collegium musicum. While Graupner was in Leipzig in connection with his application for the post of Thomaskantor, he evidently offered Endler a post at Darmstadt, and the latter was installed at the court in 1723 as an alto singer and violinist. He was promoted to Konzertmeister before 1740 and then (before 1744) to vice-Kapellmeister under Graupner. After Graupner's death in 1760 Endler succeeded to his position, which he held until his own death two years later. Three early church cantatas and one secular cantata (the political satire Der Raritätenmann, written in 1747 for the birthday celebration of Landgrave Ludwig VIII) survive; another secular cantata, Der Nachtwächter (1746), has been lost. Endler's remaining extant works are orchestral. Two-thirds of the sinfonias were written for special festivities and first performed between 1748 and 1761 at the landgrave's favourite hunting castle, Kranichstein. Often richly orchestrated, they exploit skilfully the court's especially large group of virtuoso brass and wind players. They consist of a modern Allegro movement followed by a suite of up to six further movements with dance, tempo and, occasionally, character titles. Concertante elements are apparent, except in the first movements. The overtures are similar, except that the first movement is in the form of a French overture, tonal unity is maintained throughout the cycle and a larger selection of dance movements is found. The autograph manuscripts of Endler's compositions, together with his excellent copies of other 18th-century works, are in the Hessisische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek, Darmstadt.

REIMANN, Ignaz (1820-1885) - Kurze Festmesse F-Dur (c.1860)

Ignaz Reimann (1820-1885) - Kurze Festmesse F-Dur (c.1860)

Performers: No available

Painting: Franz Xaver Zalder (1815-?) - Die Vorstadt Landstrasse in Wien am 28 Oct. 1848

Further info: Ignaz Reimann (1820-1885) - Pastoralmesse in G und D

---

Ignaz Reimann

(Albendorf, 27 December 1820 - Regensdorf, 17 June 1885)

German composer. He received early lessons from his father, who was an innkeeper and musician in the Silesian Marian pilgrimage site Albendorf. His school teacher, also a local cantor, noticed his musical talent and trained him to play the organ. From 1838 to 1841 he attended the Catholic school seminar in Breslau. There he came into contact with the so-called Breslau School, founded by Joseph Ignaz Schnabel (1767-1831) as a composer. Joseph Ignaz Schnabel's nephew Joseph Schnabel (1809-1881), music director and cathedral music director, gave his pupil the post of music director in the seminary thanks to his outstanding musical skills and achievements. After completing the seminar, Reimann worked for two years as an assistant teacher in Niederhannsdorf near Glatz. In 1843 the Rengersdorf schoolmaster and cantor brought him to his school. After the schoolmaster death in 1852, Reimann took on the dual role of headmaster and cantor. While he had already composed smaller church music works since his time in Wroclaw, a fruitful creative period began as a Rengersdorf cantor. In 1884 Reimann suffered a stroke that partially paralyzed his right arm. He applied for his retirement, which was granted on July 1, 1885. Three days later, he suffered a second stroke that resulted in death two weeks later. As a composer, he wrote about 400 works, mainly sacred and all primarly for his own use. Easy, but pleasing works with a sense for melodic for choirs and orchestras, that are not able to perform difficult works. This made his works in his time widely spread and they were loved bis singers and directors. His son Henry Reimann (1850-1906) was also a teacher and composer.

GRANT, David (b. 1984) - Symphony in E flat major (c.2002)

David Grant (b. 1984) - Symphony in E flat major (c.2002)

World Premiere Recording

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

Painting: Albert Schindler (1805-1861) - Portrait of Emmanuel Rio (horn) (1836)

Further info: David Grant (b.1984) - Horn concerto, Op.16 (c.2002)

---

David Grant (b. 1984). American composer.

PEPUSCH, Johann Christoph (1667-1752) - Concerto (I) à 7, Op.VIII (c.1717)

Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667-1752) - Concerto (I) à 7, Op.VIII (c.1717)

Performers: Barocco Veneziano

Painting: Benjamin Arlaud (fl. 1707-1719) - John Christopher Pepusch (c.1713)

Further info: Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667-1752) - Concertos and Overtures for London

---

Johann (John) Christoph (Christopher) Pepusch

(Berlin, 1667 - London, 20 July 1752)

German composer and theorist mainly active in England. He was the son of a Protestant minister and studied music theory under one Klingenberg (probably not the son of the Stettin organist Friedrich Gottlieb Klingenberg as Hawkins stated, but perhaps an elder relation), and practice under Grosse, a Saxon organist. From the age of 14 he was employed at the Prussian court, where he remained until about the end of the 17th century. According to Hawkins he resolved to leave Germany after witnessing the execution without trial of a Prussian officer accused of insubordination ‘and put himself under the protection of a government founded on better principles’. After travelling through Holland, he settled in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. His first permanent employment in London was as a viola player, and later harpsichordist at Drury Lane Theatre in 1704. In January 1708 he joined the opera company operating from Vanburgh’s Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket. There he served as violinist, harpsichordist, and agent for the soprano Margherita de l’Epine. Pepusch and l’Epine were married some time between 1718 and 1723; their only son, who died in July 1739 after showing considerable talent and promise, was baptized on 9 January 1724. In July 1713 Pepusch, along with William Croft, was awarded the degree of DMus at Oxford; the music he submitted for this occasion, including the ode 'Hail, queen of islands! Hail, illustrious fair', has not survived. In 1714 Pepusch moved to Drury Lane as musical director and over the next two seasons contributed four essays in the genre of the English masque: Venus and Adonis, Myrtillo and Laura, Apollo and Daphne and The Death of Dido. In autumn 1716 he transferred to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where he served as musical director for much of the next 15 years. Sometime after this date Pepusch became involved with the musical establishment of James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon, and he was replaced by John Ernest Galliard as musical director at Lincoln’s Inn Fields for the 1717-18 season. His presence at Cannons, Brydges’s estate near Edgware in Middlesex, can be documented from as early as December 1717, and he and George Frideric Handel were both there in April 1718. 

Although he was again active at Lincoln’s Inn Fields for the 1718-19 season, Pepusch seems to have been appointed musical director at Cannons in mid-1719. Pepusch was responsible for providing music for the duke’s chapel and chamber on a regular basis until mid-1721, presumably dividing his time between Cannons and his London house. After this date the duke cut back his musical establishment in response to financial losses, but Pepusch continued to provide occasional musicians from London until 1725, when organized musical activity at Cannons seems to have ceased. In 1735, when he moved to Fetter Lane, Pepusch reorganized the Academy of Ancient Music as a seminary for the musical instruction of young boys. In December 1737 he was made organist of the Charterhouse, and in 1745 (the year before his wife died) he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, to whom he delivered a paper ‘Of the Various Genera and Species of Music Among the Ancients’. Throughout his career he was much sought after as a teacher, his pupils including Boyce, Benjamin Cooke, J.H. Roman, John Travers, George Berg, James Nares and Ephraim Kellner. After his death Travers and Kellner shared with the Academy of Ancient Music their master’s extensive and important library of books and music, among which was the collection of virginal music now known as the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. Largely as a result of Burney’s estimate of him, posterity has tended to look upon Pepusch as an academic pedant who opposed Handel’s cause in England. He was certainly the most learned musical antiquarian of his day, but to regard him only in this way is to ignore the lively theatre music and the elegant English cantatas, which are mostly carefully composed, but by no means dry. And though the success of The Beggar’s Opera contributed to Handel’s difficulties in promoting Italian opera for the Royal Academy, there is no indication of any personal or professional enmity between the two men.

GANSBACHER, Johann Baptist (1778-1844) - Symphonie D-Dur (1807)

Johann Baptist Gänsbacher (1778-1844) - Symphonie D-Dur (1807)

Performers: CappeIIa lstropoIitana; Edgar Seipenbusch (1936-2011, conductor)

Painting: Franz Anton Stecher (1814-1853) - Der Komponist Johann Baptist Gänsbacher und seine Familie (c.1838)

Further info: Johann Baptist Gänsbacher (1778-1844) - Missa Solemnis (1806)

---

Johann (Baptist Peter Joseph) Gänsbacher

(Sterzing, [now Vipiteno], 8 May 1778 - Vienna, 13 July 1844) 

Austrian composer and conductor. He was the son of a choirmaster and teacher, Johann Gänsbacher (1751-1806), and as a boy sang in church choirs in Sterzing, Innsbruck, Hall and Bolzano; he also had lessons in piano, organ, violin, cello and thoroughbass. In 1795 he went to the university at Innsbruck and studied first philosophy, then law, supporting himself by giving music lessons, playing the organ, singing in church choirs and playing in the theatre orchestra. His first compositions date from this period. While at university he took part in four campaigns against Napoleon. In 1801 he went to Vienna to continue his musical studies, and was relieved of financial worries when Count Firmian, who further promoted his career as a musician, took him into his family as a son in about 1803. In Vienna he had lessons from the Abbé Vogler (1803-4) and from Albrechtsberger (1806). A Mass in C, composed through the offices of Vogler for Nikolaus Esterhazy in 1806, established his reputation as a composer. Nevertheless, he returned to Vogler in Darmstadt for a short period in 1810, where his fellow-pupils and friends included Weber and Meyerbeer, who admitted him as a founder-member of the ‘Harmonische Verein’, for which he was active until 1813. In January 1813 he met Weber in Prague and recommended him for the post of Kapellmeister of the theatre. In the summer of the same year Gänsbacher returned to the Tyrol to join the fighting to liberate the province from the Bavarian occupation. After the end of the war he did not return to the Firmian family but joined the army as a first lieutenant (1814). He was stationed first in Italian garrisons, in Trient, Mantua and Padua then at Innsbruck in 1815, where he again tried to gain a foothold as a musician. He worked as a conductor and director of a church choir, and helped to found the Musikverein, though he did not gain the position of chief conductor. He did not accept the post of director of music in Dresden, offered him at the instigation of Weber in 1823, since (after representations against the election of Joseph Weigl), he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Stephansdom in Vienna as successor to Josef Preindl in September 1824. One of the choristers (who were also his pupils) was his nephew Anton Mitterwurzer (1818-1876), later famous as an opera singer. From this time on Gänsbacher composed mainly church music, and only a few homage cantatas. By the time of his death he was one of the most famous musicians in Vienna.

PERTI, Giacomo Antonio (1661-1756) - Messa detta 'La Lambertina' (1736)

Giacomo Antonio Perti (1661-1756) - Messa detta 'La Lambertina' (1736)

Performers: Arion Choir; CoIIegio GhisIieri; GiuIio Prandi (conductor)

Drawing: Giovanni Antonio Canal 'Canaletto' (1697-1768) - Coronation of the Doge on the Scala dei Giganti

Further info: Giacomo Antonio Perti (1661-1756) - Il Mosè conduttor del popolo ebreo

---

Giacomo Antonio Perti

(Bologna, 6 June 1661 - Bologna, 10 April 1756)

Italian composer. At the age of nine he began to study music in Bologna with his uncle Lorenzo Perti and with Rocco Laurenti, from whom he learnt the rudiments of organ playing. He started to study singing in 1670 and the year after he took up humanistic studies with the Jesuits at S Lucia. In 1675 he began the study of counterpoint with his uncle and he later studied with Petronio Franceschini. In 1678 his first music to be performed, a mass, was given in S Tomaso al Mercato; two other works, a motet and a Magnificat (both for eight voices), date from that year. In 1679 he wrote his first operatic music – the third act of Atide – and the oratorio S Serafia. In 1680 he wrote a Mass in D with two trumpets (claimed by Martini to be the first of its kind), which was performed in S Sigismondo. In 1681 he was admitted as composer to the Accademia Filarmonica, where he was principe in 1687, 1693, 1697, 1705 and 1719, when he was made ‘diffinitore perpetuo’. Several months later he went to Parma for further contrapuntal studies with Giuseppe Corso (called Celano). Here, as is clear from a six-year correspondence with Celano, he decisively formed his church music style, especially that of the concerted masses and psalms of the 1680s and 90s. In 1688 he published his first opus, Cantate morali e spirituali, dedicating it to the Emperor Leopold I, who eventually rewarded him with a precious chain of gold. In the following year he was in Venice, probably for the production of his opera La Rosaura, and from there he applied for the vacant position of vicemaestro di cappella of S Petronio. He was unsuccessful, possibly because of the influence of G.P. Colonna, the maestro di cappella (during the famous dispute over the consecutive 5ths of Corelli, Perti had sided with Corelli against Colonna). 

Perti was chosen to succeed his uncle Lorenzo as maestro di cappella of the cathedral of S Pietro in 1690. In 1696 he was called from there to be maestro di cappella of S Petronio, where he spent the rest of his life, except for a few short journeys to Florence, Rome (1703 and 1747) and Naples (1703). Simultaneously he held similar posts at S Domenico (1704-55, G.M. Alberti deputizing for him from 1734) and the Madonna di Galliera (1706-50). According to Martini he was offered a position at the court of the Emperor Leopold I in 1697 in succession to Antonio Draghi, but there is no other record of this. Because of financial difficulties at S Petronio, Perti began his career there without a fixed group of musicians. Until February 1701 musicians were hired only for the required festive occasions. With the restoration of the cappella musicale, however, the group was re-established with 24 regular musicians. It was enlarged for festive occasions to as many as 153 in 1718 and 1719. In 1723 the regular group numbered 36, the highest number during Perti’s term. Perti enjoyed considerable fame and favour with several important personages, including Ferdinando III de’ Medici, for whom he wrote church music and operas, which were staged at Pratolino, and the Emperor Charles VI, to whom he dedicated his op.2. In 1740 the emperor made him a royal councillor. His correspondence reveals a long-standing rapport with the Duchess Aurora Sanseverino of Piedimonte d’Alife, who was a member of a Bolognese family; he regularly sent compositions to her for use at her court. His correspondence also indicates that he was held in high regard by Fux, Caldara, Pasquini, Corelli and other influential musicians. Padre Martini held him in the highest esteem and included six examples of his contrapuntal music in his Esemplare ossia Saggio fondamentale pratico di contrappunto (1774–5). Among Perti’s students were Torelli, Gabrielli, Pistocchi, Aldrovandini, P.P. Laurenti, G.B. Martini and F.O. Manfredini.

MARPURG, Friedrich Wilhelm (1718-1795) - Partita Sesta C-Dur (1756)

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-1795) - Partita Sesta C-Dur (1756)

World Premiere Recording

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

Painting: Johann Zoffany (1733-1810) - A Scene from Love in a Village (1767)

Further info: Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-1795) - Pieces de Clavecin (c.1748)

---

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg

(Seehof, 21 November 1718 - Berlin, 22 May 1795)

German critic, journalist, theorist and composer. Gerber claimed that Marpurg had told him that he lived in Paris around 1746; Carl Spazier confirmed this, adding that Marpurg was friendly with Voltaire, D'Alembert and others when he was secretary to a ‘General Bodenburg’. This is generally assumed to refer to Generallieutenant Friedrich Rudolph Graf von Rothenburg, a favourite of Frederick the Great and Prussian emissary to Paris in 1744-45, and the dedicatee of Marpurg's Der critische Musicus an der Spree (1749-50). From 1749 to 1763 Marpurg devoted himself almost exclusively to writing and editing books and periodicals about music and to composing and editing lieder and works for keyboard. In 1752, at the request of the heirs of J.S. Bach, he wrote a notable preface for a new edition of Die Kunst der Fuge. In 1755 J.G.I. Breitkopf asked him to review the first work printed with Breitkopf's improved system of movable type, and subsequently published many of his works. Their correspondence shows that this was a period of severe financial difficulties for Marpurg, as do various letters from Kirnberger to Forkel. Through Kirnberger's efforts Marpurg obtained a position in the Prussian state lottery in 1763; in 1766 he was appointed director, a post he held until the end of his life. Though there is evidence that he continued to review music and engage in other musical activities after 1763, very little appeared with his signature in his later years. Marpurg's compositions consist largely of strophic songs of the kind composed in north Germany in the mid-18th century. He was very active as a compiler and editor of such songs and of keyboard works suited to amateur performers. Most of his surviving compositions appear in these collections; they are competent but not outstanding. In addition he published a set of six sonatas for keyboard (c.1755), a collection of fugues (1777) and two collections of chorale preludes. The sonatas are similar to those composed by C.P.E. Bach in the 1740s, the fugues are correct in detail and plan but uninteresting, and the chorale preludes are mostly routine cantus firmus treatments.

PUGNANI, Gaetano (1731-1798) - Concerto in re maggiore per due violini

Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798) - Concerto in re maggiore per due violini

Performers: Giacomo Agazzini (violin); Umberto Fantini (violin);

EnsembIe d'archi "CoIIegium Theatrum Sabaudiae"

Drawing: After Giovanni Paolo Pannini - Roma Antica (c.1758)

Further info: Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798) - Sonate e trii

---

Gaetano Pugnani

(Turin, 27 November 1731 - Turin, 15 July 1798)

Italian violinist and composer. His principal teacher was G.B. Somis, a pupil of Corelli. At the age of ten he began his career as a second violinist in the orchestra at the Teatro Regio, Turin, though his official appointment was delayed until 19 April 1748. A royal stipend enabled him to study composition with Francesco Ciampi in Rome (1749-50). On his return to Turin he resumed his modest orchestra post, though with doubled salary. He became principal of the second violins in 1763. By that time he had acquired an international reputation. On 2 February 1754 he performed one of his own concertos at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, where his first published works appeared the same year. The Mercure de France wrote: ‘the connoisseurs insist that they have never heard a violinist superior to this virtuoso’. From 1767 to 1769 he served as conductor at the King’s Theatre in London, where his first opera, Nanetta e Lubino (1769), met with success. He also appeared in concerts with J.C. Bach and other prominent musicians. In 1770 he became first violinist of the king’s music in Turin, a post his teacher Somis had held and which included the leadership of the Teatro Regio orchestra. In 1776 he also became general director of instrumental music, and in 1786 was appointed supervisor of military bands. From 1780 to 1782 he toured northern Europe with his illustrious pupil Viotti. A commission for Naples in 1784 initiated a period of activity in which he wrote four operas in five years, as well as some ballet music. His last foreign journey took him to Vienna, where on 22 March 1796 he conducted his orchestral suite based on Goethe’s Werther. During his last years he saw the decline and ultimate dissolution of Turin’s musical establishment as a result of the war with France. 

Pugnani was a vital link in the uninterrupted tradition from Corelli to Viotti. Gratefully, Viotti called himself ‘élève du célèbre Pugnani’ on his printed music; among Pugnani’s other pupils were Borghi, Bruni and Polledro. His playing was known for its power, eloquence and rich cantilena; his ‘arco magno’ (grand bowing) became proverbial. He probably played an important part in the development of the modern bow: he himself used a bow (called an ‘archetto alla Pugnani’) that was straighter, longer and equipped with a screw, and he may have exchanged views with the Parisian bowmaker Tourte père in 1754 and with the younger François Tourte in 1772–3, both of whom were engaged in bringing the bow into its present form. Pugnani also preferred to use thicker strings, perhaps because they were better able to withstand the greater pressure of his bowing. As a composer Pugnani reached far beyond the violin into the field of opera, symphony and chamber music, and must be considered an important representative of mid-century Italian Classicism. His symphonies exemplify the Italian theatrical style best known through its Mannheimer and Viennese proponents. He preferred a four-movement sequence with a minuet in third place. His chamber music stands midway between that of Sammartini and Boccherini, and often dispensed with a figured bass, though not always successfully. Several of his trios and quintets required an obbligato keyboard part and assorted instruments. His only known violin concerto follows the form established by Tartini but reflects the galant style of the 1760s.

QUANTZ, Johann Joachim (1697-1773) - Flötenkonzert G-Dur (c.1745)

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) - Flötenkonzert G-Dur, QV 5:174 (c.1745)

Performers: Orchestre de chambre de la Sarre; Karl Ristenpart (1900-1967, conductor)

Painting: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Frederick the Great of Prussia being taught to play the Flute by Johann Joachim Quantz

Further info: Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) - Flute Sonatas & Concerto

---

Johann Joachim Quantz

(Oberscheden, 30 January 1697 - Potsdam, 12 July 1773)

German flautist, composer, writer on music and flute maker. The son of a blacksmith, he began his musical training in 1708 with his uncle, Justus Quantz, a town musician in Merseburg. After Justus’s death three months later, Quantz continued his apprenticeship with his uncle’s successor and son-in-law, J.A. Fleischhack, whom he served as a journeyman after the completion of the apprenticeship in 1713. During his apprenticeship, Quantz achieved proficiency on most of the principal string instruments, the oboe and the trumpet. Taking advantage of a period of mourning for the reigning duke’s brother in 1714, he visited Pirna where he came across some of Vivaldi’s violin concertos, which were to have a decisive influence on his artistic development. In March 1716 he accepted an invitation by Gottfried Heyne to join the Dresden town band. Quantz spent part of 1717 in Vienna studying counterpoint with J.D. Zelenka. In 1718 he became oboist in the Polish chapel of Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, accompanying him on official visits to Warsaw but remaining in Dresden for substantial periods. Because Quantz found little opportunity for advancement as an oboist, he turned to the transverse flute in 1719, studying briefly with P.G. Buffardin. However, he credited J.G. Pisendel, the leading violinist and representative of the ‘mixed taste’ (French and Italian), with the greatest influence on his development as a performer and composer. His interest in composition, particularly in works for the flute, continued to grow, stimulated by a wide range of Italian and French works then performed in Dresden. In the Saxon court’s repertory, however, influenced by opera seria and the instrumental compositions of Corelli, Torelli and Vivaldi, the Italian musical style gradually superseded the French. 

Between 1724 and 1727 Quantz completed his training with a period of study in Italy and shorter stays in France and England. He studied counterpoint with Francesco Gasparini in Rome, impressed Alessandro Scarlatti favourably and met, among many others, the future Dresden Kapellmeister J.A. Hasse, who was then studying with Scarlatti. From August 1726 to March 1727 he visited Paris. While in Paris he for the first time had a second key added to his flutes to improve their intonation. After a ten-week stay in England, where he met Handel, Quantz returned to Dresden in July 1727. The three-year tour established his reputation outside Germany, paving the way for the future international dissemination of his music. In March 1728 he was promoted to a member of the regular Dresden court chapel, where he was no longer required to double on the oboe. With this promotion he had finally won recognition as one of the outstanding performers in Dresden. In May 1728 Quantz, Pisendel, Buffardin and others accompanied Augustus II on a state visit to Berlin. Quantz made a particularly deep impression on Prince Frederick, and returned to the Prussian court twice a year to teach him the flute. When Augustus II died in 1733, Quantz was not allowed to transfer to Berlin. When Frederick became King of Prussia in 1740 he could offer Quantz 2000 thalers a year, exemption from duties in the opera orchestra and an agreement to take orders only from him. In December 1741 Quantz moved to Berlin, and for the remainder of his career his duties centred on the supervision of the king’s private evening concerts, for which he wrote new works and at which he alone had the privilege of criticizing Frederick’s playing. Quantz remained at Frederick's court at Potsdam until his death in 1773.

STADLMAYR, Johann (c.1580-1648) - Te Deum (1645)

Johann Stadlmayr (c.1580-1648) - Te Deum (1645)

Performers: Neue lnnsbrucker Hofkapelle; Detlef Bratschke

Painting: Bernardino Mei (1612-1676) - Christ Cleansing the Temple (c.1655)

Further info: Johann Stadlmayr (c.1580-1648) - Missa Concertata Nr.3 (1642)

---

Johann Stadlmayr [Stadlmair, Stadelmaier, Stadelmayer, Stadelmeyer]

(Freising?, c.1580 - Innsbruck, 12 July 1648)

German composer. The title-page and dedication of his Sacrum Beatissimae Virginis Mariae canticum (1603) report that he came from Freising. The date of his birth, given as 1560 by Fétis and others, was probably closer to 1580, for in 1619 he was called a ‘rather young and lively man’. The earliest documented reference to him is in Georg Draudius’s catalogue Bibliotheca classica (Frankfurt, 1611, 2/1625), where a collection of eight-part masses by him is said to have been published in 1596 (misprinted as 1569 but corroborated elsewhere). In 1603 he was a musician in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg. In 1604, the year of his first marriage, he became vice-Kapellmeister and then Kapellmeister there, a post he held until 1607, when he was appointed to a similar position at the court of the Habsburg Archduke Maximilian II of the Tyrol at Innsbruck. Though later offered other positions he chose to remain in Innsbruck for the rest of his life. Maximilian, who was Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and specially interested in serious music, apparently held Stadlmayr in great esteem, for he bought him a house and included him in his will. After Maximilian’s death in 1618, the Innsbruck chapel was disbanded because his successor, Archduke Leopold V, kept his own musicians at his former Alsatian residence. Stadlmayr presented several petitions for employment so that he and his large family need not leave Innsbruck, where, as he said in 1620, he had ‘spared no effort in 13 of the best years of his life’. During this period, which also saw the death of his first wife (in 1619) and his remarriage (in 1621), he added to his income by working as government meat inspector. 

Not until 1624, after he had sought leave to apply for a post in Vienna, was he reappointed Kapellmeister, with an appropriate salary. Leopold also wanted to make him a member of the nobility, but he refused (as he had also done when Maximilian made him a similar offer some years before) because he lacked sufficient funds to maintain such a position. The court chapel now attained its greatest brilliance, and after Leopold died in 1632 his widow, Claudia de’ Medici, continued to support Stadlmayr despite financial difficulties caused by the Thirty Years War, which was ravaging neighbouring countries; part of her support was to help finance the publication of some of Stadlmayr’s works. Stadlmayr was almost exclusively a composer of Catholic church music, and a prolific one. 16th-century traditions as well as 17th-century innovations inform his style. He achieved clear articulation of the liturgical texts, as required by the Council of Trent, with short phrases of generally syllabic declamation that follow natural speech inflections. In imitative sections he highlighted the texts by frequent repetitions of a few words, and he often used stereotyped figures for expressive emphasis. His publications up to about 1628 continue 16th-century traditions of carefully handled polyphony and effectively treated homophonic chordal blocks in the Venetian manner. In some works the two kinds of texture are set against each other. In others one texture may predominate: the polychoral idiom does so in the masses and Magnificat settings for two and three choirs, while the textures of the fifth and ninth items in the Magnificat collection of 1603 are exclusively contrapuntal. Stadlmayr also continued to make use of plainchant in long notes for cantus firmi as well as of parody technique for many masses and Magnificat settings, which are based mainly on Italian works.

BRONNEMÜLLER, Elias (1666-1762) - Suite in d, No.1

Elias Bronnemüller (1666-1762) - Suite in d, No.1

Performers: Joël Katzmann (cembalo)

Painting: Isaak Soreau (1604-1644) - Still life with a basket of flowers and fruit

Further info: Early Music of the Netherlands (1700-1800)

---

Elias Bronnemüller [Bronmuller, Brunnemüller, Brunnenmüller et al.]

(1666 - 1762)

German composer, active in the northern Netherlands. He is said to have been a pupil of Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti and C.A. Lonati, and, about 1690, he taught Johann Mattheson. In 1703 he visited Arnhem from Kleve, where he may have been employed. Shortly afterwards he went to The Hague, and then settled in Amsterdam, where, on 21 June 1709, he was granted a privilege to publish his own works. Three volumes, mainly of instrumental music, appeared in Amsterdam and Leeuwarden in 1709–12. 1762 is often given as the year of his death, but this is not confirmed by contemporary documents. Bronnemüller’s compositions are all in the international, italianate idiom of the time, with something of a German flavour, being less polished than, for example, Corelli’s or Albinoni’s. His sonatas are all of the da chiesa type, but sometimes deviate from the standard slow–fast–slow–fast sequence and include the occasional dance movement. The keyboard suites contain an introductory toccatina and a number of dance movements, not following any standard scheme. A figure often employed, almost as a musical ‘signature’, is the chromatically descending 4th in the bass.

CICHOSZEWSKI, Benedykt (c.1680-1738) - Ecce iste est

Benedykt Cichoszewski (c.1680-1738) - Ecce iste est

Performers: Marzena MichaIowska (soprano); Piotr OIech (alto); Piotr Szewezyk (tenor);

Maciej Straburzynski (bass); Accademia deII'Arcadia; Marek Toporowski

Painting: Bartholomeus Spranger (1546-1611) - Palais des visiteurs de marque (1596)

Further info: Benedykt Cichoszewski (c.1680-1738) - Kantata o sw. Michale Archaniele (c.1734)

---

Benedykt Cichoszewski

(Grodzisk Wielkopolski, c.1680 - Paradyż, 7 July 1738)

Polish composer. Almost nothing is known about his life. He developed his whole career as a monk, singer and composer in the Cistercian abbeys of Przemęt and Paradyż. Also there he wrote all his output, mainly sacred music in the most modern Italian style. His extant works are a collection of 'Vesperae de Beata Maria Virgine', three cantates (Ecce iste est, Factum est silentium, O stellae lucentes) and some motets.

RUST, Friedrich Wilhelm (1739-1796) - Sinfonia (in D) à 17 vocibus (1773)

Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739-1796) - Sinfonia (in D) à 17 vocibus (1773)

Performers: Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau

Painting: Bernardo Bellotto (1721-1780) - Reiterbildnis eines Husarenoffiziers (1773)

Further info: Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739-1796) - Sonaten für Viola d'Amore D-Dur

---

Friedrich Wilhelm Rust

(Wörlitz, 6 July 1739 - Dessau, 28 February 1796)

Composer and musical organizer. As a small child he learnt to play the violin, encouraged by his elder brother Johann Ludwig Anton, who was himself considered an excellent violinist. He also learnt the piano, and according to his own account in his autobiography (1775) could play the first part of J.S. Bach’s Das wohltemperirte Clavier from memory when he was 16. After his father’s death in 1751 he lived with his mother and eldest brother in Gröbzig until 1755. A copy that he made of the trio sonata from Bach’s Musical Offering dates from this period; it is now considered lost. He then attended the Lutheran Gymnasium in Cöthen, 1755-58. From 1758 he studied law at Halle-Wittenberg University; he also had lessons with W.F. Bach and in return deputized for him as a church organist. Soon after Rust had completed his studies there, Prince Leopold Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau sent him to Zerbst to study with Carl Höckh, and then to Berlin and Potsdam (July 1763-April 1764) to study the violin with Franz Benda and keyboard instruments with C.P.E. Bach. In 1765-66 Rust visited Italy in the prince’s retinue, and there completed his musical training, coming into contact with Tartini, Pietro Nardini and G.B. Martini. Rust then settled in Dessau, where a lively court and civic musical life soon developed under his influence, and he wrote most of his compositions for it. From 1769 he organized regular subscription concerts, with music performed by both court musicians and amateurs, and in 1775 a theatre was founded, a project for which Rust was largely responsible. His achievements were recognized in April 1775, when the prince made him court music director. He married his former singing pupil Henriette Niedhardt in May; the couple had eight children, two of whom became professional musicians. In his lifetime Rust was honoured and esteemed as an instrumentalist and composer; contemporary lexicons and his correspondence with colleagues bear eloquent witness to this. He was also active as a teacher, and trained a series of well-regarded instrumentalists and singers. His compositions comprise all musical genres of the time except the symphony. The surviving instrumental music includes works for clavichord, viola d’amore, harp, lute, and nail violin, the sound of which appealed to his introverted nature. In addition to large-scale vocal works and six stage works he also wrote some 100 lieder, of which 70 have been made usable for modern performance (see Buchmann, 1987). His output is representative of the transition to Classicism, and certain elements, particularly in his lieder and keyboard works, anticipate developments by later composers; his keyboard music is especially individual. Many of Rust’s compositions still await rediscovery.

CAPRICORNUS, Samuel (1628-1665) - Missa (II), Opus musicum (1655)

Samuel Capricornus (1628-1665) - Missa (II), Opus musicum (1655)

Performers: Musica Aeterna; Czech EnsembIe Baroque Choir; Tereza Válková

Drawing: Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1546) - The Adoration of the Magi

Further info: Samuel Capricornus (1628-1665) - Theatrum musicum

---

Samuel Friedrich Capricornus [Bockshorn, Brockshorn]

(Schertitz [now Zerčiče], 21 December 1628 - Stuttgart, 10 November 1665)

German composer and teacher of Bohemian birth. While Capricornus was still very young his family fled to Hungary to escape religious persecution. He was an eager student and studied theology, languages and philosophy in various places, including Silesia between 1643 and 1646. His choice of a musical profession led him to the imperial court in Vienna in 1649, where he came to know the music of Giovanni Valentini and Antonio Bertali. He taught briefly at Reutlingen, and for two years was private tutor to the children of a physician at Pressburg (now Bratislava). In 1651 he became director of music to the churches there and a master at the Gymnasium, but after a year he asked to be relieved of the teaching. He became Kapellmeister to the Württemberg court at Stuttgart on 6 May 1657. His tenure in Stuttgart was marked by bitter contention with Philipp Friedrich Böddecker, organist of the collegiate church. Böddecker, who had expected the Kapellmeister position, criticized Capricornus’s compositions and stirred up the court musicians against him. Capricornus wrote a petition to the duke in self-defense, which provides detailed insight into his compositional process. Capricornus’s years in Stuttgart were further marred by illness and unhappiness in his marriage. Johann Fischer studied with him there from 1661 until his death. Capricornus was an important figure in the development of German sacred music between Schütz and J.S. Bach. He was ambitious – he sought and won the approbation of Schütz and Carissimi – and prolific, being one of the few German composers of his time whose works were widely distributed both in manuscripts and prints. Extant inventories list over 400 works, although many of them are lost, especially from his secular music, which included chamber music, ballets and operas. His sacred music, which was still in use liturgically in the early 18th century, includes large concerted works (Opus musicum) and many small concertos, both with instruments (Geistliche Harmonien, Theatrum musicum) and with only continuo accompaniment (Geistliche Concerten). He showed a strong preference for Latin devotional texts, which he set in a very expressive, Italianate manner. The attribution of Carissimi’s oratorio Judicium Salomonis to Capricornus in the posthumous print Continuatio theatri musici has raised questions about the attributions in all of the posthumous prints. His music merits further editing, performance and study.

ZINCK, Hardenack Otto Conrad (1746-1832) - Sonate i C-dur (1783)

Hardenack Otto Conrad Zinck (1746-1832) - Sonate i C-dur (1783)

Performers: Thomas Trondhjem (piano)

Painting: Jens Juel (1745-1802) - View of the Little Belt from a hill near Middelfart, Funen (c.1800)

Further info: Hardenack Otto Conrad Zinck (1746-1832) - Piano works

---

Hardenack (Hartnack, Harnack) Otto Conrad Zinck [Zink]

(Husum, 2 July 1746 - Copenhagen, 15 February 1832)

German composer and instrumentalist, brother of Bendix Friedrich Zinck. Like his brother, he was taught several musical instruments and harmony by his father. He continued his studies in Hamburg for ten years and performed in both amateur and public concerts there; he also had the special esteem of his teacher, C.P.E. Bach, under whose direction he performed as a singer in 1768. In 1777 he was recruited as first flautist and chamber musician in the Ludwigslust Hofkapelle of the Duke of Schwerin, where he dedicated himself increasingly to composition, learning from imitation of Classical models and from C.P.E. Bach’s Versuch, Kirnberger’s Kunst des reinen Satzes and Marpurg’s theoretical writings (preface to his Sechs Clavier-Sonaten, 1783). In August 1786 he visited Copenhagen, where he gave a highly successful concert, appearing as a flautist, keyboard player and composer. A year later he was offered the post of Singmeister (first accompanist) in the Copenhagen Kongelige Kapel through the Hofkapellmeister J.A.P. Schulz. He accepted it, and his wife, Elisabeth Pontet Zinck, an outstanding singer at the Schwerin and Ludwigslust courts since 1779, soon took a similar post at the Danish court in Copenhagen. Zinck was also organist at the Vor Frelsers Kirke (1789-1801), a teacher at Blaagaards Seminary (1791-1811) and editor of the authorized hymnbook (Choral-Melodier, 1801). Following the example of C.F.C. Fasch in Berlin, he founded a Singakademie in 1800. 

As a flute and keyboard virtuoso, and particularly as a composer, Zinck was rightly considered one of the most gifted members of the Ludwigslust Hofkapelle. Unlike his brother, he was less interested in symphonies than in lieder and lyrical keyboard pieces. His six keyboard sonatas, which C.F. Cramer praised highly, are admirably suited to the keyboard and rich in invention, and link the keyboard sonatas of C.P.E. Bach with those of the turn of the century. In the preface to this collection Zinck advocated ‘characteristic instrumental pieces with new and eloquent expression’; he also explained in detail the programmatic ideas of the sixth sonata, whose finale leads directly to a ballad-like choral setting of 12 verses by Count F.L. Stolberg. Following C.P.E. Bach’s example, Zinck took part in the newly evolving relationship between vocal and instrumental music by using instrumental sound, rather than text, as a starting-point. The four volumes of Compositionen für den Gesang und das Clavier (1791-93) contain lieder with German and Danish texts, pieces from the Singspiel Selim og Mirza and sonatas and variations for keyboard instruments. Apart from C.P.E. Bach and J.A.P. Schulz, Zinck was also influenced by J.H. Rolle, as shown, for example, by the folklike melodies of his oratorio Das Weltgericht. Zinck’s cantatas, like similar compositions of his Schwerin contemporaries, were meant for the concerts spirituels in popular character introduced there by Duke Friedrich of Mecklenburg.