HOTTETERRE, Jacques-Martin (1673-1763) - Suite pour la flûte-traversière avec la basse (c.1715)

Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1673-1763) - Suite pour la flûte-traversière avec la basse (c.1715)

Performers: Gеnеvièvе Nοufflаrd (flute); Marie-Thérèsе Hеurtiеr (cello); Laurence Boulay (1925-2007, cembalo)

Painting: Charles-Joseph Flipart (1721-1797) - The hour of the masked ball

Further info: Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1673-1763) - Sonates en trio (1712)

---

Jacques (Martin) Hotteterre [‘le Romain’]

(Paris, 29 September 1673 - Paris, 16 July 1763)

French composer. Son of Martin Hotteterre (c.1635-1712). He was the most celebrated member of the family, and had a brilliant career as a player, teacher and composer. Several years before his mother's death in 1708, Jacques's father gave him 3000 livres to acquire the post of ‘grand hautbois du roy’. He obtained the reversion of the post of ‘flutte de la chambre de roy’ on 26 August 1717 (for 6000 livres) on the retirement of René Pignon Descoteaux, although he is referred to as such on the title page of his Premier livre de pièces, published nine years earlier. In 1747 his court posts passed to his eldest son, Jean-Baptiste Hotteterre (1732-1770), a maker and player of woodwind instruments. On 2 January 1763 Jacques's daughter, Marie-Geneviève, married the organist Claude-Bénigne Balbastre; the many signatures of illustrious musicians and aristocrats on the contract testify to Jacques's high social standing at the end of his life. His estate included several grand houses in Paris, his wealth derived from family inheritance and marriage as well as his popularity as a teacher of amateurs of the fashionable world. The frontispiece of his Principes de la flûte traversière is presumed to be a portrait of him, playing a three-piece flute from his father's workshop. Titon du Tillet (Orchestre de Parnasse, 1743) placed him among the most important musicians of France. If he did make flutes, as is claimed in the diary of J.F.A. von Uffenbach (1715), it was probably in association with the family workshop on the rue de Harlay; neither the inventory taken at his marriage nor that taken after his death list woodwind instruments or tools for their manufacture. The inventory of Jacques's music library contained within his marriage contract defines his circle of musical influence. Jacques drew upon these composers' music for examples in L'art de préluder and Méthode pour la musette, which consists of 32 pages of popular songs and dances, especially brunettes, vaudevilles and airs. Lully's music is prominent in his settings for transverse flutes of Airs et brunettes à deux et trois dessus.

Equally at home in both the French and Italian styles, his nickname ‘le Romain’ underscores his association with Italian music which is apparent in his arrangements of Italian sonatas by Robert Valentine and Francesco Torelio, and his Sonates en trio reflecting the manner of Corelli. The introductory comments to Principes and to the Premier livre de piéces, which contain the first pieces to be published for two unaccompanied flutes, make clear his intentions to dedicate his musical career to establishing a pedagogy, performing practice and repertory for the transverse flute which he described as ‘one of the most pleasant and one of the most fashionable instruments’. That he allowed for his music to be played on other treble instruments was but a practical way of broadening his audience. In 1715 he published a second book of Pièces which marked the first appearance of multi-movement works for flute and bass designated as sonatas, and also brought out a new edition of the Premier livre. Jacques's music and theoretical works remained popular throughout his long career, even though by the time he married in 1728 he was approaching retirement, while Blavet, his successor as France's leading flautist, had just published his op.1, six sonatas for transverse flute, signalling the end of the era of the three-piece baroque flute, the instrument for which Jacques's music was written, and the rise of the four-piece flute with corps de rechange. Jacques confirmed his continued attachment to the charm of the musette and its aristocratic associations with the publication in 1722 of La guerre, pièce de musette followed by his highly acclaimed Méthode pour la musette in 1737. That year his nephew, E.P. Chédeville, a musette maker and composer, acquired the post of hautbois et musette de Poitou from J.S. Mangot, the brother-in-law of Rameau who had acquired it from Jacques's brother, Jean Hotteterre (c.1666-1720).

MATTHESON, Johann (1681-1764) - Suite in G-moll (c.1705)

Johann Mattheson (1681-1764) - Suite in G-moll (c.1705)

Performers: Richаrd Egаrr (cembalo); Pаtrick Ayrtοn (cembalo)

Engraving: Johann Jakob Haid (1704-1767) - Johann Mattheson

Further info: Johann Mattheson (1681-1764) - Das grosste Kind & Brockes Passion

---

Johann Mattheson

(Hamburg, 28 September 1681 - Hamburg, 17 April 1764)

German composer, critic, music journalist, lexicographer and theorist. He was the third and only surviving son of Johann Mattheson, a Hamburg tax collector, and Margaretha Höling of Rendsburg (Holstein). Details of Mattheson’s life come largely from his autobiography published in the Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte. His education was exceptionally broad, perhaps because his parents hoped he would gain a position in Hamburg society. At the Johanneum he received a substantial background in the liberal arts, including musical instruction from Kantor Joachim Gerstenbüttel. He also had private instruction in dancing, drawing, arithmetic, riding, fencing, and English, French and Italian. At six he began private music lessons, studying the keyboard and composition for four years with J.N. Hanff, taking singing lessons from a local musician named Woldag and instruction on the gamba, violin, flute, oboe and lute. At nine Mattheson was a child prodigy, performing on the organ and singing in Hamburg churches. His unusual talent attracted the court circle and he was frequently asked to play and sing. Having previously sung mainly in the chorus and in minor roles, Mattheson made his solo début in female roles when the opera company visited Kiel in 1696. By the following year his voice had changed, and he began to take tenor roles in which he had considerable success up to 1705. Mattheson led an exceedingly rich musical life in these 15 years with the Hamburg opera; he sang and conducted rehearsals under such composers as J.G. Conradi, J.S. Kusser and Reinhard Keiser. He testified to learning the new, Italian manner of singing from Kusser. In 1699 he wrote and had performed his first opera, Die Plejades. Mattheson met Handel in 1703, and a mutually beneficial friendship developed over the next three years: Mattheson said that he influenced the growth of Handel’s musical style, particularly by teaching him how to compose in the dramatic style; he also probably obtained for Handel a position in the opera orchestra as second violinist and harpsichordist. 

During his professional career Mattheson not only performed in some 65 new operas but wrote several of his own. He became a virtuoso organist and found time to become involved in numerous social and musical activities, including teaching. In 1703 he was invited (as was Handel) to apply for the position of organist to succeed Dietrich Buxtehude at the Marienkirche in Lübeck. Mattheson and Handel travelled together to Lübeck for the auditions. They both turned down the position. Mattheson also declined invitations to other important positions as organist, including one at the Pfarrkirche in Haarlem and, as successor to the distinguished J.A. Reincken, at the Catharinenkirche in Hamburg. In 1704 Mattheson became a tutor of Cyrill Wich, son of the English ambassador to Hamburg, Sir John Wich. This position was the turning point in his career, offering him employment with social status and a considerable salary. He proved himself so capable that in January 1706 he was made secretary to Sir John Wich, a position he retained for most of his life, continuing with the same responsibilities when Wich’s son was appointed his father’s successor in 1715. In 1709 Mattheson married Catharina Jennings (?-1753), daughter of an English minister. In 1715 he became music director of Hamburg Cathedral. He was forced to resign this position in 1728, primarily as the result of increasing deafness; he was completely deaf by 1735. In 1719 Mattheson was appointed Kapellmeister to the court of the Duke of Holstein. During the extraordinarily productive years between 1715 and 1740 he wrote not only numerous important scores and treatises but also many translations from English of books. He also translated several English histories, novels and philosophical works, and produced a steady flow of articles for journals published in Hamburg. In 1741 Mattheson received the title of Legation Secretary to the Duke of Holstein, and in 1744 was promoted to ‘Legations-Rat’. After the death of his wife, he decided to donate the bulk of a considerable fortune, some 44,000 marks, to the Michaeliskirche in Hamburg for the rebuilding of the great organ destroyed by fire. He requested that in return he and his wife be buried in the church.

RAMEAU, Jean-Philippe (1683-1764) - Suite from 'Les Surprises de l'Amour'

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) - Suite from 'Les Surprises de l'Amour' (1748)

Performers: Lamoreux Orchestra; Marcel Couraud (1912-1986, conductor)

Painting: Dans le goût de Jacques-André-Joseph Aved (1702-1766) - Portrait de Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

Further info: Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) - Deus Noster refugium

---

Jean-Philippe Rameau

(Dijon, bap. 25 September 1683 - Paris, 12 September 1764)

French composer and theorist. He was one of the greatest figures in French musical history, a theorist of European stature and France's leading 18th-century composer. He made important contributions to the cantata, the motet and, more especially, keyboard music, and many of his dramatic compositions stand alongside those of Lully and Gluck as the pinnacles of pre-Revolutionary French opera. Details about Rameau’s life before 1722, when he moved permanently from Dijon to Paris, are sketchy, partly owing to his own reticence. He was the seventh child and eldest surviving son of Jean Rameau, organist in Dijon, and Claudine Demartinécourt. He may have studied music with the organist at the Sainte Chapelle in Dijon, Claude Derey, and he eventually enrolled in the Jesuit Collège des Godrans, where he first encountered musical theater. In 1701 or 1702, he spent a brief time in Italy and then took up the post of organist of the Clermont Cathedral in May 1702. Next, he moved to Paris in 1706, became organist at the Jesuit Collège Louis-le- Grand and to the Pères de la Merci, and published Premier Livre de Pièces de Clavecin. In 1709, he returned to Dijon to succeed his father as organist of Notre Dame and then to Lyons in 1713 to be chief organist of the city. In 1715, he was reappointed at Clermont Cathedral, where he began work on the Traité de l’Harmonie. His first decade in Paris was consumed with publishing his new book, which would become famous all over Europe, two more collections of keyboard music in 1724 and 1729, and teaching. Oddly, Rameau was not able to secure a major position as organist anywhere in Paris until 1732, when he became organist at Sainte Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie. He married a talented singer, 19-year-old Marie-Louis Mangot, on 25 February 1726. She would bear him four children and sing in some of his operas. Rameau’s first attempt at a full-scale opera, Hippolyte et Aricie, opened in 1733 and immediately ignited that kind of intellectual controversy that could only happen in France.

His proponents, the ramistes, admired the opera’s adventurous harmonies and more realistic dramaturgy, while the opposing lullistes, motivated perhaps by jealousy and fear that their namesake might be eclipsed, railed against its Italianisms and harmonic complexity. The controversy persisted through the 1730s and encompassed Rameau’s second opera, Les Indes Galantes, which saw 64 performances in two years, and especially his fifth, Dardanus. From sometime in the mid-1730s until 1753, Rameau was attached to the household of one of the richest men in France, Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinière. La Poupelinière, a financier, was a great patron of the arts and all manner of writers, actors, and cultural figures would meet at his house. The attachment advanced Rameau’s operatic career considerably, since he met some of his many librettists there. After a fallow period in the early 1740s, Rameau seems to have caught the attention of the French court. In 1745, he received three commissions for theater works, including the opera for the Dauphin’s wedding, La Princesse de Navarre, with a libretto of Voltaire. On May 4, he was rewarded with an annual pension of 2,000 livres and the title compositeur de la musique de la chambre du roy, a singular honor for a musician not officially appointed at the court. These commissions began a train of nine works for the stage composed between 1745 and 1749. Rameau’s operas so dominated Paris at this time that the management of the Paris opera felt compelled to restrict the offerings of Rameau to only two operas per year, in order to give younger composers a chance. Despite his fame as a thinker about music, Rameau was never elected to the Académie Royale des Sciences, a disappointment. Five months before his death, however, he did receive a patent of nobility from the king, and he died a comparatively wealthy man three weeks after falling ill with a fever. Many memorial services in Paris, Dijon, and other provincial cities followed. The first, at the Pères de l’Oratoire on 27 September 1764, included as many as 180 musicians and was attended by over 1,000 mourners.

VEJVANOVSKY, Pavel Josef (1633-1693) - Missa Salvatoris (1677)

Pavel Josef Vejvanovský (1633-1693) - Missa Salvatoris 4 Voces in Conc (1677)

Performers: DRS Singers; Cappella Musica Antica; Christoph Cajöri (conductor)

Painting: Bon Boullogne (1649-1717) - La Justice assure la Paix et protège les Arts (c.1688)

Further info: Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky: Missa Salvatoris

---

Pavel Josef (Paul Joseph) Vejvanovský [Weiwanowsky, Wegwanowsky, et al.]

(Hukvaldy or Hlučín, 1633 - Kroměříž, bur. 24 September 1693)

Moravian composer, trumpeter and music copyist. He studied at the Jesuit college at Opava, where he is mentioned in a register of students from 1656 to 1660. At this time he became acquainted with H.I.F. von Biber and P.J. Rittler and started to compose. A letter of 15 June 1661 records his appointment as a trumpeter to the administrator E.F. Castelle, who directed activities at the court of the Prince-Bishop of Olomouc, Leopold Wilhelm (a son of Emperor Ferdinand II), who spent much of his time away from Olomouc. Throughout his life Vejvanovský used the title of Feldtrompeter, although he was not qualified to do so. He remained at Kroměříž and in 1664 entered the service of the new prince-bishop, Karl Liechtenstein-Castelcorno, as principal trumpeter and as Kapellmeister; his duties also included the copying of music, and many sets of parts in his hand survive. He possessed his own valuable music collection, and was mainly responsible for the formation of the famous one belonging to the bishop. He seems to have been on very close personal terms with his patron and was one of the highest paid court servants: with a salary in 1690 of 180 florins, he ranked third in the list of the prince-bishop's establishment and is described in various documents as ‘Hof-und Feldtrompeter’. He appears also to have been director of the choir at the collegiate church of St Mořice, where many of his works were performed during his 32 years at Kroměříž. The record of his burial states that he was ‘about 60 years old’ at his death. All of Vejvanovský's surviving works are found at Kroměříž. Of the 137 works noted in the music inventory from 1695, 127 are complete or in sketches; many doubtful works also exist. Since he played the trumpet it is no surprise to find that he made considerable use of it. In both vocal and instrumental music he wrote for trumpets and trombones in a manner technically superior to that of most of his contemporaries. An exception among them was J.H. Schmelzer, whom Vejvanovský knew and with whom he may well have studied for a time, since his music shows many traits of the school of Schmelzer and others associated with the court of Emperor Leopold I in Vienna. In his trumpet writing he sometimes called for a tromba brevis, which was tuned a tone higher than the normal trumpet. The Missa clamantium (1683) includes the direction ‘two clarinos may be added ad libitum, but they ought to be one tone higher’. In conjunction with information from contemporary German and Italian sources, these specifications can doubtless be interpreted as references to the smaller variety of trumpet known as the tromba piccola or tromba gallica, which was in D rather than C (the usual tuning for military trumpets). One of Vejvanovský's most exceptional pieces of trumpet writing is the church sonata (IV/43), for solo trumpet, strings and continuo, that bears the reference ‘Be mollis’, alluding to what for a trumpet was an unusual tonality. As in a number of other instances, Vejvanovský cleverly employed here the lowered 7th harmonic of a natural trumpet and used several non-harmonic notes to score for the instrument in G minor rather than in the more usual key of C major. In many of his works it is possible to detect the influence of old modal music compositions, including the melody of the Austrian Christmas song Joseph lieber, Joseph mein, once thought to be a Czech folksong.

FILS, Anton (1733-1760) - Sinfonia ex E moli (c.1757)

Anton Fils (1733-1760) - Sinfonia ex E moli (c.1757)

Performers: Vienna Radio Orchestra; Gabor Otvos (conductor)

Map: Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724) - Eichstätt und Umgebung in Vogelschau (c.1720)

Further info: Johann Anton Fils (1733-1760) - Missa Solemnis in C

---

(Johann) Anton Fils [Filtz, Filz]

(Eichstätt, bap. 22 September 1733 - Mannheim, bur. 14 March 1760) 

German composer and cellist. Long thought to be of Bohemian origin, despite Marpurg's designation of him in 1756 as ‘from Bavaria’, he was found in the 1960s to have been born in Eichstätt, where his father, Johann Georg Fils, was a cellist at the prince-bishop's court from 1732 until his death in 1749. At both Eichstätt and later at Mannheim the surname is consistently spelt ‘Fils’, though ‘Filtz’ predominates in prints of his music. His principal teacher was his father. He attended the local Gymnasium in Eichstätt and in November 1753 appeared on the rolls of the University of Ingolstadt as a student of law and theology. On 15 May 1754 Fils was appointed cellist to the electoral court at Mannheim at a salary of 300 gulden, retroactive to 1 February of that year. There he may have studied composition with Johann Stamitz; he is described as a ‘dissepolo’ of the older composer on the title page of his trio sonatas op.3 (1760). In February 1757 Fils married Elisabeth Range. The couple had at least one child, a daughter born in October 1757, and they bought a house in October 1759, by which time Fils's salary had risen to 450 gulden. His early death in 1760 at the age of 26 led not only to comparisons with Pergolesi but also to conflicting accounts of his death, the strangest being C.F.D. Schubart's statement that he died ‘as a result of his bizarre notion of eating spiders’. Fils was extraordinarily prolific, leaving substantial bodies of orchestral, chamber, and sacred music. He is best known for his symphonies, which number at least 34. His first publication, the symphonies a 4 op.1, appeared in Paris in late 1759 or early 1760, and was soon followed by the symphonies opp.2 and 5 and an extended series published individually and in anthologies. Fils also composed some 30 concertos, primarily for cello and flute, of which only about half have survived. His chamber music, most of it published in Paris, spans a variety of genres, often featuring obbligato cello. 

NUNES GARCIA, José Maurício (1767-1830) - Te Deum (1799)

José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) - Te Deum (1799)

Performers: Americantiga; Ricardo Bernardes (conductor)

Drawing: Alfred Martinet (1821-1875) - Rio de Janeiro Catette e entrada da Barra (c.1852)

Further info: José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) - Missa festiva em si bemol maior

---

José Maurício Nunes Garcia

(Rio de Janeiro, 22 September 1767 - Rio de Janeiro, 18 April 1830) 

Brazilian composer. He was the most important composer of his time in Brazil, where he is generally referred to as José Maurício. He was the son of a modest lieutenant, Apolinário Nunes Garcia, and a black woman, Victoria Maria da Cruz. There is no evidence that he studied music at the Fazenda Santa Cruz, established by the Jesuits outside Rio de Janeiro, as has often been reported. It seems that he had some training in solfège under a local teacher, Salvador José, and he did receive formal instruction in philosophy, languages, rhetoric and theology. In 1784 he participated in the foundation of the Brotherhood of St Cecilia, one of the most important professional musical organizations of the time, and he officially entered the Brotherhood São Pedro dos Clérigos in 1791. He was ordained priest on 3 March 1792: the fact that he was a mulatto does not seem to have interfered in the process of his ordination. Many of his contemporaries praised his intellectual, artistic and priestly qualities. On 2 July 1798 Garcia was appointed mestre de capela of Rio de Janeiro Cathedral, the most significant musical position in the city. The appointment required him to act as organist, conductor, composer and music teacher; and he also had the responsibility of appointing musicians. Before that date he had begun a music course open to the public free of charge. He maintained this activity for 28 years, teaching some of the best-known musicians of the time, including Francisco Manuel da Silva. By the arrival of Prince (later King) Dom João VI and the Portuguese court in 1808, Garcia’s fame was well established in the colony; he had by then composed several works, including graduals, hymns, antiphons and masses. 

Following the tradition of the Bragança royal house, Dom João was a patron of music; and Garcia’s talents were immediately recognized. In 1808 he was appointed mestre de capela of the royal chapel, for which he wrote 39 works during 1809 alone. The prince’s appreciation was marked by the bestowal of the Order of Christ. Soon the composer became fashionable and famous for his skills in improvisation at the keyboard in noble salons. The Austrian composer Sigismund Neukomm (1778-1858), a former pupil of Haydn who lived in Rio from 1816 to 1821, referred to Garcia as ‘the first improviser in the world’. But after the arrival in 1811 of Marcos Portugal, the most famous Portuguese composer of his time, Garcia’s position and production tended to decline. His humility and benevolence kept him from counteracting Portugal’s intrigues. His activities as composer and conductor concentrated henceforth on the city’s brotherhoods, although his position at the royal chapel was nominally maintained. In about 1816 his health began to decline, considerably reducing his working capacity. Yet on 19 December 1819 he conducted the première in Brazil of Mozart’s Requiem, an event reported by Neukomm in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. The return of Dom João and part of the court to Portugal in 1821 had the effect of reducing the importance of the city’s musical life. Although Emperor Pedro I was himself a musician, the years following independence (1822) were not favourable for artistic development. Financial difficulties and precarious health undermined Garcia’s last nine years, and he died in extreme poverty. 

DE CROES, Henri-Jacques (1705-1786) - Concerto 6.o per Flauto Traverso

Henri-Jacques de Croes (1705-1786) - Concerto 6.o per Flauto Traverso (1737)

Performers: André Isselee (flute); Les Solistes De Liège; Géry Lemaire (conductor)

Painting: Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (1695-1736) - Fête Champêtre with a Flute Player

Further info: Henri-Jacques de Croes (1705-1786) - Confitemini Domino

---

Henri-Jacques de Croes

(Antwerp, bap. 19 September 1705 - Brussels, 16 August 1786)

Flemish composer, conductor and violinist. At the age of 18 (7 November 1723) he was named first violin at the St Jacobskerk, Antwerp. In September 1729 he went to Brussels, where he entered the service of Prince Anselme-François of Thurn and Taxis. The prince held the monopoly of postal services in the Empire and had several residences, the most important being at Brussels and Frankfurt and later at Regensburg; de Croes is mentioned in the prince’s archives in Germany (in 1734, 1737-39 and 1742). By 1744 he was back in Brussels as a first violin in the chapel of Charles of Lorraine, whose sister-in-law, the Empress Maria Theresa, had made him governor of the Austrian Netherlands. In 1746 he became maître de chapelle at the court and directed the chamber music, for at that time the same musicians played in both chapel and court. There were six singers (two counter-tenors, two tenors and two basses) and 13 instrumentalists (six violinists, one violist, one cellist, one double bass player, two organists and two oboists), all of whom were French. For important festivals, the orchestra was augmented by the musicians of the most important collegiate church in Brussels, Ste Gudule (now the cathedral). De Croes remained master of music at the Brussels court until his death. Given de Croes’s circumstances, it is not surprising that he composed both church music and chamber music (in particular sonatas and concertos). He was in no way an innovator: his style may be described as an interweaving of the French and Italian traditions, as might be expected in the South Netherlands at a time when musical forms were in a stage of transition between the Baroque style and the galant. In his trio sonatas, for example, he wrote in the Corelli tradition with a slow introduction and fugal allegro followed by a number of movements alternately slow and fast.

In other sonatas he conformed to a more modern Italian pattern: fast–slow–fast, with a lighter texture and more ornate melodic lines. The divertissements belong to the tradition of the French suite, with an overture in dotted rhythm followed by dances. As in the Italianate sonatas, the texture is light and the decoration combines French ornaments with new fashions like the ‘Mannheimer Vorhalt’ and the Lombard rhythms common in contemporary German music. The solo concertos and the concerti grossi are in the contemporary three-movement Italian style but with the lighter texture that was then employed in France after the manner of J.-M. Leclair; the trademarks of the Mannheim school are also present, giving the concertos a pre-Classical accent. De Croes was influenced by Corelli, Vivaldi, Tartini and even Handel, and his opening themes frequently bear close resemblance to their works. De Croes’s extant church music includes several motets and fragments of masses, written for four voices and four instruments, with the usual tessituras; this was doubtless the force of the royal chapel and Ste Gudule. Despite the requirements of church music (particularly the masses), the idiom seems more instrumental than vocal. The instruments frequently double the voice parts or realize the figured bass in a fairly straightforward manner. The motets are unusual in that they have a structure similar to that of the cantata, with alternating choruses and solo sections. In these works too, there is evidence of French influence (particularly of a tradition founded by Henry Dumont at the court of Louis XIV), combined with the traditions of the Italian cantata. De Croes’s son, Henri-Joseph de Croes (1758-1842), was from 1775 a violinist in the service of the Prince of Thurn and Taxis at Regensburg, and maître de chapelle from 1776 to 1783. He is known to have composed only one work, a set of violin duos which his father presented to Charles of Lorraine in the (unfulfilled) hope that his son might succeed him as maître de chapelle at the Brussels court. 

HOLZBAUER, Ignaz (1711-1783) - Missa Brevissima F-Dur

Ignaz Holzbauer (1711-1783) - Missa Brevissima F-Dur

Performers: Collegium Vocale et instrumentale Nova Ars Cаntаndi; Giovаnni Acciаi (conductor)

Drawing: Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern (1738-1819) - Blick in das Innere einer Barockkirche mit schwarzen Marmorsäulen und Staffagefiguren in der Tracht des 17. Jahrhunderts, 1790

Further info: Ignaz Holzbauer (1711-1783) - Quintet in G

---

Ignaz (Jakob) Holzbauer

(Vienna, 17 September 1711 - Mannheim, 7 April 1783)

Austrian composer. He contributed significantly to 18th-century musical life in Mannheim, where he was Kapellmeister at the famous electoral court for 25 years (1753-78), and in Vienna. An autobiographical sketch, written apparently in 1782 and first published in 1790, provides basic information about Holzbauer’s life but few reliable dates. He was attracted to music at an early age, but this inclination received no support from his father, a Viennese leather merchant, who wanted him to study law. Pursuing musical training nevertheless, he applied to the young members of the choir at the Stephansdom for instruction in singing, piano, violin and cello. In return, he provided them with his new compositions. He studied Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum on his own initiative and eventually arranged a meeting with Fux, who, after examining a sample exercise, declared him an innate genius and recommended a journey to Italy as a means of refining his musical knowledge. Following a short term of employment with Count Thurn-Valsassina of Laibach (Ljubljana), and a brief excursion to Venice, he was appointed Kapellmeister to Count Rottal of Holešov in Moravia. There his opera Lucio Papirio dittatore was staged in 1737; that same year he married the singer Rosalie Andreides. According to the autobiography, the couple left Holešov for Vienna a year later. Subsequently, they journeyed to Italy, where they remained for three years, travelling to Milan, Venice and other cities. In 1744 Holzbauer collaborated with Franz Hilverding in creating ballets for a Viennese performance of Hasse’s Ipermestra, and from 1746 to 1750 he was engaged in Vienna to compose ballet music for the Burgtheater; in 1746 his name was also associated with the Viennese popular theatre. In 1751 Holzbauer succeeded Brescianello as Oberkapellmeister at Stuttgart, where he and his wife became ensnared in court intrigue. Fortunately, following the successful 1753 performance of his opera Il figlio delle selve at Schwetzingen (Elector Carl Theodor’s summer residence), he was appointed ‘Kapellmeister für das Theater’ at Mannheim, where his own works dominated the stage until 1760. Several excursions – to Rome (1756), Turin for the performance of his Nitteti (1758), Paris (1758) and Milan for the production of his Alessandro nell’Indie (1759) – helped to expand his artistic horizons but failed to secure him a lasting international reputation. Early in the next decade Holzbauer evidently cultivated musical ties with Vienna: his name appeared in connection with Burgtheater orchestral concerts (1761–3), and his oratorio La Betulia liberata received several performances. In Mannheim, where he assumed duties as director of the Hofkapelle following Carlo Grua’s death in 1773, his activities had shifted from theatre to sacred music, but he did not turn his back on opera permanently: his greatest success came early in 1777 with the favourable reception of his German opera Günther von Schwarzburg. Declining to follow the electoral court to Munich, he remained at Mannheim, where his one-act opera La morte di Didone was produced in 1779. Though suffering acute hearing loss and other ailments, he managed to complete another opera, Tancredi, for the court theatre in Munich shortly before his death. 

MERCADANTE, Saverio (1795-1870) - Concerto per il Clarinetto, Op.101

Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870) - Concerto (in si bemolle maggiore) per il Clarinetto, Op.101

Performers: Fabrizio Meloni (clarinet); Orchestra di Verona; Alberto Martini (conductor)

Painting: Andrea Cefaly (1827-1907) - Portrait of Saverio Mercadante

Further info: Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870) - Flute Quartet & Clarinet Concerto

---

(Giuseppe) Saverio (Raffaele) Mercadante

(Altamura, bap. 17 September 1795 - Naples, 17 December 1870)

Italian composer, conductor and teacher. He was an illegitimate child whose parents did not marry because of their different social rank; his father belonged to the local nobility, and his mother was a maidservant in his household. Instead, Saverio was adopted by his father as a foundling. The looting of Altamura in 1799 in retaliation for its republicanism dissipated the family finances, and Mercadante’s youth was spent in poverty, with no educational prospects. The family’s circumstances did not improve until after the French occupation in 1806, when his father took an administrative post in Naples. He had shown early musical promise, learning the guitar and clarinet from his half-brother, and the move to Naples made a professional training at the conservatory possible. A forged birth certificate was obtained, enabling him to take up a state bursary, and he entered the Conservatorio di S Sebastiano in 1808. While a student there, he wrote a number of instrumental pieces, including music for three ballets. His first opera premiered on Jan. 4, 1819, and, less than three years (and precisely five operas) later, his Elisa e Claudio successfully opened at La Scala in Milan. He composed another popular opera, Caritea, regina di Spagna (“Caritea, Queen of Spain”; better known as Donna Caritea), in 1826. He was involved with Italian opera in Spain and Portugal from about 1827 to 1830. During rehearsals for Gabriella Mercadante met his future wife Sofia Gambaro (1812-1898), whom he married on 9 July 1832. From 1833 to 1840 was maestro di cappella at Novara Cathedral.

In 1835 he came in contact with the music of Giacomo Meyerbeer, and his next opera, Il giuramento (“The Oath”; performed in 1837 and considered to be his best opera), reflects the lessons he learned from that composer. Early in 1838 he applied to suceed Zingarelli as director of the Naples Conservatory a post he held until his death. Thereafter he continued to attempt a more harmonious blend of drama and music and led the way toward simplified vocal lines, originality, and thoughtful, serious composition. In addition to operas, he wrote sacred music (including a number of masses), cantatas and hymns, orchestral pieces, and a variety of chamber music. In 1862 Mercadante suffered a stroke that left him completely blind. In 1869 he produced his Mass in G Minor, but his intention of returning to opera with a setting of Cammarano’s posthumous libretto Caterina di Brono was never completed. He had reached the finale of the first act when he suffered another stroke, and this time did not recover; he died after a short illness. Mercadante’s extraordinary fame during his lifetime was followed by comprehensive oblivion after his death. His works never became part of the established operatic repertory in the second half of the 19th century, and in the 20th century he was at best seen as a precursor of Verdi. This narrowly aesthetic judgment of his operas ignores the commercial context in which Mercadante worked, which was more akin to the world of modern show business. While some revivals of his works in recent years have led to a general revision of this assessment, however, there has been no new musicological interpretation of his work.

HAYDN, Johann Michael (1737-1806) - Sinfonia â piu strumenti (1784)

Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806) - Sinfonia (D-moll) â piu strumenti (1784) [MH 393]

Performers: English Chamber Orchestra; Charles Mackerras (1925-2010, conductor)

Painting: Henry Gastineau (d.1876) - Salzburg from the far side of the river

Further info: Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806) - Jubiläumsmesse (1782)

---

Johann Michael Haydn

(Rohrau, 14 September 1737 - Salzburg, 10 August 1806)

Austrian composer, younger brother of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). He was born in the village of Rohrau on the Leitha river, near the current border of Austria and Hungary. He went to Vienna at the age of eight and entered the choir school at the Stephansdom. About 1753 his voice broke and he was dismissed from the choir school. Haydn left Vienna for Grosswardein about 1757. The festive Missa SS Cyrilli et Methodii (1758), one of few dated works composed before 1760, was composed there. Haydn was apparently back in the vicinity of Vienna in 1762. It was perhaps during this time that he came to the attention of Count Vinzenz Joseph Schrattenbach, the nephew of Sigismund Christoph, Archbishop of Salzburg, who recommended that Haydn be offered a position in Salzburg. From the quantity of Haydn's music that was copied for performances in eastern Austria during the 1750s and 60s, it would seem that he was quite well known throughout the region. The death of J.E. Eberlin in 1762 led to a reshuffling of the prominent musicians in Salzburg and eventually to Haydn's appointment as court Konzertmeister. Among his colleagues were Leopold Mozart, A.C. Adlgasser, G.F. Lolli and later W.A. Mozart. On 24 July 1763 some ‘Tafelmusique’ by him was performed, and on 14 August he officially assumed his new position, which involved playing the organ as well as the violin. From then until the death of Archbishop Schrattenbach late in 1771, Haydn composed predominantly dramatic works for the theatre of the Benedictine University; Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (1767) was the result of a collaboration between Haydn, Adlgasser and the 11-year-old Mozart. On 17 August 1768 he married Maria Magdalena Lipp (1745-1827), a singer in the Hofkapelle and daughter of the court organist, Franz Ignaz Lipp. The couple lived in an apartment owned by the Abbey of St Peter, for which Haydn composed a number of occasional works. The Haydns’ only child, Aloysia Josepha, was born in 1770, but died within a year. Hieronymus, Count Colloredo, was enthroned as Prince-Archbishop in March 1772, and he immediately instituted tighter fiscal controls which greatly restricted the activities of the university theatre. 

A planned trip to Italy probably never materialized because Haydn was promptly given the position of organist at the Dreifaltigkeitskirche when Adlgasser died suddenly on 22 December 1777. Bitter that the position was not given to his son, Leopold Mozart, who had previously praised his colleague, described Haydn as prone to heavy drinking and laziness. Haydn composed his best-known works between 1771 and 1777: the Requiem (1771) and the Missa S. Hieronymi (1777). In 1782 he assumed the position of court organist. On the 1200th anniversary of the archiepiscopate, in the same year, Colloredo published a pastoral letter, the first of a series of proclamations intended to simplify church services. In response, Haydn composed about 100 settings of Mass Propers in a simple homophonic style. During the 1780s, Haydn completed 20 symphonies. Writing from Vienna in 1784, Mozart expressed his astonishment at how quickly he was able to obtain copies of Michael Haydn’s most recent symphonies. During the 1790s Haydn enjoyed an expanding sphere of influence as a teacher of composition; Anton Diabelli was involved in the publication of many of Haydn's sacred works by the Viennese publishing firm that later bore his name. Sigismund Neukomm was a pupil of Haydn in the 1790s. The young C.M. von Weber came to Haydn in 1797; and Franz Schubert, though never one of his pupils, visited Haydn's grave in Salzburg and included words of admiration for him in a letter to his brother Ferdinand. In January 1801 his apartment was plundered by French soldiers, and this was possibly a catalyst for a trip to Vienna. By September 1801 he was again in Vienna rehearsing a mass commissioned by Empress Maria Theresia, who sang a solo part in a performance. He began work on a Requiem (1806), commissioned by the empress, but owing to his declining health he never finished it. Although he expected the coming spring to bring an improvement in his health, it did not; and he died, with friends and students at his bedside, on 10 August 1806. 

GROSS, Johann Benjamin (1809-1848) - Sérénade pour le Violoncelle (c.1841)

Johann Benjamin Gross (1809-1848) - Sérénade (en ut majeur) pour le Violoncelle, Op.32 (c.1841)

Performers: Christophe Coin (cello); Yoko Kaneko (piano)

Painting: Marcin Zaleski (1796-1877) - Palac Myslewicki w Lazienkach

Further info: Ballade Romantique

---

Johann Benjamin Gross

(Elblag, 12 September 1809 - Saint Petersburg, 1 September 1848)

Polish composer. Son of a bell ringer, he studied cello in Berlin with Ferdinand Hansmann. From the age of 15 he played at the Royal Town Theatre, where he met the famous solo violinist Ferdinand David. It was also at this time that he started launched his career as a travelling virtuoso player. In 1832 he embarked upon Leipzig where he gave numerous concerts at the Gewandhaus. There, he met Friedrich and Clara Wieck, followed by Robert Schumann, with whom he stayed in vague contact, and performed with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. He was also friendly with Henriette and Carl Voigt, influential arts sponsors as well as the cellist Andreas Grabau. During this period Gross wrote his first significant compositions. He presented it, accompanied by Clara Wieck on the piano, at the birthday celebrations of the editor, Hoffmann. It was then edited in Leipzig in 1833 at Breitkopf & Härtel. That same year, after having been invited by the orchestra of Magdebourg theatre Gross, at the same time as his dear friend Ferdinand David, accepted a new position as cellist in Baron Carl Eduard Von Liphardt’s private string quartet in Dorpat/Tartu, succeeding Ciprian Friedrich Romberg. Alongside the intense work that the quartet imposed on him he conducted a male voice student choir in the area. Following the dissolution of the Liphardt quartet in 1834, Gross set off for an international tour for several years and established himself from 1837 in Saint Petersburg. Here, he found himself in ferocious competition with others cellists such as Carl Eduard Schuberth, Cyprian et Heinrich Romberg and quickly obtained the position of court chamber musician at the Russian Imperial Court, as well as teacher in the school. In the end he also became the summer teacher of the Emperor’s son, the Great Duke Michael Nikolaevich. He performed in the residential town of the Imperial Family with the Albrecht brothers, Henri Vieuxtemps, and with other greats of his time. He was only 38 years old when he died the 1st September 1848 to cholera, leaving behind him a work essentially focused on the cello.

BOYCE, William (1710-1779) - The charms of harmony display (c.1738)

William Boyce (1710-1779) - Ode 'The charms of harmony display' (c.1738)

Performers: Patrіck Burrowes (boy soprano); Willіam Purefoy (alto (boy);

Andrew Wаtts (counter-tenor); Richard Edgar-Wilson (tenor); Michael George (bass-baritone);

Choir of New College Oxford; Hаnover Band; Grаhаm Leа-Cox (conductor)

Painting: Louis Joseph Watteau (1731-1798) - La Mariée de village

Further info: William Boyce (1711-1779) - Lord thou hast been our refuge

---

William Boyce

(London, bap. 11 September 1711 - London, 7 February 1779)

English composer, organist and editor. Though formerly best known for some of his anthems and his editing of Cathedral Music (1760-73), the significant contribution he made to instrumental music, song, secular choral and theatre music in England is now widely recognized. Boyce’s family came from Warwickshire, where his grandfather was a farmer. His father, John, the youngest of five sons, came to London in 1691 to be apprenticed to a joiner. He settled in the City of London, as a joiner and cabinetmaker, and married Elizabeth Cordwell in 1703. They were living in Maiden Lane (now Skinners Lane) when William, the last of their four children, was born. His earliest musical education was as a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, after which he was a student of Johann Pepusch and Maurice Greene. In 1734 he obtained his first position as an organist at the Oxford Chapel, and in 1736 he became a composer for the Chapel Royal. In 1738, along with George Frideric Handel, Thomas Arne, and Pepusch, he founded the Society of Musicians, later the Royal Society. By 1755 he was well known for his stage works, including the 1740 masque Peleus and Thetis and The Chaplet, a favorite pastoral opera from 1749. In 1755 he was appointed as master of the King’s Musick, and three years later organist of the Chapel Royal. Boyce married Hannah Nixon on 9 June 1759, and his son William was born in March 1764. He suffered from slowly increasing deafness, which appears to have made it difficult for Boyce to perform his church duties by the 1760s. As a composer, although his list of works includes over 75 anthems and 4 other settings of the Te Deum, Boyce was known in his own lifetime mostly for his stage music, including six masques and contributions of incidental music and songs to many other productions, for his odes (mostly composed after 1755 when he succeeded Maurice Greene as Master of the King’s Musick), and a famous publication in 1747 of 12 sonatas for two violins and continuo. He also composed 3 later sonatas for two violins, 10 voluntaries, 12 overtures, and 6 concertos. Today, the most frequently heard music of Boyce is his set of eight symphonies of 1760. 

TEYBER, Anton (1756-1822) - Concerto per il Corno

Anton Teyber (1756-1822) - Concerto per il Corno

Performers: Zbіgnіеw Zuk (horn); Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra; Jan Stanіеnda (conductor)

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

Further info: Anton Teyber (1756-1822) - Missa in D (c.1793)

---

Anton Teyber [Deiber, Taiber, Taube et al.]

(Vienna, bap. 8 September 1756 - Vienna, 18 November 1822)

Austrian composer, pianist, organist and cellist, son of Matthäus Teyber (c.1711-1785) and brother of Elisabeth Teyber (1744-1816), Therese Teyber (1760-1830) and Franz Teyber (1758-1810). After early education in Vienna he studied for some years in Bologna with Padre Martini, being there almost certainly as late as 1775. He then appeared in several Italian musical centres, touring with his sister Elisabeth, and in Spain and Portugal (also Germany and Russia, according to a biographical sketch), before returning to Vienna about 1781. He was admitted to the Viennese Tonkünstler-Sozietät in 1784, and in 1787 entered the Hofkapelle at Dresden as first organist. At the end of 1791 he returned to Vienna and on 1 December took up a post as deputy to Joseph Weigl at the National-Hoftheater. However, cuts in the musical establishment under Franz II led to his losing his post, though he was successful in petitioning the emperor for help; on 1 March 1793 he was appointed court composer (a post that had not been filled after Mozart’s death) and instructor in keyboard to the imperial children. A Missa solemnis in C minor was written for and performed on the occasion of Archduke Rudolph’s appointment as Cardinal and Archbishop of Olmütz (Olomouc) in 1819 (the archduke was a pupil of both Teyber and Beethoven), and he is recorded as having conducted other large works in the imperial chapel in 1820 and 1821; a mass by him was performed with great success at Olmütz Cathedral on Easter Sunday 1822. He also wrote a melodrama Zermes (or Zerbes) und Mirabelle (1779), two oratorios, Gioas, rè di Giuda and La passione di Gesù Cristo (performed in 1805 for Teyber’s benefit at the Tonkünstler-Sozietät), and a quantity of orchestral, chamber and church music, most of which was bought from his widow by Archduke Rudolph and later passed with his estate into the possession of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.

DESMAREST, Henry (1661-1741) - Confitebor tibi (1707)

Henry Desmarest (1661-1741) - Confitebor tibi (1707)

Performers: Barbara Schlick (soprano); Mieke Van der Sluis (soprano); Harry Geraerts (counter-tenor); Harry Van der Kamp (bass); Choir of New College Oxford; Fiori Musicali; Edward Higginbottom (conductor)

Painting: Ecole Française de la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle, suiveur de Hyacinthe Rigaud - Portrait de Louis XV en tenue de sacre

Further info: Henry Desmarest (1661-1741) - Te Deum (1678)

---

Henry Desmarest [Desmarets, Desmaretz, Desmarais]

(Paris, 1 February 1661 - Lunéville, 7 September 1741)

French composer. Little is known of his early musical life other than that he was one of the boy pages of Louis XIV’s musical establishment. There, directly under the influence of Pierre Robert and Henry Du Mont at an important period in the development of the grand motet, he probably also encountered Lully, who used the chapel pages to augment his performances. In 1680 he was referred to as an ‘ordinaire de la musique du Roy’. Titon du Tillet mentioned an idylle written by him for the birth of the Duke of Burgundy in 1682; this was a form to which he would regularly return. He was unsuccessful in a contest in 1683 for a post as sous-maître at the royal chapel, but later got himself involved in writing motets for one of the successful competitors, Goupillet, to pass off as his own. The deception was not revealed until 1693 when Desmarest, complaining that he had not been paid sufficiently, exposed Goupillet. He gravitated increasingly towards secular forms of composition. It seems that he wanted to study in Italy but this plan was thwarted by Lully. Some measure of court favour can be inferred from the private performance of his first opera, Endymion, which took place over several days in the king’s apartments, one or two acts at a time, in February 1686, and pleased the dauphine so much that she commanded another performance a few days later. Writing for the stage of the Académie was barred to Desmarest at the time since Lully enjoyed a complete monopoly; the gap left by his untimely death in March 1687 began to be filled only tentatively by the next generation. Du Tralage cynically declared that Didon (1693), one of Desmarest’ earliest surviving tragédies en musique, succeeded with the public because it was copied from Lully, that Circé (1694), less closely modelled on Lully, was less successful, and that Théagène (1695), in which the composer went his own way, was not successful at all. 

When he began work on another opera, Vénus et Adonis, in 1695, he was apparently in dispute with Collasse over who should set Duché de Vancy's Iphigénie en Tauride; this was to be left unfinished by Desmarets and completed by André Campra in 1704. Within months of the death of his first wife in August 1696, he had fallen in love with his pupil, the 18-year-old daughter of Jacques de Saint-Gobert, director of taxation for Senlis. The upshot was a long legal battle, at the end of which in August 1699 the couple fled the country, Desmarest being condemned to death in his absence. The composer began his exile in Brussels. His friend and fellow chapel page, the composer Jean-Baptiste Matho, obtained a letter of recommendation for him from the Duke of Burgundy to the new King of Spain, Philip V, and he moved to the Spanish court in 1701 and married Mlle de Saint-Gobert. Six years later, again with support from connections in France, he secured an appointment as surintendant de la musique at the court of Lorraine, which was closely modelled on the court of Louis XIV, his duties encompassing both religious and secular music. Although he mounted a production of his own, Vénus et Adonis for the court at Lunéville in 1707, Desmarest’ operatic activities focussed chiefly on revivals of operas by Lully at both Lunéville and Nancy. During this time he continued to write occasional pieces and motets. However favourable the musical climate in Lorraine, he hoped to be allowed to return to France. A petition to Louis XIV on his behalf by Matho in 1712 was rejected, but he was finally pardoned by the regent in 1720. When Michel-Richard de Lalande died in 1726, he sought his post of sous-maître, but was unsuccessful. His wife died in the following year and he ended his days in Lorraine.

BENDA, Friedrich Ludwig (1752-1792) - Concerti per il Violino Principale

Friedrich Ludwig Benda (1752-1792) - Concerti (D-Dur) per il Violino Principale (1779)

Performers: Albrеcht Rаu (violin); Nеubrandеnburger Philharmonie; Romеly Pfund (conductor)

Painting: Jan van Gool (1685-1763) - An Italianate landscape with a drover and a shepherdess

Further info: Hofmusik in Mecklenburg Vol. 2

---

Friedrich Ludwig (Louis, Ludvík) Benda

(Gotha, bap. 4 September 1752 - Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], 20 or 27 March 1792)

German composer and violinist, son of Jiří Antonín Benda (1722-1795). In 1775 he joined the orchestra of the Seyler troupe, then resident in Gotha, and travelled with it as rehearsal violinist (répétiteur) to Dresden, Leipzig and Frankfurt. On the disbandment of the troupe in 1779, he went with his wife, the singer Felicitas Agnesia Rietz (1757-1835), first to Berlin and then to Hamburg, where he was engaged by the theatre. In 1782 he moved to Ludwigslust as first violinist and Cammer-Compositeur to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. During the following years he and his wife travelled widely, giving concerts in many cities including Vienna and Prague. With the break-up of his marriage Benda was dismissed from his post at Ludwigslust in December 1788 and spent his few remaining years in Königsberg. Benda’s output as a composer was varied. While a member of the Seyler troupe, his most important work was a setting, containing italianate arias, of Grossmann’s Der Barbier von Seville, which entered the repertory of several theatre companies. Apart from an aria for his wife to sing in a performance of Grétry’s Le jugement de Midas at Hamburg in 1781, he wrote no more for the stage until he settled in Königsberg, where he composed three operettas; the tuneful melodies of Louise and Mariechenwon them particular success there. He also wrote some instrumental music, mainly for the violin, but his duties at Ludwigslust seem mostly to have entailed the provision of church music. 

BRUCKNER, Anton (1824-1896) - Missa Solemnis B-Moll (1854)

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) - Missa Solemnis B-Moll (1854) [wab29]

Performers: Cilla Grossmeyer (soprano); Mira Zakai (1942-2019, alto); Wilfried Jochens (tenor); Assen Vassilev (bass); Monteverdi Choir Hamburg; Israel Chamber Orchestra; Jürgen Jürgens (1925-1994, conductor)

Painting: Ferry Beraton (1859-1900) - Anton Bruckner (1889)

Further info: Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) - Te Deum (1881)

---

(Joseph) Anton Bruckner

(Ansfelden, nr Linz, 4 September 1824 - Vienna, 11 October 1896)

Austrian composer. He was the son of a village schoolmaster and organist in Upper Austria. He showed talent on the violin and spinet by the age of four, and by age 10 he was deputizing at the church organ. In 1835-36 he studied in Hörsching with his godfather, J.B. Weiss, a minor composer. After his father’s death in 1837, Bruckner entered the monastery-school of St. Florian as a choir boy. He trained in Linz as an assistant schoolteacher in 1840-41, and after holding appointments in Windhaag and Kronstorf, he returned to St. Florian as a fully qualified elementary teacher in 1845. Bruckner taught at St. Florian for about a decade, and in 1848 he became the principal organist of its abbey church. In the meantime his compositional skills steadily advanced, and the St. Florian period saw a fine Requiem in d (1849) and the Missa solemnis (1854), for Mayer's inaugural mass as prior, celebrated on 14 September 1854. The church music repertory, compared with the amateur establishments of his early childhood, was vast and featured Austrian classical and pre-classical composers including Michael Haydn, the St Florian composer Franz Seraph Aumann (1728-1797, whose music Bruckner admired), Albrechtsberger, Joseph Haydn and Mozart. In 1856 he was reluctantly persuaded by his friends to apply for the post of cathedral organist at Linz, which he won easily. In 1861 Bruckner concluded his arduous studies with Sechter with magnificent testimonials, and he also astonished his judges at an organ examination in Vienna. His style in works such as the seven-part Ave Maria (1861) displays new freedom, depth, and assurance. He now embarked on a study of form and orchestration with Otto Kitzler, and during this time he discovered the music of Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, and above all Richard Wagner.

After two earlier essays in the orchestral form, Bruckner completed his Symphony No.1 in c in 1866. That same year he finished the Mass in e, which, along with the Mass in f (1868), completed his triptych of great festive masses. They rank among the highest achievements of Roman Catholic church music. Late in 1866 Bruckner suffered a severe nervous collapse, from which he recovered after three months in a sanatorium, though intense depressions would later trouble him. In 1868 he succeeded his late teacher Sechter in a professorship at the Vienna Conservatory. There he taught harmony and counterpoint and endeared himself to pupils for his memorable and engaging academic style. The story of the last 25 years of Bruckner’s life is essentially that of his symphonies: the creation of new concepts of form, time-span, and unity, and his struggle to achieve success in the face of fierce critical opposition. Bruckner was a fervent admirer of Wagner, and he was erroneously branded as a disciple of that composer; his career suffered from his unwitting involvement in the fierce battle then raging between the adherents of Wagner and Brahms. Bruckner received a long-sought appointment as a lecturer at the University of Vienna in 1875 over the opposition of Hanslick, who was dean of the university’s music faculty. In 1878 he was elected a member of the Hofkapelle, where he had been an unpaid organist for years. By the early 1890s Bruckner had become a famous and honoured figure, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy from the University of Vienna in 1891. His last choral-orchestral works were Psalm 150 (1892) and Helgoland (1893). Three movements of his Symphony No.9 in d were ready by 1894, but he was unable to complete the finale before his death. He was buried at St. Florian.

ZELLBELL, Ferdinand (1719-1780) - Concerto per il Bassono solo

Ferdinand Zellbell (1719-1780) - Concerto (in a) per il Bassono solo

Performers: Börje Kräusel (bassoon); The National Museum Chamber Orchestra;

Claude Génetay (1917-1992, conductor)

Map: Johann Baptiste Homann (1664-1724) - Accurate Carte der Uplandischen Scheren mid der Situation und Gegend umb die Konigl. Schwedische Haupt und Residentz Stadt Stockholm (c.1720)

Further info: Ferdinand Zellbell (1719-1780)

---

Ferdinand Zellbell [den yngre]

(Stockholm, 3 September 1719 - Stockholm, 21 April 1780)

Swedish musician and composer, son of Ferdinand Zellbell (1689-1765). He studied with his father and J.H. Roman; in 1741-42 he travelled to Germany and studied with Telemann and others. On his return to Sweden he received, in 1743, an assistantship to his father's post as organist of the Storkyrka in Stockholm, assuming most of the duties and half the salary from 1753. On 18 July 1750 he succeeded Per Braut as hovkapellmäster, but his salary was not paid until 1762, when he was appointed to succeed his father. Zellbell visited St Petersburg in 1758 and, for the tsarina's birthday, composed his first opera, Il giudizio d'Aminta. From 1759 he contributed to Stockholm's musical life primarily as director of the public concerts and as a member of the Order of Freemasons (which he had entered on 28 June 1758). Zellbell was the only professional musician among the founders of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music (1771), and from 1772 to 1774 acted as the director of education at the academy's newly opened school. In 1773 he was commissioned to write the short opera-ballet Sveas högtid, which was performed the following year in a concert version. He died unmarried and destitute, leaving a large collection of printed books and music. Contemporary opinions on his personality and importance as a musician were sharply divided: he was condemned by some for his indolence and old-fashioned taste, and praised by others for his skill as an organist and improviser. His extant authenticated works are stylistically mixed, though galant elements can be discerned. Zellbell often indicated dynamic contrasts more carefully than his contemporaries, but the tendency towards mechanical repetition found in his father's music is often evident.