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.
English composer and teacher. She played the harpischord and piano in
public concerts and taught music to members of the nobility, including
the Duchess of Devonshire and her daughters. In April 1787 she married
the engraver and man of letters Thomas Park (1759-1834). On 22 October
1794 Haydn wrote to thank Park for sending him two charming prints,
enclosing ‘for the Mistris Park a little Sonat’ with the promise of
visiting her within a few days. Although she suffered from ill-health
for many years, her family life was a happy one; her husband wrote
several touching poems to her. Her surviving music, spanning a quarter
of a century, is that of a very competent, professional composer. Her
sonatas are varied and spirited, while the concerto for keyboard and
strings reveals an individual voice, particularly in the final rondo.
Earlier reference works confuse her with the singer and composer Maria
F. Parke, to the extent of calling the singer Maria Hester Parke; the
British Library Catalogue of Printed Music clearly distinguishes the
two. Her keyboard sonatas opp.1 and 2 were published under her maiden
name.
Spanish composer. Probably born as José Riquero Roquer or José Ferriol,
he received music lessons at the Montserrat abbey from José Martí. In
1760 he was ordained a priest at the Real Monasterio de Guadalupe. In
1777 he was appointed 'maestro de capilla' at the same abbey in a post
he held until 1800 and alternating his music duties with the composer
Manuel del Pilar, also active as 'maestro de capilla' there from 1753 to
1794. Despite José de Barcelona was mainly focused on his sacred duties
usually not related to music, he wrote many music being active as a
composer from 1773 to 1794. In 1785 he was elected 'mayordomo mayor' of
the Real Monasterio de Guadalupe. He also wrote the treatise 'De
arithmetica et algebra et musica speculativa'.
Polish violinist and composer. He was born into a musical family with
his father, the tenor Antonio Maria Gaetano, and his mother, the singer
Elisabeth Böhm. From them, he received his early musical training, later
following his mother to Berlin when his parents divorced in 1785. After
several difficult years, he emerged in 1791 as music director and court
composer to Count Oborsky, and in his company he divided his time
between the count’s Polish estates and cities such as Berlin and Vienna.
On a visit to the latter, he studied with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
and Antonio Salieri, as well as becoming a close friend of Ludwig van
Beethoven. At a concert in 1795, he so impressed Prince Joseph Franz
Maximilian Lobkowitz that he was invited to become a teacher and
violinist in Bohemia, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1800
he married Franziska Kraft, whose father Anton gave Joseph Haydn’s
well-known cello concerto its première. Unlike his parents, Cartellieri
had a happy marriage which produced three sons, including Joseph
Cartellieri (1803-1870) who succeeded to his father’s post with
Lobkowitz. Antonio Casimir Cartellieri died of a heart attack at the age
of 35. As a composer, his works include seven operas, two monodramas or
dialogues, three oratorios, 11 Masses, three symphonies, five
concertos, three wind partitas, and numerous other smaller sacred works.
Cartellieri’s music is characterized by a good sense of orchestral
color, as well as progressive harmony.
English composer and music publisher. Nothing is known about his life
despite almost his entire music output was printed and published in
London and Dublin. We can guess through the frontpiece of his works, he
was also active as harp teacher. As a composer, his extant production
include, among others, several keyboard pieces and chamber music, a set
of 'Twelve favorite canzonets ... set with accompanyments for the piano
forte or pedal harp ... op. IV', 'A favorite collection of progressive
lessons for the harp, selected and composed ... op. 8' and 'Two duets
for two harps, piano-forte & harp, or two piano fortes ... op. 7'.
Italian composer. He was born into a musical family, the eldest of seven
children of Rosario Bellini (1776-1840) and Agata Ferlito (1779-1842),
and niece of the organist and composer Vincenzo Tobia Bellini
(1744-1829). He received his first musical instruction from his father
and grandfather, and soon revealed a fine gift of melody. The Duke and
Duchess of San Martino e Montalbo took interest in him and in 1819
arranged to have him enter the Real Collegio di Musica di San Sebastiano
in Naples, where he studied harmony and accompaniment with Giovanni
Furno and counterpoint with Giacomo Tritto. He further studied the vocal
arts with Girolamo Crescentini and composition with Nicola Zingarelli.
Under their guidance, he made a detailed study of the works of
Pergolesi, Jommelli, Paisiello, and Cimarosa, as well as those of the
German classics. While still in school, he wrote several sinfonias, two
masses, and the cantata 'Ismene' (1824). His first opera, 'Adelson e
Salvini', was given at the Collegio in 1825; it was followed by the
premiere at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples of his second opera, 'Bianca e
Gernando' (1826). In 1827 he went to Milan, where he was commissioned
by the impresario Barbaja to write an opera seria for the famous Teatro
alla Scala; it was 'Il Pirata', which obtained fine success at its
premiere on 1827; it was also given in Vienna in 1828. It was followed
by another opera, 'La Straniera' (1829). He was then commissioned to
write a new opera for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, on a Shakespearean
libretto; it was I Capuleti e i Montecchi; first performed on 1830, it
had a decisive success. Even more successful was his next opera, 'La
Sonnambula', which was premiered in Milan on 1831, with the celebrated
prima donna Giuditta Pasta as Amina. Pasta also appeared in the title
role of Bellini's most famous opera, 'Norma', first given at La Scala on
26 December 1831, which at its repeated productions established
Bellini's reputation as a young master of the Italian operatic bel
canto. He then had an opportunity to go to London and Paris, and it was
in Paris that he brought out his last opera, 'I Puritani' (1835), which
fully justified the expectations of his admirers. He was on his way to
fame and universal artistic recognition when he was stricken with a
fatal affliction of amebiasis, and died six weeks before his 34th
birthday. His remains were reverently removed to his native Catania in
1876. Bellini's music represents the Italian operatic school at its most
glorious melodiousness, truly reflected by the term 'bel canto'. In his
writing, the words, the rhythm, the melody, the harmony, and the
instrumental accompaniment unite in mutual perfection. The lyric flow
and dramatic expressiveness of his music provide a natural medium for
singers in the Italian language, with the result that his greatest
masterpieces, 'La Sonnambula' and 'Norma', remain in the active
repertoire of opera houses of the entire world, repeatedly performed by
touring Italian opera companies and by native forces everywhere.
