GRAF, Christian Ernst (1723-1804) - Sinfonia in D-Dur (1776)

Christian Ernst Graf (1723-1804) - Sinfonia (I, D-Dur) à deux violons, taille, basse, deux hautbois ou flûtes

et 2. cors de chasse, œuvre XIV (1776)

Performers: L'Arpa festante; Christoph Hesse (conductor)

Painting: Paulus Constantijn la Fargue (1729-1782) - The Grote Markt at The Hague

Further info: Christian Ernst Graf (1723-1804) - Sinfonia in C-Dur (1776)

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Christian Ernst Friedrich Graf [Graaf]

(Rudolstadt, 30 June 1723 - The Hague, 17 July 1804)

Dutch-German composer and organist, brother of Friedrich Hartmann Graf (1727-1795). Son of the Kapellmeister to the court of the Count of Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt, Johann Graf (1684-1750), he was trained by his father as a violinist and keyboardist, later joining the court orchestra as the former. In 1748 he left for the Netherlands to seek his fortune, finding employment as the director of the collegium musicum in the city of Middelburg in 1750. He elevated the quality of the performances to such an extent that he came to the attention of the Dutch court. During this period he also published his first work, the Sei Sinfonie Op. 1. In 1754 he moved to The Hague, where he was employed by Princess Anna of Hannover, later becoming Kapellmeister to William V. In 1782 he published his treatise Proeve over de Natuur der Harmonie, and in 1790 he retired. Charles Burney noted that he was an educated man who was cheerful and had a gift for teaching. As a composer, he wrote 62 symphonies, 30 string quartets, 19 trio sonatas, 18 flute quintets, 12 flute quartets, six piano sonatas, six violin sonatas, a host of smaller chamber pieces, two oratorios, and around 35 Lieder. His style incorporates Italianate mannerism common to the Mannheim composers, although his late works, particularly his oratorio from 1802 Der Tod Jesu is more akin to Joseph Haydn’s late oratorios in his large-scale setting and unusually dramatic musical language. His Grande Symphonie Hollandaise is a large-scale work that incorporates a chorus, more an oratorio than a symphony.

MUTHEL, Johann Gottfried (1728-1788) - Concerto per il cembalo

Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728-1788) - Concerto (B-Dur) per il cembalo, IJM 6

Performers: Björn Gäfvert (harpsichord); Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble; Nils Erik Sparf (conductor)

Painting: Johann Heinrich Tischbein (1722-1789) - Family Timmermann (1758)

Further info: Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728-1788) - Concerto (Es-Dur) di Joh: Gottfr: Müthel

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Johann (Jean) Gottfried (Godfried, Godefroy) Müthel [Muethel]

(Mölln, 17 January 1728 - Bienenhof, nr Riga, 14 July 1788)

German composer. Son of Christian Caspar Müthel (1696-1764), organist at the Nikolaikirche in Mölln, he received his earliest musical instruction from his father. Later, when he was in Lübeck, he studied under Johann Paul Kunzen. In 1747 he was appointed court organist of Mecklenburg-Schwerin under Duke Christian Ludwig II. In 1750 he was given a year’s leave of absence to further his studies and he traveled to Leipzig to meet Johann Sebastian Bach, and remained with him for a few days before Bach's death. He then studied with Bach’s son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnikol in Naumburg and Johann Adolph Hasse in nearby Dresden. Toward the end of the year he found himself in Berlin, where he formed a fast friendship with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who also gave him some lessons. After returning to Schwerin, he moved to Riga, then under Russian rule, with Duke Christian’s brother, Otto Hermann von Vietinghof, where he remained the rest of his life. His only other position came in 1767 when he was appointed as organist at the St. Peter’s Church there. As a performer, he had some peculiar quirks, with it being said that he refused to perform other than in winter so that the sounds of the horses on the cobbles outside would not distract him. Among his extant works are 10 harpsichord concertos, a Concerto for 2 Bassoons and Strings, sonatas for Harpsichord, and organ music. Charles Burney wrote of him: ‘The style of this composer more resembles that of Emanuel Bach, than any other. But the passages are entirely his own, and reflect as much honour upon his head as his hand’.

GANSBACHER, Johann Baptist (1778-1844) - Requiem in Es (1811)

Johann Baptist Gänsbacher (1778-1844) - Requiem in Es Nro. I (1811)

Performers: Maria ErIachеr (soprano); Monika Duringеr (alt); Johannеs PuchIеitnеr (tenor); RaIf Ernst (bass);

Chor und Orchester des Akadеmischеn Musikvеrеins für Tіrol; Jοsеf Wеtzingеr (conductor)

Painting: Karl von Blaas (1815-1894) - Die heilige Katharina von Alexandria, von Engeln zum Berg Sinai getragen

Further info: Johann Baptist Gänsbacher (1778-1844) - Symphonie D-Dur (1807)

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Johann (Baptist Peter Joseph) Gänsbacher [Gaensbacher, Gensbacher]

(Sterzing, [now Vipiteno], 8 May 1778 - Vienna, 13 July 1844)

Austrian composer and conductor. Son of Johann Gänsbacher (1751-1806), he studied music as a choirboy in Sterzing, Innsbruck, Hall and Bolzano. He also had lessons in piano, organ, violin, cello and thoroughbass. In 1795 he went to the university at Innsbruck and studied first philosophy, then law, supporting himself by giving music lessons, playing the organ, singing in church choirs and playing in the theatre orchestra. His first compositions date from this period. While at university he took part in four campaigns against Napoleon. In 1801 he went to Vienna to continue his musical studies, and was relieved of financial worries when Count Firmian, who further promoted his career as a musician, took him into his family as a son in about 1803. In Vienna he had lessons from the Abbé Vogler (1803-04) and from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1806). A Mass in C, composed through the offices of Vogler for Nikolaus Esterhazy in 1806, established his reputation as a composer. Nevertheless, he returned to Vogler in Darmstadt for a short period in 1810, where his fellow-pupils and friends included Weber and Meyerbeer, who admitted him as a founder-member of the ‘Harmonische Verein’, for which he was active until 1813. In January 1813 he met Weber in Prague and recommended him for the post of Kapellmeister of the theatre. In the summer of the same year Gänsbacher returned to the Tyrol to join the fighting to liberate the province from the Bavarian occupation. After the end of the war he did not return to the Firmian family but joined the army as a first lieutenant (1814). He was stationed first in Italian garrisons, in Trient, Mantua and Padua then at Innsbruck in 1815, where he again tried to gain a foothold as a musician. He worked as a conductor and director of a church choir, and helped to found the Musikverein, though he did not gain the position of chief conductor. He did not accept the post of director of music in Dresden, offered him at the instigation of Weber in 1823, since (after representations against the election of Joseph Weigl), he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Stephansdom in Vienna as successor to Josef Preindl in September 1824. One of the choristers was his nephew Anton Mitterwurzer (1818-1876), later famous as an opera singer. As a composer, he mainly focused on church music but he also left a symphony, a clarinet concerto as well as several chamber works and secular songs and cantatas. He was one of the foremost composers in Vienna. 

DANNER, Christian Franz (1757-1813) - Premier concerto à violon principal

Christian Franz Danner (1757-1813) - Premier concerto (F-Dur) à violon principal (1786)

Performers: Gottfried von der Goltz (violin); Freiburger Barockorchester

Painting: Anton Radl (1772-1852) - Das Ende der Kirchweihe

Further info: Mozart's Mannheim

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Christian Franz Danner

(Schwetzingen, bap. 12 July 1757 - Rastatt, 29 April 1813)

German violinist and composer. A pupil of his godfather Christian Cannabich, he is listed as a supernumerary violinist in the Mannheim court orchestra in 1770-72 and as a violinist in 1773-78. By 1776 he was receiving a salary of 300 gulden, which rose to 450 in 1778. His great ability on the violin is confirmed by Mozart, who taught him composition in Mannheim (as recorded in a letter from Mozart’s mother, 14 December 1777). He accompanied the court when it moved to Munich in 1778, and there gave violin instruction to his most famous pupil, Friedrich Johann Eck. In 1785 he became Konzertmeister in Zweibrücken, and three years later took over the same position at Karlsruhe. From 1803 he held the title of musical director to the Grand Duchy of Baden. His only known work is a violin concerto composed in Munich in 1786 and published about two years later by Sieber in Paris and Amon in Heilbronn.

MICHL, Joseph Willibald (1745-1816) - O sapientia (c.1780)

Joseph Willibald Michl (1745-1816) - O sapientia quae ex ore altissimi (c.1780)

Performers: Erika Rüggeberg (soprano); Convivium Musicum München; Erich Keller (conductor)

Painting: Bénigne Gagneraux (1756-1795) - L'éducation d'Achille (1785)

Further info: Augustiner Chorherrenstift Weyarn

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(Johann) Joseph (Christian) Willibald Michl [Michel, Michelini]

(Neumarkt, 9 July 1745 - Neumarkt, 1 August 1816)

German double bass player and composer. He was son of Johann Anton Leonhard Michl (1716-1781), choirmaster and organist in Neumarkt, and brother of Martin Leonhard Michl (1749-?) and Johann Michael Michl (1754-?). He settled in Munich and studied at the electoral Gymnasium and Lyceum, and was an accomplished double bass player in the Jesuit church of St Michael until about 1767. In the 1760s Elector Maximilian III Joseph sent him to Freising to study for two years under Placidus von Camerloher. By the beginning of 1771 at the latest Michl was named a composer to the electoral chamber. His opera buffa 'Il barone di Torre' (1772) was remarkably successful, and in 1774 he travelled to Italy at the elector’s expense. In 1776 he wrote within four weeks (in place of the ill Josef Mysliveček) the Carnival opera 'Il trionfo di Clelia' for the Munich court. With the succession of the new elector, Carl Theodor, in January 1778 he was dismissed with a pension of 125 florins, raised to 240 florins in 1790. In July 1779 he was granted a privilege to publish music in manuscript; he seems however to have restricted this activity to his own works. From about 1784 to 1 September 1803 he lived with his brother-in-law, Johann Baptist Moser, a judge at the Augustinian prebendary institute at Weyarn, and wrote sacred works as well as symphonies and school dramas for the monastery. In 1786 he also taught composition at the Benedictine abbey at Tegernsee. As a composer, he was mainly known for his sacred works.