CALDARA, Antonio (c.1670-1736) - Te Deum

Antonio Caldara (c.1670-1736) - Te Deum laudamus (C-Dur) à 2. chori

Performers: lаrynx ensemble; Les Passions de l'Âmе; Mеrеt Lüthi (conductor)

Painting: Johann Adam Delsenbach (1687-1765) - Wien, Ansicht der Innenstadt vor dem Rotenturmtor (c.1750)

Further info: Antonio Caldara (c.1670-1736) - Missa Sanctificationis Sancti Joannis Nepomuceni

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Antonio Caldara

(Venice, c.1670 - Vienna, 28 December 1736)

Italian composer. He became a chorister at St Mark's in Venice, where he learned several instruments, probably under the instruction of Giovanni Legrenzi. In 1699 he relocated to Mantua, where he became maestro di cappella to the inept Charles IV, Duke of Mantua, a pensionary of France with a French wife, who took the French side in the War of the Spanish Succession. Caldara removed from Mantua in 1707, after the French were expelled from Italy, then moved on to Barcelona as chamber composer to Charles III, the pretender to the Spanish throne (following the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 without any direct heir) and who kept a royal court at Barcelona. There, he wrote some operas that are the first Italian operas performed in Spain. He moved on to Rome, becoming maestro di cappella to Francesco Maria Marescotti Ruspoli, 1st Prince of Cerveteri. While there he wrote in 1710 La costanza in amor vince l'inganno (Faithfulness in Love Defeats Treachery) for the public theatre at Macerata. With the unexpected death of Emperor Joseph I from smallpox at the age of 32 in April 1711, Caldara deemed it prudent to renew his connections with Charles III – soon to become Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI – as he travelled from Spain to Vienna via northern Italy. Caldara visited Vienna in 1712, but found Marc'Antonio Ziani and Johann Joseph Fux firmly ensconced in the two highest musical posts. He stopped at the Salzburg court on his return journey to Rome, where he was well received (and to which he subsequently sent one new opera annually from 1716 to 1727). In 1716, following the death the previous year of Ziani and the promotion of Fux to Hofkapellmeister, Caldara was appointed Vize-Kapellmeister to the Imperial Court in Vienna, and there he remained until his death. Caldara composed more than 70 operas, more than 30 oratorios, and other works including motets and sonatas. Several of his compositions have libretti by Pietro Metastasio, the court poet at Vienna from 1729. 

WEISS, Johann Sigismund (c.1690-1737) - Concerto in d-moll

Johann Sigismund Weiss (c.1690-1737) - Concerto in d-moll

Performers: Slava Grigοryаn (guitar); Tаsmаniаn Symphony Orchestra; Benjamin Nοrthеy (conductor)

Painting: Gaspare Traversi (c.1722-1770) - A concert

Further info: Baroque Guitar Concertos

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Johann Sigismund Weiss [Weis, Weiß]

(Breslau [now Wrocław], after 1690 - Mannheim, 12 April 1737)

German lutenist and composer. Son of Johann Jacob Weiss (c.1662-1754) and brother of Silvius Leopold Weiss (1686-1750), he probably was trained by his father with whom, in 1708, was appointed lutenist at the court of the Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf; he remained at the Palatine court until his death. After Elector Johann Wilhelm died in 1716 the court music positions became unstable. In 1718 a lutenist, ‘Mr Weys’, gave weekly chamber concerts in London for several months and played for the king, possibly seeking a position at Court. This was probably Johann Sigismund Weiss rather than his elder brother. By 1732 he had been promoted to director of instrumental music, and in a personnel list of 1734 is cited as both Konzertmeister and theorbo player. He married in 1726, and remarried two years after his first wife’s death in 1732. Ernst Gottlieb Baron described him as not only a lutenist ‘but also an excellent gambist and violinist and composer’.

LEAUMONT, Robert (1762-1814) - Duo Concertant (1786)

Robert Léaumont (1762-1814) - Duo concertant (Re majeur)

pour le clavecin ou le forte-piano et violoncelle (1786)

Performers: Arthur Loesser (1894-1969, pianoforte); Luigi Silva (1903-1961, cello)

Painting: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Allegory of music

Further info: Music in America

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Robert Léaumont [Marie-Robert de Castile, Chevalier de Léaumont]

(Saint-Domingue, Haiti, 15 May 1762 - Charleston, 5 August 1814)

French pianist, composer and teacher. Son of Gabriel Henri de Castille de Leaumont (1723-1795) and Perrine Victoire Therese Bezin (?-1794), he was born into an aristocratic family in the French West Indies. He served in the American Revolutionary War as an officer in the French Régiment d’Agenois, and was wounded at the battle of Yorktown in October 1781. After the war he was made a Chevalier of the Royal Order of St. Louis and returned to his life as a wealthy planter and amateur musician. In 1784 he published his 'Six Trios Concertants Pour deux Violons et Basse' and in 1786 his 'Duo concertant pour le clavecin ou le forte-piano et violoncelle', both in Paris. Around 1795, and after the Haitian Revolution stripped his fortune out, he fled to the United States. From 1796 he was active at the Federal Street Theatre in Boston as a violinist and orchestra leader. He relocated to Charleston, South Carolina by December 1799, when he advertised there to teach singing, piano, violin, cello, and fencing. For the remainder of his life, he was an active concert performer, theater musician and music teacher in Charleston.

HOFFMEISTER, Franz Anton (1754-1812) - Concerto pour le pianoforté

Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812) - Concerto (D-Dur) pour le clavecin, ou pianoforté, avec deux violons, deux hautbois, deux cors, alto et basse ... œuvre 24 (1789)

Performers: Wilhelm Neuhaus (piano); Cologne Chamber Orchestra; Helmut Muller-Bruhl (1933-2012, conductor)

Painting: Christian Ludwig Seehas (1753-1802) - Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1784)

Further info: Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812) - Klarinettenkonzert B-Dur, Nr.2 (c.1780)

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Franz Anton Hoffmeister

(Rothenburg am Neckar, 12 May 1754 - Vienna, 9 February 1812)

German composer and music publisher. He attended the University of Vienna in law beginning in 1768, but shortly thereafter he decided to pursue a career in music. In 1783 he began to publish his own music, and by 1785 he had established a firm in Vienna to compete with Artaria. Well educated, erudite, and congenial, he was a welcomed guest in intellectual circles in the Austrian capital for the next several decades, while his publishing business thrived with a branch in Linz and collaborations with others such as Bösseler in Speyer. After 1790 he began to devote himself more to his music, and in 1799 he undertook a concert tour as a keyboardist to Germany and France. In Leipzig he formed a partnership with Ambrosius Kühnel, which became one of the early progenitors of the firm of C. F. Peters. The international success of particularly his Singspiel Der Königssohn aus Ithaka made it possible for him to divest himself from his businesses by 1805. As a composer, he concentrated mostly upon instrumental works, since these were the most publishable and salable music. He was extraordinarily prolific and many of his Viennese works were also popular in foreign cities: by 1803 his most successful opera, 'Der Königssohn aus Ithaka' (Vienna, 1795), had been performed in Budapest, Hamburg, Prague, Temesvár (now Timişoara), Warsaw and Weimar; his numerous chamber works were published in Amsterdam, London, Paris and Venice, as well as throughout German-speaking regions. Although his symphonies were admired for their flowing melodies and his pedagogical works for being both pleasant and instructive, his style is generally lacking in originality and depth. His works include nine Singspiels, two cantatas/oratorios, an offertory, 66 symphonies, 11 serenades, 54 sets of dances, 59 concertos (25 for fortepiano, 14 for flute, and 20 for other instruments, including five sinfonia concertantes), 30 quintets (string, flute, and other), 57 string quartets, 46 flute quartets, nine piano quartets, 18 string trios, 12 flute trios, 76 string duets, 130 flute duets, 50 violin sonatas, five flute and viola sonatas, 26 piano sonatas, and numerous other pieces for winds and keyboard. 

VORISEK, Jan Václav (1791-1825) - Missa solemnis (c.1820)

Jan Václav Voříšek (1791-1825) - Missa solemnis (c.1820)

Performers: Patrice Michaels (soprano); Tami Jantzi (mezzo-soprano); William Watson (tenor); Peter Van De Graaff (bass); Prague Chamber Chorus; Czech National Symphony Orchestra; Paul Freeman (1936-2015, conductor)

Painting: Johann Peter Krafft (1780-1856) - Engelssturz (c.1831)

Further info: Voříšek - Symphony in D & Mass in B-Flat

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Jan Václav (Johann Hugo) Voříšek [Worzischek]

(Vamberk, 11 May 1791 - Vienna, 19 November 1825)

Bohemian composer, pianist and organist. He was the youngest son of Václav František Voříšek (1749-1815) who taught him the piano and singing. He later studied the organ and the violin and began to compose. As a child prodigy, he started to perform publicly in Bohemian towns at the age of nine. After settled in Prague, he studied at a grammar school and later he went on at the Prague University. At the same time, he took piano and composition lessons from Václav Tomášek. In 1813 he moved to Vienna to study law at the university as well as music under Johann Nepomuk Hummel. In Vienna he personally met Ludwig van Beethoven (1814) and many other important personalities of European musical life; among others Franz Schubert, with whom they became good friends. He finished his law studies only in 1821 and for a short time made his living as a clerk; at the same time he composed, conducted and taught piano. In 1824 he was appointed the first court organist in Vienna. At that time, however, he suffered from tuberculosis; his treatment in Graz did not help and he died in his age of 34. As a composer, he mainly wrote piano works; he started in the classical style but soon romantic elements predominated. He also composed, among others, a Symphony (1821), several chamber works and a Solemn Mass. Although he was born in Bohemia, Voříšek's music bears hardly a trace of what was later considered to be Czech national style. Well versed in Viennese classicism, he was among the last of the many Bohemian émigrés of his time to compose in the internationalized late-Classical style associated with Vienna. Voříšek's music provides a remarkably accurate picture of the musical trends prevalent in Biedermeier Vienna, especially during the decade 1815-1825. His brother František Voříšek (1785-1843), a priest, was also a musician, and the two daughters, Eleonora Voříšek and Anna Voříšek, were pianists. 

LECLAIR, Jean-Marie (1697-1764) - Concerto a tre violini, alto e basso (1737)

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764) - Concerto (I, Re mineur) a tre violini, alto e basso per organo e violoncello ... oeuvre VIIe (1737)

Performers: Orchestre de chambre de Rouen; Albert Bеaucamp (1921-1967, conductor)

Painting: Jean-Baptiste Pater (1695-1736) - Pastoral Festivity (c.1730)

Further info: Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764) - Concertos Op.7 & Op.10

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Jean-Marie Leclair (l’aîné) [Claire, Le Clair, Le Clerc]

(Lyons, 10 May 1697 - Paris, 22 October 1764)

French composer, violinist and dancer. His father was the master lacemaker and cellist Antoine Leclair. He studied violin, dancing, and lacemaking in his youth, excelling in all three. He then began his career as a dancer at the Lyons Opera, where he met Marie-Rose Casthagnie; they were married in 1716. About 1722 he went to Turin, where he was active as a ballet master. During a visit to Paris in 1723 to arrange for the publication of his op.1, a distinguished set of sonatas, he acquired a wealthy patron in Joseph Bonnier. Returning to Turin, he wrote ballets for the Teatro Regio Ducale and also received instruction from Giovanni Battista Somis. He then made a series of appearances at the Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1728. He also visited London, and then made a great impression when he played at the Kassel court with Pietro Locatelli. He subsequently received additional instruction from Andre Cheron in Paris. After the death of his first wife, he married Louise Roussel (1700-c.1774) in 1730; she engraved all of his works from op.2 forward. From 1733 to 1737 he served as 'ordinaire de la musique du roi' to Louis XV. He then entered the service of Princess Anne at the Orange court in the Netherlands in 1738, and was honored with the Croix Neerlandaise du Lion. He was active three months of the year at the court, and, from 1740, spent the remaining months as maestro di cappella to the commoner François du Liz at The Hague. He returned to Paris in 1743. With the exception of a brief period of service with the Spanish Prince Don Philippe in Chamhery in 1744, he remained in Paris for the rest of his life. From 1748 until his death, he was music director and composer to his former student, the Duke of Gramont, who maintained a private theater in the Parisian suburb of Puteaux. He separated from his wife about 1758. He was murdered as he was entering his home. The Paris police report listed three suspects: His gardener (who discovered his body), his estranged wife, and his nephew, the violinist Guillaume-François Vial, with whom he was on poor terms. The evidence clearly pointed to the nephew, but he was never charged with the deed. As a violinist, he was the founder of the French violin school. He was also a distinguished composer who successfully combined the finest elements of the Italian and French styles of his day. His brothers Jean-Marie Leclair [le cadet] (1703-1777), Pierre Leclair (1709-1784) and Jean-Benoît Leclair (1714-c.1759) were also violinists and composers.

LINLEY, Thomas (1756-1778) - The Tempest (1777)

Thomas Linley (1756-1778) - The Tempest (1777)

Performers: Julia Gοοding (soprano); The Pаrley of Instruments Baroque Choir & Orchestra; Paul Nichοlsοn (conductor)

Painting: Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) - Thomas Linley the younger

Further info: Thomas Linley (1756-1778) - Cantatas & Theatre Music

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Thomas Linley [the younger]

(Bath, 7 May 1756 - Grimsthorpe, 5 August 1778)

English composer and violinist. Son of the composer Thomas Linley (1733-1795), he was known as a child prodigy, performing a concerto on the violin at the Bath concerts in 1763 at age 7. Thereafter he was sent to London to study under William Boyce, and in 1768 he went to Italy to study under Pietro Nardini. He met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart there in April 1770 and Charles Burney in September of the same year. He returned to England in 1771 and became a regular performer in concerts in Bath and London. He was leader at Drury Lane from 1773 to 1778 and often played concertos between the acts of oratorios. His tragic early death in a boating accident while on holiday with his family at Grimsthorpe Castle was one of the greatest losses that English music has suffered. As a composer, his music includes three operas, three anthems/odes (including one on Shakespeare), 20 songs, 20 violin concertos (most lost), and several smaller works. He was one of the most precocious composers and performers that have been known in England. The famous painter Thomas Gainsborough painted Linley’s portrait three times. His sisters Elizabeth Ann Linley (1754-1792) and Mary Linley (1758-1787) were both sopranos, and his brothers William Linley (1771-1835) and Ozias Thurston Linley (1765-1831) were musicians and composers.

GRAUN, Carl Heinrich (1704-1759) - Ouverture 'Cesare e Cleopatra' (1742)

Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759) - Ouverture 'Cesare e Cleopatra' (1742)

Performers: Orfеus Barock; Francesco Cοrtі (conductor)

Painting: Antoine Pesne (1683-1757) - Carl Heinrich Graun with his wife Anna Luise

Further info: Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759) - Sinfonia in C

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Carl (Karl, Carolus, Carlo) Heinrich Graun [Braun, Craun, Grann, Grau, Graue, Grauen]

(Wahrenbrück, 7 May 1704 - Berlin, 8 August 1759)

German composer and singer. Born into a family of musicians, his brothers August Friedrich Graun (c.1698-1765) and Johann Gottlieb Graun (1702-1771) were also musicians and composers. Carl Heinrich Graun was educated at the Kreuzschule in Dresden in 1714, where he composed his earliest works, sacred compositions, under the tutelage of Johann Zacharias Grundig. In 1718 he matriculated at Leipzig University, where he continued his musical studies with Emanuel Benisch, Johann Christoph Schmidt and Christian Pezold. In 1725 he was employed in Braunschweig as a tenor, and it was there that he composed his earliest opera 'Polydorus'. Further successes led to his coming to the attention of Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, into whose musical establishment at the court in Rheinsburg he was admitted in 1735. He remained at the Prussian court after it moved to Berlin when the crown prince became Frederick II, and in 1742 he was appointed Kapellmeister at the opera. Along with colleagues Johann Joachim Quantz, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Franz Benda, as well as his brother Johann Gottlieb Graun, he was part of the inner intellectual artistic circle that formed around the king, and during the last decade of his life he was known, along with Johann Adolph Hasse, as one of the chief opera seria composers of the period. His inaugural opera for Berlin, 'Cesare e Cleopatre' (1742), can be considered a seminal work in the composition of the Italian opera in German, and his 'Montezuma' (1755), to a text by Frederick II, explores an exotic subject unusual for the period. The same year he collaborated with poet Carl Ramler in writing a new type of Passion titled 'Der Tod Jesu', which only a few years later Johann Adam Hiller stated was an indispensible piece for any music library. It remained the quintessential German Easter oratorio on into the 19th century. The scope of Graun’s compositions has yet to be determined, given that many compositions, particularly chamber works, bear only his last name. This leads to inevitable confusion with his brothers’ works, and there remain issues of proper attribution. He did, however, write 32 operas (mostly opera seria), six Easter oratorios/cantatas, a Te Deum, six cantatas, seven Masses, 15 German sacred cantatas, 32 songs, three symphonies, seven concertos for keyboard, 25 trios (mainly two violins or flutes and basso), and numerous smaller works. The music has been cataloged by Christoph Hewel and is known by GraunWV numbers, further specified as CHG in the catalog itself. 

MARTINES, Marianne (1744-1812) - Missa solemnis (1765)

Marianne Martines (1744-1812) - Missa solemnis in D-Dur (1765)

Performers: Katharina Spiеlmann (soprano); Nina Amοn (mezzosoprano); Felix Riеnth (tenor); Michael Krеis (bass); Chorgemeinschaft Kirchdοrf; Peter Lοοsli (conductor)

Painting: Anoniem - Angel playing music

Further info: Marianne Martines (1744-1812) - Concerto da Cimbalo (c.1771)

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Marianne (Maria Anna Katharina) von Martines [Martinez]

(Vienna, 4 May 1744 - Vienna, 13 December 1812)

Austrian composer, singer and keyboardist. She was the daughter of a Neapolitan who had come to Vienna as ‘gentiluomo’ to the papal nuncio. She spent her childhood under the educational guidance of Pietro Metastasio, a friend of the family who lived in the same house; she was taught singing, the piano and composition by Nicola Porpora and Jospeh Haydn, who were also living there, by Giuseppe Bonno and possibly by J.A. Hasse. As a child she had attracted attention at court with her beautiful voice and her keyboard playing, and in 1761 a mass by her was performed in the court church. She acknowledged in 1773, when she became an honorary member of the Bologna Accademia Filarmonica, that as a composer she took as her principal models Hasse, Jommelli and Galuppi. Not only did she possess a thorough understanding of imitation and fugue, but she also knew how to set words in the Baroque manner. Her predilection for coloratura passages, leaps over wide intervals and trills indicate that she herself must have been an excellent singer. In 1772 Burney praised her singing for all the typical virtues of the Italian school as well as for ‘touching expression’. Burney’s remark that her vocal works were ‘neither common, nor unnaturally new’ applies to her instrumental works as well. A typical composer of the early Classical period in Vienna, she wrote in the Italian style. Her works include four Masses, six motets, three litanies, numerous Psalms and other sacred works, two oratorios, three keyboard sonatas, a keyboard concerto, and a symphony, as well as songs. 

DELLER, Florian Johann (1729-1773) - Suite 'Orfeo Ed Euridice' (1763)

Florian Johann Deller (1729-1773) - Suite-Ballet 'Orfeo Ed Euridice' (1763)

Performers: Consortium Musicum; Walter Thoеnе (conductor)

Drawing: Johann Hieronymus Löschenkohl (1753-1807) - Sprievod bratislavských mäsiarov (1790)

Further info: Am Hofe Des Herzogs Karl Eugen Von Württemberg

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Florian Johann (Giovanni) Deller [Teller, Döller, Töller]

(Drosendorf, bap. 2 May 1729 - Munich, 19 April 1773)

Austrian composer and violinist. Little is known of his early education, save that it was at regional monastic schools. He first appears in 1751 as a violinist in Stuttgart, where he studied under Niccolò Jommelli. His first success as a composer was with a ballet 'Orfée et Euridice' (1763), choreographed by Jean-Georges Noverre. By 1769 he had achieved a success as an opera composer in Vienna with a production at the Burgtheater of 'Il maestro di cappella' (1773) and had been appointed concertmaster and Hofcompositeur in Stuttgart. He soon left and settled in Munich, where he is reputed to have received a commission from Maria Antonia Walpurgis to write a mass for Dresden. He died in Munich on his way back from further work in Vienna. As a composer, he was known as a facile composer particularly of ballet music, with a good solid sense of danceable rhythm. His music was generally in the Viennese Classical style with the addition of Italian orchestral recitative for the large pantomime scenes and folklike melodies. His works include 11 ballets, nine comic operas, four symphonies, six trio sonatas, two flute concertos, and numerous sacred compositions.

RODRIGUEZ, Felipe (1760-1815) - Sonata III (1801)

Felipe Rodríguez (1760-1815) - Sonata (III, en Si bemol mayor) from 'Quaderno de Sonatas para Organo Del Rdo. P. Fr. Felipe Rodríguez. Para uso de Fr. Francisco Moll Orgta. Año 1801'

Performers: Josep Maria Roger (fortepiano)

Painting: José del Castillo (1737-1793) - Un paseo a la orilla del Estanque del Retiro (1780)

Further info: Rodriguez - Obras Para Fortepiano

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Felipe Rodríguez

(Madrid, 1 May 1760 - Madrid, 5 May 1815)

Spanish organist and composer. His parents, Matías and Josefa, were born in the city of Corella, Navarre. As a boy he studied music in the Escolanía of Montserrat with Anselm Viola Valentí, and where Narcís Casanoves Bertrán held also the post of organist. He finished his stay there at the age of 17 years and on 13 February 1778 he took the monastic novice habit from the hands of Dídac Camino, president of the monastery, in the absence, surely, of Abbot Pere Viver (abbot during years 1777-1782). The following year he took his full monastic vows at Montserrat. Is not documented when he was transferred to the monastery of Montserrat of Madrid, where he cultivated his musical talents as organist (he was a very fine player) and composing a book of organ sonatas. It is interesting to note that his works were fairly well known in Catalonia, since there are different copies made outside Montserrat, and that they were well received. It is not certain whether he composed any vocal works for the escolanía.