SCHNEIDER, Georg Abraham (1770-1839) - Concerto pour le Violon et Alto

Georg Abraham Schneider (1770-1839) - Concerto (D-Dur) | pour le | Violon et Alto | avec | accompagnement | de | deux Violons, Alto et Basso, deux Fluts, deux Obois | deux Cors et Fagotts, Op.19 (c.1820)

Performers: Hans Maile (violin); Stefano Passaggio (viola); RSO Berlin; Lucas Vis (conductor)

Painting: Eduard Gaertner (1801-1877) - Berlin Klosterstrasse (1830)

Further info: Concerto pour le Violon et Alto (c.1820)

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Georg Abraham Schneider

(Darmstadt, 19 April 1770 - Berlin, 19 January 1839)

German horn player, oboist and composer. He studied with Johann Wilhelm Magnold in Darmstadt, where he became a member of the court chapel in 1787. He later took courses in theory and composition with Johann Gottlieb Portmann. In 1795 he joined the Rheinsberg Court Orchestra, then settled in Berlin and became a member of the royal chapel in 1803. He founded a series of subscription concerts in 1807 and the 'Musikalische Ubungsakademie zur Bildung der Liebhaber' in 1818. He also was conductor of the Reval theater (1813-16). He was made music director of Berlin's royal theater in 1820 and then its Kapellmeister in 1825. He taught at the music school of the royal theater and at the Prussian Academy of Arts, retiring in 1838. As a composer, his style was entrusted to all the conventions of the late 18th Century. His daughter Maschinka Schneider (1815-1882) was a soprano married with the composer Franz Schubert (1808-1878). His son Louis Schneider (1805-1878) was a writer and actor, and privy councillor and tutor to Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

DURON, Sebastián (1660-1716) - Misa a cuatro coros

Sebastián Durón (1660-1716) - Misa 'a la moda francesa' a cuatro coros con violines y clarin

Performers: Laura Martínez Bοj (tiple); Brenda Sаra (tiple); Samuel Tаpia (alto); Sergio Aսnión (tenor);

Ilibеr ensemble; Cοro Tomás Luis de Victoria; Darío Tаmаyo (conductor)

Painting: Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665) - Sainte Cécile

Further info: Sebastián Durón (1660-1716) - Cuando Muere el Sol

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Sebastián Durón Picazo

(Brihuega, bap. 19 April 1660 - Cambó, 3 August 1716)

Spanish organist and composer. He was the son of the church sacristan of Brihuega, Sebastián Durón (1626-1668), and his second wife Margarita Picazo (1634-c.1685). After studying under Andrés de Sola in Zaragoza, he served as second organist at Seville Cathedral from 1680 to 1685, where he began composing liturgical music and took minor orders. Seeking better financial compensation, he subsequently held positions as first organist at the cathedrals of Burgo de Osma (1685) and Palencia (1686-1691). On 23 September 1691 he was appointed organist at the royal chapel in Madrid, under the principal organist José de Torres. In 1702 he became royal maestro de capilla and director of the royal choir school. His professional tenure in Madrid concluded in 1706 following his exile to France for political alignment with the Archduke of Austria during the War of the Spanish Succession. As a composer, his extensive output encompasses conservative Latin liturgical works, modern motets with orchestral accompaniment, and vernacular villancicos that integrated traditional Spanish Baroque elements with contemporary theatrical techniques. His legacy is defined by this stylistic synthesis and his role in advancing the expressive capabilities of Spanish vocal and instrumental music during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The composer Diego Durón de Ortega (1653-1731) was his half-brother. 

TOMASEK, Václav Jan (1774-1850) - Symfonie D-Dur (1807)

Václav Jan Tomášek (1774-1850) - Symfonie D-Dur (1807)

Performers: Dvοřák Chamber Orchestra; Vladimir Válеk (1935-2025, conductor)

Painting: Borrosch & André, 1841 - Hradschin, Kleinseite. Altstädter Brückenthurm. Ansicht von Südost (Praga)

Further info: Vranicky - Tomasek: Symphonies

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Václav (Wenzel, Venceslav) Jan (Johann, Jean) (Křtitel) Tomášek [Tomascheck, Tomaschek]

(Skuteč, 17 April 1774 - Prague, 3 April 1850)

Bohemian composer and teacher. The thirteenth child in the family of a weaver and burgher, Jakub Tomášek, he acquired the rudiments of music (in violin and singing) under the local choirmaster in Chrudim. At the age of twelve he became a vocalist at the Minorite monastery in Jihlava, where he also studied music theory and organ. In 1790 he left for Prague, where he completed gymnasium and went on to earn a degree in law. At university he also studied mathematics, history, and aesthetics. While still at gymnasium he conscientiously studied music on his own. Obtaining both new and old books on piano and composition, he continued to work diligently at his music, so that by 1796 he was already famous in Prague as a virtuoso of the piano. In 1806, with a number of successful compositions behind him, he was taken on as a music teacher and composer by Count Georg Franz Buquoy. Tomášek was thus financially secure for the next sixteen years, and was able to concentrate on his music. The position, on the other hand, also had its disadvantages, for had he been forced to make a living as a touring virtuoso, say, he would undoubtedly have met with a number of inspirations. In 1824, he founded his own conservatory in Prague, and successfully competed in piano and composition instruction with the established Prague conservatories and organ schools. Among his important pupils were Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek, Josef Dessauer, and Alexander Dreyschock. As a composer, he wrote in all forms, from song to chamber and orchestral works, choral music, cantata, opera, and church music. He started from the Viennese Classicism, but was influenced by early Romanticism as well. This is most evident in his songs and in particular his piano compositions. He was the dominant musical figure in Prague during the first half of the 19th century. His influence was spread throughout Europe by his many students and through his many widely distributed songs and his piano music.

VOCET, Jan Nepomuk Václav (1777-1843) - Koncert pro klarinet

Jan Nepomuk Václav Vocet (1777-1843) - Koncert pro klarinet in Es-Dur

Performers: Emil Drápela (clarinet); Státní filharmonie Brno; Tomáš Hanus (conductor)

Painting: Johann Adam Klein (1792-1875) - Jahrmarkt in Berchtesgaden

Further info: Sólo pro klarinet: Emil Drápela - česká hudba 18. století

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Jan (Johann, Giovanni) Nepomuk Václav Vocet [Vozet, Wozet, Wocet, Wozetisso]

(Tetín, 14 April 1777 - České Budějovice, 28 January 1843)

Bohemian organist and composer. He emerged from a family steeped in musical tradition. In 1799 he married Veronika Hájková, with whom he had six children, in Mirotice, a city where he worked briefly as regens chori. In 1801 he was appointed as choir director at St. Nicholas Cathedral in České Budějovice in a post he held the rest of his life. He nurtured local musical talent by forming an amateur ensemble that would eventually become the city's premier musical group. This ensemble played a vital role in civic life, performing at important ceremonies, including those in the historic Good City. On 17 April 1819 he married for a second time Jana Nepomucena Laubová, with whom he had three children, and on 29 August 1837 he married for a third time Rosalia Zátková. As a composer, his huge output of over 1900 works, primarily sacred, includes twenty-four masses, numerous arias, litanies, and graduals, showcasing his mastery of liturgical music in the tradition of classical style. He also composed dance music.

BENNET, William Sterndale (1816-1875) - Symphony in g (1835)

William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) - Symphony (No.5) in g (1835)

Performers: Milton Keynes Chamber Orchestra; Hilary Davan Wetton (conductor)

Painting: James Webb (1825-1895) - St Paul's from the River Thames (1875)

Further info: Piano Concerto In F Minor - Symphony In G Minor

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William Sterndale Bennett [Bennet]

(Sheffield, 13 April 1816 - London, 1 February 1875)

English composer. His father, Robert Bennett (1788-1819), an organist, and his mother, Elizabeth Donn (1791-1818), died when he was a child, and he was then placed in the care of his grandfather, John Bennett (1754-1837), who was also a musician. At the age of eight he was admitted to the choir of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and at ten he became a pupil at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied theory with Charles Lucas and piano with William Henry Holmes, and played violin in the academy orchestra under Cipriani Potter. He later studied music theory there with William Crotch. Soon he began to compose; he was 16 years old when he was the soloist in the first performance of his Piano Concerto No.1 in Cambridge on 28 November 1832. In 1836 he made an extensive visit to Leipzig, where he became a close friend of Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann; also appeared as a pianist and conductor of his own works with the Gewandhaus Orchestra there. He continued to compose industriously, and played his Piano Concerto No.4 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig on 17 January 1839. He visited Germany again in 1841-42. From 1843 to 1856 he gave a series of chamber music concerts in London; in 1849 he founded the Bach Society. From 1856 to 1866 he conducted the Philharmonic Society of London; concurrently he held the post of professor of music at the University of Cambridge; in 1866 he assumed the position of principal of the Royal Academy of Music. His reputation as a composer grew. He amassed honors: in 1856 he received the honorary degree of D.Mus. from the University of Cambridge, which also conferred on him the degree of M.A. in 1867; he received the degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford in 1870; in a culmination of these honors, he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1871. The final honor was his burial in Westminster Abbey. He ranks as the most distinguished English composer of the Romantic school. 

DANZI, Franz Ignaz (1763-1826) - Lateinische Vesper-Psalmen

Franz Ignaz Danzi (1763-1826) - Lateinische | Vesper=Psalmen | für | Sopran, Alt, Tenor und Bass

| II Violinen, Viola und Orgel | II Trompetten u. Paucken ad Lib.

Performers: Erika Rüggeberg (1940-2018, soprano); Julia Falk (alto); Albert Gassner (tenor); Carlo Schmid (bass); Chor der Herz-Jesukirche München; Convivium Musicum München; Josef Schmidhuber (1924-1990, conductor)

Painting: Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (1712-1774) - Verkündigung an die Hirten

Further info: Johann Kaspar Aiblinger: Missa Advocata nostra

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Franz (Ignaz) Danzi

(Schwetzingen, bap. 15 June 1763 - Karlsruhe, 13 April 1826)

German composer and cellist. Son of Mannheim orchestra cellist Innocenz Danzi (c.1730-1798), he received his earliest musical education in Mannheim from members of the Kapelle, as well as Abbé Georg Joseph Vogler. At the age of 15 he was appointed to the orchestra, but a few years later he remained behind in Mannheim when the majority moved to Munich. His earliest successes as a composer of works for the stage occurred there, but in 1784 he was named his father’s successor as principal cellist in Munich. In 1791 he undertook tours throughout Germany as a conductor, including with the Guardasoni troupe. The death of Carl Theodor in 1799 had a greater impact on Danzi’s career: the new elector, Maximilian IV Joseph, was less sympathetic to German opera and imposed financial restrictions on the theatres. Further, Danzi faced opposition from rivals, including the new intendant Joseph Marius Babo and the Kapellmeister Peter Winter. When his serious German opera 'Iphigenie in Aulis' was finally given in 1807, it was poorly prepared and had only two performances; bitter and disappointed, Danzi left Munich for Stuttgart. In October 1807, the King of Württemberg offered Danzi the position of Kapellmeister at Stuttgart, where Zumsteeg had been active. There Danzi met Carl Maria von Weber and encouraged the younger composer as he completed his Singspiel 'Silvana'. Here he formed a fast friendship with Carl Maria von Weber. In 1812 he moved to Karlsruhe, where he spent the remainder of his life. An active composer, he wrote 16 operas; incidental music to 25 plays; eight Masses; 87 chamber works, among which several dozen woodwind quintets were popular throughout Europe; five symphonies; six sinfonia concertantes; concertos for the bassoon, horn, flute, and violoncello; as well as a large number of other sacred works, songs, and smaller instrumental pieces. He was also active as a librettist. His style, though conservative, is characterized by inventive use of orchestral color, particularly with respect to the wind and brass instruments.

CORRETTE, Michel (1707-1795) - Concerto per organo obligati

Michel Corrette (1707-1795) - Concerto des 'VI Concerti a sei strumenti, cimbalo o organo obligati,

tre violini, flauto, alto viola e violoncello ... opera XXVI'

Performers: Francois-Henri Houbart (organ); Orchestre Bernard Thomas; Bernard Thomas (conductor)

Drawing: Edward Francis Burney (1760-1848) - Heavenly Orchestra

Further info: Les Six Concertos Pour Orgue

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Michel Corrette [Corette]

(Rouen, 10 April 1707 - Paris, 21 January 1795)

French organist, teacher, and composer. Son of Gaspard Corrette (1671-1732), he probably received music lessons from his father. Though little is known of his early life. He was married on 8 January 1733 to Marie-Catherine Morize. They had a daughter Marie-Anne Corrette (1734-c.1822) and a son Pierre-Michel Corrette (1744-1801), who became an organist. Michel Corrette first established his reputation by becoming musical director of the Foire St Germain and the Foire St Laurent, where he arranged and composed vaudevilles and divertissements for the opéras comiques (1732-39). From 1737 until its closure in 1790 he was organist at Ste Marie within the temple of the grand prieur of France, thus serving the Chevalier d’Orléans, then the Prince de Conti (1749), and finally the Duke d’Angoulême (1776). About a year after beginning at the temple, he became organist at the Jesuit College in the rue St-Antoine, a position he retained until the Jesuits were expelled in 1762. In 1734 he was styled Grand maître des Chevaliers du Pivois, from 1750 Chevalier de l’Ordre de Christ. He was a prolific composer, producing concertos for harpsichord, organ, flute, and hurdy-gurdy, sonatas, organ works, and a large output of sacred music. He also prepared 17 methods on performing practice, 6 of which are lost.

TARTINI, Giuseppe (1692-1770) - Concertino con Flauto solo

Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) - Concertino (Fa maggiore) con Flauto solo | Violini Obligati

Performers: Ensemble Baroque Le Rondeau; Jean-Pierre Boullet (flute & conductor)

Painting: Jan Josef Horemans (1682-1752) - Company in the garden

Further info: Un Accademia a Napoli Nell' Anno 1725

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Giuseppe (Giuzeppe) Tartini

(Pirano, [now Piran, Slovenia], 8 April 1692 - Padua, 26 February 1770)

Italian composer, violinist, teacher and theorist. Son of Giovanni Antonio Tartini and Caterina Zangrando, his parents desired that he enter the church, but while a law student at the University of Padua, he married Elisabetta Premazore on 29 July 1710. Compelled to leave Padua, he took refuge for three years in the convent of San Francesco d’Assisi, where he studied the violin without a teacher. By 1714, he was a violinist in the Ancona opera and spent the next years playing at various theaters in northeastern Italy. On 16 April 1721, he was appointed 'primo violino e capo di concerto' at San Antonio of Padua. From 1723 to 1726, he was in Prague, in service to the Kinsky family, where he met Johann Joseph Fux, Antonio Caldara, and Sylvius Weiss, among other luminaries. Then he returned to Padua, started his school, and about 1730, brought out his first published volume of violin works. About 1740, he suffered a stroke that adversely affected his playing, and he devoted more and more time to music theory in his last years. In an age when composing for the church or the theater was the sure path to success, he refused to do either and embarked upon an idiosyncratic career establishing an international reputation as violinist and philosopher of music, writing five treatises contesting the ideas of Giovanni Battista Martini, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, among others, and leaving an oeuvre concentrated on the violin: about 135 solo violin concertos, about 135 violin sonatas with continuo, 30 unaccompanied sonatas, and about 40 trio sonatas. He also composed 2 flute concertos, 2 concertos for viola da gamba, 4 motets, and 20 Italian sacred songs. Most of his living was made as a freelance violinist. In the late 1720s, he founded his own school of violin playing, the first of its type, known as 'school of the nations' because it attracted students from all over Europe.

DESTOUCHES, André Cardinal (1672-1749) - Suite 'Issé' (1697)

André Cardinal Destouches (1672-1749) - Suite des 'Issé , pastorale heroique,

représentée devant Sa Majesté, à Trianon, le 17. de decembre 1697'

Performers: English Chamber Orchestra; Raymond Leppard (1927-2019, conductor)

Painting: François Boucher (1703-1770) - Arion on the Dolphin (1748)

Further info: Scylla Et Glaucus - Suite / Issé - Suite

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André Cardinal Destouches [Des Touches, Déstouches]

(Paris, bap. 6 April 1672 - Paris, 7 February 1749)

French composer. Son of Etienne Cardinal, Seigneur des Touches et de Guilleville and a wealthy Parisian merchant, did not take the patronym Destouches until his father's death in 1694. From 1681 to 1686 he was schooled by the Jesuits of the rue St-Jacques. He later went as a boy to Siam (now Thailand) with his teacher, the missionary Gui Tachard (1686). He returned to France in 1688. He served in the Royal Musketeers (1692-94), and later took lessons from Andre Campra, contributing 3 airs to André Campra's opera-ballet 'L'Europe galante' (1697). After this initiation, he produced his first independent work, 'Isse, a heroic pastorale' in 3 acts (1697); its popularity was parodied in several productions of a similar pastoral nature ('Les Amours de Vincennes' by P.F. Dominique, 1719; 'Les Oracles' by Jean-Antoine Romagnesi, 1741). Among his other operas, the following were produced in Paris: 'Amadis de Grece' (1699), 'Omphale' (1701), and 'Callirhoé' (1712). With Michel-Richard de Lalande, he wrote the ballet 'Les Elements', which was produced at the Tuileries Palace in Paris on 22 December 1721. In 1713 Louis XIV appointed him 'Inspector general' of the Academic Royale de Musique. In 1728 he became its director, retiring in 1730. For 'maintaining order and discipline' he received a 4000 livre pension. A revival of 'Omphale' in 1752 evoked Baron Grimm's famous 'Lettre sur Omphale', inaugurating the so-called 'Guerre des Bouffons' between the proponents of the French school, as exemplified by Destouches, and Italian opera buffa. André Cardinal Destouches remained active musically even in his last years. At 70, he conducted the orchestra for a masked ball given by the daughters of Louis XV, and he kept control of the queen's concerts until 1745. He died in his elegant home (today, 4 rue Saint-Roch next to the church of Saint Roch), and was buried in the crypt of the Chapel of the Virgin in that church.

SCHEIBE, Johann Adolph (1708-1776) - Passions Cantata (1769)

Johann Adolph Scheibe (1708-1776) - Passions Cantata (1769)

Performers: Bonna Søndberg (soprano); Ole Hedegård (tenor); Ulrik Cold (1939-2010, bass);

The Royal Opera Choir; Collegium Musicum; Lavard Friisholm (1912-1999, conductor)

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

Further info: Passions-Cantata

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Johann Adolph (Adolf) Scheibe detto 'Misogyn' [Scheiben, Scheiber]

(Leipzig, 5 May 1708 - Copenhagen, 22 April 1776)

German composer, theorist, and organist. Son of Johann Scheibe (c.1680-1748), an organ builder, he was forced to teach himself music around 1725 due to economic difficulties, at the same time as he was attending Leipzig University in law and philosophy. By 1736 he had moved to Hamburg when applications for posts in Leipzig proved unsuccessful, coming into contact with Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Mattheson. During this period he published three volumes of his most important treatise on music, 'Der critische Musicus'. In 1739 he had obtained a post as Kapellmeister to Margrave Friedrich Ernst of Brandenburg-Kulmbach in the town of Itzehoe, and through his connections a year later he was appointed to the same post at the Danish court of Christian VI in Copenhagen. When the king’s successor reopened the Royal Theatre, he came into conflict with Paolo Scalabrini over the viability of Italian opera, moving to the city of Sønderborg to teach music. He later returned to Copenhagen, where he was celebrated as a teacher and theorist. In 1740 he published an autobiography in a work by Mattheson, claiming that he had written over 150 flute concertos, 30 violin concertos, and 60 to 70 symphonies, none of which are verifiable. His extant works include 13 concertos, 15 symphonies, three woodwind quartets, five trio sonatas, 10 violin sonatas, 14 keyboard sonatas, several Masses, two Magnificats, six Lutheran cantatas, five Passions, eight secular cantatas, and numerous songs. His music reflects galant North German styles, while his sonatas and keyboard pieces are firmly rooted in the Baroque. As a theorist, he published no fewer than nine works, ranging from composition to proposed German opera (1742), for which he gained a reputation as a rationalist.

WITT, Christian Friedrich (1665-1717) - Sonates a piu stromenti (c.1695)

Christian Friedrich Witt (1665-1717) - Sonates a piu stromenti (c.1695)

Performers: Kentucky Baroque Trumpets

Painting: Alessandro Albini (1568-1646) - Putti musicanti

Further info: Music for Trumpets

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Christian Friedrich (Wilhelm) Witt [Witte]

(Altenburg, c.1660 - Gotha, 3 April 1717)

German composer, organist and teacher. Son of the court organist Johann Ernst Witt, he received music lessons from his father. After receiveng a scholarship, he went to Vienna and Salzburg, and then from 1685-1686 he studied composition and counterpoint with Georg Caspar Wecker in Nuremberg. On 1 June 1686 he was appointed chamber organist at the Gotha court. In 1688 he was again sent to study with Wecker. In 1694 he was appointed substitute for the Kapellmeister, Wolfgang Michael Mylius, and he succeeded him after his death, in 1713. He was well thought of as a teacher, not only within the Dukedom of Gotha; the future Duke Friedrich II was among his pupils. He was also admired as an able keyboard player and Kapellmeister. He enjoyed good relations with neighbouring courts, including those of Ansbach-Bayreuth, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Saxe-Weissenfels, and several works by him are listed in inventories from there. He was a versatile composer of both vocal and instrumental music. His vocal music consists largely of church cantatas, among them his 'Psalmodia sacra' praised as one of the most important hymnals of the early 18th Century. His instrumental music includes both ‘ouvertures’ (or suites) in the French style and italianate, concerto-like sonatas, and varied keyboard works, many of them now lost.

CERVERA, Francisco Vicente (c.1690-1749) - Lamentación sola con violines

Francisco Vicente Cervera (c.1690-1749) - Lamentación sola con violines

Performers: Capella de Ministrеrs; Carles Mаgrаner (conductor)

Painting: Giuseppe Vermiglio (1585-1635) - The Entombment of Christ

Further info: Musica barroca Valenciana

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Francisco Vicente Cervera

(Mora de Rubielos, c.1690 - Valencia, 30 May 1749)

Spanish presbyter, organist, and composer. Likely educated at the Collegiate Church of Mora de Rubielos and the Cathedral of Tortosa, he began his professional career as the organist of Huesca Cathedral after winning a competitive examination. In 1712, he secured the position of organist at the Real Colegio del Corpus Christi in Valencia, succeeding Juan Bautista Cabanilles after a formal competition against Francisco Sarrió and Melchor Martínez. He held this post until his death in 1749, also serving as interim maestro de capilla between 1743 and 1744. Cervera was instrumental in the pedagogical training of his successor, Miguel Narro. His compositional output includes polyphonic masses for 8 and 12 voices, psalms, and various sacred works in both Latin and the vernacular. These manuscripts are preserved in several Spanish and South American cathedrals, most notably an oratorio dedicated to Saint Rose of Lima held at Sucre Cathedral (Bolivia), which serves as a significant primary source for the study of Spanish liturgical music dissemination in colonial territories.