HESSE, Adolf Friedrich (1809-1863) - Fantasie für die Orgel

Adolf Friedrich Hesse (1809-1863) - Fantasie (d-moll) für die Orgel, Op.87

Performers: Luisella Gіnаnnі (organ); Emilio Trаvеrso (organ)

Painting: Carl Hasenpflug (1802-1858) - Klosterruine im Winter (1851)

Further info: Adolf Friedrich Hesse (1809-1863)

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Adolf Friedrich Hesse

(Breslau, 30 August 1809 - Breslau, 5 August 1863)

German organist and composer. He studied in his hometown with the organists Friedrich Wilhelm Berner and Ernst Köhler. On his first major concert tour in Germany met Hummel in Weimar and Spohr in Kassel. In Darmstadt he met Rinck with whom he studied in the winter of 1828-29. In 1831, he took over the principal organist post at the Bernhardinerkirche in Breslau where he remained the rest of his life. He was highly regarded as one of the most important organists in Germany, his virtuosic playing and agile pedalwork dazzled audiences in Paris, where he played an all-Bach programme—a novelty in France—for the inauguration of the organ at Saint-Eustache in 1844. Back in Breslau, he conducted the symphonic concerts of the city's Opera Orchestra. One of Hesse's pupils was the Belgian organist Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens. Hesse’s compositions combined fugal polyphony modelled on Bach with rich, Romantic harmonies influenced by Spohr, whom he greatly admired. He retired, feeling dissatisfied at the direction of ‘modern music’, around 1850.

VON WINTER, Peter (1754-1825) - Concertino per il Clarinetto e Violoncello

Peter von Winter (1754-1825) - Concertino (Es Dur) per il Clarinetto e Violoncello

Performers: Irène Güdel (cello); Jost Michaels (1922-2004, clarinet);

Chamber Orchestra Of The Sarre; Karl Ristenpart (1900-1967, conductor)

Drawing: Gustav Seeberger (1812-1888) - Ansicht von München über die Isar bei einsetzender Abenddämmerung

Further info: Peter von Winter (1754-1825) - Deutsches Te Deum

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Peter Winter [von Winter]

(Mannheim, bap. 28 August 1754 - Munich, 17 October 1825)

German composer. He was a pupil of several of the Mannheim court musicians before took over a post of violinist in the Electoral orchestra at the age of 10. He was given permanent employment there in 1776. He later studied with Abbe Vogler, then went with the court to Munich in 1778 and became director of the Court Orchestra. In 1787 he was named court Vice-Kapellmeister and in 1798 court Kapellmeister. In 1814 he received a title of nobility from the court for his long service. In Munich he brought out a number of operas, of which the most important were Helena und Paris (1782), Der Bettelstudent oder Das Donnerwetter (1785), Der Sturm (1798), Marie von Montalban (1800), and Colmal (1809). Frequent leaves of absence from Munich enabled him to travel; in Venice he produced his operas Catone in Utica (1791), I sacrifizi di Creta ossia Ariannae Teseo (1792), I Fratelli rivali (1793), and Belisa ossia La fedelita riconosciuta (1794). In Prague he produced the opera Ogus ossia Il trionfo del belsesso (1795). In Vienna he brought out Das unterbrochene Opferfest (1796; his most successful opera; produced all over Europe), Babylons Pyramiden (1797), and Das Labirint oder Der Kampfmit den Elementen (1798). In Paris he produced his only French opera, Tamerlan (1802), in London the Italian operas Lagrotta di Calipso (1803), II trionfo dell'amor fraterno (1804), Il ratto di Proserpina (1804), and Zaira (1805). In 1816 he embarked on a concert tour of northern Germany and Italy with his pupil Clara Metzger-Vespermann, later a celebrated singer, during the course of which he directed three of his operas in Milan in 1817 and 1818. His last opera for Munich was the Singspiel Der Sänger und der Schneider (1820), but he remained active until his last years as a composer of church music. As a composer, he also wrote several ballets, oratorios and sacred cantatas for the Munich court chapel, 28 masses and a vast amount of other church music, 4 symphones (including the grand choral sym. Die Schlacht, 1814), overtures, concertos and other concerted works, and much chamber music.

GARCIA CARRASQUEDO, Juan Antonio (1734-1812) - Misa para 5 voces

Juan Antonio García Carrasquedo (1734-1812) - Misa (en Si bemol mayor) para 5 voces

Performers: Josep Bеnеt (tenor); Camerata Coral de la Universidad de Cantabria;

Coral de Santander; Purcell Playеrs; Lynne Kurzеknаbe (conductor)

Painting: Carlo Innocenzo Carlone (1686-1775) - Apotheose der heiligen Cäcilia mit Engelskonzert

Further info: Maestros De Capilla De Santander

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Juan Antonio García de Carrasquedo

(Zaragoza, 1734 - Santander, 12 April 1812)

Spanish composer. It is said he firstly studied in Zaragoza, possibly in the Cathedral choir with his uncle Francisco Javier García Fajer 'El Españoleto' but other sources situed him in Italy. Around 1756 he settled in Santander where he was appointed as the first Kapellmeister of the city's Cathedral. His trace was lost then and almost nothing is known about his life and career there. Shortly before his death his signature appears on a document welcoming Joseph Bonaparte, so it seems that he must have had French or Enlightenment leanings towards the end of his life. Carrasquedo died in Santander on April 12, 1812. He was buried in the old San Francisco cemetery. As a composer, he mainly wrote sacred music which has been forgotten after his death. 

MILLARES TORRES, Agustín (1826-1896) - Variaciones para Clarinete y Cuerda

Agustín Millares Torres (1826-1896) - Variaciones para Clarinete y Cuerda

Performers: Radovan Cаvаllin (clarinete); Orquesta “Béla Bartók”; José Britο Lópеz (conductor)

Painting: Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) - Sea Echoes

Further info: Agustín Millares Torres (1826-1896) - Obras orquestales

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Agustín Millares Torres

(Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 25 August 1826 - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 17 May 1896)

Spanish historian, novelist and musician, author of the monumental work entitled "Historia General de las Islas Canarias". At the age of thirteen he entered the Seminary to attend high school while he was also receiving music lessons. In 1841 he served on Las Palmas Town Hall music band and began to compose regularly. In 1844, after obtaining a Bachelor's degree, he enrolled in the Escuela de Notariado de Las Palmas, where he obtained his degree in 1846. He then moved to Madrid to study at the Superior Conservatory of Music. Upon his return in Gran Canaria, he was teaching music at the Colegio San Agustín and took over the post of director of the Las Palmas Cathedral Music Chapel. On October 4, 1850, he married Encarnación Cubas Báez with whom he had eleven children. In 1882 he was appointed as member of the Royal Academy of History. As a composer, he wrote overtures, hymns, marches, waltzes, zarzuelas and sacred works.

SPIESS, Meinrad (1683-1761) - Laetatus sum (1717)

Meinrad Spiess (1683-1761) - Laetatus sum aus Cithara Davidis noviter animata ... opus II (1717)

Performers: Erika Rüggeberg (1940-2018, soprano); Convivium Musicum München;

Chor Der Herz-Jesu-Kirche München; Josef Schmidhuber (1924-1990, conductor)

Painting: Louis Chéron (1660-1725) - Cupid and Psyche before Jupiter (c.1710)

Further info: Meinrad Spiess (1683-1761) - Psalmi Vespertini (1717)

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Meinrad (Matthäus) Spiess

(Honsolgen, 24 August 1683 - Irsee, 12 June 1761)

German composer and theorist. Son of a farmer, he entered the Benedictine Abbey of Irsee in 1701 where he was ordained priest in 1708. Then he settled in Munich where he received music lessons from Giuseppe Antonio Bernabei. In 1712 he returned to the abbey at Irsee as kapellmeister, a post he held the rest of his life. There he was mainly in charge of the church music for which he wrote a largely number of masses, motets and other sacred works. In 1743 Lorenz Christoph Mizler accepted him as member of the reputed Societät der Musikalischen Wissenschaften in Leipzig, a society of music scholars and composers including, among others, Johann Sebastian Bach, Telemann and Handel.

GUILAIN, Jean-Adam (c.1680-c.1739) - Suite du troisième ton (1706)

Jean-Adam Guilain (c.1680-c.1739) - Suite du troisième ton (1706)

Performers: Pierre Bаrdοn (organ)

Painting: Alberto Carlieri (1672-c.1720) - Antique architecture with the Judgment of Solomon (c.1705)

Further info: Organ music

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Jean-Adam Guilain [Johann Adam Wilhelm Freinsberg]

(c.1680 - Paris?, after 1739)

German organist and composer mainly active in Paris. Almost nothing is known about his life. He probably settled in Paris around 1702. There he received music lessons from Louis Marchand to whom later Guilain dedicated his most important music collection; "Pièces d'orgue pour le Magnificat sur les huit tons différents de l'église" (1706). Almost nothing more is known about him and he probably died after 1739, the year when he published a collection of 26 harpsichord pieces entitled "Pieces de Clavecin / D'un Gour Noveau / Par Mr. Guilain". He also published a "Messe in te cantatio semper" (Paris, 1707), but it is currenty lost. His music style was purely on French tradition and his organ music ranks among the best that could have been conceived in France during the ancien régime. 

VANHAL, Jan Křtitel (1739-1813) - Requiem a 4 Voci

Jan Křtitel Vanhal (1739-1813) - Requiem a 4 Voci

Performers: The Amаdе Players; Nicholas Nеwlаnd (conductor)

Painting: Unknown artist (19th Century) - Amalfi dalla Grotta dei Cappuccini

Further info: Jan Křtitel Vanhal (1739-1813) - Concerto Toni C. per il Fagotto Principale

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Johann Baptist Wanhal [Jan Krtitel Vanhal]

(Nechanice, 12 May 1739 - Wien, 20 August 1813)

Bohemian composer and cellist. Born into a poor peasant family, he obtained some early education in music from a local organist, Anton Erban. His first post was as an organist at the town of Opocžna, and subsequently he became a choral director at Niemcžoves, during which time he was trained as a string player by Matthias Nowák. In 1769 he moved to Vienna to study under Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. In turn he established a reputation as a teacher, whose students included Ignaz Pleyel. In 1769 he traveled to Italy, where his first opera, Demofoonte, was performed a year later. He returned to Vienna in 1771 but visited the estates of his patron, Ladislaus Erdödy, in Croatia. Thereafter he continued to publish his music actively as a member of the most important musical circles of the Imperial capital. Vanhal can be considered one of the more prolific and popular composers of the period, with over 1,300 works written. Although Charles Burney claimed that his creativity had diminished due to mental issues (now known to be false), he continued to produce compositions that were disseminated throughout the world, becoming almost as popular as his friend and colleague Joseph Haydn. These include 76 symphonies, around 60 concertos (for violin, flute, viola, oboe, contrabass, keyboard, and other instruments), 100 string quartets, 13 piano quartets, 51 piano trios, 49 other trios, six quintets, 98 duets for various instruments, 102 sonatas/sonatinas for various instruments and keyboard, 196 keyboard sonatas, 68 sets of keyboard variations, 76 miscellaneous keyboard works, 25 divertimentos, 38 organ works, 47 sets or pieces of dance music, three operas, 48 Masses, two Requiems, 46 offertories, 32 motets, 15 antiphons, 34 sacred arias, 32 Stabat maters, 10 litanies, 10 graduals, 17 other sacred works, 17 pieces of programmatic music, and 41 songs. Vanhal’s musical style is often dramatic but carefully constructed according to form and structure. His use of melody is often lyrical, with good sequencing and internal variation. He can be considered one of the main figures in late 18th-century music. His works are known by their Bryan numbers. 

SALIERI, Antonio (1750-1825) - Te Deum (1804)

Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) - Te Deum (1804)

Performers: Convivium MusicaIе Spеyеr; Motettenchor Spеyеr; Marie Thеrеs Brаnd (conductor)

Painting: Johann Nepomuk Höchle (1790-1835) - Kaiser Leopold I. und König Jan III. Sobieski vor Wien

Further info: Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) - Hofkapellmeister Messe (1788)

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Antonio Salieri

(Legnago, 18 August 1750 - Vienna, 7 May 1825)

Italian composer, mainly active in Vienna. After studying with his brother Francesco Salieri, he received further education from Giuseppe Simone, a student of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini. After the deaths of his parents between 1763 and 1765, he was taken as a protégé by Giovanni Mocenjo in Venice. There he continued his studies with Giovanni Pescetti and Ferdinando Pacini until 1765. The following year he was taken by Florian Gassmann to Vienna, where in 1770 his first operas were performed. In 1778 he returned to Italy and succeeded in establishing a reputation for his works for the stage, and upon his return to Vienna in 1780 he wrote a German Singspiel, Der Rauchfangskehrer, for his newly emerging national theatre. Thereafter Christoph Willibald von Gluck took him on as a disciple, allowing him secretly to compose Les Danaïdes for Paris. This and work as a tutor to the royal family allowed him to be appointed as hofKapellmeister in 1788. By 1790 he began to withdraw from active duty, leaving much of the work to his student, Joseph Weigl, and although he had a revived career as an opera composer a few years later, his last work, Die Neger, was written in 1804. As a teacher, Salieri had numerous pupils who made major contributions to the world of music, including Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. For many years he was the head of the Tonkünstlersozietät and in 1815 was responsible for programming the music that accompanied the Treaty of Vienna conference. Although his reputation has suffered through mostly unfounded rumors of his relationship with Mozart, he must be considered one of the main composers of the entire era. His music demonstrates good orchestrational skill, dramatic use of harmony, excellent attention to form, and a good grasp of theoretical principles. A prolific composer, his works include 41 operas, five oratorios, five Masses, two Requiems, 13 graduals, 31 offertories, 18 introits, seven Psalms, 10 hymns, 12 motets, 17 choruses, 96 insertion or concert arias, 13 secular cantatas, 180 canons, 20 vocal quartets, 70 vocal trios, 50 vocal duets, 45 songs, five ballets, four symphonies, seven concertos and sinfonia concertantes, five serenades, and a large amount of smaller chamber works. He cataloged his own sacred music around 1817, but his works have been cataloged according to A numbers. 

FOMIN, Evstignej Ipatovič (1761-1800) - Suite 'Orpheus' (1792)

Evstignej Ipatovič Fomin (1761-1800) Work: Suite 'Orpheus' (1792)

Performers: Chamber ensemble 'Baroque'

Further info: Russian Music Of The 18th Century

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Evstignej Ipatovič (Yevstigney Ipat'yevich) Fomin

(St Petersburg, 16 August 1761 - St Petersburg, 28 April 1800)

Russian composer. Orphaned at an early age, he was sent by his uncle to the Academy of the Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, where he was to be trained as an architect. In 1776, however, he decided to concentrate on music, taking harpsichord lessons from Matteo Bomi and composition from Hermann Raupach and Blasius Sartori. Sartori encouraged him to further his education in Italy, and in 1782 he arrived in Bologna where he became a student of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini and Stanislao Mattei. Within three years he had been elected to the prestigious Accademia filarmonica, around the same time as he returned to St. Petersburg at the request of Catherine II, who wished him to compose Russian operas. He also taught at the theatre school. His most famous work was a Russian version of the Orpheus legend, Orfey i Evridika, produced in 1792. An indication of his dramatic style of musical composition that includes Russian folk elements can be found in his choruses to the play Yuropolk i Olega of 1798. He is said to have composed some 30 operas, as well as a pair of choral concertos in Old Church Slavonic.

HOFMANN, Leopold (1738-1793) - Concerto in D a Flauto Concertato

Leopold Hofmann (1738-1793) - Concerto in D a Flauto Concertato

Performers: Kurt Redel (1918-2013, flute); Münchener Kammerorchester; Hans Stadlmair (1929-2019, conductor)

Painting: Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761) - Tanzfest im Schlosspark

Further info: Concertos

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Leopold Hofmann

(Vienna, 14 August 1738 - Vienna, 17 March 1793)

Austrian organist and composer. The son of the court official Georg Adam Hofmann, he showed musical gifts when very young. He received his earliest musical education as a chorister in the Kapelle of Dowager Empress Elisabeth beginning at the age of 7. His teachers over the next several years included Georg Christoph Wagenseil and Giuseppe Trani. By 1758 he was employed at St. Michael’s Church, following which he served at St. Peter’s Church, eventually becoming Kapellmeister in 1766, the year after he was appointed hofKapellmeister to the Imperial court. There he taught the royal family and participated throughout Vienna as an organist and composer. In 1772 he became Georg von Reutter Jr.’s assistant at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, eventually taking over all functions at the church. He seems never to have been officially appointed to the post of chief Kapellmeister, possibly due to the necessity of denying the position of his assistant to violinist Tobias Gsur, who was unfit for the task. In 1786 he settled into retirement at his home in Oberdöbling. Hofmann was one of the major figures in Vienna of the period. His compositions for both the church and court were popular, and his music was well crafted. Although mainly homophonic in style, his church music was seen as an advance on the often antiquated style of his predecessor Reutter, with its absorption of Neapolitan musical devices. As a symphonist, he often used a slow introduction and clear-cut forms. His music includes 43 Masses, a Requiem, 29 antiphons, seven sacred arias, 16 litanies, 38 motets or offertories, two oratorios, 16 Psalms, 14 tracts, a responsory, three sequences, three vespers, 10 Lieder, 47 symphonies, 59 concertos (for violin, cello, flute, oboe, and keyboard), 19 concertinos, 22 divertimentos, 54 trios, 27 duets, six violin sonatas, 13 keyboard works, and three works for solo flute. His music is known by Badley numbers.

BIBER, Heinrich Ignaz Franz (1644-1704) - Missa Salisburgensis à 53 (1682)

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704) - Missa Salisburgensis à 53 (1682)

Performers: Collegium Vocale 1704; Václav Luks (conductor)

Engraving: I. P. Wolff (?) - Salzburg (c.1730)

Further info: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704) - Litaniae Lauretanae (1693)

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Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

(Wartenberg, bap. 12 August 1644 - Salzburg, 3 May 1704)

Bohemian composer and violinist. Few details of his musical education survive, but sometime before 1668, he was in the service of Prince Johann Seyfried Eggenberg of Graz. In 1670 he settled in Salzburg as a member of the archbishop's Kapelle, where he was made Vice-Kapellmeister in 1679 and Kapellmeister in 1684. Biber’s career flourished in Salzburg and in 1690 he was ennobled by Emperor Leopold I. He was a remarkable composer of both secular and sacred music, and was a virtuoso violinist who excelled in scordatura. His Mystery and Rosary Sonatas for Violin and Continuo (c.1676), composed as postludes for the services of the Rosary Mysteries at Salzburg Cathedral, are notable examples of scordatura. His 8 sonatas for Solo Violin and Continuo (1681) are also fine scores. Among his other chamber works are 2 collections of music for 1 or 2 Violins, 2 Violas, and Bass (1680, 1683). He also published a collection of music for Trumpets and Strings (1676). Among his finest sacred works are the 32-part Vesperae (1693), the Missa Sancti Henrici (1701), the 36-part Missa Alleluja, and the Requiems in A major and F minor. An anonymous 53-part Missa salisburgensis (1682) has recently attributed to him. He also wrote the operas Chi la dura la vince (1687), Alessandro in Pietra (1689; not extant), and L'ossequio di Salisburgo (1699; not extant), as well as several school dramas. Biber had 11 children, only four of whom survived childhood: his sons Anton Heinrich Biber (1679-1742) and Karl Heinrich Biber (1681-1749) and his daughters Maria Cäcilia Biber (b.1674) and Anna Magdalena Biber (1677-1742). They were all musically gifted and received a good musical education from their father.

ARNOLD, Samuel (1740-1802) - Overture (III) in F (c.1781)

Samuel Arnold (1740-1802) - Overture (III) in F (c.1781)

Performers: Tοrοntο Camerata; Kevin Mallοn (conductor)

Painting: English School (18th Century) - Portrait of Samuel Arnold, half-length, in the robes of a Doctor of Music

Further info: Samuel Arnold (1740-1802) - Overture (VI) in D (c.1781)

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Samuel Arnold

(London, 10 August 1740 - London, 22 October 1802)

English composer, conductor, organist and editor. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, a commoner, and, according to some sources, the Princess Amelia. He received his education as a Child of the Chapel Royal (c.1750 to August 1758) and on leaving became known as an organist, conductor and teacher, and composed prolifically. He began writing music for the theatre in about the year 1764. A few years later, he became the director of music at Marylebone Gardens, for which he wrote much of his popular music. In 1777, he worked for George Colman the Elder at the Little Theatre, Haymarket. In 1783, he became organist at the Chapel Royal and in 1793 he became the organist at Westminster Abbey, where he was eventually buried. He also wrote the earliest version of Humpty Dumpty. He was a close friend and associate of Haydn. His compositions include sonatas, symphonies, and oratorios, as well as ballad operas, farces, and pantomimes. His Cathedral Music (1790), a collection of service music, was an important supplement to William Boyce’s Cathedral Music.

SIMRAK, Ján (1600-1657) - Magnificat Deutsch (1641)

Ján Šimrák (1600-1657) - Magnificat Deutsch (1641)

Performers: Vox Aurumque; Hana Von Schlosser (conductor)

Painting: Cima da Conegliano (1459-1517) - Madonna and Child in a Landscape

Further info: Schimrack - Organista Waralii

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Ján (Johannes) Šimrák [Schimbrack, Schimrag, Schimbracky, Šimbracký]

(1600 - 1657)

Slovak composer and organist. Almost nothing is known about his life and career. He came from the German evangelical environment of Spiš where he was born into a family of priests and teachers. It was mentioned as a senator of the Podhradie city council from 1637 until his death in 1657 and as organist in Spišské Podhradie. As a composer, he mainly wrote sacred music the most of them currently preserved in three tablature books which contains almost the whole of his extant music.

DE ALMEIDA, Francisco António (c.1702-1755) - Sinfonia 'Il trionfo d'amore'

Francisco António de Almeida (c.1702-1755) - Sinfonia 'Il trionfo d'amore' (1729)

Performers: Os Músicos do Tejo; Marcos Magalhaes (conductor)

Painting: Stephan Kessler (1622-1700) - Cleopatra entering Rome

Further info: Il Trionfo d'Amore

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Francisco António de Almeida

(c.1702 - Lisboa, 1 November 1755)

Portuguese organist and composer. He was sent to Rome on a stipend by Dom João V in 1722, where he studied musical composition, returning to Lisbon in 1726 to become organist at the Capella Reale and later music teacher to the royal family. His first success was a comic opera, La pazienzia di Socrate, in 1733, but followed thereafter by others, such as La Spinalba of 1739 that foreshadows the later Italian buffa. He perished in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. His surviving works include eight operas, about 20 sacred works, two oratorios, a Mass, a cantata, and several arias. The bulk of his music has been lost, however, including the presépios written for the Nativity. Although there are Baroque elements in his music, his use of ensemble clearly shows the emerging Italian operatic style. In 1724, the artist Pier Leone Ghezzi drew his caricature, describing Francisco António de Almeida as "a young but excellent composer of concertos and church music who sang with extreme taste". 

LEO, Leonardo (1694-1744) - Miserere concertato a due chori (1739)

Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) - Miserere concertato a due chori (1739)

Performers: The Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Painting: Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) - Lamentation over the Dead Christ

Further info: Leo: Miserere Mei Deus

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Leonardo (Lionardo) (Ortensio Salvatore de [di]) Leo

(San Vito degli Schiavoni [now San Vito dei Normanni], 5 August 1694 - Naples, 31 October 1744)

Italian composer and teacher. He was one of the leading Neapolitan composers of his day, especially of theatre and church music. The son of Corrado de Leo and Rosabetta Pinto, he went to Naples in 1709 and became a pupil of Nicola Fago at the Conservatorio S Maria della Pietà dei Turchini. At the beginning of 1712 his S Chiara, o L’infedeltà abbattuta, a dramma sacro, was performed at the conservatory; from the fact that it was performed again in the viceroy’s palace on 14 February it would seem that Leo’s work attracted unusual attention. On finishing his studies he was appointed supernumerary organist in the viceroy’s chapel on 8 April 1713 and at the same time was employed as maestro di cappella in the service of the Marchese Stella; he is also said to have been maestro di cappella of S Maria della Solitaria. As early as 13 May 1714 his first opera, Il Pisistrato, was staged. There followed commissions for opera arrangements, intermezzos and serenatas, and in 1718 a second opera, Sofonisba. From Caio Gracco (1720) the list of his opera commissions continues without a break up to his death. In 1723 he wrote his first opera for Venice, and in the same year, with La ’mpeca scoperta, he turned for the first time to the developing genre of Neapolitan commedia musicale; from then on he was regarded as one of the leading composers of comedy. On Alessandro Scarlatti’s death in 1725 Leo was promoted to first organist of the viceregal chapel. In the following years he lost his supremacy as a composer of serious opera in Naples to his rivals Vinci and Hasse, and between 1726 and 1730 he apparently received no commissions for opera at the Teatro S Bartolomeo in Naples. 

He did however write serious operas for Rome and Venice, and in Naples he pursued his career as a composer of comic operas. After Hasse’s departure and Vinci’s death in 1730, Leo became the dominant figure in Neapolitan musical life. He succeeded Vinci as pro-vicemaestro and on Mancini’s death in 1737 he became vicemaestro of the royal chapel. He was repeatedly given leave to fulfil commissions for operas elsewhere (1737 Bologna, 1739 Turin, 1740 Turin and Milan), and through the family connections of the Neapolitan royal family he received commissions from the Spanish court. Even greater than his reputation as an opera composer was the esteem he acquired as a composer of oratorios with his settings of Metastasio’s S Elena al Calvario and La morte di Abele. Leo also became prominent as a teacher: from 1734 to 1737 he taught as vicemaestro at the Conservatorio S Maria della Pietà dei Turchini, in 1739 he succeeded Feo as primo maestro at the Conservatorio S Onofrio and in 1741 he also took over the duties of primo maestro at the S Maria della Pietà dei Turchini in succession to his own teacher, Fago. The Miserere for double choir in eight parts and organ (March 1739) appears to be the first of his works aimed at the reform of church music, closely connected with his activities as a teacher. In both respects he was in competition with Francesco Durante, who taught at the two other conservatories in Naples. On Domenico Sarro’s death (25 January 1744) Leo at last became maestro di cappella of the royal chapel. He immediately composed a series of a cappella compositions (with continuo) for the use of the royal chapel during Lent and reformed the orchestra of the royal opera, but he died after only nine months in office.

BÖDDECKER, Philipp Friedrich (1607-1683) - Sonata a Violino Solo (1651)

Philipp Friedrich Böddecker (1607-1683) - Sonata (d-moll) a Violino Solo (1651)

Performers: Duo Unarum Fidium

Painting: The Monogramist 'JR', Dutch 17th Century - A vanitas with a skull, an orange and a lemon in a pewter bowl, an extinguished candle, books, music, musical instruments and a celestial globe, on partly-draped marble table

Further info: Philipp Friedrich Böddecker (1607-1683)

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Philipp Friedrich Böddecker [Boedecker, Bedeckher]

(Hagenau, bap. 5 August 1607 - Stuttgart, 8 October 1683)

German composer, organist and bassoonist. He was born in a large family of musicians and received early musical education from his father, Joachim Böddecker, and then from Johann Ulrich Steigleder in Stuttgart. In 1626 he became organist and singing teacher in Buchsweiler and in 1629 he was bassoonist and organist at the Landgrave's court in Darmstadt. In 1638 he became organist of the Barfüsserkirche at Frankfurt and in 1642 he assumed the same post at the Strasbourg cathedral. Also there, he held a post of director of music and organist of the university. From 1652 he was organist of the collegiate church at Stuttgart in a position he held the rest of his life. As a composer, he was mainly known by his collection Sacra partitura (Strasbourg, 1651) where he included eight sacred songs and two violin sonatas (probably the earliest German examples of the genre). His son, the organist and composer Philipp Jakob Böddecker (1642-1707), succeeded him as organist in Stuttgart on April 25, 1686.

LEMIERE DE CORVEY, Jean-Frédéric-Auguste (1771-1832) - La Bataille de Jéna (1806)

Jean-Frédéric-Auguste Lemière de Corvey (1771-1832) - La Bataille de Jéna gagnée sur les Prussiens le 14 d'octobre 1806, oeuvre 36 (1806)

Performers: Daniel Prοppеr (piano)

Painting: Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) - Le Serment du Jeu de paume

Further info: L’Echo des batailles

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Jean-Frédéric-Auguste Lemière [Le Mière, Le Mierre, Lemierre] de Corvey

(Rennes, 3 August 1771 - Paris, 24 April 1832)

French composer. After studies in Rennes, he received training in harmony from Henri-Montan Berton in Paris. While pursuing a military career, he composed many works for the stage, the most successful being his opera Andros et Almona, ou Le français à Bassora (Paris, Feb. 4?, 1794). When Lemière returned to Paris in 1817 after his participation in many European campaigns to resume a theatrical career, he found that this had lost much of its impetus; he was obliged to supplement his military pension by proofreading music and died, of cholera, in a state of relative poverty. As a composer, he was mainly known by his opéras-comiques and military band pieces. However, his opéras comiques, which were mainly in one act, proved less popular than those written by Boieldieu, Dalayrac and his teacher Berton. He also wrote chamber music, piano pieces and romances.