DE NEBRA, José (1702-1768) - Sinfonía Octava

José de Nebra (1702-1768) - Sinfonía Octava en Do mayor

Performers: Los Elementos

Painting: Circle of Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743) - A fête champetre

Further info: Jose de Nebra (1702-1768) - Arias

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José (Melchor) de Nebra (Blasco)

(Calatayud, bap. 6 January 1702 - Madrid, 11 July 1768)

Spanish composer and organist. Born to a family of musicians, he began his musical training under his father José Antonio Nebra (1672-1748), who had settled in Cuenca as cathedral organist and teacher of the choirboys (1711-1729) and later became maestro de capilla (1729-1748). In 1719 José de Nebra became organist at the convent of Descalzas. In 1722 he served in the Osuna household as a musician, and in 1724 he was appointed as one of the organists of the royal chapel in Madrid. By 1751 he had become vice-maestro and a teacher at the Colegio de niños cantores, later serving at the Jeronimos convent as organist. His students include Antonio Soler. Nebra’s focus as a composer was on native Spanish stage works, including the autos sacramentales, zarzuelas, and comedias. His music includes 21 autos sacramentales, 51 theatre works, 40 villancicos, 10 versos, 16 keyboard sonatas, two Masses, 18 Lamentations, four vespers, 16 Salve Reginas, a Requiem, 23 Psalms, 22 hymns, 21 responsories, toccatas, and a number of smaller sacred works. His two brothers were also musicians: Francisco Javier Nebra (1705-1741) was organist at La Seo, Zaragoza (1727-1729) and then in Cuenca (1729-1741), and Joaquín Nebra (1709-1782) was organist at La Seo, Zaragoza, from 1730 until his death. His nephew Manuel de Nebra Blasco (1750-1784) was an organist and composer.

LEDESMA, Nicolás (1791-1883) - Stabat Mater (1837)

Nicolás Ledesma (1791-1883) - Stabat Mater (1837)

Performers: Paloma Pérez Iñigo (soprano); J. Mecharri (tenor); R. Salaberria (bass);

Orquesta del Festival Internacional de LOIOLA; Javier Bello-Portu (1920-2004, conductor)

Painting: Henri Lehmann (1814-1882) - Miraculous transport of the body of St.Catherine (1839)

Further info: Nicolás Ledesma – Stabat Mater

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Nicolás Ledesma

(Grisel, 9 July 1791 - Bilbao, 4 January 1883)

Spanish composer. He was a choirboy at Tarazona Cathedral, where he was taught music by Francisco Javier Gibert and José Angel Martinchique. He later moved to Zaragoza, where he studied the organ with Ramón Ferreñac. From an early age he was organist and choirmaster in various collegiate churches: Borja (1807), Tafalla (1809), Calatayud (where he is known to have been about 1824) and finally Bilbao (1830), where he remained until his death. He was a prolific composer of masses, Lamentations, motets and villancicos. Although his music reflects the bombastic and theatrical tendencies of his age, he had a sound technique and a certain nobility of invention. He was also active with Hilarión Eslava in efforts to renew and purify religious music.

RUST, Friedrich Wilhelm (1739-1796) - Sonate in Fis moll (1784)

Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739-1796) - Clavier=Sonate in | Fis moll | componirt | 1784

Performers: Seth Carlin (1945-2016, pianoforte)

Drawing: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Kurfürst Maximilian Joseph von Pfalz-Bayern mit seiner Familie (1799)

Further info: Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739-1796) - Sonaten für Viola d'Amore D-Dur

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Friedrich (Federico) Wilhelm Rust

(Wörlitz, 6 July 1739 - Dessau, 28 February 1796)

German composer. As a small child he learnt to play the violin, encouraged by his elder brother Johann Ludwig Anton, who was himself considered an excellent violinist. He also learnt the piano, and according to his own account in his autobiography (1775) could play the first part of J.S. Bach’s Das wohltemperirte Clavier from memory when he was 16. After his father’s death in 1751 he lived with his mother and eldest brother in Gröbzig until 1755. A copy that he made of the trio sonata from Bach’s Musical Offering dates from this period; it is now considered lost. He then attended the Lutheran Gymnasium in Cöthen, 1755-58. From 1758 he studied law at Halle-Wittenberg University; he also had lessons with W.F. Bach and in return deputized for him as a church organist. Soon after Rust had completed his studies there, Prince Leopold Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau sent him to Zerbst to study with Carl Höckh, and then to Berlin and Potsdam (July 1763-April 1764) to study the violin with Franz Benda and keyboard instruments with C.P.E. Bach. In 1765-66 he visited Italy in the prince’s retinue, and there completed his musical training. He then settled in Dessau, where a lively court and civic musical life soon developed under his influence, and he wrote most of his compositions for it. From 1769 he organized regular subscription concerts, with music performed by both court musicians and amateurs, and in 1775 a theatre was founded, a project for which Rust was largely responsible. His achievements were recognized in April 1775, when the prince made him court music director. He married his former singing pupil Henriette Niedhardt in May; the couple had eight children, two of whom became professional musicians. In his lifetime Rust was honoured and esteemed as an instrumentalist and composer; contemporary lexicons and his correspondence with colleagues bear eloquent witness to this. He was also active as a teacher, and trained a series of well-regarded instrumentalists and singers. The surviving instrumental music includes works for clavichord, viola d’amore, harp, lute, and nail violin, the sound of which appealed to his introverted nature. In addition to large-scale vocal works and six stage works he also wrote some 100 lieder, of which 70 have been made usable for modern performance.

D'AMBLEVILLE, Charles (1587-1637) - Missa Psallite Domino (1636)

Charles d'Ambleville (1587-1637) - Missa Psallite Domino des 'Harmonia sacra, seu vesperae in dies tum dominicos, tum festos totius anni, una cum missa ac litaniis beatae virginis cum sex vocibus' (1636)

Performers: Ensemble Meihua Fleur de Prunus; Chœur du Centre Catholique Chinois de Paris;

François Picard (conductor)

Engraving: Christophe Nicolas Tassin (c.1600-1660) - Rouen (1636)

Further info: Musique des Lumières

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Charles (Carolo) d'Ambleville

(Bourgogne, 1587 - Rouen, 6 July 1637)

French composer. All that is known of his life is that in 1626 he was procureur of the Compagnie de Jésus at Rouen. He left only musical works, from which we may infer that he was director of music of one of the colleges of his order. His Octonarium sacrum (1634) is a set of five-part verses for the Magnificat, using all eight tones; they are fugal and closely resemble similar pieces by Nicolas Formé. Two years later he published his Harmonia sacra in two complementary volumes for four and six voices respectively. It includes works for double choir in a distinctly modern style originating in Italy that had already been adopted in France by several composers. Each volume also contains several masses and motets for a single choir. The double-choir works are for liturgical use and comprise psalms, motets and hymns.

ROSETTI, Antonio (c.1750-1792) - Concertino Per il Fagotto (c.1780)

Antonio Rosetti (c.1750-1792) - Concertino (Es-Dur) | Per il Fagotto Solo | Violini Primo, e 2do oblig:ti |

2: Corni, Flutta | Viola, e Basso (c.1780), MurR C68

Performers: Leo Cermak (bassoon); The Vienna Orchestral Society; Charles Adler (1889-1959, conductor)

Painting: Frans Xaver Hendrik Verbeeck (1686-1755) - Concerto

Further info: Antonio Rosetti (c.1750-1792) - Der sterbende Jesus (1786)

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Antonio (Anton) Rosetti [Rösler, Rössler]

(Leitmeritz [now Litoměřice], c.1750 - Ludwigslust, 30 June 1792)

Bohemian composer and double bass player. The precise date and location of his birth remain uncertain. When he died in 1792, the death register in Ludwigslust recorded his age as 42, placing his birth in the year 1750. He is believed to have received early musical training from the Jesuits in Prague. In 1773 he left his native country and found employment in the Hofkapelle of Prince Kraft Ernst of Oettingen-Wallerstein whom he served for sixteen years, becoming Kapellmeister in 1785. While there, he orchestrated two piano concerti by Anna von Schaden. In July 1789 Rosetti left Wallerstein to accept the post of Kapellmeister to the Duke Friedrich Franz I of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Ludwigslust where he died in service of the duke on 30 June 1792 at the age of 42 years. In 1777, he married Rosina Neher, with whom he had three daughters. In late 1781 he was granted leave to spend 5 months in Paris. Many of the finest ensembles in the city performed his works. Rosetti arranged for his music to be published, including a set of six symphonies published in 1782. He returned to his post, assured of recognition as an accomplished composer. As a composer, he wrote over 400 compositions, primarily instrumental music including many symphonies and concertos which were widely published. Rosetti also composed a significant number of vocal and choral works, particularly in the last few years of his life. Among these are German oratorios including Der sterbende Jesu and Jesus in Gethsemane (1790) and a German Hallelujah. The English music historian Charles Burney included Rosetti among the most popular composers of the period in his work A General History of Music. Rosetti is perhaps best known today for his horn concertos, which Mozart scholar H. C. Robbins Landon suggests (in The Mozart Companion) may have been a model for Mozart's four horn concertos. Rosetti is also known for writing a Requiem (1776) which was performed at a memorial for Mozart in December 1791. Attributing some music to Rosetti is difficult because several other composers with similar names worked at the same time, including Franciscus Xaverius Antonius Rössler.