VOGEL, Johann Christoph (1756-1788) - Simphonie Concertante (c.1785)

Johann Christoph Vogel (1756-1788) - Simphonie Concertante (fagott und oboe) C-Dur (c.1785)

Performers: Alfred Hertel (oboe); Cornelia Slepicka (fagott); Maurie Ravel Kammerorchester;

Jean Philippe Rouchon (leitung)

Drawing: Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (1739-1821) - Landscape with a Scene from Fénelon’s Télémaque (1780)

Further info: Sinfonia Concertante

---

Johann Christoph Vogel [Fogel]

(Nuremberg, bap. 18 March 1756 - Paris, 28 June 1788)

German composer, active in France. The son of the violin maker Michael Vogel, and grandfather of Charles-Louis-Adolphe Vogel, he studied with Georg Wilhelm Gruber in Nuremberg and with Joseph Riepel in Regensburg. There is no evidence that he was employed as a musician in the Regensburg Hofkapelle, as some biographers have erroneously stated, confusing him with the oboist Johann Bartholomäus Vogel (?-1782). He moved to Paris in 1776, and entered the service of the Duke of Montmorency and then of the Count of Valentinois as a horn player. He composed a great number of orchestral and chamber works during this period. His oratorio Jephté, performed at the Concert Spirituel in September 1781, received favourable reviews although its harmony was regarded as ‘too complicated and baroque’. Philippe Desriaux, for many years the secretary of Baron von Tschudi, wrote the librettos for both of Vogel’s operas. The first of them, La toison d’or, was written as early as 1781 but was not performed at the Opéra until 5 September 1786. Vogel was an enthusiast for the operas of Gluck, and the work is dedicated to him as ‘législateur de la musique’. Here and there it appears to be a faithful stylistic imitation of Gluck’s two Iphigenia operas, but it displays great mastery in the handling of the orchestra and its arias are particularly lyrical. With 12 performances in all the opera had only limited success since it already seemed old-fashioned and contained no ballet. Around 1786 Vogel began composing his second opera, Démophon. Its posthumous première (at the Opéra on 22 September 1789) was given only after the première of Cherubini’s opera on the same subject. Among the musical qualities of this dramatically powerful work are the variety of recitative forms, the treatment of the woodwind as solo instruments and the harmonic colour of the choruses. The overture, composed in monothematic sonata form, remained popular into the early 19th century, and was incorporated into Gardel’s ballet-pantomime Psyché (1790), which had more than 1000 performances at the Opéra between its première and 1829.

JACQUET DE LA GUERRE, Elisabeth (1665-1729) - Suite (I) en ré mineur

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729) - Suite (I) en ré mineur (1707)

Performers: Thurston Dart (1921-1971, harpsichord)

Painting: Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691) - Rivierlandschap met ruiters

Further info: Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729) - Protégée of the Sun King

---

Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre

(Paris, bap. 17 March 1665 - Paris, 27 June 1729)

French harpsichordist and composer. She came from a family of master masons and musicians, and from the age of five played the harpsichord and sang at the court of Louis XIV. Noticed by Madame de Montespan, she stayed for three years in her entourage. On 23 September 1684 she left the court to marry the organist Marin de La Guerre. Their son, as precociously gifted as his mother, died at the age of ten. In Paris Elisabeth Jacquet gave lessons and concerts for which she was soon renowned throughout the city. Her first compositions were dramatic works, of which only the libretto of Jeux à l'honneur de la victoiresurvives. Her first publication, Les pièces de clavessin … premier livre, dates from 1687. In 1694 her only tragédie en musique, Céphale et Procris, was performed at the Académie Royale de Musique with little success, but the prologue was revived in 1696 at Strasbourg, where Sébastien de Brossard had founded an academy of music. In 1695 Brossard made copies of her first trio sonatas and those for violin and continuo. Only in 1707 did she publish her six Sonates pour le viollon et pour le clavecin and the Pièces de clavecin qui peuvent se jouer sur le viollon, followed later by her two collections of Cantates françoises sur des sujets tirez de l'Ecriture to texts by Antoine Houdar de Lamotte, and by three secular Cantates françoises. Whereas all her other works were dedicated to Louis XIV, this last was addressed to the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian II Emanuel. Le raccommodement comique de Pierrot et de Nicole is a duet which went into La ceinture de Vénus, a play by Alain-René Lesage performed at the Foire St Germain in 1715. Elisabeth Jacquet's last work seems to have been a Te Deum sung in August 1721 in the chapel of the Louvre in thanksgiving for the recovery of Louis XV from smallpox. Elisabeth Jacquet was the first woman in France to compose an opera, and she is also remembered for her innovative work in the Italian genres of cantata and sonata, as well as for her music for accompanied keyboard. The Pièces de clavessin of 1687 are remarkable for their balanced structures and their préludes non mesurés. Her sonatas, both manuscript and printed, are conspicuous for their variety, rhythmic vigour and expressive harmony, as well as for certain innovative features in the violin writing. Her 12 sacred cantatas show a fine balance between a style appropriate to the genre and the restraint required by the subject; no other composer of the time handled the genre so consistently. The secular cantatas are characterized by dramatic qualities and a quest for formal freedom. In Le Parnasse françois Titon du Tillet devoted a long and appreciative notice to her, and her portrait is shown in a medallion with the motto ‘I contended for the prize with the great musicians’.

GURECKY, Václav Matyáš (1705-1743) - Vesperae de Dominica ex C

Václav Matyáš Gurecký (1705-1743) - Vesperae de Dominica ex C

Performers: Musica Floreа; Mаrеk Stryncl

Painting: Daniël de Blieck (1610-1673) - Vue idéalisée de l’intérieur de l’église Saint-Sulpice

Further info: Václav Matyás Gurecký (1705-1743) - Missa obligationis (1740)

---

Václav Matyáš Gurecký [Guretzky, Kuretzky]

(Přerov, bap. 4 Aug 1705 - 25 June 1743)

Moravian composer. His family came from Příbor and were closely related to the mother of the Catholic priest Jan Sarkander, martyred in 1620 in Olomouc and later canonized. Gurecký received his musical and general education at Piarist schools and from 1724 was a tutor in the Piarist music seminary in Kroměříž. In 1729 he married the daughter of the Kroměříž organist Anton Bernkopf. By that time he was presumably already employed by the Olomouc bishop, Cardinal Wolfgang von Schrattenbach (1711–38), who enabled him to study composition with Caldara in Vienna. It is not known why in 1736 Gurecký left the Schrattenbach orchestra and took the post of musical director of Olomouc Cathedral. He worked there until his death in 1743. Gurecký was a very prolific composer of operas, oratorios, church and instrumental music, strongly influenced by Caldara, but little has survived (CZ-Bm, D-WD). From the librettos we know that he composed the operas Antioco (Kroměříž, 31 October 1729) and Griselda (Kroměříž, 31 October 1730) for the bishop's orchestra, both to texts by Zeno. His oratorios, according to the librettos (CZ-Bu, KRa, YU-Ls), were Giacobbe (Brno, 1731), San Francesco di Paolo (Brno, 1734), Gioas re di Giuda (Brno, 1736) and Von der göttlichen Liebe (undated) to texts mostly by the cardinal's secretary, Giovanni Battista Catena; this list is probably not complete. His only well-known church works are the two vesper settings and three masses, Missa obligationis (probably for the solemn introduction of Bishop Jakob Ernst von Liechensten at Olomouc on 30 April 1740), Missa divinae gratiae and Missa a 4 voci (all 1740).

GRONEMAN, Johannes Albertus (1711-1778) - Sonata (G-Dur) à 4 (1757)

Johannes Albertus Groneman (1711-1778) - Sonata (G-Dur) à 4 (1757)

Performers: Jed Wentz (traverso); Marion Moonen (traverso); Balázs Máté (violoncello);

Marcelo Bussi (harpsichord)

Painting: Bernard Picard (1673-1733) - Assemblée galante dans un parc jouant de la musique

Further info: Virtuoso Rococo Flute Music From The Netherlands

---

Johannes Albertus (Albert Heinrich) Groneman [Groenemann]

(Cologne, 1711 - The Hague, bur. 1 June 1778)

Dutch composer of German birth. On 15 February 1732 he enrolled at the University of Leiden and soon after appeared as a violin virtuoso. By 1736 he had moved to The Hague, where he became carilloneur (1741) and organist (1743) of the city’s principal church. His career was interrupted for a while by mental illness. Works by him were printed in Amsterdam, London and Paris, and include, in various editions, a set of 12 somewhat virtuoso sonatas for violin and continuo op.1 modelled on Tartini, 6 simpler sonatas for two flutes or violins op.2, and 12 minuets for violin or flute and continuo.

MANFREDINI, Francesco (1684-1762) - Concerto con due Trombe (1711)

Francesco Manfredini (1684-1762) - Concerto (in Re maggiore) con due Trombe (1711)

[Historical recording]

Performers: Roger Delmotte (trumpet); Albert Adriano (trumpet); Ensemble Instrumental de Paris;

Louis de Froment (1921-1994, conductor)

Painting: Matthijs Naiveu (1647-1726) - Townscape with a stage performance

Further info: Francesco Onofrio Manfredini (1684-1762) - Sinfonie da chiesa (1709)

---

Francesco Onofrio Manfredini

(Pistoia, 22 June 1684 - Pistoia, 6 October 1762)

Italian composer. His father, Domenico, was a trombonist at Pistoia Cathedral from 1684. Francesco studied music at Bologna in his youth, taking violin lessons from Torelli and lessons in counterpoint (at that time virtually synonymous with composition) from Perti. Shortly before 1700 he left for Ferrara, probably because of the dissolution of the S Petronio orchestra in 1696. In Ferrara he became first violinist at the church of the Holy Spirit. On returning to Bologna in 1703 he joined the reconstituted orchestra, initially as an occasional violinist and from 1709 to 1711 as a regular member. In 1704 he was admitted as a player (suonatore) to the Accademia Filarmonica. His first publication, a set of 12 chamber sonatas entitled ‘Concertini’, dates from the same year. There is evidence of a visit, or at least a planned visit, to Venice in February 1707, for the accidental death by drowning of his colleague Giuseppe Aldrovandini occurred as he was on his way to join Manfredini before the latter's departure. In 1711 Manfredini became attached to the court of the music-loving Antoine I Grimaldi, Prince of Monaco, where he was active as a composer and performer of instrumental music. Five children were born to him in the principality between 1712 and 1723. During this period he maintained close contact with, and perhaps sometimes visited, Bologna, where his op.3 concertos were published in 1718 and two oratorios were performed a little later. In 1724 he moved to Pistoia to become maestro di cappella at the cathedral. During his tenure of this post, which lasted until his death, he emerged successful from many disputes with the cathedral chapter and with the musicians under him. 

In Pistoia Manfredini had the opportunity to continue his activity as a composer of oratorios, which were performed at local churches, in addition to writing many sacred works for liturgical use at the cathedral and elsewhere. Although Manfredini was clearly a prolific composer, only his published instrumental music, together with a handful of other instrumental works in manuscript, survives. The loss of his nine known oratorios is especially unfortunate. His idiom is firmly Bolognese in character and resembles that of Torelli, B.G. Laurenti, Perti and other members of the school associated with S Petronio, though his music lacks the stamp of a forceful personality and in that respect is inferior to Torelli's. Venetian influence has been discerned in his use of unison writing, and the op.3 concertos did not go unmarked by Vivaldi, despite their greater debt to Torelli. The ending of both the op.2 Sinfonie da chiesa and the op.3 concertos with a Christmas pastorale (whose Torellian antecedent is only too patent) deserves mention. These so-called ‘sinfonie’, with an optional viola part, are ordinary church sonatas; the ‘solo’ or ‘soli’ cues in the violin parts merely tell the player that his part is momentarily exposed. The best of Manfredini’s instrumental works are the six sonatas published in London in 1764 (but not necessarily composed late in the composer's life). These are worthy examples of the ‘mixed’ type of sonata juxtaposing church and chamber elements that became normal after 1700. 

BARSANTI, Francesco (1690-1775) - Concerto Grosso à 8, Opera III (1742)

Francesco Barsanti (1690-1775) - Concerto Grosso à 8, Opera III (1742)

Performers: Isrаеl Philarmonic Orchestra

Painting: Flemish painter - A crowd watching a troupe of quack-doctors on a stage outside an inn (c.1640)

Further info: Horn Music

---

Francesco Barsanti

(Lucca, 1690 - London, 1772)

Italian composer. He studied scientific subjects at the University of Padua, and then devoted himself to music. In 1714 he went to London with Francesco Geminiani (also a native of Lucca); there he played the flute and oboe in the orchestra at the Italian opera, and published three sets of solo sonatas. According to Bonaccorsi, he was back in Lucca in 1735, taking part in festivities at Sancta Croce; but that seems unlikely, as by the second half of 1735 he was resident in Edinburgh. He spent eight years in Scotland, where he married a Scots woman, was much patronized by the aristocracy and published his finest compositions, ten concerti grossi (1742) and nine overtures (c.1743). He also brought out arrangements of 30 Scots songs with continuo in Edinburgh in 1742 (not 1719, as stated by Bonaccorsi and Praetorius). In 1743 Barsanti returned to London. By this time he had lost his place in London musical society and was forced to take a job as an orchestral viola player. Six Latin motets (c.1750) were rather wistfully dedicated to a member of the Scottish aristocratic Wemyss family ‘in recompense for many obligations’. His daughter Jenny, trained in singing by Charles Burney, later achieved success as a London opera singer and actress. Barsanti's compositions are accomplished and original. His op.1 recorder sonatas are among the finest in the instrument's repertory. The op.3 concerti grossi have a contrapuntal glitter not unlike those of J.S. Bach; the main movements are constructed in semi-improvised forms, from themes which are stated once and then broken down into smaller imitative units. His Scots-tune arrangements are far more than a foreigner's temporary flirtation with local music-making: Fiske noted Barsanti's sympathetic understanding of Scots-tune structures, and his willingness to end a setting on an ‘unfinished’ dominant chord if the tune demanded it. Italian virtuosity and Scottish sympathy join forces in the op.4 overtures; the main movement of no.9 introduces the jig Babbity Bowster as a fugal countersubject, while the finale of no.2 is a country-dance, suggesting the ringing open strings of Scots fiddling. Much of Barsanti's work still awaits revival.

SASNAUSKAS, Česlovas (1867-1916) - Requiem e-moll (1915)

Česlovas Sasnauskas (1867-1916) - Requiem e-moll (1915)

Performers: Inеsа Linаburgytе (mezzo-soprano); Algirdis Jаnutаs (tenor); Vlаdimiras Prudnikovаs (bass); Kаunаs State Choir; Lithuаniаn State Symphony Orchestra; Petrаs Bingеlis (1943-2020, conductor)

Painting: Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751-1818) - Das Grabmal Kaiser Leopolds II. von Franz Anton Zauner in der Augustinerkirche (1795)

Further info: Česlovas Sasnauskas (1867-1916)

---

Česlovas Sasnauskas

(Kapčiamiestis, 19 June 1867 - Saint Petersburg, 18 January 1916)

Lithuanian singer, organist, choir conductor and composer. Son of the local organist Tomo Sasnausko, he received early lessons by his father. Shortly afterwards, he studied with Liucidas (Liudvikas) Risauskas before begin to work as organist. Later he also held a post of organist at the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vilkaviškis. From there, he traveled to Saint Petersburg where he studied with Antonio Cotogni at the city Conservatory, getting his bachelor (sing) in 1898. Soon he became widely known and consequently he remained in Saint Petersburg the rest of his life. Also there he assumed a post of children choir director. In 1905 he studied Gregorian chant in Benedictine monasteries in Prague and surroundings. As a composer, he mainly wrote religious works consisting on a Requiem (1915), cantatas, hymns and choral songs. He also wrote traditional songs highly praised and performed in Lithuania. His style was conservative, thus very close to classicism and early romanticism. His Requiem is believed to be one of the first requiems written by a Lithuanian composer.

STAMIC, Jan Václav Antonín (1717-1757) - Simphonia [D] a più strumenti

Jan Václav Antonín Stamic (1717-1757) - Simphonia [D] a più strumenti obligati

Performers: Kοmοrní filharmonie Pаrdubice; Lеoš Svárοvský (conductor)

Drawing: Jacques Louis Bance (1761-1847) - La Milice Anglaise

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

---

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

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

Bohemian composer, violinist and teacher. He 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.

PAVONA, Pietro Alessandro (1728-1786) - Te Deum in Re maggiore

Pietro Alessandro Pavona (1728-1786) - Te Deum in Re maggiore

Performers: Mikrokosmos; Daniel Zanettovich (conductor)

Painting: Giovanni Antonio Canal 'Canaletto' (1697-1768) - Capriccio The Rialto Bridge and the Church of S. Giorgio Maggiore

Further info: Pietro Alessandro Pavona (1728-1786)

---

Pietro Alessandro Pavona

(Palmanova, 15 June 1728 - Manzano, 17 October 1786)

Italian composer. Son of Francesco di Pietro and Giovanna Casoti, nothing is known about his early years. It is said that he was pupil of Bartolomeo Cordans (1698-1757), but there is no evidence. He received the clerical tonsure in Udine and, in 1749, he joined the college capitular of S. Maria Assunta in Cividale del Friuli. Even he did not possess assets for the diaconate, two benefactors endowed him regular income as long as he had not any ecclesiastical benefits. In 1751, after the death of the titular organist, Giuseppe Zanchetti, he was unanimously elected to succeed him. His first dated autograph work dates back to that year. When the titular teacher in the cathedral of Cividale, Geminiano Santini (1701-1780), resigned from his post in 1754 Pavona replaced him in a post he held the rest of his life. There he devoted himself to didactic activity as well as composition and direction of music. He also received commissions from the Battuti and Santissimo Crocifisso confraternities and from Udine surroundings between 1778 and 1786. In 1777 he dedicated a collection of sacred songs for soprano and orchestra to the abbess of the monastery of S. Maria di Aquileia. In 1784 he was in touch with Francesco Merlini for the arrangement of the organ, which would then be rebuilt by Gaetano Callido and officialy inaugurated after his death, in 1788. On 17 October 1786, at the age of fifty-eight, he died in Manzano. Most of his known works are preserved in handwritten manuscript in the place where he served for at least thirty-six years, or in the parish of S. Maria Assunta in Cividale del Friuli.

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

Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786) - Sinfonia (in Re maggiore) à più stromenti

Performers: Accademia Transalpina

Painting: Elisabeth Vigee-Le Brun (1755-1842) - Portrait of Antonio Maria Gaspare Sacchini

Further info: Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786) - Overture Oedipe à Colone

---

Antonio (Maria Gasparo Gioacchino) Sacchini

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

Italian composer. When Antonio was four, his father Gaetano, a cook, attached himself to the retinue of the Infante Don Carlos and accompanied them to Naples. At the age of ten Antonio entered the Conservatorio S Maria di Loreto to study the violin with Nicola Fiorenza. He also studied singing with Gennaro Manna, and the harpsichord, organ and composition with Francesco Durante, who esteemed him highly and predicted that he would be ‘the composer of the century’. He was asked to serve as mastricello in 1756, the same year that his first theatrical work, the intermezzo Fra Donato, was performed by the students at the conservatory and in various houses throughout the city and province. The success of Fra Donato and of Il giocatore, a second intermezzo written for the conservatory in 1757, brought invitations to compose comic works for two Neapolitan theatres. In January 1758 he was nominated maestro di cappella straordinario at the conservatory, an unpaid post in which he assisted Manna, the primo maestro, and Pierantonio Gallo, the secondo maestro. When Manna retired in May 1761, Gallo became primo maestro and Sacchini secondo maestro. On 12 October 1762 he was granted leave to go to Venice, where he composed Alessandro Severo for the Teatro S Benedetto and Alessandro nell'Indie for the Teatro S Salvatore. Neglecting to return to his duties in Naples, he proceeded to Padua, where on 9 July 1763 his Olimpiade was such an overwhelming success that it was performed throughout Italy. Further triumphs in Rome, Naples and Florence led him to abandon his post at the conservatory for a career as an opera composer. For the next few years Sacchini lived in Rome, where he composed for the Teatro Valle a number of comic works which achieved fame throughout Europe, including Il finto pazzo per amore (1765), La contadina in corte (1765) and L'isola d'amore (1766). In 1768 he moved to Venice, where he became director of the Conservatorio dell'Ospedaletto. He quickly gained a reputation as an excellent singing teacher (Nancy Storace and Adriana Gabrieli were among his pupils). 

In early 1770 he visited Germany to compose operas for Munich and Stuttgart, and then returned to his post in Venice, where for the next two years he combined his teaching with the composing of successful operas for the major Italian theatres. In 1772 Sacchini moved to London, where he remained for nearly ten years. When Traetta arrived in London in 1776 his opera failed miserably because, according to Burney, ‘Sacchini had already taken possession of our hearts, and so firmly established himself in the public favour, that he was not to be supplanted by a composer in the same style’. But Sacchini's dissolute life created many enemies and eventually brought financial ruin. His former friend, the singer Venanzio Rauzzini, went so far as to claim many of the composer's most famous arias as his own. Faced with the threat of imprisonment, Sacchini left England in 1781 and went to Paris. In autumn 1781 the composer appeared at Versailles, where he was presented to Marie Antoinette and received with enthusiasm. Joseph II of Austria was also visiting the French court at that time and, being particularly fond of Italian opera, he recommended Sacchini to his sister's protection. Determined to keep the composer in France, the queen persuaded the directors of the Opéra to accept his demand for 10,000 francs for each of three operas. In autumn 1785 the queen had Dardanus given at Fontainebleau in a revised version, which proved a success. In the same year Sacchini completed his Oedipe à Colone, which the queen had promised would be the first opera to be performed at Fontainebleau during the court's forthcoming stay there, but mounting criticism of her preference for foreigners forced her to revoke her pledge and to cede the honoured place to the French composer Lemoyne. Sacchini’s beloved pupil, Henri Berton, asserted that this disappointment contributed greatly to the composer’s death, which occurred shortly afterwards on 6 October 1786. Oedipe was performed at the Opéra on 1 February 1787 and hailed as his masterpiece. The work formed a standard part of the repertory until 1830 with 583 performances.

SCHLECHT, Franz Xaver (c.1730-1782) - Messa Solenne 'S. beati conf' (1782)

Franz Xaver Schlecht (c.1730-1782) - Messa Solenne 'S. beati conf' (1782)

[The mass was completed by Andreas Heichlinger (1746-1809) after Franz Xaver Schlecht's death]

Performers: Cornelia Götz (sopran); Yvonne Albes (alt); Hаns-Jürgen Schöpflin (tenor); Richаrd Anlauf (bass);

Camerata Vocalis der Universität Tübingеn; Chor der Universitat Jena; Sinfonieorchester Bаden-Bаden; 

Alexander Sumskі (conductor)

Painting: Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1724-1796) - Allegorie auf die Weltmission des Jesuitenordens (1760)

Further info: Franz Xaver Schlecht (c.1730-1782) - Lauretanische Litanei

---

Franz Xaver Schlecht

(Wemding, c.1730 - Eichstätt, 16 February 1782)

German composer. Following an early education at Salem monastery in Bavaria, he studied law at Salzburg University, intending to enter the Benedictine order. By 1770, however, he was appointed as Kapellmeister at the main church in the town of Eichstätt, where he remained his entire career. His musical works were written in the prevalent church style, with florid instrumental parts and homophonic choruses. These include around 35 Masses, five vespers, three offertories, a Passion, several hymns, a string quartet, and a sonata. 

 ---

Andreas Heichlinger

(Grossköz, 26 November 1746 - Salem Priory, 4 September 1809)

German composer. He probably received early lessons by local monastic schools and he took his vows in the Cistercian monastery in Salem in 1765. Ten years later he was appointed prior. Even his life is mostly unknown, his role on the music development in Salem was highly praised: "He held the office of head-master of the monastic school for many years. He was an excellent organist and composer and in an outstanding manner he did a great service in Salem". His music consists of eight sacred songs, four Masses, a pair of cantatas, and two antiphons. 

SMITH, Theodore (c.1740-c.1810) - (Pianoforte) Concerto Ex B (1782)

Theodore Smith (c.1740-c.1810) - (Pianoforte) Concerto Ex B (1782)

Performers: Harald Hoeren (fortepiano); Sephira Ensemble Stuttgart

Drawing: Laurie & Whittle - Concert of vocal & instrumental music, or the rising generation of Orpheus

Further info: Musik Aus Den Archiven Hohenloher Schlösser

---

Theodore (Theodor) Smith [Schmidt]

(c.1740 - c.1810)

German composer and keyboard player, active mainly in England. Fétis gave his birthplace as Hanover, and Gerber identified him with Theodor Schmidt, who published symphonies in Paris about 1765. As ‘T. Smith’ he made his London début at Hickford’s Room on 17 March 1766, performing a harpsichord concerto. He joined the Royal Society of Musicians on 1 February 1767; his name is spelt ‘Theodor Smith’ in their records, and on the title-page of his Alfred, but later he preferred ‘Theodore’. After another concert at Hickford’s Room on 21 May 1767, during which his Sinfonia concertante for violin and cello was performed, his musical activities shifted to the theatres and pleasure gardens, influenced by his marriage, about 1768, to the singer Maria Harris. She had been a pupil of Thomas Linley, and Smith composed a set of Vauxhall songs for her in 1769. ‘Mrs Smith’ made her acclaimed theatrical début with Garrick’s company at Drury Lane as Sylvia in Cymon (20 October 1772). She went on to perform in many productions there, including Arne’s The Rose, Garrick’s adaptation of Hamlet (as Ophelia), and Dibdin’s The Wedding Ring and A Christmas Tale. When Garrick rewrote Thomson’s masque Alfred for a production on 9 October 1773, he asked Smith to compose new music, paying him £26 5s. Smith wrote an excellent overture in the style of J.C. Bach and five attractive songs, including a fine coloratura aria sung by his wife in the role of Emma. Performances also included songs Arne had written for the original production in 1740 and some Burney wrote for the 1751 revival under the name ‘Temple of Apollo’. Arne and Drury Lane’s house composer Dibdin were enraged at Garrick’s bringing in, without consulting them, a composer who had had no theatrical experience, and Arne published an advertisement disclaiming responsibility for the music. Dibdin’s complaint drew an angry reply from Garrick (6 October 1773) which, however, is somewhat devious about Smith’s contribution. 

According to Mrs Papendiek, Maria Smith left Theodore and eloped in the summer of 1774: ‘a Mr Bishop took her off, and when the first shock had subsided, he prevailed upon Smith to accept a sum of money and be silent, for his wife would never return to him, and he, Bishop, would marry her’. If this story is true then it must have happened some time later than 1774, for the Smiths christened a son on 10 January 1776. That year Smith also composed an overture and new songs for Thomas Hull’s farce The Spanish Lady, revived for his wife’s benefit at Drury Lane on 9 April 1776. Around this time, however, Smith did lose interest in writing vocal music, and lived mainly by teaching. From 1779 onwards he published several sets of ‘duets for two performers on one harpsichord or piano forte’, with three sonatas in each set. The first was by far the most successful, perhaps because it was much the easiest to play; there were several reprints in London and one in Berlin. Smith’s first set of concertos also appeared in Berlin, and he may have lived there for a short time around 1780. Smith also wrote at least 27 keyboard sonatas, some with flute or violin accompaniment. It seems that Smith never remarried. He took a job teaching in a Chiswick girls’ school for the poor reason that he wanted an occasional glimpse of his ex-wife when she went there to see her daughter. From moping he fell to bitterness: years later William Horsley reported that during his lessons with Smith in the 1790s he ‘received small instruction and much ill usage’. By 1795 Smith was organist at Ebury Chapel in London (near Sloane Square), for which he published a collection of psalms, hymns and anthems (two of them by Arnold and Avison). The Sacro Divertimento, published about 1800, was apparently intended as a full evening’s entertainment in the chapel; a long organ sonata is followed by a number of short anthems and hymns, together with an extract from Handel’s Messiah.

ALBINONI, Tomaso (1671-1751) - Concerto (III) a cinque (1722)

Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751) - Concerto (III) a cinque in Fa maggiore, Opera Nona (1722)

Performers: Zеfіro ensemble

Painting: Hendrick Goovaerts (1669-1720) - A party with music and actors entertaining the company (c.1710)

Further info: Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (1671-1751) - Trattenimenti armonici (c.1712)

---

Tomaso Giovanni (Zuane) Albinoni

(Venice, 8 June 1671 - Venice, 17 January 1751)

Italian composer. His father, Antonio Albinoni, was a stationer and manufacturer of playing cards who owned several shops in Venice and some landed property. As well as completing his apprenticeship as a stationer, Tomaso, the eldest son, learnt the violin and took singing lessons; his teachers are not known. Despite his talent he was not tempted on reaching adulthood to seek a post in church or court, preferring to remain a dilettante – a man of independent means who delighted himself (and others) through music. As a composer he first had an unsuccessful flirtation with church music. A mass for three unaccompanied male voices is the sole survivor of this episode; juvenile infelicities abound, yet it clearly shows his penchant for contrapuntal pattern-weaving. In 1694 Albinoni had two successes in fields for which his musical training had probably better prepared him: an opera (Zenobia, regina de' Palmireni) was staged at the Teatro di SS Giovanni e Paolo at the beginning of 1694, and his op.1, 12 trio sonatas, was published by Sala. Instrumental ensemble music (sonatas and concertos) and secular vocal music (operas and solo cantatas) were to be his two areas of activity in a remarkably long career as a composer which terminated 47 years later with a prematurely entitled ‘oeuvre posthume’ (six violin sonatas, c.1740) and the opera Artamene (1741). It has been suggested that Albinoni briefly served Ferdinando Carlo di Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, as a chamber musician immediately before 1700, but the only biographical evidence is Albinoni's description of himself on the title-page of his Sinfonie e concerti a cinque op.2 (1700) as ‘servo’ of the duke, the work's dedicatee. Albinoni more probably used the word for an honorary or even merely idealized attachment; he may have met Ferdinando Carlo on one of the duke's frequent visits to the Venetian opera houses. Albinoni's theatrical works soon began to be staged in other Italian cities, the first being Rodrigo in Algeri (Naples, 1702). 

He visited Florence to direct performances, as leader of the orchestra, of a new opera, Griselda, in 1703, and may have stayed there for a time, as another opera, Aminta, followed later in the year. In 1705 Albinoni married in Milan the operatic soprano Margherita Raimondi. In 1699, when she was about 15, she had appeared in Draghi's Amor per vita at S Salvatore, Venice. After her marriage she continued to appear intermittently on the stage (despite raising six children) and travelled as far as Munich, where she sang in Torri's Lucio Vero in 1720. She died in 1721. In 1709 Antonio Albinoni died. Under the terms of his will (1705), Tomaso inherited a token share of the family business (one shop), the principal management being left to two younger brothers, who had to give him a third of the revenue. This renunciation of an elder son's normal rights and responsibilities reflects Tomaso's total commitment to music by this date. From c.1710 Albinoni styled himself ‘musico di violino’, as if to emphasize his independence. In 1722 Albinoni's career reached its zenith. He had just composed a set of 12 concertos – his most imposing to date – and had dedicated them to the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian II Emanuel. Now he was invited to Munich to superintend performances of his opera I veri amici and a smaller stage work, Il trionfo d'amore, both in celebration of the marriage of Karl Albrecht, the electoral prince, to Maria Amalia, younger daughter of the late Emperor Joseph I. From the 1720s Albinoni's operas were frequently performed outside Italy, though in many cases they were adapted or supplemented to suit local needs. Pimpinone, a set of comic intermezzos which had originally appeared with Astarto in 1708, was especially popular. However, Albinoni gradually composed fewer new works in both operatic and instrumental fields. He seems to have retired after 1741. His death notice dated 17 January 1751.

SCHWEITZER, Anton (1735-1787) - Sinfonia (D-Dur) à 6 voci (c.1782)

Anton Schweitzer (1735-1787) - Sinfonia (D-Dur) à 6 voci (c.1782)

Performers: Thüringen PhiIharmonie; Hermann Breuer (conductor)

Drawing: Augustin de Saint-Aubin (1736-1807) - Le Concert

Further info: Schweitzer : Arias et Oeuvres Orchestrales

---

Anton Schweitzer

(Coburg, bap. 6 June 1735 - Gotha, 23 November 1787)

German composer. As a young man he served the Duke of Hildburghausen as chamber musician. To groom him in composition, the duke sent him to Bayreuth (1758) and later Italy (1764-66), after which he promoted him to Kapellmeister. When financial pressures forced the duke to dissolve his opera company in 1769, Schweitzer found employment as music director of the itinerant theatrical company of Abel Seyler, which was just beginning to add German operas to its spoken offerings. Schweitzer’s first work for the Seyler company, the one-act occasional piece Elysium (1770), gained considerable popularity as a musical afterpiece and was published in vocal score in 1774. He composed other celebratory pieces on mythological themes, but also comic operas. Seyler sent his music director on an expedition to recruit new singers in order to expand and elevate his musical productions in directions towards which Schweitzer’s music clearly pointed. By a stroke of good fortune, the music-loving Duchess Anna Amalia of Saxe-Weimar engaged Seyler’s company at this time (1771), and Schweitzer’s ambitions were at last given full rein. A heated rivalry with the duchess’s leading musician (later Kapellmeister), Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, flared up immediately. Through a series of bold new works composed in collaboration with major writers, Schweitzer quickly established himself as the superior figure. While Wolf continued composing the Hillerian comic operas in which the duchess delighted, Schweitzer turned to the witty, more urbane tone of F.W. Gotter’s farce Die Dorfgala (1772). On a more elevated plane, he composed not only celebratory dramas but also several dramatic ballets for the birthdays of the duchess and her sons, Karl Eugen and Konstantin. Two other experiments at Weimar opened new vistas for the German theatre. In May 1772 the Seyler company gave the première of the first German melodrama, Schweitzer’s setting of a translation of Rousseau’s Pygmalion.

A year later it was able to mount a serious five-act opera in German, Christoph Martin Wieland’s Alceste, the achievement for which Schweitzer is chiefly remembered. Theatrical collaboration between Schweitzer and Wieland had begun in mid-1772 with the dramatic ballet Idris und Zenide and continued that year with two dramatic prologues of Metastasian stamp, Aurora and Die Wahl des Herkules. When Wieland proposed the Alceste project to the duchess, he insisted that Schweitzer and not Wolf compose it. A brilliant success at Weimar, Alceste made its way quickly to many other German stages, establishing at a stroke seria-style opera in German as a musical reality. After Alceste Schweitzer began work on a new melodrama, Ariadne auf Naxos, adapted from a cantata text by H.W. von Gerstenberg by a member of the Seyler company, Johann Christian Brandes, in order to display the talents of his wife Charlotte. The work was only partly complete when a fire destroyed the Hoftheater at Weimar in May 1774. The Seyler troupe, by now one of the most respected in Germany, was immediately engaged by Duke Ernst II at the nearby court of Gotha. There Schweitzer found a far more formidable rival than Wolf in the court Kapellmeister Georg Benda. Benda supplanted Schweitzer almost immediately as the chief purveyor of important new dramatic compositions. Schweitzer’s main compositional challenge during these years came from elsewhere. The success of Alceste in 1775 at Schwetzingen and Mannheim prompted the Palatine court to commission another serious opera from Wieland and Schweitzer in 1777. He remained in Gotha as Benda’s successor after the latter resigned as the duke’s Kapellmeister in 1778. The Hoftheater was disbanded in September of the following year. Early in 1780 Benda remarked acidly in a letter to the composer F.W. Rust: ‘For the labours one now demands of a Kapellmeister here my successor Schweitzer is quite good, for he has nothing to do and does just that’.

DE JERUSALEM, Ignacio (1707-1769) - Cantata 'Al Combate' (1760)

Ignacio de Jerusalem (1707-1769) - Cantata 'Al Combate' (1760)

Performers: Elda Peralta (mezzo-soprano); Eleanor Ranney-Mendoza (soprano); Sandro Naglia (tenor); Alexander Edgemon (counter-tenor); Vince Wallace (bass); Choir and Orchestra Chicago Arts; Javier José Mendoza (conductor)

Map: Johann Baptist Homann (1663-1724) - Regni Mexicani Novae Hispaniae Ludoviciana, N. Angliae. (1720)

Further info: Ignacio de Jerusalem (1707-1769) - Matins of Virgin of Guadalupe

---

Ignacio (Ignazio) Jerusalem [Gerusalemme, Hyerusalem, Hierusalem]

(Lecce, 3 June 1707 - Mexico City, 15 December 1769)

Mexican composer and violinist of Italian birth. His father, Matteo Martino Gerusalemme, was a violinist at the Jesuit church in Lecce. In 1742, while active as a theatre musician in Cádiz, Ignazio was persuaded to leave for Mexico City by Josef Cárdenas, the administrator of the Real Hospital de Naturales. Jerusalem and his companions, who included singers, dancers and instrumentalists, began arriving at Mexico City at the end of 1743. Jerusalem became director of the Coliseo, where he established a reputation as a gifted composer. In June 1746 he entered the service of Mexico City Cathedral, composing villancicos and teaching at the Colegio de Infantes. Jerusalem found himself at loggerheads with Domingo Dutra, an indifferent musician who had been the cathedral’s interim maestro de capilla since 1739, when Zumaya left. Dutra had proved inept as both composer and choir director, and in 1749 the chapter moved to force him into retirement. In April 1750 Jerusalem applied for the post and after a rigorous examination was appointed maestro de capilla on 3 November 1750. The capilla flourished under his guidance. According to Juan de Viera, writing in 1777, Jerusalem directed the orchestra and choir in musical performances nearly every day, and ‘the Music Chapel [was] the most select, skilful and knowledgeable of the chapels in America’. Viera overheard a group of Europeans saying that ‘such magnificence is not to be found in Toledo or Seville’, and that ‘they seemed to be more like a choir of angels than of humans’. Soon after Jerusalem’s appointment as maestro de capilla his health failed, and he also had to confront a threat to his economic security in the early 1750s, when he complained that musicians from other parishes and churches were usurping fees that previously he had received for funerals, processions and other special occasions.

Jerusalem’s Matins service for Maundy Thursday 1753 scored a success that was still remembered decades later, but during the next couple of years he faced three major crises. The first was at the Coliseo. As he ascended in the cathedral hierarchy Jerusalem shed his obligations to the Coliseo, until he finally resigned altogether. Simultaneously he was brought before the cathedral chapter on yet another charge. His wife Antonia had gone to live with her brother and was asking that the chapter pay him some of her husband’s wages. Jerusalem defended himself, saying that much of the debt owed to the Coliseo had been incurred by his wife; he pleaded with the chapter not to withhold his wages and entreated them to help with professional expenses, observing that he personally had been paying the poet and copyist for his major compositions. The third scandal of this period concerned Tollis de la Roca’s appointment at the cathedral, to which Jerusalem strongly objected. Jerusalem went to great lengths to ensure the establishment of Tollis’s second-class status in the cathedral hierarchy. In spite of a life marked by turmoil and questionable decisions, Jerusalem made a series of clear-headed musical reforms that influenced Mexican music for the rest of the century. He advocated the sole use of modern notation and the abandonment of white notation still employed in New World cathedrals. He insisted on a measure of literary reform, expressing particular displeasure in 1753 with the obtuse poetry of Francisco de Selma, who had been supplying texts in the New World for 33 years after leaving his native Segovia. The last ten years of Jerusalem’s life were extremely productive and tranquil. On his death the cathedral chapter acknowledged Jerusalem’s faithful service and compiled an inventory of the music he had composed. His works continued to be used in Mexico City for many years.

HOOK, James (1746-1827) - Concerto (in D) for the Organ (1771)

James Hook (1746-1827) - Concerto (in D) for the Organ, No.5 Op.1 (1771)

Performers: Stеphеn Fаrr (organ); London Bаch Consort

Painting: Lemuel Francis Abbott (1760-1803) - James Hook

Further info: James Hook (1746-1827) - Six Flute Trios Op. 83

---

James Hook

(Norwich, 3 June 1746 - Boulogne, 1827)

English composer. He was born in the parish of St John, Maddermarket, the son of James Hook, razor-grinder and cutler. He was born with a club foot; early surgical operations improved the condition and, according to Parke, ‘he could walk in a limping manner tolerably well’. Hook showed remarkable musical talent at an early age, being able to play the harpsichord at the age of four and performing concertos in public at six. For a time he was taught by Thomas Garland, the Cathedral organist, and before he was eight he had composed songs and his first opera. This was considered by connoisseurs as an ‘extraordinary instance of infantine genius’, but the music is lost. Hook’s father died in 1758 and his mother carried on the cutlery business. From 13 November 1756 fairly regular advertisments appeared in the Norwich Mercury for concerts at which Hook performed concertos, many of which were benefit concerts. Hook employed his talents in various ways at this time, including teaching, composing, transcribing music and tuning keyboard instruments. At some time between June 1763 and February 1764 Hook moved to London. His first position was that of organist at White Conduit House, Pentonville, one of the many tea gardens that abounded in 18th-century London. He began to make a name for himself as an organist, teacher and composer of light, attractive music, particularly songs. On 29 May 1766 Hook married Elizabeth Jane Madden at St Pancras Old Church. His wife was both talented and artistic. She was a painter, provided the libretto for Hook’s opera The Double Disguise (1784) and the verses for some Vauxhall songs, and produced the designs and floral decorations for the pillars in the orchestra at Vauxhall’s Jubilee celebrations in 1786. Hook’s songs began to be regularly performed at the main London pleasure gardens and the first of his many song collections for the gardens at Marylebone and Vauxhall was published in 1767.

In May 1767 he had applied unsuccessfully for the post of organist for the united parishes of St Matthew Friday Street and St Peter Westcheap, but before 6 September 1772 he had been appointed organist of St Johns Horselydown, Bermondsey. In 1768 he was appointed organist and composer to Marylebone Gardens. He was also in demand to open new organs, both in London and in nearby counties. Contemporary Norwich newspapers show him to have been still performing in concerts around Norwich, frequently playing many of his own compositions. He continued his keyboard teaching and it is said that his income from this source alone amounted to over £600 per annum. Hook remained at Marylebone Gardens until the end of the 1773 season and in 1774 was engaged in a similar capacity at Vauxhall Gardens, a position he retained until 1820... Throughout this time he composed operas, the majority of which were produced at Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres. His son James Hook (1772-1828) provided the librettos for Jack of Newbury (1795) and Diamond Cut Diamond (1797). On 20 March 1776 Hook’s only oratorio, The Ascension, was performed at Covent Garden. His second son, Theodore Edward Hook (1788-1841), wrote the words for many of Hook’s songs and between 1805 and 1809 provided the librettos for eight of Hook’s operas. He later became the ghost writer for Michael Kelly’s Reminiscences (1826). On 18 October 1805 Hook’s wife died, and a year later, on 4 November 1806, he married his second wife, Harriet Horncastle James. It is not known why Hook left his position at Vauxhall after almost a half century of service there; his departure was sudden and surprising: ‘so little was his abrupt retirement expected or understood, that the proprietor of the [gardens] kept his station in the band open for him, during one entire season’. He died in Boulogne in 1827 and his music library was sold at Puttick & Simpson’s on 30 January 1874. 

FIORILLO, Federigo (1753-1823) - Simphonie concertante en Fa majeur

Federigo Fiorillo (1753-1823) - Simphonie concertante en Fa majeur

Performers: Julia Girdwood (oboe); City of London Sinfonia; Nicholas Ward (conductor)

Painting: Alexandre-Jean Noël (1752-1834) - Le Pont de la Tournelle, l’île Saint-Louis, l’île Louviers (1780)

Further info: Federigo Fiorillo (1753-1823) - Sinfonie Concertante

---

Federigo Fiorillo

(Brunswick, 1 June 1755 - after 1823)

Italian violinist, viola player and composer, son of Ignazio Fiorillo (1715-1787). He reportedly first became proficient on the mandolin and only later turned to the violin. He had probably been touring for some time before his first recorded appearance as a violinist in St Petersburg in 1777. He was in Poland from 1780 to 1781, playing both the violin and the mandolin, and from 1782 to 1784 he was conductor at Riga. In 1785 he played with considerable success at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, and the first of his numerous published works appeared shortly thereafter. He apparently remained in Paris for three years and then went to London, where in 1788 he began to play regularly as viola player in Salomon’s quartet. According to Fétis his last public appearance was as soloist in a viola concerto in 1794, but the title-page of his op.29 (trios for flute, violin and viola), published some time between 1802 and 1811, indicates that he continued to play at some public occasions. His works continued to appear from various publishers throughout Europe until about 1817. According to one report, he left London in 1815, and Pohl stated that he spent some time in Amsterdam. It is possible, however, that he remained in London until 1823, when he went to Paris to undergo an operation. Fétis learnt from Fiorillo’s publisher Sieber that he returned to London after his treatment. Fiorillo’s works appear to be both conservative and conventional. His violin compositions reflect a virtuoso’s technique, but he chose to direct a large part of his prolific creativity (more than 70 opus numbers and some 200 works) towards current fashions, such as light piano pieces, divertimentos and arrangements of popular songs. Unquestionably, he succeeded with the public; his publications appeared in multiple editions throughout most of Europe. As a result, conflicting opus numbers are common, and his total output is in need of bibliographic clarification. Although great surprises are not likely to emerge, it is not possible to judge Fiorillo’s achievement based on our present knowledge. Such present-day fame as he has rests almost entirely on one work, his 36 caprices for violin. These are études of good musical quality, and they have taken their place in the violinist’s pedagogical repertory beside those of Rode and Kreutzer.