KUHLAU, Friedrich (1786-1832) - Ouverture a grand orchestre

Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) - Ouverture del’Opera William Schakespeare[!] a grand orchestre

Performers: The Royal Danish Orchestra; Johan Hye-Knudsen (1896-1975, conductor)

Painting: Peter Copmann (1794-1850) - Portrait of the composer Friedrich Kuhlau (1832)

Further info: Danish Theatre Music

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Friedrich (Friederich, Frederik) (Daniel Rudolph) Kuhlau [Kaspar Meier]

(Uelzen, 11 September 1786 - Copenhagen, 12 March 1832)

Danish composer of German birth. He was the son of a poor military bandsman and moved with his family to Lüneburg about 1793. In 1796 he lost an eye in a childhood accident, and studied piano during his recovery. Later studied theory and composition with Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke, Kantor of Hamburg's Catherinenkirche. He gave several piano recitals from 1804 and the same year his earliest known compositions were published. When Hamburg was invaded by Napoleon's troops in 1810 he went to Copenhagen to avoid conscription into Napoleon's army. There he began to earn his living as a piano teacher and composer, and in 1813 was appointed court chamber musician. That year he eventually became a Danish citizen. Following the success of his singspiel, 'The Robber's Castle', he gained a high-paying position as a singing teacher at the Royal Theater in 1816. Kuhlau's works between 1817 and 1820 failed to gain much prominence. His opera, 'The Magic Harp', was said to have failed due to a controversial libretto. In 1821 and 1825, he travelled to Vienna where he befriended Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven's influence is evidential in Kuhlau's later works such as his singspiel, 'Elverhøj or Elves' Hill', a work widely regarded as a tribute to the Danish Monarchy and an inspiring piece from the Danish Golden Age. In 1828, he was awarded an honorary professorship. As a result of a fire that swept his house in 1831 he suffered a chest ailment from which he never recovered, and died the following year. Together with Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse he was the foremost representative of the late Classical and early Romantic periods in Denmark.

JOMMELLI, Niccolò (1714-1774) - Simphonie novelle a quatro (1765)

Niccolò Jommelli (1714-1774) - Simphonie novelle (A-Dur) a quatro (1765)

Performers: Orquesta Barroca de la Universidad de Sаlаmаncа

Painting: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Portrait de Niccolo Jommelli

Further info: Simphonie novelle a quatro

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Niccolò (Nicolo, Nicolaus, Nicola) Jommelli [Iommelli, Geomelli, Hijomello, Jummella et al.]

(Aversa, 10 September 1714 - Napoli, 25 August 1774)

Italian composer. Following early musical training as a chorister at the Aversa church, he entered the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio a Porta Capuana in 1725 to study under Ignazio Prota and Francesco Feo. Three years later he transferred to the Conservatorio di Santa Maria della Pietà dei Turchini, where he studied voice and keyboard. During this time he became friends with Johann Adolph Hasse, and in 1737 he had his first opera, 'L’errore amorosa', premiered at the Teatro novo with considerable success. In 1740 a commissioned work for Rome, 'Ricinero di Goti', was performed at the Teatro Argentina, leading to further commissions throughout Italy. In 1741 he arrived in Bologna to produce one of these, and in the process he began sporadic study with Padre Giovanni Battista Martini, eventually being admitted to the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica. In 1745 Hasse recommended him for the post of maestro di capella at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice, but despite the advantages of the position, a year later he was in Rome preparing for the production of one of his most important works, the opera seria 'Didone abbandonata'. A short joint-appointment to the Vatican along with Davide Perez followed, but by 1753 he journeyed north to Vienna and then Stuttgart, where he became Kapellmeister to Duke Karl-Eugen of Württemberg. In 1768 he returned to Naples in retirement, working almost until his death and despite a stroke that debilitated him in 1771. As a composer, his music consists of 80 operas, 12 serenatas, 15 oratorios, 20 Masses, and almost 200 sacred works ranging from Lamentations to Psalm settings. His instrumental music is less prolific but includes four concertos (one flute, three keyboard), six sonatas for flute/violin, five trio sonatas, nine string quartets (and one flute quartet), two divertimentos, and numerous smaller keyboard works. Niccolò Jommelli was regarded as one of the most significant composers of the entire period by his contemporaries; Christian Daniel Friedrich Schubart indeed called him one of the leading musical geniuses of the time. His approach to both comic and serious was highly progressive, reducing the dominance of the voice by increasing the function and texture of the orchestral accompaniment. He was one of the first to introduce expanded finales, and his colorful orchestration, innovative use of dynamics and harmony, as well as his use of obbligato recitative, were all hallmarks that inspired and influenced others throughout Europe. He was an internationally recognized figure. 

LAMOTTE, Franz (c.1750-1780) - Concerto Pour le Violon (1775)

Franz Lamotte (c.1750-1780) - IIe Concerto [D] pour le violon ... mis au jour par M|r Le Duc le jeune (1775)

Performers: Mirijam Contzen (violin); Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie; Reinhard Goebel (conductor)

Painting: Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (1712-1774) - Gesellschaft im Park

Further info: Mozart in Italien

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Franz Lamotte [La Motte, Lamota]

(c.1750 - The Hague, 7 September 1780)

Flemish violinist and composer. According to Charles Burney, he was Flemish and received lessons on the violin from Felice Giardini in London. On 29 December 1766 he performed in the Burgtheater, Vienna. Was then when the Viennese court gave him financial support to undertake a long concert tour. He appeared in Prague and Leipzig, and in 1768 in Padua and Venice. Leopold Mozart referred to a lengthy stay in Naples, but by 1769 he was performing in competition with the violinist Giovanni Giornovichi in Paris. In 1770 or 1772 he returned to Vienna and joined the Hofkapelle of Empress Maria Theresa as a first violinist, though he continued to make concert tours. In 1775 he appeared at the Paris Concert Spirituel, and from 1776 gave concerts in London, including several subscription concerts with Venanzio Rauzzini in 1778-79. He seems to have left London hurriedly in about 1780, probably because of criminal offences, but it remains unclear to what extent the resulting suspicions and reports of scandal are justified. During his short life, he was regarded as a virtuoso of the first rank whose double stopping was particularly remarkable. In 1767 he caused a stir in Prague by performing at sight a violin concerto in F or C major by the Prince of Fürstenberg’s secretary, Bablizeck (Choron and Fayolle claimed that he tuned his violin a semitone higher and ignored the sharps in accomplishing this feat). His bowing technique was also admired and, according to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his staccato playing was long remembered in Vienna. He composed concertos, sonatas and airs for the violin.

KNUPFER, Sebastian (1633-1676) - Was mein Gott will

Sebastian Knüpfer (1633-1676) - Was mein Gott will

Performers: Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble; Arno Paduch (conductor)

Painting: Nicolas Régnier (c.1590-1667) - Young Woman Singing Accompanied by a Lute Player

Further info: Sebastian Knüpfer - Geistliche Konzerte

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Sebastian (Sebastianus) Knüpfer [Knufpher, Knüffer, Knüpffer]

(Asch, [now Aš, Czech Republic], 6 September 1633 - Leipzig, 10 October 1676)

German composer. He studied with his father, a Kantor and organist in Asch. After private musical studies, he took courses in organ as well as academic subjects at the Regensburg Gymnasium Poeticum (1646-54). He then settled in Leipzig, where he taught and was a bass singer in church choirs. He applied for the post of Thomaskantor when Tobias Michael died on 26 June 1657, and he was appointed on 17 July; the four other candidates to whom he was preferred included Adam Krieger. In Knüpfer the Thomaskirche found a Kantor and the city of Leipzig a director of music who approached the musical and intellectual calibre of Sethus Calvisius and Johann Hermann Schein, Tobias Michael’s two predecessors. During his 19-year tenure Leipzig once again became the leading musical city in central Germany following the sharp decline resulting from the Thirty Years War, the long Swedish occupation of the city and Tobias Michael’s protracted illness. Knüpfer thus initiated a final period of musical excellence in Leipzig that culminated in the careers of his three successors, Johann Schelle, Johann Kuhnau and Johann Sebastian Bach. As a composer, he wrote sacred vocal works to both Latin and German texts, and also wrote some secular madrigals and canzonettas. Many are lost, and of those that survive few have been published in modern editions. Most are in the traditional style and form of the 17th-century vocal concerto, incorporating many of the characteristics of similar works by Heinrich Schütz.

LOSY, Jan Antonín (c.1650-1721) - Concertus a 3

Jan Antonín Losy (c.1650-1721) - Concertus (A-Dur) a 3

Performers: Jan Cizmar (lute); Martyna Pastuszka (violin); Krzystof Firlus (viola da gamba)

Painting: Follower of Evaristo Baschenis - Still life of musical instruments

Further info: Lute Music In Prague & Vienna Circa 1700

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Jan Antonín (Johann Anton) Losy 'Count of Losinthal' [Logi, Loschi, Graf von Lozimtal et al.]

(Štekeň Castle, near Strakonice, c.1650 - Prague, 22 August 1721)

Bohemian lutenist and composer. His father had settled in Prague in the 1620s and was raised to the Bohemian nobility for his bravery during the defence of the city against the Swedes in 1648. He studied at Prague University from 1661, taking the doctorate in philosophy in 1668. After this he probably undertook the customary European tour; he is known to have visited Italy, and he probably went to France and the Low Countries as well. He had a great enthusiasm for French music, especially that of Lully, and also for the music of Fux. He played the lute and violin in concerts at his palace in Prague. At the height of his fame (1696-97) he travelled in the German lands and engaged in a friendly musical competition in Leipzig with Pantaleon Hebenstreit and the Thomaskantor Johann Kuhnau, who subsequently dedicated to Losy his 'Frische Clavier Früchte' (1696). His son Adam Philipp Losy (1705-1781), who lived in Vienna and became music director to the imperial court, was a competent double bass player in aristocratic orchestras. Jan Antonín Losy was the best-known and most respected lutenist in late 17th-century Prague. The real measure of his popularity is seen in the number and wide distribution of manuscripts containing his compositions, which also exist in arrangements for mandore, angélique and keyboard.