GREENE, Maurice (1696-1755) - Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis (c.1735)

Maurice Greene (1696-1755) - Morning Service (in C); Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis (c.1735) 

Performers: Choir of Ely Cathedral

Painting: Federico Barocci (1528-1612) - The Head of Saint John the Evangelist (c.1580)

Further info: Maurice Greene (1696-1755) - Anthems

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Maurice Greene

(London, 12 August 1696 - London, 1 December 1755)

English composer and organist. He came of a well-to-do family which, claiming descent from the medieval Greenes of Green's Norton, had held estates in Essex since the end of the 16th century. His grandfather, John Greene (1616-1659), had been Recorder of the City of London; his father, the Rev. Thomas Greene DD (1648-1720), a chaplain of the Chapel Royal and canon of Salisbury, was vicar of the London parishes of St Olave Jewry and St Martin Pomeroy. As the youngest of seven children, Maurice is said to have been brought up in the choir of St Paul's Cathedral under Jeremiah Clarke and Charles King, and in 1710, to have been articled to Richard Brind, organist of the cathedral since Clarke's death. In March 1714 he took up his first appointment as organist of St Dunstan-in-the-West and in February 1718 he also became organist of St Andrew's, Holborn. A month later Brind died, and he was immediately chosen to succeed him at St Paul's. Though technically a vicar-choral, he was responsible, as organist, not only for the daily round of cathedral services but also for the music at the annual Festival of the Sons of the Clergy, and in that capacity he composed many large-scale orchestral anthems and occasional settings of the Te Deum. By this time too, he had become intimate with Handel who, it appears, had a particular liking for the organ of St Paul's and was a frequent visitor to the cathedral. Later they fell out so violently that, to quote Burney, ‘for many years of his life, [Handel] never spoke of [Greene] without some injurious epithet’. Greene's marriage to Mary Dillingham (1699-1767), a cousin of Jeremiah Clarke, must have taken place shortly after his appointment to St Paul's, for the first of their five children was born in May of the following year. In addition to his duties at the cathedral and his work as a teacher – Travers, Boyce and Stanley were among his first pupils – he was also involved in a good deal of secular music-making, as a founder-member of the Castle Society, and also of the Academy of Ancient Music, at whose weekly meetings some at least of Greene's own works were performed. 

Before long, however, he was caught up in the celebrated Bononcini affair which, in 1731, split the ranks of the academicians and, according to Hawkins, ‘made a great noise in the musical world’. As the agent of the deception by which Giovanni Bononcini sought to pass off a Lotti madrigal as his own, Greene found himself on the losing side and promptly withdrew from the academy, taking the boys of St Paul’s and many of the society’s best performers with him. They then set up a rival body, the Apollo Academy, at the Devil Tavern in Fleet Street, which was apparently devoted mainly to the interests of its three leading composer-members, Greene, Boyce and Festing. In 1738, together with Festing, he was also instrumental in establishing the Fund for the Support of Decay'd Musicians and their Families (later the Royal Society of Musicians). On Croft's death in August 1727, he was appointed organist and composer of the Chapel Royal. On 6 July 1730 the new Senate House in Cambridge was opened with a performance of his setting of Pope's Ode on St Cecilia's Day, specially adapted for the occasion by the poet himself. The next day the composer was formally admitted ‘Doctor in Musica’ and, ‘in compliment to his performance’, was shortly afterwards made professor of music, a purely honorary position which had been vacant since the death of Tudway in November 1726. The Mastership of the King's Musick followed in January 1735. Greene, not yet 40, now held every major musical appointment in the land. In January 1750 Katharine Greene (1729-1797), the composer's only surviving child, married the Rev. Michael Festing, son of one of Greene's oldest friends and professional associates. About this time, his health began to deteriorate: the Apollo Academy was disbanded and the conductorship of the Sons of the Clergy festival passed to Boyce. His last years were largely occupied with preparations for a projected collection of church music, ancient and modern, copies of which he apparently intended to present to every cathedral in England.

WOLF, Ernst Wilhelm (1735-1792) - Sinfonia (G-Dur) à 6 voci (1789)

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (1735-1792) - Sinfonia (G-Dur) à 6 voci (1789)

Performers: Staatskapelle Weimar

Painting: Unknown artist - Portrait of Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (1735-1792)

Further info: Meister Goethe Zeit

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Ernst Wilhelm Wolf

(Grossen Behringen, bap. 25 February 1735 - Weimar, 30 November 1792) 

German composer. By the age of seven he was skilled in the practice of thoroughbass. He attended the Gymnasien at Eisenach and Gotha and became a choir prefect. In Gotha he was fascinated by works of Graun and C.P.E. Bach and participated in concerts at the court; when one of his works was performed in 1752, Bach praised it. Encouraged by his elder brother, Ernst Friedrich Wolf (a composer, organist and pupil of G.H. Stölzel), he went to the University of Jena in 1755 and there became the director of the collegium musicum, for which he composed a number of works including the cantata Streit zwischen Phöbus und Pan (1758) for the 200th anniversary of the university. When he went to Leipzig in 1758 his reputation increased further in the circle of J.F. Doles and J.A. Hiller. After a period in Naumburg as music teacher to the von Ponickau family, Wolf set off for Italy but ended his journey in Weimar as music tutor to Duchess Anna Amalia's sons; at Weimar he became the court Konzertmeister (1761), organist (1763) and Kapellmeister (1772). In 1770 he married the chamber music singer and harpsichordist Maria Carolina Benda (see Benda family), with whom he made a concert tour to Berlin; Wolf was also related to J.F. Reichardt. It is uncertain whether, at the instigation of the duchess, Wolf refused an offer from Frederick the Great of Prussia to succeed C.P.E. Bach. He remained in Weimar until his death. Wolf was a leading figure at the Weimar court and was in close contact with members of the Musenhof (including Wieland, Goethe, Herder, von Einsiedel, von Seckendorff, Kotzebue, Bertuch and Musäus) and with the duchess herself. He devoted himself above all to creating new modes of expression, and despite some conventional elements his works were known far beyond Weimar during his lifetime. He wrote about 20 Singspiele and numerous pieces for the church and court. The Singspiele are typical of the period in Weimar: Das Rosenfest, Die Dorfdeputierten and Le monde de la lune show the influence of Rousseau and Hiller; Die treuen Köhler, Der Abend im Walde and Ehrlichkeit und Liebe are encumbered with modish and ephemeral features in their idyllic conception of nature. Occasionally, apart from galant phrases, his sensitivity leads to shallowness (e.g. the song Röschen, Gretchen, Lieschen, Hännchen); this corresponds to his imitation of popular elements. However, Friedlaender's assertion that Wolf's melodies are ‘insignificant [and] unattractive’ is only partly correct. In Die Dorfdeputierten folksong elements (as in the trio ‘Ein Hund, ein Kätzchen’, with its ‘Wau, wau’ and ‘Miau, miau’ imitations, and the laughing chorus) are mingled with Singspiel formulae reminiscent of Mozart (e.g. ‘Süsse Hoffnung, Tochter des Himmels’). A simplicity achieved through doubling, monotonous superficial repetitions and the use of a continuo characterizes the other dramatic works and some of the secular cantatas (e.g. Polyxena and Serafina).

DONIZETTI, Gaetano (1797-1848) - Kyrie e Gloria in Re maggiore

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) - Kyrie e Gloria in Re maggiore

Performers: Valentina di Cola (soprano); Emanuela Deffai (mezzosoprano); Roberto Bencivenga (tenor); Carlo di Cristoforo (bass); Symphony Orchestra of Praga; Eduardo Brizio (conductor)

Drawing: Anonymous - Stage Design, Interior of Papal Palace (1777)

Further info: Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) - Sinfonie da Opere

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(Domenico) Gaetano (Maria) Donizetti

(Bergamo, 29 November 1797 - Bergamo 8 April 1848)

Italian composer. A dominant figure in Italian opera, he was equally successful in comic and serious genres, and an important precursor of Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo, the fifth of six children of Andrea and Domenica (Nava) Donizetti. The family lived in extremely modest circumstances: the highest station Andrea Donizetti achieved was that of custodian and usher at Bergamo's pawnshop, the Monte de' Pegni. Donizetti's early encounters with music were made possible by his first composition teacher and lifelong mentor, Simon Mayr, a native of Bavaria who was maestro di cappella at the cathedral of S Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. At the age of nine, Donizetti was admitted as a scholarship student to the Lezioni Caritatevoli, a school Mayr founded in the same year to train musicians for the cathedral. Donizetti took classes in singing and keyboard, and, later, in composition and theory with Mayr himself. In 1815 Mayr arranged for Donizetti to continue his studies at Bologna's Liceo Filarmonico Comunale under Padre Stanislao Mattei. When Donizetti concluded his studies in Bologna in 1817, Mayr helped him to obtain his first professional engagement, a commission that resulted in Enrico di Borgogna, performed in November 1818 at the Teatro di S Luca in Venice. Up to this point Donizetti's professional activities had been confined to northern Italy and to smaller theatres, but in 1821 he was invited – probably again on Mayr's recommendation – to compose a new opera for the Teatro Argentina in Rome. The resulting work, Zoraid di Granata, was Donizetti's most successful yet, winning him an invitation from the leading impresario of the time, Domenico Barbaja, to write for Naples. Donizetti settled in Naples in February 1822 and was to be based there for the next 16 years, although he quickly began to receive performances and commissions across a widening geographical area. 

In 1825-26 Donizetti embarked on a disastrous year at the Teatro Carolino in Palermo, a position that paid him only 45 ducats a month (the prima donna earned more than ten times that sum). The only operatic product of this failed experiment was Alahor in Granata, which was much criticized for the ‘immorality’ of its libretto and for excessive reliance on Rossinian formulas. Upon returning to Naples in 1827 Donizetti signed a new and demanding contract with Barbaja, for four new operas per year over three years. In 1828 Donizetti accepted the position of director of the royal theatres of Naples, a post he would hold until 1838. After more than a decade of what might be called apprenticeship, Donizetti's reputation was established, nationally and internationally, by the success of his 31st opera, Anna Bolena. Performed in 1830 in a special carnival season at the Teatro Carcano in Milan that also included the première of Bellini's La sonnambula, the opera was an immediate success, quickly going on to be performed in Paris and London, and decisively altering many aspects of Donizetti's career. Like that of Rossini and Bellini, Donizetti's success was dependent on the cooperation and support of the singers who performed his operas, and interactions with singers in rehearsal were always a significant influence on the development of his style. Donizetti left Naples in October 1838 and moved permanently to Paris. In March 1842 Rossini attempted to persuade Donizetti to accept the post of maestro di cappella at the cathedral of S Petronio in Bologna, but Donizetti declined in order to accept the far more prestigious position of Hofkapellmeister to the Habsburg court in Vienna and court composer to the Austrian emperor. The Vienna job paid 1000 Austrian lire per month ‘for doing nothing’ (as the delighted Donizetti put it), and allowed for five or six months of leave; the duties were to give lessons at a conservatory, to conduct concerts in the royal apartments two or three times a year, and to write pieces for the chapel and court. He spent his last years in Bergamo where he died due to ‘cerebro-spinal syphilis’.

PISENDEL, Johann Georg (1687-1755) - Concerto (D-Dur) à piu strumenti

Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755) - Concerto (D-Dur) à piu strumenti (c.1740)

Performers: Petra Mullejans (violin); Baroque Orchestra of Freiburg

Painting: Edwaert Collier (1640-1707) - A Vanitas Still Life with a Violin, a Recorder and a Score of Music

Further info: Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755) - Simfonia, violin concerto & concerto grosso

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Johann Georg Pisendel

(Cadolzburg, 26 December 1687 - Dresden, 25 November 1755)

German violinist and composer. His family came from Markneukirchen, but in 1680 Pisendel's father settled in Cadolzburg as a Kantor. Pisendel entered the Ansbach court chapel as a chorister in 1697, and six years later became a violinist in the court orchestra. While at Ansbach he studied singing with Pistocchi and the violin with Torelli. In 1709 he travelled to Leipzig, breaking the journey at Weimar where he met Bach. Pisendel studied at Leipzig University for some time and was soon accepted in musical circles there. In 1709 he performed a concerto by Albinoni (not Torelli) with the collegium musicum, and when Melchior Hoffmann embarked on a concert tour in 1710, Pisendel deputized for him both in the collegium and in the opera orchestra. The following year Pisendel visited Darmstadt; there he took part in a performance of Graupner's opera Telemach, but declined the offer of a permanent post at court. From January 1712, Pisendel was employed as a violinist with the Dresden court orchestra. He took over the Konzertmeister's duties when Volumier died in 1728, the official title being conferred upon him in 1730. During the early years of his employment Pisendel made several tours in the entourage of the electoral prince, visiting France (1714), Berlin (1715) and Italy (1716-17). The Italian visit influenced Pisendel profoundly: a nine-month stay in Venice (from April 1716) enabled him to study with Vivaldi and a close friendship developed between the two musicians. In 1717 Pisendel moved on to Rome (where he took lessons from Montanari), Naples and other Italian cities before returning to Dresden that autumn. After a visit to Vienna in 1718 his tours became less frequent, but he accompanied his royal patron to Berlin (1728, 1744) and Warsaw (1734). Pisendel was the foremost German violinist of his day. Quantz praised his interpretation of adagio movements and Hasse commented on his assured grasp of tempo. Several leading composers (Vivaldi, Albinoni and Telemann) dedicated works to him. Pisendel was also admired for his success as an orchestral director, in which his precision and thoroughness played a major part. It was said that, before the performance of a new work, he would go through every orchestral part adding detailed bowing and expression marks. Although Pisendel's duties left little time for composition his small output of instrumental music is of the highest quality. A pupil of Heinichen in composition, he also came, through his travels, into direct contact with the French and Italian styles. Italian influence predominates in the violin concertos, which are written in Vivaldian manner but with occasional traces of a more overtly galant idiom. The solo violin sonata (dated ?1716 by Jung), is a fine work in the German tradition and may have influenced Bach's music for unaccompanied violin. Manuscript collections in Dresden show Pisendel to have been among the most important collectors of music in central Germany; many of the scores he owned were later added to those of the Dresden Kapelle and catalogued along with them. The most famous of Pisendel's pupils were J.G. Graun and Franz Benda.

CHILCOT, Thomas (1707-1766) - Organ Concerto in D, No.3 (1765)

Thomas Chilcot (1707-1766) - Organ Concerto in D, No.3 (1765)

Performers: Andrew Wilson-Dickson (organ); Welsh Baroque Orchestra

Map: George Willdey (1676-1737) - Map of Great Britain and Ireland (1715)

Further info: Thomas Chilcot - Songs and Concertos

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Thomas Chilcot

(Bath?, 1707 - Bath, 24 November 1766)

English composer and organist. He was educated at Bath Charity School, and was apprenticed in 1721 to Bath Abbey organist Josias Priest, on whose death in 1725 he became acting organist on full salary. In 1728, when his apprenticeship was due to end, his appointment was confirmed, and he remained in the post until his death, rarely travelling far from Bath. He married Elizabeth Mills of Bath in 1729 and had seven children, of whom four survived. Following Elizabeth's death, he married Anne Wrey, a member of a prominent West Country family, in 1749; Thomas and Anne are depicted on a memorial tablet in Tawstock Church, near Barnstaple. Chilcot was active in the concert life of Bath, rented out instruments, and was a freemason and a founder-member of the Society of Musicians. His large private library, including a collection of Handel manuscripts, was sold by auction in 1767 and again in 1774. His pupils included Thomas Linley. The 12 concertos are sophisticated, large-scale works. The meticulously planned first movements are cast in binary form (occasionally evoking sonata forms), but the relationship between solo and tutti resembles ritornello form. Like the early works of Domenico Scarlatti, the first set of concertos is full of hand crossings, several-octave arpeggios and leaping figures. The second set is more restrained and mature. The slow movements are galant in style: the D minor Adagio from the fifth concerto of the 1765 set, for instance, has long coloratura melodies without losing its sense of direction. Orchestral parts were published for the 1756 concertos, and a set once owned by William Boyce was catalogued in 1928, but all copies are now lost (except for a single violin part at GB-Gm). The second set of concertos was intended to be published in the early 1760s, but was not actually issued until early 1767, shortly after Chilcot's death. The title-page mentions ‘accompanyments’, but it is uncertain whether orchestral parts were ever issued.