FÖRSTER, Christoph (1693-1745) - Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe

Christoph Förster (1693-1745) - Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe

Performers: Hanna Herfurtner (soprano); Carola Günther (alto); Georg Poplutz (tenor); Raimonds Spogis (bass);

Kölner Akademie; Michael Alexander Willens (conductor)

Painting: Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) e Marco Ricci (1676-1730) - Susanna davanti a Daniele

Further info: Johann Christoph Förster (1693-1745) - Concerto ex Dis dur

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(Johann) Christoph (Heinrich) Förster

(Bibra, 30 November 1693 - Rudolstadt, ?5/6 December 1745)

German composer. He studied first with the organist Pitzler, then left Bibra for Weissenfels where he learnt thoroughbass and composition from Heinichen. When Heinichen went to Italy, Förster became a pupil of Georg Friedrich Kauffmann at Merseburg. In 1717 he was appointed violinist in the Merseburg court orchestra and later became Konzertmeister there. While employed at the court Förster dedicated six sonatas, six cantatas and 12 concertos to the duchess; he also learnt Italian, the predominant language for secular vocal music. Förster was granted leave of absence from Merseburg on several occasions: in 1719 he visited Heinichen at Dresden and in 1723 went to Prague where he met Fux, Caldara, Conti and other eminent musicians involved in the coronation celebrations of Charles VI. In August 1742 he played a leading part (under Johann Graf) in the birthday festivities of Prince Friedrich Anton of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and the following year was appointed vice-Kapellmeister at Rudolstadt. Among works written for this court is a birthday cantata dedicated to Princess Bernhardine (5 May 1745). When Graf died in 1745 Förster succeeded him as Kapellmeister, but held this post for only a few weeks before his own death. There is some confusion surrounding Förster’s activities between 1739 and 1743. Loewenberg (Grove5) stated that he held an appointment at Sondershausen during this period, but in Förster’s application for the post at Rudolstadt (3 March 1743) he merely said he had been Kammermusikus and Konzertmeister at Merseburg ‘for a long time’. In his own day Förster was greatly respected as a composer of church music. Gerber thought highly of the cantatas; when a boy he had sung many ‘agreeable’ arias by Förster in the local church at Sondershausen. In his instrumental music, Förster has been described as one of the leading exponents of the French overture: the overture in A major (ed. Riemann) shows a fine sense of form and a keen appreciation of instrumental colour. Whereas the orchestral suites are indebted to French models, the sinfonias and concertos display the influence of the Italian style. Förster’s chamber music invites comparison with Telemann’s. Both composers show the same ability to combine learned counterpoint and melodious themes, the same predilection for voice change and love of short melodic phrases in the galant manner. Few of Förster’s works were printed in the 18th century. The two main publications were a set of six symphonies published by Haffner (Nuremberg, 1747) and six Duetti oder Trii for two violins and optional continuo engraved by Telemann (see Mattheson). Förster was an extremely prolific composer. According to Walther he had written over 300 pieces by 1732, and the Breitkopf catalogues mention numerous works by him. It is obvious that existing work-lists are far from complete. Unfortunately many manuscripts lack the distinguishing Christian name so that authorship is open to dispute.

LULLY, Jean Baptiste (1632-1687) - Ouverture avec tous les Airs de l'opéra Atys (1676)

Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) - Ouverture avec tous les Airs de l'opéra Atys (1676)

Performers: Capriccio Basel Baroque Orchestra; Dominik Kiefer (conductor)

Engraving: Jean Louis Roullet (1645-1699) - Portret van Jean-Baptiste Lully

Further info: Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) - Te Deum (1677)

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Jean-Baptiste (Giovanni Battista) Lully [Lulli]

(Florence, 28 November 1632 - Paris, 22 March 1687)

French composer, violinist and dancer. Born Giovanni Battista Lulli, he was the second son of a Tuscan farmer, Lorenzo Lulli (1599-1667). Little is known of the son’s education. Perhaps he learned the fundamentals of music from the friars of the Via Borgo Ognissanti in Florence. Somehow, possibly as early as 1645, he managed to be appointed as a tutor of Italian to Anne- Marie-Louise d’Orléans, cousin of King Louis XIV of France. In February 1646, Lully moved to Paris. A source printed in 1695 identifies Lully’s teachers from this point: the organists at the church of St. Louis of Rue Saint-Antoine, Nicolas Métru and Nicolas Gigault, the violinist Jacques Cordier, and the dancer Jean Regnault. Possibly through Regnault, Lully entered the service of Louis XIV and danced in the Ballet Royal de la Nuit, caught the eye of the king, and was appointed compositeur de la musique instrumentale on 16 March 1653. His dancing and obvious talent for composition allowed Lully to persuade the king to establish an instrumental ensemble apart from his official one, Les Vingtquatre Violons du Roi. Lully was able to form the new orchestra, Les Petits Violons, according to his own ideas of ensemble playing, and it would become famous throughout Europe. In 1656, Les Petits Violons made its debut in the ballet Les Galanteries du Temps, the earliest surviving ballet composed entirely by Lully. On 24 July 1662, he married Madeleine Lambert, a composer’s daughter 20 years of age. They had six children. To this point, Lully as composer had contributed chiefly to court ballets. But age began to curtail his dancing, and he retired as a dancer by 1668. In 1664, however, he entered upon a second stage of his career as composer: a collaboration with the great dramatist Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673), known by his stage name Moliére, on a series of comédies-ballets, comic dramas in which Lully’s dance music interweaves with Molière’s poetry, beginning with Le Mariage Forcé (29 January 1664), including Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (14 October 1670), and concluding with Psyché (17 January 1671).

In March 1672, Lully was to able buy the royal privilege of producing “academies for opera . . . in the French language”—essentially a patent for a monopoly granted by Louis XIV—from its original holder, the poet Pierre Perrin (c.1620-1675), and immediately moved to establish the Académie Royale de Musique. Because the privilege brought no court financing of the new venture, Lully entered into a partnership with long-time acquaintance and theater architect Carlo Vigarani (1637-1713) in August 1672, and together they adapted a tennis court for their productions. They began with Les Fêtes de L’Amour et de Bacchus, a pastiche made of Lully’s earlier ballet music, and they mounted the first original tragédie lyrique in April 1673, Cadmus et Hermione. This created a sensation, luring the king to the tennis court to see it. By 28 April 1673, the king authorized Lully to use the Palais Royal theater rent-free, and after the opening of Alceste in January 1674, Louis brought the business of tragédie lyrique into the court, supported by the court’s sets, costumes, and machinery and by funded rehearsals. With such backing, Lully produced a new opera nearly every year until he died in 1687, usually working with the great librettist Philippe Quinault (1635-1688). His control of the royal opera privilege virtually eliminated all rivals from Paris, although he did allow provincial opera companies to operate. He also managed the Palais Royal almost as a monopoly, setting high prices for seats. The royal privilege allowed him to earn royalties on his printed librettos and, after 1677, royalties from prints of his music. From then on, he published complete scores of all his tragédies lyriques, a phenomenon unknown in the rest of Europe, where opera scores were lucky to survive in manuscript. In December of 1686, while conducting his Te Deum at the Church of the Feuillants, he wounded himself in the foot. The wound became gangrenous, and Lully died on 22 March 1687.

ZACH, Jan (1713-1773) - Missa ex D à 4 (c.1755)

Jan Zach (1713-1773) - Missa ex D à 4 (c.1755)

Performers: Mаyа Bοοg (soprano); Grаhаm Pushее (alto); Stеvе Dаvislim (tenor); Wοlf Mаtthiаs Friеdrich (bass); Kammerchor Collegium Vocale Innsbruck; Cappella Istrοpolitаnа; Bеrnhard Siеbеrеr (conductor)

Painting: Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674-1755) - Pope Benedict XIII Presiding over the Provincial Roman Synod

Further info: Jan Zach (1713-1773) - Concerto (ex F) per il Clavi-Cembalo (c.1770)

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Jan Zach

(Čelákovice, bap. 26 November 1713 - Ellwangen, 24 May 1773)

Bohemian composer and organist. The son of a wheelwright, he went to Prague in 1724 and began his career as a violinist at St Gallus and at St Martín. Later he became organist at St Martín and, by 1737, at the monastic church of the Merciful Brethren and the Minorite chapel of St Ann. According to Dlabač he was a pupil of B.M. Černohorský (who was in Prague, 1720-27) in organ playing and composition. In 1737 Zach competed unsuccessfully for the post of organist at St Vitus’s Cathedral. He is reported to have left Bohemia, but was in Prague until 1740. About 1745 he was at Augsburg, and on 24 April 1745 he was appointed Kapellmeister at the court of the Prince-Elector of Mainz, succeeding his countryman Jan Ondráček. On 4 October of the same year a mass by Zach was given at Frankfurt, at the coronation of Emperor Franz I. Zach visited Italy in 1746 and in autumn 1747 he spent about two months in Bohemia. At the Mainz court he was involved in various disputes, probably caused by his eccentricity. He was suspended in 1750, and in 1756 he was dismissed and succeeded by another Bohemian musician, J.M. Schmid. He sought appointments at the court of the Prince-Elector at Trier and later at Cologne, and apparently spent the rest of his life travelling, visiting various courts (Koblenz, Cologne, Darmstadt, Dillingen, Würzburg, Werhammer, Wallerstein) and monasteries (Seligenstadt, Amorbach, Eberbach, Stams). In 1767 and between 1771 and 1772 he again visited Italy, staying for two months at Bressanone on his return journey. He earned his living by selling and dedicating copies of his works and by teaching; he also performed as a soloist on the harpsichord and the violin and conducted performances of his compositions. He appears to have had close contact with the Cistercian monastery at Stams, Tyrol, where he stayed several times; at various times he was music teacher at the Jesuit school in Munich and possibly choirmaster at the Pairis monastery in Alsace.

In January 1773 he was at the Wallerstein court; four months later, according to the Frankfurt Kayserliche Reichs-Ober-Post-Amts-Zeitung of 5 June, he died on a journey, at Ellwangen, and was buried in the local monastic church of St Wolfgang. Zach seems to have been a complicated personality both as man and as artist: his musical expression ranges from introverted melancholy to robust verve, with an intense rhythmic drive. A full chronology of his works has not been established. His output includes both instrumental and sacred music; both genres reflect a stylistic transition from the late Baroque to the pre-Classical. In his church music, retrospective polyphony and Venetian ‘mixed style’ (for example the Requiem in G minor k B18) co-exist with a more homophonic, concertante idiom of Neapolitan orientation, often pervaded with Czech dance rhythms. His best sacred works include the Requiem in C minor (k B17), abounding in melodic chromaticism and striving for dramatic expressiveness, the Stabat mater and the Missa solemnis. Zach’s sinfonias and partitas are scored for strings, solo or orchestral, or for strings and wind. Various types of pre-Classical formal organization are represented, notably the three-movement Italian overture form (sometimes expanded to four movements). Both the sinfonias and concertos use many devices of the galant style, such as periodic two- or four-bar structure, much passage-work and ornamentation, parallel 6ths and 3rds, Alberti bass and so on. The national character of Zach’s music was noted as early as 1774 by M. Gerbert: ‘qui praestantissimum suae gentis characterem sine peregrini Italiae styli admixtione egregie expressit’ (De cantu et musica sacra, ii, 371). Komma has shown that many of Zach’s engaging melodies and rhythms have their roots in Czech folksong and dance.

REICHARDT, Johann Friedrich (1752-1814) - Sonata per il Pianoforte e Violino

Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814) - Sonata (F-Dur) per il Pianoforte e Violino

Performers: Massimo Spadano (violin); Arthur Schoonderwoerd (pianoforte)

Painting: Nicolaas Hopman (1794-1870) - Portrait of two musicians (1826)

Further info: Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814) - Concerto per il Violino concertato (1773)

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Johann (Giovani) Friedrich (Federico) Reichardt [Reichard]

(Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], 25 November 1752 - Giebichenstein, 27 June 1814)

German composer, political writer and writer on music. Son of a lutenist, Johann Reichardt (c.1720-1780), he received his early musical education from his father. His early teachers also included J.F. Hartknoch (a young musician from Riga then learning the publishing trade in Königsberg), a local musician named Krüger, the organist C.G. Richter, who introduced Reichardt to the music of C.P.E. and J.S. Bach, and the violinist F.A. Veichtner, a pupil of Franz Benda. He attended Königsberg university, where he became acquainted with the philosophy of Emanuel Kant. Like other young artists in the 18th century, he began his career with years of travel. The first of his journeys began in spring 1771 with a performing tour of north German musical and literary centres; he met J.A.P. Schulz, Ramler, Friedrich Nicolai, Franz Benda, J.A. Hiller, J.G. Naumann, C.P.E. Bach, Lessing, Klopstock and Claudius. During this journey he spent two long periods in Berlin, where he attended performances of Graun and Hasse operas at the declining royal opera and oratorios at public concerts, studied briefly with Kirnberger and was deeply impressed by his first substantial hearing of Handel’s music. In 1775 he applied for and won the post of Kapellmeister to Frederick II though he had little experience in musical composition. He married Juliane Benda, Franz Benda’s daughter, in 1776, and remarried soon after she died in 1783. Tours to Italy and Vienna in 1783 (where he became friends with Joseph Martin Kraus) as well as France and England in 1785 both broadened his education and served to implement a Concert spirituel in Berlin. 

He was close friends with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich von Schiller, working with the former in 1789 on the Singspiel Claudine von Villa Bella. From the end of 1794 until the accession of Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1797, Reichardt lived in Hamburg and Giebichenstein, active as a political journalist, and editing the journals Frankreich and Deutschland. In 1796 he was appointed director of the Halle salt mines, a position which gave him leisure to pursue his own interests. In 1806 Napoleon’s troops occupied parts of Prussia, and also Halle and Giebichenstein. Reichardt and his family fled to north Germany, and returned in October 1807 to find the estate in Giebichenstein in ruins. With barely enough money to support his family, he had to depend on income from writing and composing until 1811, when he was given a small pension. He made several more journeys, to Berlin, Leipzig and Breslau, but his brilliant reputation had gone. He died largely forgotten. As a composer, his musical style is often dramatic, with orchestration that foreshadows the Romantic period, and he can be considered both an adherent of the Sturm und Drang style and one of the principal composers of Lieder of the Berlin School. His compositions include 1500 Lieder, 29 operas (mostly Singspiels), 11 sets of incidental music to plays, two ballets, two oratorios, 13 German cantatas, a Requiem, two Te Deums, eight Psalms, nine symphonies, 11 concertos (nine for keyboard), three quintets, a quartet, 15 trios, 26 keyboard sonatas, 16 violin sonatas, and over 100 horn duets. Reichardt can be seen as one of the most intellectual composers of the period.

BUSTIJN, Pieter (1649-1722) - Suitte (VI) pour le Clavessin (c.1712)

Pieter Bustijn (1649-1722) - Suitte (VI) pour le Clavessin (c.1712)

Performers: Jаcquеs Ogg (clavecin)

Painting: Anonyme - Portrait d'un jeune musicien (1767)

Further info: Pieter Bustijn (1649-1722) - Suites for harpsichord

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Pieter (Pierre) Bustijn [Bustyn, Bustin, Bystyn]

(Middelburg?, bap. 25 July 1649 - bur. Middelburg, 22 November 1729)

Dutch organist, carillonneur and composer. His family were French-speaking. He may have studied with Remigius Schrijver (?-1681), a Middelburg organist; he completed the music for Uitbreidinge over het Bouk der Psalmen (3vv, bc; Middelburg, 1682; lost), begun by Schrijver, who had died before completion of the work. In 1681 Bustijn was appointed organist of the Nieuwe Kerk, and carillonneur of the abbey bell tower in Middelburg. He served as organ adviser in Middelburg and Goes and may have been director of the Middelburg collegium musicum during the period 1681-1729. In 1712 the carillon of the Middleburg abbey tower was destroyed; its replacement, constructed by the famous bellfounders Jan Albert de Grave and Claas Noorden of Amsterdam in 1714, was inspected by Bustijn and Abraham de Coup, organist of the Walloon church and carillonneur of the market bell-tower, and, according to various reports, was of outstanding quality. Relatively little Dutch keyboard music of the time has survived. Bustijn’s IX suittes pour le clavessin (Amsterdam, c1712/R in Exempla Musica Zelandica, i (Middelburg, 1992 [incl. biographical information]); 3 ed. in EMN, i, Amsterdam, 1964) are of great importance to the history of the genre in the Netherlands. Their balanced arrangement by key is reminiscent of the use of symmetrical cycles culminating in the art of Bach. Their style points to that of the keyboard works of Bach and Handel, as well as showing some French influence. The suites were known to members of Bach’s circle: no.VIII (in A), in J.L. Krebs’s hand, can be found in an anthology of keyboard music (D-Bsb) compiled by Johann Gottfried Walther, who also mentions the works in his Musicalisches Lexicon.

BENDA, František (1709-1786) - Sinfonia ex C (1762)

František Benda (1709-1786) - Sinfonia ex C (1762)

Performers: Slovak Chamber Orchestra; Bohdan Warchal (1930-2000, conductor)

Engraving: Friedrich Wilhelm Skerl (1752-1810) - František Benda (1783)

Further info: František Benda (1709-1786) - Symphonies

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Franz (František) Benda

(Staré Benátky, bap. 22 November 1709 - Nowawes, nr Potsdam, 7 March 1786)

Violinist and composer, son of Jan Jiří Benda (1686-1757). His autobiography, written in 1763, presents details of his early training and the musicians with whom he associated during his long career; the documentation of his own activities and references to his associates make this one of the most frequently cited documents of the era. As a youth Benda was an excellent singer, and this talent provided for much of his early musical education as well as for his material needs, starting in 1718 at St Nicholas’s in Prague, from 1720 in the Hofkapelle at Dresden. He returned to Prague in 1723 as an alto and student in the Jesuit seminary, where he began his first compositions, now lost. While participating in a performance of J.J. Fux’s Costanza e Fortezza, he was particularly impressed by the singing of Gaetano Ursini, whose style he emulated. The Jesuits permitted Latin texts to be added to these italianate arias, which Benda sang with great success. When his voice broke he returned to his parents’ home and began to focus his studies on the violin, particularly through studying the concertos of Vivaldi. At his father’s insistence he learnt the linen weaving trade, but he also played for dancing in taverns; he claimed later to have learnt much from a blind fiddler. Benda next held a series of appointments as a violinist in aristocratic households in Vienna, where he encountered many of the best musicians of the day. Together with several of these young musical friends, Benda ran away from his employers, eventually finding a position as Hofkapellmeister to Count Suchaczewsky in Warsaw, where he remained for more than two years. From this point his reputation as a musician and violinist preceeded him, and in 1732 he was invited to join the royal court orchestra in Warsaw, an offer which he accepted. However, dissatisfaction with his salary and duties led him to seek a better position, and the death of August II on 1 February 1733 provided an opportunity to return to Dresden; while visiting nearby Ruppin, he was engaged as violinist by Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia on 17 April 1733.

During his early years in Frederick’s entourage Benda visited Dresden again, renewed his acquaintance with the violinist Johann Georg Pisendel and participated in performances with C.P.E. Bach and J.E. Goldberg. He remained to his death in the service of Frederick, following him to Rheinsberg in 1736 and then to Potsdam when Frederick assumed the throne in 1740. He was appointed Konzertmeister in the king’s Kapelle in 1771. As a member of one of the outstanding musical establishments of the mid-18th century, Benda found himself in company with some leading musicians. He studied the composition and performance of adagios with Johann Gottlieb Graun, and later studied concerto writing with Carl Heinrich Graun. He continued to be recognized as a singer during the early years of his appointment, and in his autobiography related that he was expected to perform arias at court regularly. Benda evidently became a mainstay of Frederick’s orchestra. In his autobiography he estimated that he had accompanied the king, an avid flautist, in 10,000 concertos. His position was reflected clearly in the salary schedule for 1744-45, in which he ranked third, behind the Kapellmeister C.H. Graun and Konzertmeister J.G. Graun. Charles Burney described Benda as one of the prominent musicians at the court in Berlin, one who had ‘acquired a great reputation in his profession, not only by his expressive manner of playing the violin, but by his graceful and affecting compositions for that instrument’. Benda’s stature was reflected in the publication of his death notice in the Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen of 16 March 1786: ‘On the seventh of this month one of the most noteworthy and highly esteemed men of his time died, the royal Konzertmeister Franz Benda …. It is generally known that he was one of the greatest musicians, and that upon his instrument, the violin, he created an epoch.’ Of his six children who survived infancy, four became musicians: Maria Carolina Benda (1742-1820), Friedrich Benda (1745-1814), Karl Hermann Heinrich Benda (1748-1836) and Juliane Benda (1752-1783).

VON WEBER, Carl Maria (1786-1826) - Missa No.2 a 4tro concertato (c.1818)

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) - Missa No.2 a 4tro concertato (c.1818)

Performers: Henriеttе Schеllеnbеrg (soprano); Gеorge Rοbеrts (baritone); Lаvеrnе G'Frοеrеr (mezzo-soprano);

Kеith Bοldt (tenor); Vancouver Chamber Choir; CBC Vancouver Orchestra; Jοn Wаshburn (conductor)

Painting: Caroline Bardua (1781-1864) - Bildnis des Komponisten Carl Maria von Weber

Further info: Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) - Messe du Freischutz (c.1817)

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Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) von Weber

(Eutin, 19 November 1786 - London, 5 June 1826)

Composer, conductor, pianist and critic, son of Franz Anton Weber (1734-1812) and brother of Edmund Weber (1766-1831) and Fridolin Weber (1761-1833). He was born into a musical and theatrical family. His father was a musician and soldier of fortune who had formed a small traveling theatre company. His mother, Genovefa, was a singer; his uncles, aunts, and brothers were to some degree involved in music and the stage. Carl Maria was a sickly child, having been born with a diseased hip that caused him to limp throughout his life. When he began to show signs of musical talent, his ambitious father set him to work under various teachers in towns visited by the family troupe in the hope that he might prove a Mozartean prodigy. Among these instructors was Michael Haydn. Under Haydn, he wrote and published his Opus 1, Sechs Fughetten (1798). The troupe paused briefly in Munich, where he learned the art of lithography under its inventor, Aloys Senefelder. Moving on to Freiberg, the Webers planned to set up a lithographic works in order to propagate the young composer’s music. On a return visit to Salzburg, he completed his first wholly surviving opera, Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn, which failed when it was produced in Augsburg in 1803. He resumed his studies under the influential Abbé Vogler, through whom he was appointed musical director at Breslau in 1804. After many difficulties, occasioned by the inexperience of a young director in putting through reforms, and a near-fatal accident in which he permanently impaired his voice when he swallowed some engraving acid, Weber was forced to resign. He was rescued by an appointment as director of music to Duke Eugen of Württemberg, for whose private orchestra he wrote two symphonies. Weber was next a secretary in the court of King Frederick I of Württemberg. Here he lived so carelessly and ran up so many debts that, after a brief imprisonment, he was banished. He and his father fled to Mannheim, where he was, in his own words, “born for the second time.”

He made friends with an influential circle of artists, from whom he stood out as a talented pianist and guitarist; he was also remarkable for his theories on the Romantic movement. Moving on to Darmstadt, he met Vogler again, as well as the German opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. From 1809 to 1818 he also wrote a considerable number of reviews, poems, and uncompromising, stringent music criticisms. All his work, music, and critical writings furthered the ideals of Romanticism as an art in which feeling took precedence over form and heart over head. Appointed conductor of the opera at Prague in 1813 he was at last able to put his theories into full practice. His reputation by now was such that he was able to secure an appointment as director of the German opera at Dresden, beginning in 1817. The same year he married one of his former singers, Caroline Brandt. As the prophet of a German national opera, he was faced with even greater difficulties. It was in Dresden that he began to work on Der Freischütz, which was an immediate success when it was performed in Berlin in 1821. When Covent Garden in London commissioned a new opera, he took on the task of learning English and working with a librettist, James Robinson Planché, by correspondence. His motive was to earn enough money to support his family after his death, which he knew to be not far off. In form, Oberon was little to his taste, having too many spoken scenes and elaborate stage devices for a composer who had always worked for the unification of the theatrical arts in opera. But into it he poured some of his most exquisite music, and he traveled to London for the premiere in 1826. Barely able to walk, he was sustained by the kindness of his host, Sir George Smart, and by the longing to get home again to his family. Oberon was a success and he was feted, but his health was declining fast. Shortly before he was due to start the journey back to Germany, he was found dead in his room.

LOPEZ CRESPO, Félix A. Máximo (1742-1821) - Sonata 2ª de Quatro Manos

Félix Antonio Máximo López (1742-1821) - Sonata 2ª de Quatro Manos

Performers: María Teresa Chenlo (clave); Sharon Gould (clave)

Drawing: Johann Lorenz Rugendas (1775-1826) - Entry of Joseph Bonaparte into Madrid as King

Further info: Félix Antonio Máximo López (1742-1821)

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Félix Antonio Máximo López Crespo

(Madrid, 18 November 1742 - Madrid, 9 April 1821)

Spanish organist and composer. Nothing is known about his early years. He joined the Madrid royal chapel as fourth organist in 1775, advancing to first organist in 1805 on Lidón’s resignation. He was twice married; two of the sons of his first marriage were prominent in court music; Ambrosio (1769-1835) as royal chapel organist, and Miguel (known also as Miguel López Remacha) (1772-1827) as first tenor of the royal chapel, composer of operatic and sacred works and author of treatises on solfège and composition. According to Saldoni, a number of López’s works – keyboard pieces, guitar pieces, chamber works and villancicos – were published during his lifetime. As with many of his contemporaries, these publications do not seem to be extant, but several of his works have survived in manuscript. His organ pieces, mainly liturgical, range from short versets and fabordónes to lengthy sonatas, caprichos and fugues intended for the Elevation or Offertory. Some use hymn chants, including the traditional Spanish Pange lingua. Their style is a sometimes incongruous amalgam of the pianistic Viennese Classical idiom and stile antico counterpoint, but they are effective when played according to the careful registration directions on an instrument such as the royal chapel organ (built in 1778 by Jorge Bosch) for which they were written. López’s harpsichord works include competently written multi-movement sonatas in the Classical style (including two for four hands) and some colourful variations on Spanish melodies. His Reglas generales, o escuela de acompañar al órgaño, o clave (MS, E-Mn) demonstrates various ways to harmonize and ornament a bass line. 

GUILLEMAIN, Louis-Gabriel (1705-1770) - Symphonie (VI) en Sol majeur, Oeuvre XIVe (1748)

Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705-1770) - Symphonie (VI) en Sol majeur, Oeuvre XIVe (1748)

Performers: Ensеmblе Lе Biеn-Aimé

Painting: Anonymous - Gesellschaft mit jungem Paar

Further info: Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705-1770) - Simphonie II, œuvre XIV (1748)

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Louis-Gabriel Guillemain

(Paris, 15 November 1705 - Chaville, 1 October 1770)

French composer and violinist. He was brought up by the Count of Rochechouart in Paris, where he began his violin studies. He later studied in Italy with the violinist G.B. Somis. By 1729, Guillemain was active in Lyons and soon after then he was appointed first violinist of the Dijon Académie de Musique, where he became well established as composer and performer. The Président à Mortier of the Dijon parliament sent Guillemain to Italy at great expense and included him in his will. In 1737 Guillemain became a musicien ordinaire to Louis XV and eventually one of the most popular and highest-paid court musicians. It was probably to give concerts that he went to Italy with the violinist Jean-Pierre Guignon in the late 1730s. Guillemain performed in private concerts before the king and queen and from 1747 to 1750 led the second violins in the Marchioness de Pompadour's court orchestra. His court triumph, however, came on 12 December 1748, with a performance of his ballet-pantomime L'opérateur chinois, given at the marchioness's theatre and again at the Comédie-Italienne on 11 January 1749. His works, primarily the symphonies, were often performed at the Concert Spirituel during the 1750s. Throughout his career at court, extravagant purchases kept him in debt. It has generally been thought that Guillemain never appeared in public as a soloist at the Concert Spirituel, possibly because he was too nervous to play before a large audience. But evidence shows that he may have been soloist in one of his own concertos at the Concert Spirituel on the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament (18 May) in 1750. He drank heavily in his last years, and was hastily buried on the day of his death; all this would seem to bear out the grim accounts of his suicide.

All 18 of Guillemain's publications consist of instrumental music, including works for unaccompanied violin, solo violin and keyboard, unaccompanied violin duos, trio sonatas, quartets, concertos, trio symphonies and divertissements for orchestral trio. The op.1 sonatas, in a conservative four-movement scheme and with ornamental melodic lines, make virtuoso demands on the violin: they abound in double and triple stops and difficult string crossings and leaps as well as intricate rapid passages and bowings. This technical display is also found in the unaccompanied caprices of op.18. The 12 trio symphonies, opp.6 and 14, are structurally of interest. They are in the Italian style and follow the normal three-movement, fast–slow–fast scheme. Each of the fast movements, however, displays a remarkably clear grasp of the sonata-allegro principle for works written in the 1740s. Guillemain's awareness of the various thematic functions, as well as the differentiation between primary and secondary materials, is surprising. His typical sonata-allegro procedure in the symphonies consists of a brief exposition with the primary theme in the tonic and a modulation to the dominant for the secondary material. The development section begins with a restatement of the primary material in the dominant and continues with episodic or developmental material, usually in the relative minor. The recapitulation is generally exact with only insignificant thematic reformulation. The symphonies are predominantly galant in style. The trio setting is homophonic virtually throughout, with the continuo often characterized by a perfunctory beat-marking accompaniment. The thematic material is put together in a series of independent, fragmented phrases, normally of two bars. Each unit is articulated by contrasting galant instrumental figurations, creating a mosaic-like additive procedure as opposed to a developmental one.

HERSCHEL, William (1738-1822) - Symphonia per 8to. Stromenti (1762)

William Herschel (1738-1822) - Symphonia (No.17, C-Dur) per 8to. Stromenti (1762)

Performers: Hеidеlbеrgеr Sinfonikеr; Jοhаnnеs KIumpp (conductor)

Drawing: George Moutard Woodward (1765-1809) - Caricature ornaments for screens!

Further info: William Herschel (1738-1822) - Symphony No.12 in D

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Frederick William (Friedrich Wilhelm) Herschel

(Hanover, 15 November 1738 - Slough, 25 August 1822)

English musician and astronomer of German birth. The son of the violinist and oboist Isaac Herschel (1707-1767), he was born Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel and became a naturalized English citizen on 30 April 1793 with the name William Herschel. As a young boy he excelled at scientific studies but was soon engaged by the Hanover Guards as an oboist and violinist (1 May 1753). ‘This engagement’, he said, ‘furnished the means for my improvement not only in music, which was my profession, but also in acquiring a knowledge of the French language, with the advantage of studying above two years under a very well informed teacher [Hofschläger], who … encouraged the taste he found in his pupil for the study of philosophy, especially logic, ethics and metaphysics.’ In 1756 the Seven Years War began and in April the Hanover Guards were posted to England in anticipation of possible attack by the French. On their return to Germany that autumn Herschel and his father found the conditions severe. Following the Battle of Hastenbeck Isaac's concern for his son's safety led him to discover that on account of the latter's youth he had not been sworn in and therefore could be easily granted dismissal from military service. This was quickly procured. Later that year, William and his elder brother, the composer Jacob Herschel (1734-1792), returned to England and tried to establish themselves as musicians. William soon found work as a music copyist while Jacob, after taking on some private pupils, returned to Hanover in 1759. William ‘found [himself] in great difficulties, and seeing no likelihood of doing well in London [he] intended to try for better success in the country’. The best opportunity was as head of a small band for a regiment of militia in Yorkshire. The band consisted of only two oboes and two french horns but Herschel considered them excellent performers and composed military music ‘on purpose to show off our instruments’.

Compositions extant from 1759 include two viola concertos and one oboe concerto, all undoubtedly reflecting his performing ability. Between 1760 and 1766 Herschel wrote many more compositions, including 18 symphonies, which he rehearsed with groups he conducted, often also appearing as soloist. His several autobiographical accounts, together with his methodical grouping and dating of manuscripts, give a clear picture of a talented and energetic young man intent on establishing himself in the Newcastle area. In 1761 he conducted a band of 30 musicians in Newcastle to honour the King's coronation day and in 1762 he became manager of the subscription concerts in Leeds. In March 1766 Herschel was appointed organist at St John the Baptist, Halifax, where he remained for just three months, and in late 1767 he became organist at the Octagon Chapel, Bath. By now he was well established in musical circles in the important centre of Bath but his interests focussed increasingly on his scientific, and particularly astronomical, activities. In 1777 he commented that ‘Musical business carried on as usual. All my leisure time was given to preparing telescopes and contriving proper stands for them. I kept a regular account of any experiments of polishing’. On 13 March 1781 he famously discovered Uranus (then named Georgium Sidus, after King George III). The following spring, the King awarded Herschel an annual stipend of £200 so that he might devote himself entirely to astronomy and he gave up his musical career. So compact is Herschel's compositional career that it is perhaps surprising to find in it stylistic change. The earliest works (1759-62) are heavily influenced by the North German tradition from which he had sprung. They are full of common elements of the empfindsamer and Sturm und Drang styles. In 1762 the style changed profoundly to a much more galant or Italianate style that was superficially pleasing but lacked depth. 

HUMMEL, Johann Nepomuk (1778-1837) - Messe Nr. 2 in Es à 4 Voci (1804)

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) - Messe Nr. 2 in Es à 4 Voci, Op.80 (1804)

Performers: Adriánа Kаlаfszky (soprano); Viοlа Thurnаy (contralto); Zοltán Mеgyеsi (tenor); Ákοs Bοrkа (bass);

Purcеll Choir; Capella Sаvаriа; Nichοlаs McGеgаn (conductor)

Painting: Johann Peter Krafft (1780-1856) - Ossian und Malwina am Meeresstrand (c.1821)

Further info: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) - Te Deum

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Johann Nepomuk Hummel

(Pressburg [now Bratislava], 14 November 1778 - Weimar, 17 October 1837)

Austrian pianist, composer, teacher and conductor. He was considered in his time to be one of Europe's greatest composers and perhaps its greatest pianist. Hummel was a prodigy; he is described as having been more advanced at three than most children twice his age. At four he could read music, at five play the violin and at six the piano. When he was eight, the family moved to Vienna, where his father Johannes, a string player and conductor, became music director of the Theater auf der Wieden, a post that was to give his son useful theatrical experience. Hummel made rapid progress as a pianist, becoming a pupil of Mozart soon after going to Vienna. According to his father, the boy so impressed Mozart that he taught him free of charge; as was often the arrangement at the time, Hummel lived with the Mozarts. Making his debut in 1787, he was so proficient that in 1788 Mozart recommended that he be taken on tour of Germany and Denmark. By 1790 he and his family were in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he took on pupils for a short time, and in 1792 he made his debut at the Hannover Square Rooms in London. He returned to Vienna in 1795, where he studied organ under Joseph Haydn, composition under Antonio Salieri, and counterpoint under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. During this period he began a long and often stormy friendship with Ludwig van Beethoven, whom Hummel considered a superior performer and composer, often lending him an inferiority complex. In 1804, Hummel became Konzertmeister at the Esterházy estate in Eisenstadt, a position that was problematic enough that in 1811 he resigned and turned to private teaching. In 1816 he obtained the position as court Kapellmeister in Stuttgart but left after only a year to take up a similar post in Weimar where he remained the rest of his life.

For more than a century his reputation has been that of a typical 19th-century virtuoso specializing in piano music. This view of him, however, is grossly incorrect. When his little-known unpublished works and the bulk of his printed ones are placed beside his better-known compositions, it becomes clear that his work embraced virtually all the genres and performing media common at the turn of the century: operas, Singspiele, symphonic masses and other sacred works, occasional pieces, chamber music, songs and, of course, concertos and solo piano music, as well as many arrangements. Only the symphony is conspicuously absent (and this fact alone testifies to his deeply felt rivalry with Beethoven). He was, furthermore, a curious combination of the old composer-craftsman and the new composer-entrepreneur. Enormous quantities of music were written as part of his employment, but he was also a freelance who rarely lacked commissions and who could not satisfy all the demands of his publishers. His extraordinary ability to respond to the needs of the musical market-place is illustrated by his relationship with George Thomson, the Edinburgh folksong collector. The arrangements done by Beethoven for Thomson were too difficult and did not sell, but those by Hummel were just right. Yet Hummel, like Beethoven, was a composer whose music normally demanded the highest virtuosity. Stylistically, Hummel's music is among the finest of the last years of Classicism, with basically homophonic textures, well-spun, ornate italianate melodies, and virtuoso embroidery supported by modernized Alberti accompaniments. His style, which is most modern in works employing the piano, followed a straight path of development throughout his lifetime, although after his return to the concert stage in 1814 his compositions expanded considerably in expressive range, harmonic and melodic variety, and brilliance. His music is known by Op and WoO numbers in the Zimmerschied catalog.

KREUTZER, Joseph (1790-1840) - Trio (IV) pour Flute, Violon et Guitarre

Joseph Kreutzer (1790-1840) - Trio (IV) pour Flute, Violon et Guitarre, Op.9 (c.1823)

Performers: Gragnani Trio

Painting: Moritz Müller (1807-1865) - Bauernhochzeit (1861)

Further info: Kreutzer: Trios Op 9

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Joseph Kreutzer

(Aachen, 11 November 1790 - Düsseldorf, 16 June 1840)

German composer, conductor, guitarist and violinist. Little is known about his life. According to his death certificate, he was born in Aachen, the son of Paul Kreutzer, a music teacher there. From around 1805 he lived in Düsseldorf and, alongside August Burgmüller, played an important role in the city's musical life. In several sources he is referred to as the concert master of the theater orchestra. He was probably also the violin teacher of Burgmüller's son Norbert Burgmüller. Kreutzer's works were also performed several times in Düsseldorf, for example a flute concerto (now lost) on March 5, 1822, played by his cousin Bernhard Kreutzer. When Felix Mendelssohn was municipal music director in Düsseldorf from 1833 to 1835, Kreutzer is said to have stirred up anti-Mendelssohn sentiment on various occasions. This is reported in particular by the officer Emil von Webern, who was a friend of Mendelssohn. As a composer, his output mostly consist of chamber music and instructive pieces for guitar, flute and strings. 

SPETH, Johann (1664-1728) - Magnificat Primi Toni (1693)

Johann Speth (1664-1728) - Magnificat Primi Toni (1693)

Performers: Rupеrt Gottfriеd Friеbеrgеr (organ); Choralschola Praemonstratenser-Chorhеrrеnstift Schlаgl

Painting: Gerard Houckgeest (c.1600-1661) - Ambulatory of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, with the Tomb of William the Silent (1651)

Further info: Speth - Complete organ works

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Johann (Johannes, Johanne) Speth [Spethen]

(Speinshart, Upper Palatinate, 9 November 1664 - Augsburg, 1728)

German organist and composer. He was born in Speinshart to teacher Heinrich Speth and his wife Margareta (née Vichtl). Past scholars established that he must have received music lessons from the abbot of the Premonstratensian monastery at Speinshart, one Dominikus Lieblein; however, this has recently been disproven. Nothing is known about his life before 1692, when he applied for the position of organist of Augsburg Cathedral. The application, which contained Speth's compositions, was accepted, and he was appointed organist on 4 November 1692. The music he supplied with the application was published the next year in Augsburg as Ars magna Consoni et Dissoni (1693). In the files of the cathedral administration there is a note from 1705 showing that Speth had also to work in the office of the cathedral chapter. The exact date of Speth's death is unknown, but there is a document that shows that in 1719, he still lived with his wife and a maidservant in Augsburg. The composer's only surviving work is the collection published in 1693 in Augsburg, Ars magna Consoni et Dissoni. The title may be a reference to Athanasius Kircher's famous book, Musurgia universalis, sive ars magna consoni et dissoni (1650). An early description of the work was included by Johann Gottfried Walther in his Musikalisches Lexicon; Walther claimed Speth only compiled the pieces but did not compose. This hypothesis is now generally considered false. Ars Magna contains music intended for organ or clavichord: ten toccatas (subtitled Musicalische Blumen-Felder), eight Magnificat settings, and three variation sets. The music has clearly traceable Italian influences, with direct borrowings: one of the variation sets is built on a theme by Bernardo Pasquini, there is also a passage from Bernardo Storace in the Spangioletta variation set, and a verset by Alessandro Poglietti (quinti toni no. 3). The influence of contemporary southern organists is also apparent, particularly that of Georg Muffat and Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer. The toccatas are unusually short for the genre; most consist of three (toccata-fugue-toccata) sections. There are some interesting features such as dynamic indications in Toccata quarta. The Magnificat settings are, like similar pieces by Johann Kaspar Kerll and others, short versets for alternatim practice.

SCHWARTZKOPFF, Theodor (1659-1732) - Overture C-Dur

Theodor Schwartzkopff (1659-1732) - Overture C-Dur

Performers: Ludwig Güttler (trumpet); Kammerorchester Berlin; Max Pommer (conductor)

Drawing: Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756) - Femme de faiseur de trompettes (c.1740)

Further info: Trompetenkonzerte

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Theodor Schwartzkopff

(Ulm, bap. 6 November 1659 - Ludwigsburg, 13 May 1732)

German composer. He was the son of Georg Reinhard Schwartzkopff (1631-1705), a town musician in Ulm as well as organist and organ builder. Theodor probably received his early instruction in music from his father as well as from S.A. Scherer, the organist at Ulm Cathedral. He was employed as an Aspirant in the Württemburg Hofkapelle at Stuttgart around 1678 and was promoted to Hofmusicus in 1682. Following the success at court of his French-style ballet Le rendez-vous des plaisirs he was sent to study in Paris towards the end of 1684. On his return to Stuttgart in 1686 he was made vice-Kapellmeister. In December 1688 the Kapellmeister Johann Friedrich Magg sided with the invading French forces, leaving Schwartzkopff fully in charge of the Hofkapelle; on 21 March 1690 he was promoted officially to the vacant post. Following a major retrenchment at court in 1709, caused by the cost of continuing hostilities with France coupled with the expense of building a new ducal residence at Ludwigsburg, Schwartzkopff was released from service with an inadequate annuity of 300 gulden ‘until better times’. It seems that he sought work at the nearby Baden-Durlach court, since he is listed as a member of the Hofkapelle there between 1712 and 1716. Schwartzkopff returned to Stuttgart early in 1717, probably hoping for the post of Oberkapellmeister, which was vacant following the death of Pez, but this post went to Brescianello. A serenata by Schwartzkopff was performed for the annual Order of St Hubert festivities on 3 November 1721 and court documents after that date continue to describe him as Kapellmeister. In 1725 Schwartzkopff wrote to Duke Eberhard Ludwig suggesting that he direct a small ensemble for services in the Stuttgart Schlosskapelle while Brescianello continued to lead the full church music at Ludwigsburg. Unfortunately Schwartzkopff's dramatic and sacred music is lost, but a significant selection of his instrumental music written for the Württemberg court musicians does survive. These works display a blend of French and Italian elements typical of the time, with conspicuous writing for the bass viol.

ERKEL, Ferenc (1810-1893) - Magyar Cantate (1867)

Ferenc Erkel (1810-1893) - Magyar Cantate (1867)

Performers: Szabina Schnoller (soprano); Mercedes Heim (alto); Barna Kovacs (tenor); Laszlo Jekl (bass); Domotor Pinter (bass); Pecs Bela Bartok Male Choir; Musica Nostra Choir; Budapest Symphony Orchestra MAV;

Akos Somogyvary (conductor)

Painting: Alajos Györgyi Giergl (1821-1863) - Ferenc Erkel

Further info: Erkel - Choral works

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Ferenc Erkel

(Gyula, county of Békés, 7 November 1810 - Budapest, 15 June 1893)

Hungarian composer, conductor and pianist. Erkel’s family was of German descent but regarded itself as Hungarian and lived in Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slvk.). His ancestors included many musicians and music teachers. Erkel first studied music with his father, and then from 1822 to 1825 he studied with composer Henrik Klein in Pozsony. From 1828 to 1834 he lived in Kolozsvár (now Cluj, Rom.), and in 1835 he moved to Pest. Until 1841 he performed regularly as a soloist and accompanying pianist. In 1835 he was the conductor at the National Stage at the Buda Castle Theatre, and in 1836-37 he led the German Theatre of Pest. In 1838 he became the first conductor of the newly opened Hungarian Theatre of Pest (from 1840 the National Theatre). There he worked to develop Hungarian-language operatic performance with the intention of creating an opera company capable of competing with the German Theatre of Pest. In addition to staging works by Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, and Carl Maria von Weber, he revived József Ruzitska’s opera Béla futása (“Béla’s Flight”), which in 1822 had been the first Hungarian opera. After this production proved to be a failure, he began to write his own operas, synthesizing western European elements with Hungarian themes. His first original works were Bátori Mária (1840) and Hunyadi László (1844), both with librettos by Béni Egressy. Parts of the latter work, which enjoyed enormous and lasting popularity, were adapted as revolutionary songs. Also in 1844, “Hymnusz,” with lyrics taken from an 1823 poem of the same name by Ferenc Kölcsey and with music composed by Erkel, was adopted as Hungary’s national anthem.

To support his family, Erkel also wrote accompaniments and feature songs for popular plays (including those by prolific playwright Ede Szigligeti), and he became the music teacher of the daughter of Archduke Albert. After the Hungarian struggle for independence of 1848-49, Erkel revived the opera company of the National Theatre on next to nothing. In 1853 he assembled what would become the Philharmonic Society (legally established as an association in 1867), which performed concerts at the National Museum and later in the Vigadó Theatre. He also introduced new works by Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann, and Franz Liszt. His 1857 opera, Erzsébet (“Elizabeth”), was less than a success with audiences. In 1861 Erkel staged his most famous work, Bánk bán (based on a drama by József Katona, with a libretto by Egressy), which at that point probably had been ready for production for more than 10 years. However, Sarolta, his first comic opera, performed in 1862, proved to be another failure. Erkel’s 1867 opera, Dózsa György, displays Wagnerian stylistic touches in its use of leitmotifs, while Brankovics György (1874) employs Hungarian, Serbian, and Turkish musical material. In his later operas Erkel began entrusting his sons Gyula, Sándor, and Elek with small orchestration duties and later with the writing of complete accompaniments to vocal scores and compositions. In 1871 Erkel announced his resignation as the lead conductor of the Philharmonic Society, but he stayed on for the next few years, gradually ceding the position to Hans Richter. In 1873 Erkel became director of the theatre’s operatic division, but he resigned after a year and thereafter conducted only his own works.

UTTINI, Francesco (1723-1795) - Overture 'Il re pastore' (1755)

Francesco Uttini (1723-1795) - Overture 'Il re pastore' (1755)

Performers: Chamber Orchestra of the Drottningholm Theater; Ulf Björlin (1933-1993, conductor)

Painting: Adolf-Ulrik Wertmüller (1751-1811) - Francesco Antonio Uttini

Further info: Musik På Drottningholm

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Francesco Antonio Baldassare Uttini

(Bologna, 1723 - Stockholm, 25 October 1795)

Italian composer and conductor, active in Sweden. He received his musical education from Padre Martini and, according to Fétis, from Perti and Sandoni in Bologna. In 1743 he was elected to membership in the Accademia Filarmonica and produced his first opera, Alessandro nelle Indie, in Genoa. During the next ten years he achieved some fame as a composer of both operas (mostly opere serie) and oratorios throughout Italy, joining the Mingotti theatre troupe in 1752 as resident composer. It was in that troupe that he met his first wife, the singer Rosa Scarlatti (1727-75). His first tour to northern Europe (1752) resulted in the opera Siroe, performed in Hamburg, and in the following years he directed L’olimpiade and Zenobia in Copenhagen; he also presented numerous pasticcios in Rostock and elsewhere, of which only one, Armide, survives (1754). In 1755 members of the Mingotti troupe including Uttini were invited by Queen Lovisa Ulrika to visit Stockholm and perform operas for the court. For the newly built theatre at Drottningholm he composed the opera Il re pastore, which was later printed in score. About this time he also composed a flute concerto and a set of harpischord sonatas. After the troupe disbanded, Uttini remained in Stockholm as the queen's private court kapellmästare, writing mostly Italian opere serie but also instrumental chamber works, symphonies and cantatas. He also began his long career as a conductor. In 1762 he turned his attention to settings of French opéra comique texts, such as Favart’s Soliman II and Quinault’s Psyché.

He was appointed Hovkapellmästare to replace Per Brandt in 1767, and the following year his trio sonatas op.1 were published in London by the Swedish printer Fougt. In 1772 he was commissioned by Gustavus III to provide the music for the first Swedish grand opera, Thetis och Pelée, which was successfully performed the following year. During the next ten years he turned towards larger works such as Birger Jarl och Mechtilde (1774, with H.P. Johnsen) and Aline, drottning uti Golconda (‘Aline, Queen of Golconda’, 1776); he added choruses to Swedish versions of Racine’s Athalie (1776) and Iphigénie (1777), and wrote ballet music and prologues to Gluck’s operas. After 1778 his role as principal conductor of the hovkapell was mainly taken over by other musicians and he gradually retired from concert life. From 1781 onwards he was a board member of the Catholic congregation in Stockholm. By 1788, when he retired, he had largely ceased to compose; he married his second wife, the singer Sophia Liljegren (1765-95), in the same year. Uttini’s early musical style conforms to the opera seria style of the period; his operas of 1766 onwards, however, tend to show a greater reliance on the orchestral accompaniment, often resulting in colourful scores. In his Swedish operas, the use of folk melodies is occasionally noticeable. His orchestral writing favours sharp keys and brilliant instrumental combinations. His five symphonies, with their occasional layered crescendos, demonstrate the influences of Mannheim, while his chamber works reflect an older galant style.

VAN WASSENAER, Unico Wilhelm (1692-1766) - Concertino a Quatro Violini

Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692-1766) - Concertino (G-Dur) a Quatro Violini oblige

Performers: Ensemble Benedetto Marcello

Painting: Georges Desmarées (1697-1776) - Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer Obdam (1745)

Further info: Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692-1766) - Concerti armonici

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(Count) Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer

(Delden, 2 November 1692 - The Hague, 9 November 1766)

Dutch composer and statesman. He was born into one of the oldest and most influential families of the Dutch nobility and spent his childhood in his parents' house in The Hague and at Twickel Castle in Delden. He probably studied music with the organist, harpsichordist, composer and theorist Quirinus van Blankenburg in The Hague. From October 1707 until April 1709 he possibly accompanied his father on a mission to the Palatine Elector Johann Wilhelm in Düsseldorf. In September 1710 he matriculated in the University of Leiden and after completing his studies embarked on a grand tour which took him to England, Germany, France and probably Italy between 1714 and 1718. Between 1713 and 1715 he had contacts in The Hague with Duke Friedrich Ludwig von Württemberg, to whom he dedicated three sonatas for recorder and continuo. He was a close friend of Count Willem Bentinck, who also had a keen interest in music, and with him organized concerts which took place alternately in their homes in The Hague. At these concerts, held for a small circle of nobles, Carlo Ricciotti, known as Bacciccia, played first violin. It was for these gatherings, between 1725 and 1740, that van Wassenaer wrote his Concerti armonici, published in 1740 in The Hague by Carlo Ricciotti without the composer's name and with a dedication to Willem Bentinck. The Concerti armonici were reprinted in England with Ricciotti named as the composer. A manuscript score at Twickel Castle contains annotations in van Wassenaer's hand. In a manuscript dating from the beginning of the 19th century (in US-Wc, formerly owned by the composer Franciszek Lessel) the concertos are attributed to Handel, whose name was later covered by a label with the name of Pergolesi in the same handwriting. An early 20th-century manuscript (in F-Pc), also with an attribution to Pergolesi, was probably copied from the Washington source. The Concerti armonici acquired considerable popularity under Pergolesi's name, and have proved no less popular under the name of the real composer. The three sonatas for recorder and continuo follow the Corelli model, while the Concerti armonici reveal a strong personal stamp. As ambassador extraordinary of the General States, van Wassenaer made diplomatic missions to France (in 1744 and 1746) and Cologne. Louis XV's court heard the music he wrote in France, and during his stay there he also composed a motet, Nunc dimittis. The French praised him as a ‘grand compositeur: il accompagne fort bien’ and considered his music ‘presque aussi bonne que celle de Corelli’.