Agostino Steffani (1654-1728)
- Dixit Dominus a 10
Performers: Neue Hofkapelle Munchen; Christoph Hammer (conductor)
Further info: Agostino Steffani - Musica Sacra
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Italian diplomat and composer. His musical career began as a soprano at
the church of Il Santo in Padua, and he sang in a Carnival opera of
Venice, probably Carlo Pallavicino’s 'Demetrio' in 1666. The Elector
Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria took him to Munich, where he studied with
Johann Caspar Kerll. He visited Rome in 1672 for more education and had
his first sacred music published. In July 1674, he was appointed court
organist in Munich. In 1678 and 1679, he visited Paris and heard a
tragédie lyrique of Jean-Baptiste Lully, and in January 1681, his first
opera, 'Marco Aurelio', was mounted in Munich. He made his first contact
with Hanover on a diplomatic mission and was appointed Kapellmeister by
Duke Ernst August in summer 1688. In the 1690s, he was occupied
increasingly by diplomatic work concerning the status of Hanover and the
War of the Spanish Succession. In 1703, he entered the service of
Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm, in Düsseldorf, and thereafter composed
very little music. He continued to take an interest, however, and was
even elected president of London’s Academy of Ancient Music on 1 June
1727. A composer who, as diplomat, helped to secure the elevation of the
city of Hanover to electorate status and, as churchman after his
ordination in 1680, rose to the rank of apostolic vicar for northern
Germany and also left a legacy of about 14 operas, 3 lighter stage
works, 10 psalm settings, a Stabat Mater (his greatest work in his own
estimation), a few instrumental works, and about 75 chamber cantatas for
two voices, almost all composed before 1702, the music for which he was
most famous in his time.
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