DEVIENNE, François (1759-1803) - Sinfonie concertante [F] pour cor et basson (1785)

François Devienne (1759-1803) - Sinfonie concertante [F] pour cor et basson (1785)

Performers: Klаus Wаllendorf (horn); Kаrl-Otto Hаrtmаnn (bassoon);

Rundfundorchester Hannover; Wolf-Dieter Hauschild (conductor)

Painting: François Watteau, dit Watteau de Lille (1758-1823) - Le Bal de Tivoli

Further info: François Devienne (1759-1803) - Bassoon Concerto No.4

---

François Devienne

(Joinville, 31 January 1759 - Paris, 5 September 1803)

French flautist, bassoonist, composer and teacher. He was the seventh of eight children born to Pierre Devienne and his second wife Marie Petit. Two obituaries published in 1803, which have since been proved apocryphal, claimed that when he was ten he wrote a mass which was performed by the musicians of the Royal Cravate cavalry regiment. He probably received his earliest training from the organist Morizot in Joinville, and continued his education with his elder brother and godfather, François Memmie, in Deux Ponts (now Zweibrücken) from 1776 to 1778. He left Deux Ponts on 15 May 1778 and may have spent some time with the Royal Cravate regiment during the following year. He joined the Paris Opéra orchestra as last chair bassoonist in autumn 1779 for one season, and studied the flute with the orchestra's principal flautist, Félix Rault. It is likely that Devienne entered the service of Cardinal de Rohan as a chamber musician in spring 1780 and remained there until mid-1785. In 1781 he joined the freemasons; he presumably became a member of the famous masonic orchestra, the Loge Olympique, during the 1780s. The first performance in Paris of a work by him was on 24 March 1780, when Ozi performed ‘a new Bassoon Concerto composed by de Vienne’ at the Concert Spirituel. Devienne first appeared in Paris as a soloist on 24 December 1782 at the Concert Spirituel when he performed ‘a new flute concerto’, probably his Flute Concerto no.1; his first appearance as a bassoon soloist at the Concert Spirituel was on 25 March 1784 when he played his Bassoon Concerto no.1. From 1782 to 1785 he performed at the Concert Spirituel as a soloist at least 18 times, but after 3 April 1785 he did not appear there for four years. From 1785 to 1789 his place of employment is uncertain; he may have been a member of the Swiss Guards Band in Versailles. Devienne probably returned to Paris in autumn or winter 1788. 

Les spectacles de Paris 1790 lists him as the second bassoonist of the Théâtre de Monsieur when it opened in January 1789 and by autumn 1790 he had advanced to principal bassoonist, a position he held until April 1801. Devienne's first known solo appearance after his return to Paris was at the Concert Spirituel on 7 April 1789, when he played the flute part in the première of his Sinfonie concertante no.4. In autumn 1790 he joined the military band of the Paris National Guard where his duties included teaching music to the children of French soldiers and participation in the musical events of the numerous festivals in Paris. This organization officially became the Free School of Music of the National Guard in 1792, and Devienne was one of the three sergeants in its administration. The marriage of Devienne to a Mlle Maillard presumably took place between 1789 and 1792; they had five children. The Théâtre Montansier, which devoted most of its productions to original French opéras comiques, opened on 12 April 1790 and Devienne's Le mariage clandestin was staged there the following November. Two more of his operas were staged before his most popular opera, Les visitandines (1792), was performed at the Théâtre Feydeau. This opera was among the most successful of the Revolutionary period; it had over 200 performances in Paris between 1792 and 1797 and was also performed there as late as 1920. Devienne's famous method for the one-key flute was published in 1794. On 12 April 1801 the Théâtre Feydeau abruptly closed. Its orchestra and that of the Théâtre Favart merged the following September to form the new Opéra-Comique orchestra, but it is not known if Devienne was a member of this orchestra. In May 1803 he entered Charenton, a Parisian home for the mentally ill, where he died the following September after a long illness which ended by impairing his reason.

BERNHARD, Christoph (1628-1693) - Missa 'Durch Adams Fall'

Christoph Bernhard (1628-1693) - Missa 'Durch Adams Fall'

Performers: Vаncouvеr Chamber Choir; Iοn Wаshburn

Painting: Giovan Battista Salvi 'Il Sassoferrato' (1609-1665) - Saint Cecilia

Further info: Christoph Bernhard (1628-1693) - Geistliche Harmonien

---

Christoph Bernhard

(Kolberg, [now Kołobrzeg], 1 January 1628 - Dresden, 14 November 1692) 

German music theorist, composer and singer. He is best known for his discussion of musical-rhetorical figures in Tractatus compositionis augmentatus. The birthplace given above is documented in a funeral poem by Bernhard’s brother-in-law C.C. Dedekind and is confirmed by Walther; the birth date appears in Müller-Blattau (1963) without documentation. Mattheson states, no doubt erroneously, that Bernhard was born in Danzig in 1612. According to Dedekind, Bernhard studied in Danzig (probably with the elder Kaspar Förster and possibly Paul Siefert) and in Warsaw (very likely with Scacchi); Mattheson’s assertion that Bernhard studied in Danzig with Balthasar Erben must also be in error for Erben did not become Kapellmeister at the Marienkirche until 1658, well after Bernhard was established in Dresden. At some point Bernhard also studied law. He began singing as an alto at the electoral court in Dresden under Schütz probably in 1648 and received a contract with the elector’s ensemble on 1 August 1649. Shortly thereafter he travelled with the royal retinue to Gottorf for a wedding. The music was directed by Agostino Fontana, a virtuoso Italian singer serving as Kapellmeister to Christian IV of Denmark; Bernhard remained in Denmark to study with Fontana for about a year. On 1 August 1655 Bernhard was promoted to vice-Kapellmeister at Dresden. With the accession of the italophile Johann Georg II as Elector of Saxony in 1656, Italian musicians gained greater influence at court. These included G.A. Bontempi, Vincenzo and Bartolomeo Albrici, Gioseppe Peranda and Dominicus Melani. Bernhard made two trips to Italy, supported by Johann Georg II, to gain more first-hand experience of Italian music, musicians and singing technique. He married Christina Barbara Weber on 28 October 1659. Growing tension between the German and Italian musicians was probably the main factor in Bernhard’s decision in 1663 to follow his former colleague Matthias Weckmann to Hamburg. There he succeeded Thomas Selle as Kantor of the Johanneum and civic director of church music in Hamburg. There were six other contestants for the post, and he obtained it by one vote. 

Weckmann had helped make him known in Hamburg by performing a piece of his own under Bernhard’s name. Bernhard accepted the Hamburg offer on 18 October 1663 and was installed on 9 February 1664. The city fathers greeted his arrival in elegant style and completely remodelled his house, which Bernhard gratefully acknowledged when dedicating his Geistliche Harmonien (1665) to them. The fact that Bernhard was taken into membership of the brotherhood Englandfahrer shortly after his arrival in Hamburg indicates the esteem in which he was held. Visits from Johann Rist (in 1666) and the younger Kaspar Förster (in 1667) provided occasions for chamber music at Bernhard’s house. Bernhard must also have participated in the weekly concerts of the collegium musicum founded by Weckmann in 1660. In addition to performing the most up-to-date works from Venice, Rome, Vienna, Munich and Dresden, they joined with Reincken, Buxtehude and Theile in cultivating learned counterpoint as an esoteric art; Bernhard’s Prudentia prudentiana, in four-part invertible counterpoint, was imitated by Buxtehude two years later (buxwv76/1). The years of Bernhard and Weckmann’s joint activity formed one of the highpoints of 17th-century musical life in Hamburg. Just before Weckmann’s death (on 24 February 1674) Johann Georg II called Bernhard back to Dresden to supervise the education of his two grandsons, and he was installed on 31 March 1674 with instructions to teach them religion, reading and writing. He also resumed his post as vice-Kapellmeister. In 1676 he supervised a new edition of the Dresden hymnal, combining the Lutheran chorales with Schütz’s settings of the Becker Psalter. Johann Georg III, who became elector in 1680, soon decided to reduce his musical establishment in order to cut costs. All the Italians either left or were dismissed, and from 24 August 1681 Bernhard was the sole Kapellmeister, as well as inspector of the music library; he held both positions until his death. With the accession of Johann Georg IV in 1691 he was serving his fourth Elector of Saxony.

ROSLER, Jan Jozef (1771-1813) - Sinfonie in C (1805)

Jan Jozef Rösler (1771-1813) - Sinfonie in C (1805)

Performers: Orchester Eisеnbеrg; Jіrі Sychа (conductor)

Painting: Georg Emanuel Opitz (1775-1841) - Eislaufen im zugefrorenen Hafen des Wiener

Neustädter Kanals vor dem Stubentor (1805)

Further info: Johann Joseph Rösler : Concerto pour piano - Symphonie

---

Jan (Johann) Jozef (Joseph, Josef) Rösler [Roesler, Rössler]

(Banská Štiavnica, 22 August 1771 - Prague, 28 January 1813)

Bohemian composer. He studied music formally with his father but was mainly self-taught in composition. His earliest successes, the pantomimes Das Zauberhörnchen and Die Geburt des Schneiders Wetz Wetz Wetz, date from 1796. He wrote both Singspiele and Italian operas, most of which were given at the Nostitz Theatre in Prague; they include L’assassino per vendetta, given later in German and also Czech, and Elisene, Prinzessin von Bulgarien, his most famous opera, which was first performed in 1807 and later presented successfully at the Vienna court theatre (1809). Rösler went to Vienna in 1805 and worked for a while at the court theatre; he also spent some time in the service of the Countess Lobkowitz. Although renowned as a theatre musician, Rösler also won a reputation as a keyboard virtuoso and composer. His Piano Concerto in D op.15 is one of his most important works, and his keyboard sonatas and smaller piano pieces were popular in his day. Stylistically, Rösler, like so many of his contemporaries, falls between Mozart and Beethoven; his Cantate auf Mozart’s Tod (1798) shows his indebtedness to the former but his Piano Concerto leans towards the latter.

ALBICASTRO, Henricus (1661-1730) - Concerti (VII) à quatro (1704)

Henricus Albicastro (1661-1730) - Concerti (VII) à quatro, opera settima (1704)

Performers: Accademia Monteverdiana; Denis Stevens (1922-2004, conductor)

Map: Johann Baptist Homann (1663-1724) - Nova Comitatus Pappenheimensis

Further info: Enrico Albicastro - William Boyce: Concerti Grossi

---

(Johann Heinrich von Weissenburg) Henricus Albicastro

(Pappenheim or Bieswangen?, 1661 - Maastricht, 26 January 1730)

German composer and violinist. The name Henricus Albicastro is a Latin-Italian translation of his true name, Johann Heinrich von Weissenburg. The designation ‘del Biswang’ on the title-pages of some of his works presumably refers to Bieswangen as his place of birth (there is, moreover, a town called Weissenburg nearby). There is nothing to corroborate Walther's statement that he was Swiss, but many details about his life are still unclear. His compositions adhere closely to the Italian style in string music with continuo, but there is no way of telling whether this results from study with an Italian composer in Italy or elsewhere, or from the study of Italian music available north of the Alps. Albicastro was registered as ‘musicus academiae’ at the University of Leiden in 1686, meaning that he became head of the modest musical establishment there, a position he may have held until 1691 when someone else was appointed. (Confusingly, he was registered as ‘Viennensis’.) His op.1 sonatas (1701) are dedicated to the Leiden burgomaster Coenraad Ruysch, confirming the Leiden connection. After his days there he may have gone to the Southern Netherlands where he was involved in a publication project set up by François Barbry, a musical amateur who had obtained a privilege for publishing ‘Italian music’, though not all the composers mentioned are Italian. As well as Albicastro, Sebastian Scherer is named; he was from Ulm, not far from Bieswangen, and may have been a relation of Albicastro, perhaps even his teacher. It is not known how much of the project was realized. Only one work by Albicastro has survived, an op.3 part i; nothing is known about any corresponding opp.1-2. 

During the years 1701-06 Estienne Roger of Amsterdam issued nine volumes of music by Albicastro, each containing 12 works: the trio sonatas opp.1, 4 and 8, solo sonatas opp.2, 3, 5, 6 and 9 and concertos op.7. (No exemplars of opp.2, 6 and 9 are known). Their publication in rapid succession may indicate that they were largely composed beforehand. The title-pages of the Bruges op.3 and the Amsterdam op.1 call him expressly ‘amatore’, meaning that he did not earn his living as a musician; this designation was dropped later. In 1708 he was appointed captain in the Dutch cavalry; he thus served during the later years of the War of the Spanish Succession, and may have been in the army before that date. The title-pages of his opp.3 and 4 (both 1702) call him ‘cavaliero’. His name is listed in the army administration up to 1730. Apart from a single motet in manuscript (possibly emanating from his Southern Netherlands period) all his music is for one or more string instruments with basso continuo, sometimes with an independent string bass part. Everything he wrote is thoroughly italianate in style – a close copy, in fact, of Albinoni and Corelli, but sometimes (perhaps because of his German background) less predictable, less schematic and less polished than his Italian models. Although his status as a musician cannot yet be fully understood, his compositions show nothing of the amateur but conform to the professional norms one would use in assessing the quality and the character of the music. The fact that none of his works was ever reissued or reprinted is probably due to the subtly germanophone and conservative dialect of his Corellian idiom. His tribute to the German way of treating the violin is reflected in the remark Quantz made in his autobiography (1755), that in his youth he diligently studied Albicastro's music along with that of Biber and J.J. Walther, the two leading figures in 17th-century German violin playing.

CLEMENTI, Muzio (1752-1832) - Piano Concerto in C (c.1790)

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) - Piano Concerto in C (c.1790) [Sonata No.3, Op.33]

Performers: Gino Gorini (1914-1989, piano); Orchestra Da Camera Dell'Angelicum;

Alberto Zedda (1928-2017, conductor)

Painting: William Henry Simmons (1811-1882) - The Duet

Further info: Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) - Overture & Symphony No.1

---

Muzio (Mutius Philippus Vincentius Franciscus Xaverius) Clementi

(Rome, 23 January 1752 - Evesham, 10 March 1832)

English composer, keyboard player and teacher, music publisher and piano manufacturer of Italian birth. The oldest of seven children of Nicolo Clementi (1720-1789), a silversmith, and Magdalena, née Kaiser, Clementi began studies in music in Rome at a very early age; his teachers were Antonio Boroni (1738-1792), an organist named Cordicelli, Giuseppi Santarelli (1710-1790) and possibly Gaetano Carpani. In January 1766, at the age of 13, he secured the post of organist at his home church, S Lorenzo in Damaso. In that year, however, his playing attracted the attention of an English traveller, Peter Beckford (1740-1811), cousin of the novelist William Beckford (1760-1844) and nephew of William Beckford (1709-1770), twice Lord Mayor of London. According to Peter Beckford’s own forthright explanation, he ‘bought Clementi of his father for seven years’, and in late 1766 or early 1767 brought him to his country estate of Steepleton Iwerne, just north of Blandford Forum in Dorset; here the young musician spent the next seven years in solitary study and practice at the harpsichord. His known compositions from the Rome and Dorset years, written before the age of 22, are few: an oratorio and possibly a mass (neither survives) and six keyboard sonatas. It was apparently in 1774 that Clementi, freed from his obligations to Beckford, moved to London. His first known public appearances were as solo harpsichordist at benefit concerts for a singer (Bonpace) and a harpist (Jones) in spring 1775. By 1780 he embarked upon a tour of the European continent, performing before royalty and engaging in friendly competitions with colleagues such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. By 1783 he had returned to London, although in the next years he traveled to Paris, Switzerland, and Italy. 

In 1790 he had established himself in London, where he began a secondary career as a publisher and fortepiano builder, as well as a sought-after teacher. In 1802 he toured Europe to gain business for his enterprises, including signing Ludwig van Beethoven to publish that composer’s works. After 1810 Clementi made four further visits to the Continent, two of them extended. The purpose of these visits, for the most part, was to present his orchestral music to European audiences. In 1816-17 he presided over performances of his symphonies at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, and in 1822 he conducted three more at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig; these latter can be identified among the symphonies for which autograph fragments survive in the Library of Congress. But the aging composer’s persistent efforts to make his mark as a symphonist were hardly a success. For after 1824 his works disappeared from the concert stage in England and elsewhere, forced out this time, in large part, by Beethoven’s symphonies. As in his earliest days as a composer, Clementi was still at his best in keyboard music. His large-scale sonatas op.50, though probably nearly complete by 1805, appeared in 1821, and the three volumes of his Gradus ad Parnassum – a monumental compendium of his work from all periods – were published in 1817, 1819 and 1826. In 1830 Clementi retired from his firm, and at about this time he and his family moved to Lichfield, Staffordshire. Soon after they moved once more, some distance to the south, to Evesham in Worcestershire. There Clementi drew up his will on 2 January 1832; on 10 March, after what was described as a brief illness, he died at the age of 80. His funeral on 29 March filled Westminster Abbey, and he was buried with great ceremony in the cloisters.