PUGNANI, Gaetano (1731-1798) - Sinfonia a più Strumenti (c.1775)

Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798) - Sinfonia (Si bemolle maggiore) a più Strumenti (c.1775)

Performers: Neue Düssеldorfеr Hofmusik; Mary Utіgеr (conductor)

Painting: Anton Kern (1709-1747) - Rinaldo und Armida im Zauberwald (c.1735)

Further info: Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798) - Concerto in re maggiore per due violini

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(Giulio) Gaetano (Gerolamo) Pugnani [Pugnano, Pugniani]

(Turin, 27 November 1731 - Turin, 15 July 1798)

Italian violinist and composer. Trained under Giovanni Battista Somis and Giuseppe Tartini, at the age of ten he began his career as a second violinist in the orchestra at the Teatro Regio, Turin, though his official appointment was delayed until 19 April 1748. Two years later he made his debut at the Concerts spirituels in Paris. Was then when 'The Mercure de France' wrote: ‘the connoisseurs insist that they have never heard a violinist superior to this virtuoso’. From 1767 to 1769 he served as conductor at the King’s Theatre in London, where his first opera, 'Nanetta e Lubino' (1769), met with success. He also appeared in concerts with Johann Christian Bach and other prominent musicians. In 1770 he became first violinist of the king’s music in Turin, a post his teacher Somis had held and which included the leadership of the Teatro Regio orchestra. His most famous pupil was Giovanni Battista Viotti, with whom he toured Europe as far as Russia in the 1780s and 1790s, thereby becoming the direct link between the early violin styles of Tartini and the later international style represented by Viotti. His last foreign journey took him to Vienna, where on 22 March 1796 he conducted his orchestral suite based on Goethe’s Werther. As a composer, he was known for his dramatic and harmonically adventurous works. These include eight operas, the mentioned 'Werther', six concert arias, an oratorio, three cantatas, 19 symphonies, eight quintets, five violin concertos, six string quartets, 45 trios, 18 duets, 20 violin sonatas and numerous dances.

BAUR, Jean (1719-1777) - Sonate pour harpe et clavecin (c.1774)

Jean Baur (1719-1777) - Sonate pour harpe et clavecin des 'Sonates pour la harpe dont deux

avec un accompagnement chantant pour le clavecin ou le forte-piano et deux

avec un accompagnement de violon ad libitum ... œuvre VIII' (c.1774)

Performers: Clara Izаmbеrt (harp); Marie van Rhіjn (harpsichord)

Drawing: Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) - A woman plays the harp and sings, but her husband sleeps

Further info: Jean Baur (1719-1777) - Sonates pour harpe et clavecin (c.1773)

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Jean Baur [Baur 'le père']

(Bouzonville, 1719 - Paris?, 1777)

French composer and harpist. He was the first member of a family of musicians. He settled in Paris in 1745, four years before Georg Adam Goepfert introduced the pedal harp there. Jean Baur was among the first one on using the pedal harp in his chamber works, and his sonatas with clavecin or fortepiano accompaniment mark him as the earliest known composer to differentiate between the harp and keyboard instruments. Among his works, dozens of sonates for several instruments compiled in collections printed and published in Paris. His daughter Marie-Marguerite Baur (1748-after 1790) was also an harpist active in Paris, where she made her début at the Concert Spirituel in 1762. His son Barthélemy Baur (1751-1823) was an harpist and composer active in Tours, and his grandson Charles-Alexis Baur (1789-after 1820) was an harpist, pianist, teacher and composer active in London.

SIMRAK, Ján (1600-1657) - Missa Super omnes gentes

Ján Šimrák (1600-1657) - Missa Super omnes gentes

Performers: Camerata Brаtislаva; Jan Rozеhnаl (conductor)

Painting: Jan Brueghel II (1601-1678) - Die Ruhe auf der Flucht

Further info: Šimbracký - Latin Church music

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Ján (Johannes) Šimrák [Schimbrack, Schimrag, Schimbracky, Šimbracký et al.]

(1600 - Spišské Podhradie, 1657)

Slovak composer and organist. Almost nothing is known about his life and career. He came from the German evangelical environment of Spiš where he was born into a family of priests and teachers. It was mentioned as a senator of the Podhradie city council from 1637 until his death in 1657 and as organist in Spišské Podhradie. As a composer, he mainly wrote sacred music the most of them currently preserved in three tablature books which contains almost the whole of his extant output.

MARPURG, Friedrich Wilhelm (1718-1795) - Concerto per il Clavicembalo

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-1795) - Concerto (B-Dur) per il Clavicembalo (1757)

World Premiere Recording

Performers: Pau NG on Sibelius with samples of a German harpsichord (18th Century)

Painting: Johann Nikolaus Grooth (1723-1797) - Kurfürst Maximilian III. Joseph mit seiner Gemahlin und Schwester

Further info: Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-1795) - Partita Sesta C-Dur (1756)

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Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg [Marpourg, Simeon Metaphrastes der Jüngere]

(Seehof, 21 November 1718 - Berlin, 22 May 1795)

German critic, journalist, theorist and composer. Although little is known about his musical training, he was resident in Paris in 1746, where he became friends with François Marie Arouet 'Voltaire' and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, among others. Shortly after his return to Germany, he published his first work, 'Der critische Musicus an der Spree', which was followed in 1754 by his most famous and widely distributed journal, 'Historisch-kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik'. In 1752 he wrote an extended preface for Johann Sebastian Bach’s Kunst der Fuge under the auspices of publisher Breitkopf. Economic difficulties were overcome in 1763 when he was given a post at the Prussian Lottery, three years later becoming its director. His final major work, the 'Kritische Briefe über die Tonkunst', published between 1760 and 1764, was equally significant in establishing his reputation as a critic and theorist. As a composer, he showed that he was one of the significant figures in the Berlin School. He composed 185 Lieder (many of which were published in anthologies he edited), six sonatas for harpsichord (c.1755), a collection of fugues (1777) and two collections of chorale preludes.

KOZELUH, Leopold (1747-1818) - Simphonie à grand orchestre (1787)

Leopold Koželuh (1747-1818) - Simphonie (Sol mineur) à grand orchestre ... oeuvre 22 (1787)

Performers: Collеgium 1704; Václav Lսks (conductor)

Drawing: Dirk Langendijk (1748-1805) - Battle Scene with Church at right (c.1795)

Further info: Leopold Kozeluch (1747-1818) - Piano concerto B-Dur (c.1786)

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(Jan Antonín) Leopold (Leopoldo) Koželuh [Kozeluch, Kotzeluch, Goscheloch et al.]

(Velvary, 26 June 1747 - Vienna, 7 May 1818)

Bohemian composer, pianist, music teacher and publisher. His earliest musical education was under Antonín Kubík and his cousin Jan Antonín Koželuh in his hometown. By 1771 he had moved to Prague, where he studied briefly under František Xaver Dusek and wrote ballets for the National Theatre. By 1774 he had Germanized his name to prevent confusion with his cousin Jan Antonín Koželuh (1738-1814), arriving in Vienna in 1778 to study under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. In 1781 he was given the post as teacher of Archduchess Elisabeth, Georg Christoph Wagenseil’s old position. By 1781 he was so well established there that he could refuse an offer to succeed Mozart as court organist to the Archbishop of Salzburg. He remained active in Viennese musical and social circles the remainder of his life, although in 1792 he was named as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s successor as Kapellmeister in Prague, a position that did not require residence. Although he is best known for his disparaging remarks on the music of Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven, as a composer he had a reputation for works that demonstrated good orchestration and solid formal structures. His 400 or so compositions include six operas, 25 ballets, five Masses, numerous smaller church works, two oratorios, 30 symphonies, 22 piano concertos (plus others for clarinet and bassoon), two sinfonia concertantes, 24 violin sonatas, six string quartets, 63 keyboard trios, 10 parthies, two serenades, eight divertimentos, 61 dances, 87 keyboard sonatas, nine secular cantatas, and six vocal notturnos. His daughter Katharina Koželuh-Cibbini (1785-1858) was a well-known pianist and composer of piano music during the early 19th century in Vienna.