WAGENSEIL, Georg Christoph (1715-1777) - Concerto für Trombone

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) - Concerto (Es-dur) für Trombone, IGW 69

Performers: Hаns Böttlеr (trombone); Concеntus Musicus Wiеn; Nicolаus Hаrnoncourt (1929-2016, conductor)

Painting: Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780) - Entrance to a Palace or Architectural Capriccio with a Portrait of Voivod Franciszek Salezy Potocki

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

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Georg Christoph Wagenseil

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

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

WERNER, Gregor Joseph (1693-1766) - Missa Contrapunctata a 4 voci (1756)

Gregor Joseph Werner (1693-1766) - Missa Contrapunctata a 4 voci (1756)

Performers: Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis; János Mezei (conductor)

Painting: Joos van Winghe (1544-1603) - Allegorie der Musik

Further info: Gregor Joseph Werner (1693-1766) - Concerto per la camera à 4

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Gregor Joseph Werner

(Ybbs an der Donau, 28 January 1693 - Eisenstadt, Burgenland, 3 March 1766)

Austrian composer. From 1715 to 1716 (or possibly 1721) he was organist at Melk Abbey. He married in Vienna (where he may have been a pupil of J.J. Fux) on 27 January 1727, and moved from Vienna to Eisenstadt to take up an appointment as Kapellmeister at the Esterházy court on 10 May 1728. As successor to the post of Wenzel Zivilhofer he received a salary of 400 gulden in addition to 28 gulden lodging money per year, increased in 1738 and, on his son’s joining the establishment as alto singer, in 1740. Werner also taught some musicians in Eisenstadt, including Johann Novotný and S.T. Kolbel. According to a decree issued by 1 May 1761, Haydn took over the princely musical establishment which Werner had brought to a high standard. However, Werner remained as Oberhofkapellmeister and was entrusted with the sacred music, which had always been of primary interest to him. Predictably, strained relations arose between Werner and the much younger Haydn. In a petition of October 1765 to Prince Nikolaus von Esterházy, Werner complained of negligence in the castle Kapelle and the decayed state of the once strong musical establishment, blaming this on Haydn’s indolence; Werner made known that because of his great age he was unable to take matters into his own hands but had to rely on the intervention of others. He also pleaded for additional supplies of wood to enable him to survive the winter. Clearly he thought his death was imminent, and in fact he died at the end of that winter. This bitter letter shows the depth of his resentment towards Haydn, whom he is said to have called a Gsanglmacher (‘little song-maker’). Haydn was called to order by the princely administrator; the accusations of laziness caused him to keep his own thematic catalogue from then on. In his old age Haydn left a memorial to his former Oberhofkapellmeister with his edition (1804) of six introductions and fugues for string quartet, taken from Werner’s oratorios. Werner’s music reflects several different tendencies. In church music, which occupied him until his last years, he composed a cappella masses in a strict contrapuntal style but also works with string and wind accompaniments markedly influenced by the Neapolitan tradition. He was, however, a capable contrapuntist and a composer who thought naturally in contrapuntal terms. Although his melodic style was sometimes angular, in a manner reminiscent of Zelenka’s, he could also produce, as in his secular cantatas and his Christmas pieces (which include pastorals for organ with strings and oboes), themes of a simple, folksong-like character. His symphonies and trio sonatas follow the conventional three- and four-movement patterns of his time; but he also composed works, notably the Musicalischer Instrumental-Calender, using representational effects.

ARRIAGA, Juan Crisóstomo (1806-1826) - Sinfonía en re menor (c.1824)

Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga (1806-1826) - Sinfonía en re menor (c.1824)

Performers: Orquesta Filarmonia de España; Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (1933-2014, director)

Painting: Luis Paret y Alcázar (1746-1799) - View of El Arenal in Bilbao (c.1783)

Further info: Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga (1806-1826) - Stabat Mater Dolorosa & Obertura

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Juan Crisóstomo (Jacobo Antonio) de Arriaga y Balzola

(Bilbao, 27 January 1806 - Paris, bur. 17 January 1826)

Spanish composer. His father, Juan Simón Arriaga, had been organist, royal clerk and schoolteacher at Guernica, and had become associated with members of the Real Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del Pais, a society upholding the ideals of the Enlightenment, before moving to Bilbao in 1804 to become a merchant and shipowner. Arriaga's brother Ramón Prudencio, his senior by 14 years, played the violin and guitar. Both father and brother seem to have groomed the child for a musical career. They established contacts with musical amateurs and professionals, such as the aficionado José Luis Torres and José Sobejano, sometime organist and maestro de capilla at Santiago, Bilbao; with influential men of letters and musicians from Madrid court circles, such as the poet Alberto Lista and the violinist Francesco Maria Vaccari; and with the famous singer Manuel García. Reports on Arriaga's opera in the Spanish press presumably appeared on the initiative of his father and brother. The choice of texts for two patriotic hymns and the idea to set a Spanish opera also reflect the influence the family had on the boy. By September 1821 Arriaga had produced about 20 works, only some of which are now extant. According to his father, Arriaga wrote his first piece at the age of 11, and the autograph of 'Nada y mucho' seems to confirm this. Originally a trio for violins, the piece was revised by the addition of a bass and a text to the upper part. In 1818 he composed an overture (op.1) for nonet which, surprisingly, already shows many of the characteristic compositional strategies used in later works. In 1819 he wrote his opera 'Los esclavos felices', of which only the overture and fragments of several arias remain.

The motets Stabat mater and O salutaris hostia were probably composed for the capilla. The texts of the patriotic hymns 'Ya luce en este hemisferio' and 'Cantabros nobles' fit the political situation of the trienio liberal (1820-23). In September 1821 Arriaga went abroad. He was introduced by García and Justo de Machado (the Spanish ambassador in Paris) to Cherubini, who was at that time one of the inspectors of the Paris Conservatoire. Arriaga was admitted to Fétis's newly created class of counterpoint and fugue and to the violin class of Pierre Baillot and his assistants. He won prizes for counterpoint and fugue in 1823 and 1824, and in the latter year Fétis made him teaching assistant. A symphony, showing the influence of Beethoven and uncannily reminiscent of Schubert's Fourth Symphony, was one of Arriaga's last works. Pedro Albéniz's letter to Arriaga's father and Fétis's report lead to the conclusion that Arriaga died from exhaustion and a pulmonary infection. After his death his belongings were sent to Bilbao and on the death of his father in 1836 his papers were divided between the five heirs. Arriaga's short career was heavily marked by a strong sense of competition. A dramatic impetus coupled with a flair for finding remarkably well-poised musical structures pervades all of his works, both vocal and instrumental. Melodies always seem to have come easily to him; a remarkable progression in the handling of accompaniment and orchestration can be seen. In his Parisian period Arriaga discovered a technique of continuous transformation of musical material. He was always fond of chromaticisms and used a chromatic idée fixe in most of his works from the very beginning. 

HAYES, William (1708-1777) - O Worship The Lord

William Hayes (1708-1777) - O Worship The Lord

Performers: Choir of New College Oxford; Edward Higginbottom (conductor)

Painting: John Cornish (fl. 1751-1765) - William Hayes

Further info: William Hayes (1708-1777) - Orpheus & Euridice (1735)

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William Hayes

(Gloucester, bap. 26 January 1708 - Oxford, 27 July 1777)

Composer, organist and singer. He showed an early talent for music and in 1717 became a chorister of Gloucester Cathedral under William Hine, to whom he was later articled. In 1729 he was appointed organist of St Mary’s, Shrewsbury, and in 1731 he obtained the post of organist of Worcester Cathedral. Three years later he succeeded Thomas Hecht as organist and informator choristarum of Magdalen College, Oxford. On 8 July 1735 he received the BMus, for which he wrote the ode When the fair consort, and he was unanimously elected to the professorship of music on 14 January 1741, after the death of Richard Goodson, whom he also succeeded as organist of the university church. Burney considered him to have been ‘a very good organ player’ and a ‘studious and active professor’. A notable event of his tenure of the professorship was the opening of the Holywell Music Room in 1748, in which weekly concerts were presented under Hayes’s direction. He received the DMus on 14 April 1749 during the celebrations marking the opening of the Radcliffe Library, which included the first known performance in Oxford of Handel’s Messiah. Hayes was an ardent Handelian, and was one of the most active conductors of the composer’s oratorios and other large-scale works outside London. He was musical director of the meetings of the Gloucester Music Meeting in 1757, 1760 and 1763, and often combined the roles of conductor and tenor soloist. He was one of the first enrolled members of the Fund for the Support of Decay’d Musicians (later the Royal Society of Musicians), and advanced plans for a scheme, funded by the Society, to establish a co-educational music academy for the training of gifted young musicians for a period of 14 years from the age of seven or eight. In 1765 he was elected a ‘priviledged member’ of the Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Catch Club, having already won several of the prize medals offered by the club. 

Of his children, three sons and three daughters survived infancy. His wife, Anne, died on 14 January 1786. A portrait by John Cornish is in the Oxford University Faculty of Music. Hayes’s musical style is much indebted to Handel, especially in his large-scale works. Nevertheless, his vocal music shows a typically English preference for non-da capo aria forms, and his contemporary reputation as a composer was founded on genres largely ignored by Handel: English cantatas, organ-accompanied anthems, and convivial vocal music. A firm command of both harmonic and contrapuntal writing characterizes all his music, which is never less than technically assured. A self-consciously learned strand in his music can be observed in his assiduous cultivation of the full anthem, his many ingenious canons, and the strict fugal movements of his concertos and trio sonatas. Although he chose to publish little of his instrumental music, it is generally of high quality. Several of his trio sonatas seem to have been designed for orchestral performance and mix movements in a late Baroque style with others which show a clear awareness of galant idioms (including small-scale sonata forms). The early G major harpsichord concerto is remarkable for the detailed written-out ornamentation and cadenzas of its slow movement, and his concerti grossi depart from usual English practice in their addition of a viola to the usual concertino trio of two violins and cello. His odes, oratorios and masques demonstrate a sure command of large-scale resources, and the ode The Passions, the one-act oratorio The Fall of Jericho, and the Six Cantatas confirm that Hayes deserves to be regarded highly among English composers of the 18th century. His sons Philip Hayes (1738-1797) and William Hayes (1741-1790) were also singers and composers.

DER GROSSE, Friedrich (1712-1786) - Sinfonia in D-Dur (1747)

Friedrich der Grosse (1712-1786) - Sinfonia in D-Dur (1747)

Performers: Emil Seiler Chamber Orchestra; Carl Gorvin (1912-1991, conductor)

Painting: Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewski (1725-1794) - Bildnis Friedrich des Großen (1772)

Further info: Friedrich der Grosse (1712-1786)

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Frederick II [Friedrich der Grosse; Frederick the Great]

(Berlin, 24 January 1712 - Potsdam, 17 August 1786)

German monarch, patron of the arts, flautist and composer. His father, Friedrich Wilhelm I, was alarmed at his son’s early preference for intellectual and artistic pursuits over the military and religious. In spite of being supervised day and night and in the face of his father’s rages and corporal punishments, Frederick managed, partly through the complicity of his mother and his older sister Wilhelmina, to read forbidden books, to affect French dress and manners and to play flute duets with his servant. As a seven-year-old he was permitted to study thoroughbass and four-part composition with the cathedral organist Gottlieb Hayne. Wilhelmina, also musically talented, joined him in impromptu concerts. On a visit to Dresden in 1728 the prince was overwhelmed at hearing his first opera, Hasse’s Cleofide; there he also first heard the playing of the flautist J.J. Quantz, who soon thereafter began making occasional visits to Berlin to give Frederick flute lessons. The king tolerated such amusements for a while, but by 1730 his disapproval had hardened to prohibition. On 4 August 1730, in his 18th year, Frederick attempted to escape to England. The result was his imprisonment and the beheading of one of his ‘accomplices’ in his presence. Instead of breaking, the prince became more sober and orthodox. In 1733 he reluctantly married the bride chosen for him, Elisabeth Christina of Brunswick. He took command of a regiment and immersed himself so thoroughly in statecraft that he eventually won the confidence of even his father. But he had no intention of giving up his interests: at his residence in Ruppin he maintained a small group of instrumentalists; the occasional lessons with Quantz continued; he appointed C.H. Graun as general court musician in 1735; and in 1736, when he moved to Rheinsberg, 17 musicians moved with him, including C.H. and J.G. Graun, Franz and Johann Benda, Christoph Schaffrath and J.G. Janitsch. Among his visitors were Algarotti, Maupertius, Fontenelle, Lord Baltimore, Gravesande and Voltaire. 

When Frederick finally acceded to the throne on 31 May 1740 he plunged into social and political reforms, military conquest and the rehabilitation of Prussian arts and letters, all at once. Other agents, such as Voltaire and Algarotti, were commissioned to engage actors and dancers in Paris and more singers from Italy, along with machinists, costumiers and librettists. Amid this ferment, when the Emperor Charles of Austria died on 20 October, Frederick immediately began plans which culminated in his invasion of Silesia, the first of the many military campaigns through which he transformed Prussia into a great modern state. When Graun returned to Berlin with his Italian troupe of singers in March 1741, Frederick was on the battlefield. Indeed, in the first years of his reign Frederick enlarged both Prussia’s geographical and cultural boundaries, with equal verve. C.P.E. Bach, having already performed regularly at Rheinsberg, joined the court orchestra officially in 1740 as first cembalist; Quantz, released from his position in Dresden, was appointed in 1741. Christoph Nichelmann was retained in 1744 as second cembalist. In 1754 some 50 musicians, excluding singers for court intermezzos and members of the opera chorus, were in Frederick’s employ. In addition to C.H. Graun as Kapellmeister and chief composer for the opera, and J.F. Agricola as court composer. The new opera house on the avenue Unter den Linden, whose replica still stands in Berlin, was opened on 7 December 1742. From that date to the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756, the standard season featured two new operas by Graun and an occasional work by Hasse, composers who were the foremost representatives of Italian opera in Germany. In the successful but bitter Seven Years War (1756-63) Frederick gradually became ‘der alte Fritz’, inflexible and reactionary. Instrumental music at the court stagnated: Nichelmann left in 1756, C.P.E. Bach in 1767. From March 1756 to December 1764 no operas were produced at the Berlin Opera House; and from the end of the war to Frederick’s death in 1786 almost all the opera productions there were revivals of pre-war works.

SALVATORE, Giovanni (1611-c.1688) - Messa (III) con l'organo al choro (1641)

Giovanni Salvatore (1611-c.1688) - Messa (III) con l'organo al choro (1641)

Performers: Emanuele Cardi (organ); Gregoriano Urbis Cantores

Painting: Circle of Bernardino Luini (c.1480-1532) - Angels making music

Further info: Opera Omnia Per Organo

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Giovanni Salvatore

(Castelvenere, nr Benevento, 1611 - Naples, c.1688)

Italian composer and organist. He was almost certainly a pupil of G.M. Sabino and Erasmo Bartoli (‘Padre Raimo’) at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini at Naples. Later he became a priest. In 1641 he was organist of SS Severino e Sossio, Naples, and later organist and maestro di cappella of S Lorenzo Maggiore. From 1662 to 1673 he taught at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini. During his last years he was rector and maestro di cappella of the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo; as his successor was appointed in 1688 he probably died in that year. It was once thought that he taught Alessandro Scarlatti but this is unlikely. According to Liberati and Pitoni, Salvatore was greatly esteemed during his lifetime. Liberati even placed him above Frescobaldi on the grounds that he could compose fine vocal works without confusing their style with organ music. The vocal music has not yet been published or critically investigated. The larger works are written in the concertato style typical of the mid-17th century, with effective progressions and expressive dissonances but a limited harmonic idiom. Homorhythmic chordal and imitative textures alternate between the first and second choirs, both of which are skilfully combined with instrumental sinfonias. Contrasting metres and textures and occasional word-painting are characteristic. A set of four-voice responsories for the Office of the Dead are simpler in style. 

The organ works in the Ricercari, written in open score, demonstrate much technical skill. They are in the southern Italian tradition of the early 17th century as represented by Mayone, Trabaci and Frescobaldi, and though they do not depart radically from it in style or form, they are more tonal, close-knit and concisely organized. Salvatore occasionally used durezze e ligature (chromaticism, sharp dissonances and striking harmonic progressions) and the unpredictable, virtuoso, rhapsodic style associated with the Neapolitans and the Romans. The volume contains eight contrapuntally interesting ricercares, one on each of the eight tones, with two, three or four subjects and their permutations. In no.4 the four subjects, having been treated at length in their original forms, appear in turn in traditional cantus-firmus settings; in no.8 the hymn Iste confessor is presented as a cantus firmus in each voice. Despite its title the volume also includes other music. In three canzonas the opening section is repeated at the end; a fourth is a set of contrapuntal variations on the bergamasca melody, reaching a brilliant concluding virtuoso climax. Three organ masses include Kyrie settings based on the melodies Orbis factor, Cunctipotens genitor and Cum jubilo; brief versets in imitative or toccata style are intended for alternation with a choir. Salvatore appended a brief treatise, Breve regola per rispondere al choro, to the third printing of G.B. Olifante’s Porta aurea sive directorium chori (Naples, 1641).

ECKARD, Johann Gottfried (1735-1809) - Sonata I en Si bémol majeur

Johann Gottfried Eckard (1735-1809) - Sonata I en Si bémol majeur, Oeuvre I (c.1763)

Performers: Brigitte Haudebourg (fortepiano)

Painting: Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751-1818) - Portrait of Prince Alois (1796-1858)

and Princess Henriette (1806-1886) von Liechtenstein

Further info: Johann Gottfried Eckard (1735-1809) - Pianoforte Sonatas

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Johann Gottfried Eckard [Eckardt, Eckart]

(Augsburg, 21 January 1735 - Paris, 24 July 1809)

German pianist and composer, active in France. In his youth he became a professional copper engraver and acquired his musical training in his leisure time, mainly from C.P.E. Bach's Versuch and its six ‘Probesonaten’. In 1758 the piano and organ manufacturer Johann Andreas Stein took him to Paris, where he lived for the rest of his life. At first he supported himself by painting miniatures, a craft in which he apparently possessed considerable skill. He practised the piano in his free time and quickly developed a great facility. Many successful concerts soon gained him fame and numerous students. Leopold Mozart became acquainted with Eckard during his visit to Paris in the winter of 1763-64, and expressed high regard for him. Grimm, in his Correspondance littéraire, called Eckard ‘the strongest’ of all Parisian composers, stating that ‘he has genius, the most beautiful ideas, with a manner of playing full of feeling and an extraordinary lightness’. That this was not merely a momentary captivation of the Parisian musical circles is attested by J.-B. de La Borde, who declared in 1780 that Eckard's execution at the keyboard was ‘the most brilliant and pleasing’ and that ‘he excels particularly at preluding for entire hours making the time pass as moments for those who listen to him’. Burney gave further testimony to the high regard felt for him by his contemporaries:

"There are many great German musicians dispersed throughout Europe, whose merit is little known in England, or even in their native land; among these is Eckard, who has been fifty years at Paris. This musician has published but little; yet by what has appeared, it is manifest that he is a man of genius and a great master of his instrument." 

On his death the 'Mercure de France' remarked that he was ‘the most celebrated harpsichordist of Europe’. Eckard has two claims to historical significance: he was the first composer in Paris to conceive keyboard sonatas for the piano, and he foresaw the great vogue the piano would enjoy several years before this instrument was accepted in the salons and concert halls of Paris. Unfortunately only three works by him were published: the six sonatas op.1 (1763), two sonatas op.2 (1764) and a set of variations (1764) on the ‘Menuet d'Exaudet’. Although the title-page of op.1 specifies only the harpsichord, Eckard's preface extends the performance of the work to the piano; and his meticulous indication of dynamic shadings (e.g. no.6, second movement), a practice previously unknown in this period, clearly shows his preference for the latter instrument. Both the piano and harpsichord are specified on the title-page of his op.2, and the music reveals an even greater consideration for the idiomatic characteristics of the new instrument. Eckard's sonatas follow no set pattern with regard to formal organization: half are in three movements, two consist of only two movements, and two others are cast in a rather extended single movement (op.1 nos.4–5). Unlike the sonatas of Eckard's émigré compatriots in Paris, none calls for accompanying instruments to heighten expression. The texture is enlivened at times by the contrapuntal involvement of the left hand; and in an effort to make the accompaniment of greater musical significance, Eckard did not restrict himself to the Alberti bass pattern, but used it rather as one of several devices.

MAYR, Rupert Ignaz (1646-1712) - Suite IV d-moll (1692)

Rupert Ignaz Mayr (1646-1712) - Suite IV d-moll aus 'Pythagorische Schmids-Fuencklein' (1692)

Performers: L'Arpа Fеstantе

Painting: Christoffel Pierson (1631-1714) - Children with a goat (1670)

Further info: Rupert Ignaz Mayr (1646-1717) - Psalms & Motets

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Rupert Ignaz Mayr

(Schärding, 1646 - Freising, 7 February 1712)

German composer and violinist. He is first heard of in 1670, when he entered the service of the Prince-Bishop of Freising as a violinist. After holding various posts at Eichstätt, Regensburg and Passau, he moved in 1683 to the Munich court. The Elector Max Emanuel, recognizing his talent as a composer, sent him to Paris to study with Lully. On his return to Munich in 1685 his post was still that of violinist and chamber musician, but he was also active as a composer. The outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession brought the musical life of the Munich court almost to a standstill, and in 1706 he left Munich to return to Freising, this time as Kapellmeister. Here he continued to write church and chamber music, and also school operas for the students at the episcopal seminary. Among the music listed in an inventory of the Freising court chapel in 1710 are masses by many of the important Munich composers of the late 17th century – J.C. Pez, the Bernabei family and in particular Kerll, who was largely responsible for bringing the Italian concertato style of church music to Munich: despite his sojourn in Paris the influences on Mayr's church music seem to be Italian rather than French. His offertories and psalms, though published in 1702 and 1706 respectively, seem to belong more to the mid 17th century than to the early 18th. This is particularly noticeable in the shape of the short melodic phrases from which he often built up his choral textures and in his very fluid handling of triple time. His treatment of solo and tutti voices, alternating in the same section, shows the influence of Kerll, though Mayr made them alternate over longer periods, and his solo passages, especially in the psalms, tend to be longer and more developed than Kerll's. He was particularly fond of writing bass solos in which the voice forms the bass of a trio texture whose upper parts are violins. The chief characteristic of Mayr's offertories is their close thematic integration, in which voices and instruments share equally. Dominus regnavit consists of several short sections, each based on one or two short themes, which are treated exhaustively by various combinations of solo and tutti voices and violins. As a result Mayr's choral textures tend to be imitative and broken up, rather than contrapuntal: his chordal tutti writing relies for its effect on rhythmic drive rather than varied textures. His solo writing is largely syllabic – the few melismas are used for expressive effect – and his word-setting is very careful; he introduced effective word-painting wherever the opportunity arose. The solo writing in Mayr’s school operas shows the influence of Carissimi and his followers. It is in his later instrumental music that the effects of his visit to Paris can be most clearly seen.

GOSSEC, François-Joseph (1734-1829) - Symphonie (V) En Sol Mineur (1763)

François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829) - Symphonie (V) En Sol Mineur, Oeuvre VI (1763)

Performers: Orchestre Symphonique de Liège; Jacques Houtmann (conductor)

Painting: Antoine Vestier (1740-1824) - Portrait de François-Joseph Gossec (1791)

Further info: François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829) - Symphonie Concertante du Ballet de Mirza (1779)

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François-Joseph Gossec

(Vergnies, 17 January 1734 - Passy, 16 February 1829)

French-Belgian composer. He was born into a Walloon family whose name was variously spelt Gaussé, Gossé, Gossée, Gossei, Gossey or Gossez. In early childhood he displayed remarkable musical talent and reputedly possessed a beautiful voice. From the age of six he sang at the collegiate church of Walcourt. Shortly thereafter he was listed as a singer in the chapel of Ste Aldegonde in Mauberge; while there he joined the chapel of St Pierre and received instruction in the violin, harpsichord, harmony and composition from its music director, Jean Vanderbelen. In 1742 he became a chorister at Antwerp Cathedral, where he pursued further studies with André-Joseph Blavier (1713-1782). In 1751 he moved to Paris, where he became a pupil of Jean- Philippe Rameau. He succeeded Rameau as the conductor of the orchestra of tax official Le Riche de la Poupelinière before accepting an appointment with the Prince de Condé. On 11 October 1759 Gossec married Marie-Elizabeth Georges. Their only child, Alexandre François-Joseph, was baptized on 29 December 1760. In 1760 he produced a Requiem that gained him overnight fame for its “terrifying” music. His fame as a symphonist and composer of opera in Paris was matched by his activity as a musical entrepreneur. In 1769 he founded the Concerts des amateurs, in 1773 he helped to reorganize the Concerts spirituels, and in 1784 he instructed at the École de chant. Together with Méhul and Catel, Gossec was at the forefront of musical activities during the Revolutionary period. He resigned from his duties at the Opéra in 1789 and directed the Corps de Musique de la Garde Nationale with Bernard Sarette. 

With the ascension of Napoleon and the Consulate in 1799 Gossec’s career as a composer effectively ended: he wrote only two more significant works, a Symphonie à 17 parties (1809) featuring a minuet in the form of a fugue, and the Dernière messe des vivants (1813). He devoted his energies to teaching, having been named inspector of teaching (with Cherubini, Le Sueur and Méhul) and professor of composition at the Conservatoire on its creation in 1795. He held the Conservatoire post until the day Louis XVIII dissolved the Conservatoire in 1816. His final years were spent in the Paris suburb of Passy. Gossec was one of the most prolific composers in France during the 18th century. His career reflects the changing social position of the Parisian musician between the mid-18th century and the early 19th. He began as a court composer writing symphonies and chamber music and moved on to conducting independently and directing subscription concerts as well as working for the Parisian public opera houses; he also published some of his own works. He became the foremost musical representative of the French Revolution, and might have secured his influence as an inspector and professor of composition at the Conservatoire but for the political turmoil in the wake of changing governments which finally ended his career. He was a prolific composer, writing 48 symphonies, six sinfonia concertantes, 22 operas, four ballets, 12 trio sonatas, six string quartets and six flute quartets, three Te Deums (including a massive multimovement work from 1817), two oratorios, the aforementioned Requiem, three Masses, numerous smaller sacred works, a wind symphony, and dozens of Revolutionary hymns, dirges, marches and cantatas. 

MANCINI, Francesco (1672-1737) - Missa septimus a 5 concertata

Francesco Mancini (1672-1737) - Missa septimus a 5 concertata

Performers: Claire Lеfilliâtre (soprano); Marina Smoldеrs (soprano); Lode Somеrs (tenor); Waltеr Van Der Vеn (bass); Currеndе ensemble; Erik Van Nеvеl (conductor)

Painting: Friedrich Brentel (1580-1651) - Le Sermont du Christ sur la Montagne

Further info: Mancini - Missa septimus

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Francesco Mancini

(Naples, 16 January 1672 - Naples, 22 September 1737)

Italian organist and composer. He entered the Conservatorio di S Maria della Pietà dei Turchini in 1688 as a student of organ, where he studied with Provenzale and Ursino; after six years he was employed as an organist. At the beginning of the 18th century he entered the service of the viceroy and in 1704 became the principal organist of the royal chapel. He was appointed maestro di cappella there in 1708 but by December of that year the post was returned to Alessandro Scarlatti and Mancini became his deputy (in 1718 he obtained a guarantee that he would succeed Scarlatti). In 1720 he became Director of the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, and so played an important part in the training of a new generation of composers. Mancini succeeded Scarlatti in 1725, remaining in the post until his death. In 1735, however, he suffered a stroke and remained semi-paralysed until his death two years later. As far as is known, Mancini’s first composition was the pastoral opera Il nodo sciolto e ligato dall’affetto, written for Rome. From 1702 onwards Mancini worked almost continuously at composing and arranging operas. He was most productive when he was Scarlatti’s deputy; his creative output slowed down following his appointments as Director of S Maria di Loreto and then as maestro of the royal chapel. While Mancini composed serenades, pieces for special occasions and cantatas throughout his life, his oratorios are concentrated in the period 1698-1708, with several later exceptions, including his last oratorio, Il zelo animato, which appears to have been intended as an exercise for his pupils at S Maria di Loreto.

Mancini’s contribution to sacred music was considerable, and the wide distribution of his music in libraries throughout Europe is a reflection of its popularity. Instrumental music was not of primary concern to Mancini, and that which remains appears to have been intended for teaching purposes (for example the two toccatas for harpsichord). The peculiarity of his instrumental writing can be seen in his sonatas, for example the rich harmonies accompanying the melodies and the contrapuntalism of the second movements, which are often almost proper fugues. While Mancini did not travel far from Naples, except for the occasional trip to Rome, stylistically his music fits into the transition between Scarlatti’s generation and the era of the spread of Neapolitan opera across Europe. His operas, which display a preference for the pathetic style (but he was no stranger to the comic), make simultaneous use of archaic features, such as a thick contrapuntal texture, swift rate of harmonic change and fast-moving bass line, as well as more modern features, such as the precise delimitation and greater extension of the sections of his arias and the use of the harmonic pedal. Mancini’s instrumentation is varied and colourful; the many directions for the bass part, which often indicate detailed orchestration and which may vary within a single aria, are also of importance. He was a skilful writer of melodies, able to achieve a perfect balance between words and intonation, even in recitatives, and able to shape the vocal line effectively as well as simply.

STOLZEL, Gottfried Heinrich (1690-1749) - Concerto grosso a quattro Chori

Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749) - Concerto grosso (D-Dur) a quattro Chori

Performers: Heinz Zickler (trumpet); Hellmut Schneidewind (1928-2011, trumpet); Otto Jahn (trumpet);

Walter Schetsche (trumpet); Württemberg Chamber Orchestra; Jörg Faerber (1929-2022, conductor)

Painting: Franciscus Gysbrechts (1649-c.1677) - Trompe-l'œil aux instruments de musique et à la gravure du Bravo de Titien Huile

Further info: Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749) - Te Deum

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Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel [Stöltzel, Stözl]

(Grünstädtel, 13 January 1690 - Gotha, 27 November 1749)

German composer and theorist. He received his first music instruction from his father, a pupil of the Halle court organist Moritz Edelmann. In 1707 he went to Leipzig University, but felt himself drawn more towards the opera, recently reopened there, and to the collegium musicum (founded by Telemann and at that time directed by Melchior Hofmann). He proved to be a helpful copyist to Hofmann, who soon recognized his gifts as a composer. Stölzel's first works were performed under his teacher's name (Emanuel Kegel); they appeared only later under his own. In 1710 he went to Breslau, where he taught singing and keyboard in aristocratic circles. He also composed for the collegium musicum and produced his first dramatic work. A teacher of Italian with whom he was friendly recommended that he go to Italy to improve his composition; but he went next to Halle, wrote a pastorale for the court at Gera, and (through the negotiations of Johann Friedrich Fasch and Johann Theile) received a commission from the Zeitz court for which he composed three operas for the fair at Naumburg. Afterwards he received from both Gera and Zeitz offers of the post of court Kapellmeister, which he refused. At the end of 1713 Stölzel went to Italy, meeting Francesco Gasparini, Alessandro Marcello, C.F. Pollarolo and Vivaldi in Venice, and Antonio Bononcini and Domenico Scarlatti in Rome. In Florence, where he was a guest of the court, he wrote numerous cantatas and a duet as his contribution to a gala concert. He is said to have refused offers to remain there for religious reasons. In 1715 he went to Prague, where he remained for three years; he took a lively part in the musical activities there, and composed dramatic works, oratorios, masses and instrumental music. He declined an offer of a position at the Dresden court, which would have included a study trip to France, and in 1717 he returned to Bayreuth, where he was commissioned to compose church music for the 200th anniversary celebration of the Reformation and other pieces to mark the duke's birthday. By the beginning of 1718 Stölzel was Kapellmeister at the court at Gera, and on 24 February 1720 he was appointed to the same post at the court at Saxe-Gotha. For 30 years he held this appointment, which obliged him to compose for the church, the opera and other court festivities. He also executed commissions for the courts at Sondershausen and Gera. About this time he allowed some of his works to be copied, notably church cantatas, and his reputation grew. From the evidence of various applications to his patrons, it seems that Stölzel wrote the texts of his own vocal works. He acquired a wide reputation as a teacher and theorist, and in 1739 was elected a member of Lorenz Christoph Mizler's Societät der Musikalischen Wissenschaften.

DUPHLY, Jacques (1715-1789) - Quatrième Livre de pièces de clavecin (1768)

Jacques Duphly (1715-1789) - Quatrième Livre de pièces de clavecin (1768)

Performers: John Paul (clavecin)

Painting: Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) - Young Woman Seated at a Virginal

Further info: Jacques Duphly (1715-1789) - Chaconne

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Jacques Duphly [Dufly, Du Phly et al.]

(Rouen, 12 January 1715 - Paris, 15 July 1789)

French harpsichordist and composer. He was the son of Jacques-Agathe Duphly and Marie-Louise Boivin of the parish of St Eloi, whose registers supply the little that is known of his early life. On 11 September 1734 ‘le sieur Dufliq, organist of the cathedral of Evreux’ applied for a position at St Eloi; the register goes on to make clear that he had been trained by Dagincourt at Rouen, went to Evreux (c.1732) for what must have been his first appointment (he was only 19 when he resigned from it) and returned to his native parish. His tenure at St Eloi began inauspiciously with his being shut out of the organ loft by his aged predecessor; but the church quickly changed the locks. To St Eloi he added Notre Dame de la Ronde in 1740, his sister Marie-Anne-Agathe filling in when duties conflicted. He left both appointments in 1742 and moved to Paris; according to the clerk of St Eloi, it was affaires that drew him there, but other reports suggest that it was the realization that he would do better as a specialist of the harpsichord in Paris than as an organist in Rouen. Pierre-Louis Daquin, son of the organist, said of ‘Duflitz’ in 1752: 

"For some time he was organist at Rouen, but doubtless finding that he had a greater gift for the harpsichord, he abandoned his first instrument. One may suppose that he did well, since he passes in Paris for a very good harpsichordist. He has much lightness of touch and a certain softness which, sustained by ornaments, marvellously render the character of his pieces." 

Marpurg (1754) remarked that ‘Duphly, a pupil of Dagincourt, plays the harpsichord only, in order, as he says, not to spoil his hand with the organ. He lives in Paris, where he instructs the leading families’. His reputation seems to have reached its peak in the 1750s and 60s. Marpurg’s Raccolta delle più nuove composizioni di clavicembalo, ii (1757), contains a pair of rondeaux from Duphly’s first book. In 1764 Walsh brought out an edition of his second book; in 1765 the 20-year-old Richard Fitzwilliam was studying with him. That year Pascal Taskin, the harpsichord maker, reckoned ‘Dufly’ among the best teachers in Paris, along with Armand-Louis Couperin, Balbastre and Le Grand. The article on fingering in Rousseau’s Dictionnaire (1768) contains rules which the author presents ‘with confidence, because I have them from M Dupli, excellent harpsichord teacher who possesses above all perfection in fingering’ (though either Duphly or Rousseau overlooked the fact that these ‘rules’ were lifted word for word from Rameau’s, in his Pièces de clavecin of 1724). The titles and dedications of Duphly’s pieces show him to have been a part of the inner circle of professional and aristocratic connoisseurs; yet he seems to have been unambitious and content with a simple life. D’Aquin wrote that ‘in general his pieces are sweet and amiable: they take after their father’. Although this represents a curious judgment of his music, which is more often flashy and energetic, it may reflect a nature that allowed him to drift gently from view to a point of obscurity where it became necessary to inquire in the Journal général de la France (27 November 1788) ‘what has become of M Duphlis, former harpsichord teacher in Paris, where he was in 1767. If he no longer exists, one would like to know his heirs, to whom there is something to communicate’. When he died, the next year, no heirs appeared; even his sister could not be located. But his will and the inventory of his effects show that he had been living in modest comfort in a small apartment overlooking the garden in the Hôtel de Juigné. His dedication of his last pieces to the Marchioness of Juigné, 21 years before, did not exempt him from paying 300 livres a year for rent. Evidently Duphly never married: his chief legatee was his manservant of 30 years. There was not even a harpsichord. 

CERVETTO, James (1748-1837) - Solo (II) for the violoncello and a bass

James Cervetto (1748-1837) - Solo (II, G Major) for the violoncello and a bass (1768)

Performers: Ensemble Fete Rustique

Painting: Pieter Jacob Horemans (1700-1776) - The Musical recital

Further info: Cervetto - Six Sonatas for Cello

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James Cervetto

(London, 8 January 1748 - London, 5 February 1837)

English cellist and composer, son of Giacobbe Basevi Cervetto and Elizabeth Cervetto. His father taught him the cello. He first appeared in a concert of child prodigies at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket on 23 April 1760. Between 1763 and 1770 he is said to have travelled abroad, playing in most European capitals, although he was in London at a concert given by Parry the harpist in 1765. In 1771 he became a member of the queen's private band, and he joined Lord Abingdon's orchestra in 1780, taking part in the Professional Concerts from 1783 to 1794. He was a member of the Concert of Ancient Music and a principal in the orchestra at Handel's Commemoration (1784). Between 1773 and 1781 he took part in various concerts at the Salisbury Festival. From about 1774 he played at the King's Theatre and was admired for his skilful accompaniment of recitatives: Banvard records ‘It was his [the Prince of Wales] delight to attend the Italian opera merely to hear Cervetto's accompaniments of the recitatives which were acknowledged to be unrivalled’. Although he inherited £20,000 in 1783, he remained an active performer in London and the provinces, participating in concerts with some of the best musicians of his day, the last recorded being that at which Haydn was introduced to King George III (2 March 1795). Burney, describing him as ‘the matchless Cervetto’, stated that while still a child he played ‘in a manner much more chantant than his father. Arrived at manhood, his tone and expression were equal to those of the best tenor voices’. He and John Crosdill were the foremost cellists of their generation in Britain. 

They were often compared with one another, and J.-L. Duport's playing was reported to have been inferior to theirs (Morning Herald, 20 February 1783). According to the press, Cervetto lost his favourite cello, worth 300 guineas, in the King's Theatre fire of 17 June 1789. His will mentions many people by the name of Basevi, who were probably members of his family. Cervetto's op.1 solos differ little in style from his father's works: they have a figured bass for harpsichord, some have cadenzas, and the last has a minuet and variations. His other solos are for cello and ‘a bass’, and so may be considered to be duets, though without equality of the parts: arrangements of three of the solos by Robert Lindley, whom Cervetto taught (gratis) in the early 1790s, do in fact transform them into duets proper, by changing the parts around on alternate phrases. Cervetto's op.3 solos are different from those of op.1, their melodic lines being more direct and the rhythms more four-square. They include much rapid passagework and are more demanding for the player than the op.4 sonatinas, which were obviously intended for amateur use. The divertiments for two cellos are all in two movements, generally slow–fast, with the second either a rondo or a minuet, and appear to have had a didactic purpose. Opp.5 and 6 are much more advanced. All are in three or four movements, and two have slow introductions. Sonata form is handled with more assurance, the development of thematic material is less predictable, and the two-part texture resourcefully varied.

KEISER, Reinhard (1674-1739) - Der hochmütige gestürtzte und wieder erhabene Croesus (1710)

Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739) - Ausschnitte aus 'Der hochmütige gestürtzte und wieder erhabene Croesus' (1710)

Performers: Lisa Otto (1919-2013, soprano); Ursula Schirrmacher (soprano); Manfred Schmidt (tenor); Karl-Ernst Mercker (tenor); Hermann Prey (1929-1998, baritone); Theo Adam (1926-2019, bass); Günther Arndt-Chor; Ein Kinderchor; Die Berliner Philharmoniker; Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg (1906-1985, conductor)

Painting: Theodoor van Loon (1581-1649) - Adoration of the Magi

Further info: Die Frühe Deutsche Oper Am Gänsemarkt

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Reinhard (Cesare, Rinardo) Keiser

(Teuchern, 9 January 1674 - Hamburg, 12 September 1739)

German composer. He was the son of Gottfried Keiser (? - before 1732), an organist and composer, and Agnesa Dorothea von Etzdorff (1657-1732), who had married only four months before his birth. The elder Keiser seems to have lost or given up his position as organist at Teuchern in 1674 or 1675 and departed, leaving his wife and two sons behind. On 13 July 1685 Keiser enrolled at the Thomasschule, Leipzig, for seven years, and it was there presumably that he received his principal musical education, studying under Johann Schelle and perhaps Johann Kuhnau. Mattheson observed, however, that he owed his composing skill almost entirely to natural ability and the study of the best Italian music. After leaving the Thomasschule, Keiser probably soon made his way to Brunswick, where the court opera was flourishing under the leadership of Johann Kusser; by 1694 he had obtained an appointment as ‘Cammer-Componist’. His opera Procris und Cephalus, on a text by the court poet F.C. Bressand, was performed in Brunswick that year, while another opera, Basilius, was done in Hamburg. Between 1695 and 1698 Keiser produced five more operas for the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel court, all with Bressand, but in 1696 or 1697 he moved to Hamburg as Kusser’s successor at the Opera. There he found one of his most sympathetic literary collaborators in C.H. Postel, with whom he wrote eight operas, including Adonis (1697), Janus (1698) and the lost Iphigenia (1699). Beginning in 1703 Keiser also tried his hand at managing the opera house, in partnership with a literary man named Drüsicke. According to Mattheson their administration got off to a good start but was soon beset by financial difficulties, at least partly precipitated by riotous living by Keiser and his friends. In spring 1704 the theatre was temporarily closed, and Keiser left briefly for Weissenfels, where he gave the first performance of his Almira, originally intended for Hamburg.

Drüsicke apparently passed on the Almira libretto to the youthful Handel, a member of the opera orchestra, who scored a great success with his own setting in January 1705, leading to strained relations between the two composers that no doubt contributed to Handel’s decision shortly afterwards to leave for Italy. Octavia (1705), Keiser’s first opera after returning from Weissenfels, inaugurated an important series of eight historical dramas with librettos by Barthold Feind. Following the final collapse of his administration in 1707, Keiser appears to have absented himself from the opera house for more than a year, passing much of his time visiting the estates of noble friends. He may not have participated in the highly successful première of Der Carneval von Venedig in summer 1707, and he composed no new work for 1708. Whatever rift may have existed between him and the new director, J.H. Sauerbrey, seems to have been healed by 1709, and his dominance over the Hamburg repertory became more complete than ever. In 1721 he may have conducted a performance of Tomyris in Durlach before returning to Hamburg, where his arrival was celebrated on 9 August with a performance of his oratorio Der siegende David. In 1725 and 1726, while Telemann composed relatively little for that theatre, Keiser turned out five major new works, two revised versions, and parts of two intermezzos. On 2 December 1728 Keiser succeeded Mattheson as Kantor of Hamburg Cathedral, an important post which nonetheless brought him meagre remuneration. He never again composed a wholly new opera, though he did revise Croesus in 1730. His diminished productivity probably had less to do with the demands of his ecclesiastical duties than with the increasingly sorry state of the Hamburg Opera, which finally closed its doors in 1738. After the death of his wife in 1735, he ‘found reason’ (in Mattheson’s words) ‘to remain completely in retirement’ until his own death four years later. 

SEHLING, Josef Anton (1710-1756) - In natali Domini

Josef Anton Sehling (1710-1756) - In natali Domini

Performers: Thurgauer Kammerchor und Barockensemble; Raimund Rüegge (conductor)

Drawing: Jean Sauvé (1635-1692) - Prague

Further info: Josef Anton Sehling (1710-1756) - Christmas in Prague Cathedral

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Josef Antonín Sehling [Seling, Seeling, Söling]

(Toužim, nr Karlovy Vary, 7 January 1710 - Prague, 19 September 1756)

Bohemian composer. After studying music in Prague and Vienna, he was appointed choirmaster of two Prague monastic churches, as well as court musician and composer of Count Morzin. He was also active as second violinist to the metropolitan Prague Cathedral from 11 January 1737. He did not succeed in gaining either the post of choirmaster (in March 1737) or that of a first violinist there (1739), but he assisted the choirmaster Jan František Novák during the latter’s illness. In 1743 his music to the drama Judith was performed by the Prague Jesuits on the coronation of Maria Theresa as Queen of Bohemia. In Sehling’s music collection, which formed a large part of the metropolitan chapter music library (591 items, now in CZ-Pak), sacred works of retrospective (Venetian and Viennese) and modern (Neapolitan) style are equally represented. His own output stands between the late Baroque and pre-Classical styles. His apparently earlier compositions are close in style to the sacred music of Caldara, while in other works a Neapolitan continuo-homophony predominates. The instrumental parts, especially violins, gradually assume a more important role, while the vocal parts are subordinate and rather static. His Christmas motets, pastoral masses and pastorellas are among the most important specimens of the genre in Bohemia before F.X. Brixi. His brother František Sehling (1715-1774) was a tenor and instrumentalist; he sang at Prague Cathedral from 1743, and acted as deputy when Josef Antonín was absent.

AGRICOLA, Johann Friedrich (1720-1774) - Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis (1768)

Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-1774) - Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis (1768)

Performers: Berit Norbakken Solsеt (soprano); Myriam Arbouz (alto); Nicholas Mulroy (tenor); Matthias Viеwеg (bass);

Kölnеr Akademie; Michael Alеxander Willеns (conductor)

Painting: Circle of Andrea Mantegna (c.1431-1506) - The adoration of the Magi

Further info: Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-1774) - Sonata (F-dur) per il cembalo solo (1762)

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Johann Friedrich Agricola

(Dobitschen, 4 January 1720 - Berlin, 2 December 1774)

German musicographer, composer, organist, singing master and conductor. His father occupied an important post as government agent and jurist in Dobitschen. Burney, who visited the Agricolas in 1772, reported that Johann Friedrich’s mother, born Maria Magdalena Manke, ‘was a near relation of the late Mr Handel, and in correspondence with him till the time of his death’; but later Handel research has failed to substantiate this claim. Agricola began his study of music as a young child. In 1738 he entered the University of Leipzig, where he studied law; during this time he was a pupil of J.S. Bach and visited Dresden, where he heard performances of Passion oratorios and Easter music by Hasse. In 1741 he moved to Berlin, became a pupil of Quantz, made the acquaintance of C.P.E. Bach, C.H. Graun and other musicians, and embarked on a career that touched many aspects of Berlin’s musical life. In 1749 and 1751 he published, under the pseudonym ‘Flavio Anicio Olibrio’, pamphlets on French and Italian taste, taking the part of Italian music against F.W. Marpurg’s advocacy of French music. As a former pupil of J.S. Bach, he collaborated with C.P.E. Bach in writing the obituary of J.S. Bach that appeared in Mizler’s Musikalische Bibliothek in 1754 and became a central source for subsequent biographies. He published Tosi’s Opinioni de’ cantori antichi e moderni in German translation in 1757, adding notes and comments which caused the translation to be regarded as a landmark in the teaching of singing. He arbitrated the debate that began in 1760 between Marpurg and G.A. Sorge. He also corresponded with Padre Martini and the dramatist G.E. Lessing and assisted in the preparation for publication of Jakob Adlung’s Musica mechanica organoedi (1768), drawing particularly on what he had learnt about the construction of organs and other keyboard instruments from J.S. Bach. From 1765 to 1774 he was a principal contributor of articles about music in C.F. Nicolai’s Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek.

Most of these reflect a conservatism that might be considered typical of north German music critics. Agricola’s study of melody (1771) remains one of the important writings about a neglected subject; and his biographical sketch of C.H. Graun (1773), like his participation in the Bach obituary, served as a point of departure for later writers on the subject. Agricola’s career as a thoroughly italianized composer of opera was fostered and then blighted by the patronage of Frederick the Great. His first intermezzo, Il filosofo convinto in amore, was performed with much success at Potsdam in 1750, and Frederick appointed him a court composer in 1751. In the same year, however, he married Benedetta Emilia Molteni, one of the singers of the Opera, disregarding the king’s rule that singers in his employ must remain single. Frederick punished the pair by reducing their joint salary to 1000 thalers. When Graun, Frederick’s chief opera composer, died in 1759, Agricola was appointed musical director of the Opera without the title of Kapellmeister. Frederick, who had always been critical of his composers – including Graun himself – was particularly harsh in his censure of Agricola’s operas. In October 1767, after hearing the rehearsals of Amor e Psiche, he wrote to his attendant Pöllnitz: ‘You will tell Agricola that he must change all of Coli’s arias – they are worthless – as well as those of Romani, along with the recitatives, which are deplorable from one end to the other’. An effort of 1772 entitled Oreste e Pilade, ordered by Frederick as entertainment for a visit by the Queen of Sweden and the Duchess of Brunswick, proved to be so far from what Frederick wanted that the entire opera had to be rewritten and retitled I greci in Tauride. Agricola was respected by his colleagues as a composer of considerable ability. His sacred works were in demand during his lifetime; copies of many of them survive in European libraries and archives. 

BRIXI, František Xaver (1732-1771) - Concerto ex C a Viola Principali

František Xaver Brixi (1732-1771) - Concerto ex C a Viola Principali

Performers: Jаn Pěruškа (viola); Chamber Orchestra from members of the Czеch PhiIharmonic Orchestra;

Andrеаs Sеbаstiаn Wеisеr (conductor)

Painting: Franz Christoph Janneck (1703-1761) - Festive gathering in an interior

Further info: František Xaver Brixi (1732-1771) - Missa Integra D-Dur

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František Xaver Brixi

(Prague, 2 January 1732 - Prague, 14 October 1771)

Bohemian organist and composer, son of Šimon Brixi (1693-1735). He received his musical education at the Piarist Gymnasium, Kosmonosy (1744-49), where in 1748 he was classified ‘felicissimus ingenii’. In his last year at the Gymnasium his teacher was Václav Kalous (1715-1786), a composer who was also choirmaster at the monastery church. In 1749 Brixi left for Prague where he became organist first at St Havel, and later at the churches of St Martín, St Mikuláš and St Mary na Louži. He soon became one of the best-known composers in Prague, evidence of which can be seen in that from 1757 to his death he was consistently chosen to write the musica navalis for St John’s Eve. On 1 January 1759 he was appointed Kapellmeister of St Vít Cathedral, thus attaining at the age of 27 the highest musical position in the city. At the same time he is said to have become choirmaster of the Benedictine monastery of St Jiří at Hradčany in Prague. He died 12 years later of tuberculosis in the hospital of the Brothers of Charity. Brixi was one of the leading musical figures of mid-18th-century Bohemia. His tremendous output of about 500 works was rooted in the Neapolitan style, particularly that of Alessandro Scarlatti, Francesco Feo and Francesco Durante, and he was also influenced by the Viennese school of Mancini, Reuter and Bonno. Brixi’s style is distinguished from that of his contemporaries by its fresh melodic writing, vivacious rhythm and lively bass lines, and from that of his predecessors by its simple yet effective instrumentation. He often made use of folk music in his works. During his lifetime his music was widely disseminated in Bohemia and Moravia, as well as in other countries, especially Austria, Bavaria and Silesia. He had a profound effect on Bohemian musical taste, and Mozart’s favourable reception in Prague in the 1780s was at least partly due to Brixi’s lasting influence. The easy appeal of his musical style left an impression on Czech composers for the rest of the 18th century. 

ALTNIKOL, Johann Christoph (1720-1759) - Cantata 'Frohlocket und jauchzet in prächtigen'

Johann Christoph Altnikol (1720-1759) - Cantata 'Frohlocket und jauchzet in prächtigen'

Performers: Barbаra Schlіck (soprano); Hеіn Mееns (tenor); Hаrry van der Kаmp (bass);

Rhеinischе Kantorei; Das Klеinе Konzert; Hermаnn Mаx

Painting: Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) - Music making angels (c.1626)

Further info: Johann Christoph Altnikol (1720-1759) - Missa in d

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Johann Christoph Altnikol [Altnickol]

(Berna bei Seidenberg, bap. 1 January 1720 - Naumburg, bur. 25 July 1759)

German organist and composer. He attended the Lauban Lyceum in 1733, and was a singer and assistant organist at St Maria Magdalena, Breslau, from about 1740 until the beginning of 1744. He then wished to return to Germany and devote himself to ‘higher studies’ at Leipzig, and as his parents were poor, he asked for a viaticum. He was granted four thalers on 23 January 1744, and on 19 March he matriculated at Leipzig University as a theological student. He soon began to assist Bach, chiefly as a bass, and did so regularly from Michaelmas 1745. In taking on a university student Bach exceeded his authority, but he was always short of basses, for the boys of the Thomasschule often left before their voices had settled. On 16 April 1746 W.F. Bach recommended Altnickol as his successor at Dresden, saying that he had studied the keyboard and composition with his father; but he was disregarded. On 26 April 1747 Altnickol applied to the Leipzig Council for a grant, saying that he had been singing bass for three years. Burgomaster Stieglitz seized the opportunity to say that the Kantor had no business to make such appointments; but the council agreed to pay 12 thalers (19 May), given proof that Altnickol had actually done the work. Bach certified on 25 May 1747 that Altnickol had worked continuously from Michaelmas 1745. On 8 November 1747 a vacancy for an organist and schoolmaster arose at Niederwiesa (near Greiffenberg, Silesia); on 3 December the son of some local worthy drafted a letter inviting Altnickol to apply. The draft went to another local worthy for approval (no names are given) with a covering letter stating that the writer had known Altnickol at Lauban and Leipzig, and that he was a peaceable and upright man, no great theologian, but a good bass, violinist and organist, who understood composition and had endeared himself to Herr Bach.

Subsequent events show that he had also endeared himself to Fräulein Bach. On 1 January 1748 Bach testified that Altnickol was a pupil of whom he need not be ashamed; on 18 January Altnickol was appointed, and he gave satisfaction. He is said to have been a fine organist. A post at St Wenzel, Naumburg, fell vacant in the summer, and on 24 July 1748 Bach recommended Altnickol to the council, who unanimously appointed him on 30 July, before they had even received his formal application. There is a story that the council preferred Bach’s candidate to Johann Friedrich Gräbner, who was being put forward by the all-powerful Count Brühl; by rushing the matter, they were able to say that the Count’s recommendation came too late. Gräbner nevertheless became Altnickol’s successor in 1759. Altnickol moved in at mid-September, and married Bach’s daughter Elisabeth Juliana Friderica on 20 January 1749. He invited the Naumburg Council to the wedding, thus securing a present of six thalers. A son, Johann Sebastian, was born on 4 October, but was buried on 21 October. On 24 November Altnickol’s father died, and a few months later Bach fell seriously ill. According to Forkel, it was to Altnickol that Bach dictated his last chorale prelude (though the familiar manuscript fragment is not in Altnickol’s hand). After Bach’s death, Altnickol exercised the function of a trustee, with responsibility for distributing his estate. He took Bach's mentally handicapped son Gottfried Heinrich with him to Naumburg, where he also taught J.G. Müthel, Bach’s pupil, until 1751. At the end of 1753 he, like W.F. Bach, competed unsuccessfully for an appointment at the Johanniskirche, Zittau; and in 1757 he taught the trumpeter J. Ernst Altenburg. In Naumburg Altnickol directed performances of a pasticcio Passion cantata with music by C.H. Graun, Bach and Telemann and of a presumably early version of Bach's St Matthew Passion.