SACCHINI, Antonio (1730-1786) - Sinfonia in Re maggiore

Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786) - Sinfonia in Re maggiore

Performers: Orchestra da Camera di Napoli

Painting: Thomas Patch (1720-1782) - Florence, A View of Ponte Santa Trinità Crossing the Arno River

Further info: Sinfonie Napolitane

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Antonio (Maria Gasparo Gioacchino) Sacchini [Sachgini, Sacini, Zacchini et al.]

(Florence, 14 June 1730 - Paris, 6 October 1786)

Italian composer. He was taken by his father at an early age to Naples, where he studied violin under Nicola Fiorenza and composition under Francesco Durante at the Conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto. In 1756 he composed his first opera, Fra Donato, which launched his career as a composer of opera in Italy. Although he served for several years as an assistant maestro di cappella at the conservatory, he abandoned his teaching profession by 1763 to concentrate on commissions from throughout the country, eventually establishing a reputation as a dramatic and talented composer. In 1768 while in Venice he became director of the Conservatorio dell’Ospedaletto, teaching singing to students such as Nancy Storace. In 1772 he moved to London, where he obtained a great success with his operas but was known for a dissolute lifestyle. This forced Sacchini to travel to Paris in 1781, where he was caught in the middle of the feud between Niccolò Piccinni and Christoph Willibald von Gluck, both of whose partisans condemned him as a member of the other’s faction. In 1786 he produced his most enduring work, Oedip à Colonne, at the request of Marie Antoinette, but his early death from his lifestyle and acute gout prevented him from realizing its success. As a composer, Sacchini was known for his dramatic musical style, particularly in serious opera. He was able to move fluidly between both the Italian and French styles, often using varied forms and progressive harmonic structures. His works include 47 operas, seven oratorios, two symphonies, six string quartets, six trio sonatas, and 12 violin sonatas or lessons, in addition to numerous insertion arias, Masses, motets, Psalms, and other sacred works.

VIOLA I VALENTI, Anselm (1738-1798) - Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater

Anselm Viola i Valentí (1738-1798) - Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater

Performers: Escolania de Montserrat; Orquestra d'antics escolans; Ireneu Segarra (1917-2005, conductor)

Drawing: Alexandre de Laborde (1773-1842) - Vista interior de la iglesia de Mont-Serrat (1806)

Further info: Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater

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(Pere) Anselm Viola i Valentí

 (Torroella de Montgrí, 13 June 1738 - Montserrat Abbey, 25 January 1798)

Spanish teacher and composer. The eldest son of Francesc Viola's third marriage, his mother's name was Maria Rosa Valentí. He trained at the Escolania de Montserrat under Benet Julià and Josep Antoni Martí. On 20 March 1756, he began his novitiate at the Monastery of Montserrat, where he took his vows in 1757. He then moved to Madrid, where he completed his ecclesiastical and musical studies at the Church of Nuestra Señora de Montserrat, coming under the influence of José de Nebra. He also premiered many of his works there, achieving great success at the royal chapel. Upon returning to Montserrat in 1768, he was appointed master of the Escolania, teaching renowned students such as Fernando Sor, who wrote memoirs detailing the life of his master Anselm Viola, and master of the music chapel, positions he held until his death. As a composer, he wrote instrumental works, sonatas, and other pieces for keyboard instruments, as well as a classical-style concerto for bassoon and orchestra. He composed two masses for voices and orchestra, two Magnificats for six and seven voices (the second with basso continuo), 'Tèrcia i Completes' (both for seven voices with accompaniment), and a Lamentation for alto and orchestra. 

BONPORTI, Francesco Antonio (1672-1749) - Concerto a quattro (c.1715)

Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749) - Concerto a quattro, Op.11 No.8 (c.1715)

Performers: Amsterdams Kamerorkest; André Rieu (1917-1992, conductor)

Painting: Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) - Les Plaisirs du bal

Further info: Italienische Meister Zwischen Barock und Classik

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Francesco Antonio Bonporti [Bomporti, Buomporti, Buonporti]

(Trento, bap. 11 June 1672 - Padua, 19 December 1749)

Italian priest and composer. He was initially educated in Trento and Innsbruck in philosophical and humanistic subjects appropriate to the clerical vocation he was to follow. In 1691 he was admitted to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, where he studied theology. While in Rome, he also studied composition under the guidance of Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni and possibly violin (not documented) with Arcangelo Corelli. Bonporti returned to Trent ordained as a priest and obtained a minor office in the cathedral in 1697. There he published his first opus, a set of ten trio sonatas and where on the title-page he called himself ‘gentiluomo di Trento’. He moved to Padua in 1740, lodging in the house of a fellow priest. A final appeal to Empress Maria Theresa in 1746, in which op.12 was enlisted, proved fruitless. He died three years later and was buried in Padua. Bonporti regarded himself as primarily a priest rather than a composer. His output consists in twelve opus, and the foremost of them is his 'Concerti a quattro', Op.11 (c.1715). Such as many italian composers of his time, he based his musical language on Corelli. 

BOLOGNE, Joseph (1744-1799) - Symphonie concertante (1777)

Joseph Bologne de Saint-George (1744-1799) - Symphonie concertante des 'Second œuvre de | deux | symphonies | concertantes | Pour deux Violons principaux, | deux Violons ripieno, Alto et Basse, | deux Hautbois et deux Cors, | ad Libitum ... Oeuvre IX' (1777)

Performers: Miroslav Vilimec (violin); Radio Symphony Orchestra Pilsen; Frantisek Preisler (conductor)

Drawing: Pierre-Adrien Pâris (1745-1819) - Architectural Fantasy Ruins of a Circular Temple Seen through a Natural Arch (c.1785)

Further info: Symphonies and Violin Concertos

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Joseph Bologne [Boulogne, 'Chevalier de Saint-Georges']

(Baillif, 25 December 1745 - Paris, 9 June 1799)

Caribbean composer, violinist, swordsman, equestrian and military commander. Son of a manumitted African mother and French plantation owner (his last name was apparently taken from one of the plantations his father owned), he grew up in the vicinity of Basse-Terre. His family went to France in 1747 to escape difficulties with the law but returned to Guadeloupe a few years later. In 1753 they moved permanently, first to Bordeaux then to Paris, where he underwent his earliest musical education, probably under Antonio Lolli and a few years later François-Joseph Gossec. In 1769 he became a violinist in the Concerts des amateurs, later becoming its director. During this time, beginning with his debut as a soloist in 1772, he became famous for his technical proficiency on his instruments, earning the epithet as the finest violinist of the age. A proposal to make him musical director of the Opéra in 1776 was blocked by four singers who refused to work with a “mulatto.” In 1781 he founded the Loge Olympique orchestra sponsored by one of Paris’s largest masonic lodges; he conducted the premieres of Haydn’s so-called Paris symphonies, which he had helped commission. In 1787 he traveled to London, where his prowess as a violinist and swordsman were thought legendary. A supporter of the Revolution, he was given command of troops from France’s colonial domains in 1792, but a year later he was denounced and spent 18 months in prison. Disillusioned, he sailed to Hispanola to participate in the newly independent Haiti of Toussant l’Ouverture. There the corruption and poor living standards further eroded his health and state of mind. He returned to Paris to conduct the Cercle d’harmonie orchestra, but was unable to escape poverty. During his lifetime, Saint-Georges was a remarkable bon vivant who freely interacted in the upper circles of Parisian society. His music was known for its tunefulness and technical brilliance, using devices such as bariolage that were extremely uncommon. His 1778 opera 'Le partie du chasse' was well received. In all he wrote six operas, 13 violin concertos, 10 sinfonia concertantes, a bassoon concerto, two symphonies, nine violin sonatas, 18 string quartets, and several other smaller pieces. His multifaceted personality has been the subject of both literature (six novels) and a motion picture. He is reckoned as one of the greatest Afro-Caribbean musicians of the period.

NICOLAI, Carl Otto (1810-1849) - Weihnachts-Ouverture (1833)

Carl Otto Nicolai (1810-1849) - Weihnachts-Ouverture (D-Dur) | (über den Choral "Vom Himmel hoch") (1833)

Performers: Bamberger Symphoniker; Karl Anton Rickenbacher (1940-2014, conductor)

Painting: August von Kreling (1819-1876) - The First Harvest After the Thirty Years’ War (1849)

Further info: Nicolai - Overtures & Symphony

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(Carl) Otto (Ottone, Othon) (Ehrenfried) Nicolai [Niccolai, Nicolaj]

(Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], 9 June 1810 - Berlin, 11 May 1849)

German composer and conductor. He was the first child of the composer Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai (1785-1854) and his wife Christiane Lauber. Because of his mother’s physical and mental illness, the marriage was dissolved a few months after Nicolai’s birth. He grew up in the care of foster-parents until 1820, when his father took on responsibility for his education. He studied piano at home, and in 1827 went to Berlin, where he took lessons in theory with Carl Friedrich Zelter. He also took courses with Bernhard Klein at the Royal Institute for Church Music. On 13 April 1833, he made his concert debut in Berlin as a pianist, singer, and composer. He then was engaged as organist to the embassy chapel in Rome by the Prussian ambassador, Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen. While in Italy, he also studied counterpoint with Giuseppe Baini. In 1837 he proceeded to Vienna, where he became a singing teacher and Kapellmeister at the Karnthnertortheater. In 1838 he returned to Italy where he presented in Trieste his first opera, 'Rosmonda d'Inghilterra'. In late summer 1841 he was appointed principal conductor of the Hofoper at the Kärntnertor, and was able to concentrate on the operas of Mozart and Beethoven, which he particularly admired. Required by contract to compose German operas, he provided his first original German opera, 'Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor'. In summer 1844 he undertook a long journey via Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin to Königsberg, where he performed the 'Kirchliche Fest-Ouvertüre' which he had dedicated to his native town, as part of the festival to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the university. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia was so impressed that he tried to tempt him to Berlin; Nicolai, however, did not at first respond to the offer. October 1847 saw him installed as Kapellmeister at the Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin and, as Mendelssohn’s successor, artistic director of the cathedral choir. Wishing to reform Prussian church services, he immediately began to compose a series of large-scale religious works. Soon afterwards he joined the Tonkünstlerverband, a society concerned with the reorganization of Prussian musical life; 'Die lustigen Weiber' eventually received its première, without huge success, on 9 March 1849. Two months later, Nicolai died. On the same day he was elected a member of the Akademie der Künste, but too late to receive the news.