Un portal on escoltar i gaudir de l'art musical dels segles XVI, XVII, XVIII i XIX. Compartir la bellesa de la música és l'objectiu d'aquest espai i fer-ho donant a conèixer obres de compositors molt o poc coneguts és el mètode.
Luxembourgish trombonist, composer and music educator. He studied music at the Luxembourg Conservatory, covering harmony, counterpoint, musical analysis, history of music, trumpet, trombone, piano, double bass and conducting. He continued his studies at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, where he obtained a first prize in both harmony and transposition as well as a higher certificate for trombone playing. Concurrently, his professional career includes directing various wind and brass ensembles and serving as a professor of trombone and harmony at the Luxembourg City Conservatory, both since 1963. Active as a composer since 1965, his output comprises over fifty compositions, primarily written for wind and brass ensembles, in addition to works for chamber groups, choral ensembles, and pedagogical purposes. A selection of his catalogue has been published by Musica Mundana.
Russian composer. He was born into an Ukrainian Cossack's family in the city of Glukhov which at that time used to be the capital of Malorussia famous by its choir schools. Having studied in one of them for a year or two the seven-year-old boy endowed with the fine treble together with nine other best pupils had been sent to St-Petersburg and admitted to the Court Choirs as a chorister yet during the time of Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter. The brilliant talents of the choir-boy haven't been left unnoticed. Eleven-year-old Dmitry was entrusted with the part of Alzesta in the opera of the same name written by the court composer Hermann Raupach. Two years later when the production was renewed he performed the main men's tenor part of Admet. The boy was appointed to the Shlyahetsky Corps to be taught dramatic arts and foreign languages. But what is the most important his successes were noticed by Baldassare Galuppi himself. The eminent maestro highly appreciated Bortnyansky's talents and was teaching him vocal, clavicembalo playing and composition for over three years. Leaving Russia in summer, 1768, Galuppi urgently recommended to send the gifted young man to Italy to continue his education. In 1776 Bortnyansky makes his debut as an opera composer. The first performance of his 'Creont' took place in the Venetian theater 'San Benedetto'. The next opera 'Alkid' (1778) was also staged in Venice, in 'San Samuel' theater presumably under Galuppi's protection. The new composition testified to the indisputable maturity of the twenty-seven-year-old composer and his outstanding artistic talent. In April, 1779, he received from Russia the order signed by the Director of the Court Theaters I. P. Yelagin 'without a moment's delay... to come back to the Motherland...'. Settled in Sant Petersburg for the rest of his life, he wrote music for the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as operas for the court of Catherine II. By 1796, her successor, Paul III, made him director of the Imperial Choir and recognized him as a national musical figure. As a composer, he wrote over 100 sacred works, including 45 sacred concertos, seven Orthodox liturgical settings, an Ave Maria and a Salve Regina, and numerous other pieces in Russian. In addition, he wrote seven operas, a large ode, several part songs, a quintet and a symphony (titled Symphonie concertante), two harp sonatas, and a march for wind band. Bortnjanskij’s style follows the harmony and lyricism of his Italian teacher, but the Russian works include paraphrases of Old Slavonic chant, as well as occasional folk elements, particularly in the instrumental compositions.
Croatian violinist and composer. Son of Ivan Marija Jarnović and Marija de Marchi, he was born on board a ship bound for Italy from Dubrovnik [now Croatia], and baptized two days later in Palermo. At an early age he may have been sent to study with Antonio Lolli, and in 1773 he made his debut at the Concerts spirituels in Paris after having arrived there in 1770. His performance was successful enough to launch a career as a traveling virtuoso throughout Europe. This success was soon followed by stories about his scandalous and quarrelsome behaviour. He gave frequent public performances until 1777, when he probably became leader of the orchestra for Prince Rohan-Guémémee. In 1779 he suddenly left Paris, reportedly under questionable circumstances. After appearing in Frankfurt he went to Berlin where he was appointed leader of the orchestra to the Crown Prince of Prussia late in 1779. Less than three years later he left because of quarrels with the cellist Jean-Pierre Duport. He played in Warsaw in September 1782 and early the next year went to St Petersburg where he entered the service of Catherine II. In 1786 he went to Vienna and made an excellent impression on such discerning artists as Joannes Carolus Diters von Dittersdorf, Leopold Mozart and Vojtech Matyáš Jírovec. Early in 1791 he began to play regularly in London. He was repeatedly successful at Salomon’s Hanover Square series and took part in Joseph Haydn’s first benefit concert. Once again his personality created difficulties. William Thomas Parke reported that he behaved arrogantly to royalty at the Duke of York’s house, and Ernst Ludwig Gerber that he nearly provoked a duel with Johann Baptist Cramer. Towards the end of 1796 he left London. For the next six years he reportedly lived in Hamburg, more active as a billiard player than as a violinist. In 1802 he played in St Petersburg, where he was once again given a place in the court orchestra, probably as leader. He held the position until he died of a stroke apparently suffered during a game of billiards. Ivan Mane Jarnović was known as a facile and progressive violinist, a rival of Giovanni Battista Viotti, with whom he was close friends, he helped to create the French school of violin playing. His own works largely reflect this focus and include 22 violin concertos, seven symphonies, six string quartets, 10 duos, and seven sonatas. His most important compositions are his violin concertos, which evidently reflect his performing style. Simple in texture and harmony, clear in structure, and charming but limited in expression, they epitomize the later stages of the galant style.
French composer. Nothing is known of his youth and music formation. He was documented in Soissons in 1648 serving as a priest and as a 'maître de musique'. In 1653 he was appointed by decree chaplain of one of the 12 chapels in the cathedral. Three years later he described himself as 'simphoneta simphoniarca', that is, music master to the children in the choir school, and later he became a canon. Helfer is known to have composed only Latin sacred music, particularly a cappella masses, four of which are his only surviving works. He wrote them in sparingly ornamented counterpoint whose melodic lines are remarkable for their fluid elegance. He did not adhere at all strictly to the traditional modal system but made much use of major-minor tonality. His masses were esteemed by connoisseurs and long remained in the repertory of the best choirs; some of them were in print as late as 1729. Moreover, Sébastien de Brossard, reported in his manuscript Catalogue of 1724 that the Missa Deliciae regum "still delights people with good taste". In particular the Missa pro defunctis (1656) had a surprisingly long history. It was sung for the obsequies of Michel-Richard Delalande in 1726.
French violinist and composer. The son of an oboist, he received his early training from his father before being sent to Italy to study under Giuseppe Tartini. Returning to Bonn in 1753 he served as a violinist at the court and later, in 1760, was appointed Kapellmeister. He left only a year later, however, to take up a position as violinist at the Thurn und Taxis court in Regensburg, where he spent the rest of his career. His music contains a similar style to the Mannheim composers. His surviving works include an opera, a Mass, a Requiem, six symphonies, 13 concertos (violin and flute), a string quartet, a divertimento, four violin sonatas, numerous Lieder, and a host of smaller chamber works. Of his three children, two are known to have been musicians, his daughter Anna Catharina Touchemoulin (1757-1844), who was singer and pianist, and his son Egidius or Ludwig Touchemoulin (1759-1830), who by about 1777 was a violinist in his father's orchestra and in 1787 became its leader.
