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.
Italian priest and composer. He was initially educated in Trento and
Innsbruck in philosophical and humanistic subjects appropriate to the
clerical vocation he was to follow. In 1691 he was admitted to the
Collegium Germanicum in Rome, where he studied theology. While in Rome,
he also studied composition under the guidance of Giuseppe Ottavio
Pitoni and possibly violin (not documented) with Arcangelo Corelli.
Bonporti returned to Trent ordained as a priest and obtained a minor
office in the cathedral in 1697. There he published his first opus, a
set of ten trio sonatas and where on the title-page he called himself
‘gentiluomo di Trento’. He moved to Padua in 1740, lodging in the house
of a fellow priest. A final appeal to Empress Maria Theresa in 1746, in
which op.12 was enlisted, proved fruitless. He died three years later
and was buried in Padua. Bonporti regarded himself as primarily a priest
rather than a composer. His output consists in twelve opus, and the
foremost of them is his 'Concerti a quattro', Op.11 (c.1715). Such as
many italian composers of his time, he based his musical language on
Corelli.
Joseph Bologne de Saint-George (1744-1799)
- Symphonie concertante des 'Second œuvre de | deux | symphonies |
concertantes | Pour deux Violons principaux, | deux Violons ripieno,
Alto et Basse, | deux Hautbois et deux Cors, | ad Libitum ... Oeuvre IX'
(1777)
Performers: Miroslav Vilimec (violin); Radio Symphony Orchestra Pilsen; Frantisek Preisler (conductor)
Caribbean composer, violinist, swordsman, equestrian and military
commander. Son of a manumitted African mother and French plantation
owner (his last name was apparently taken from one of the plantations
his father owned), he grew up in the vicinity of Basse-Terre. His family
went to France in 1747 to escape difficulties with the law but returned
to Guadeloupe a few years later. In 1753 they moved permanently, first
to Bordeaux then to Paris, where he underwent his earliest musical
education, probably under Antonio Lolli and a few years later
François-Joseph Gossec. In 1769 he became a violinist in the Concerts
des amateurs, later becoming its director. During this time, beginning
with his debut as a soloist in 1772, he became famous for his technical
proficiency on his instruments, earning the epithet as the finest
violinist of the age. A proposal to make him musical director of the
Opéra in 1776 was blocked by four singers who refused to work with a
“mulatto.” In 1781 he founded the Loge Olympique orchestra sponsored by
one of Paris’s largest masonic lodges; he conducted the premieres of
Haydn’s so-called Paris symphonies, which he had helped commission. In
1787 he traveled to London, where his prowess as a violinist and
swordsman were thought legendary. A supporter of the Revolution, he was
given command of troops from France’s colonial domains in 1792, but a
year later he was denounced and spent 18 months in prison.
Disillusioned, he sailed to Hispanola to participate in the newly
independent Haiti of Toussant l’Ouverture. There the corruption and poor
living standards further eroded his health and state of mind. He
returned to Paris to conduct the Cercle d’harmonie orchestra, but was
unable to escape poverty. During his lifetime, Saint-Georges was a
remarkable bon vivant who freely interacted in the upper circles of
Parisian society. His music was known for its tunefulness and technical
brilliance, using devices such as bariolage that were extremely
uncommon. His 1778 opera 'Le partie du chasse' was well received. In all
he wrote six operas, 13 violin concertos, 10 sinfonia concertantes, a
bassoon concerto, two symphonies, nine violin sonatas, 18 string
quartets, and several other smaller pieces. His multifaceted personality
has been the subject of both literature (six novels) and a motion
picture. He is reckoned as one of the greatest Afro-Caribbean musicians
of the period.
German composer and conductor. He was the first child of the composer
Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai (1785-1854) and his wife Christiane Lauber.
Because of his mother’s physical and mental illness, the marriage was
dissolved a few months after Nicolai’s birth. He grew up in the care of
foster-parents until 1820, when his father took on responsibility for
his education. He studied piano at home, and in 1827 went to Berlin,
where he took lessons in theory with Carl Friedrich Zelter. He also took
courses with Bernhard Klein at the Royal Institute for Church Music. On
13 April 1833, he made his concert debut in Berlin as a pianist,
singer, and composer. He then was engaged as organist to the embassy
chapel in Rome by the Prussian ambassador, Christian Charles Josias von
Bunsen. While in Italy, he also studied counterpoint with Giuseppe
Baini. In 1837 he proceeded to Vienna, where he became a singing teacher
and Kapellmeister at the Karnthnertortheater. In 1838 he returned to
Italy where he presented in Trieste his first opera, 'Rosmonda
d'Inghilterra'. In late summer 1841 he was appointed principal conductor
of the Hofoper at the Kärntnertor, and was able to concentrate on the
operas of Mozart and Beethoven, which he particularly admired. Required
by contract to compose German operas, he provided his first original
German opera, 'Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor'. In summer 1844 he
undertook a long journey via Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin to
Königsberg, where he performed the 'Kirchliche Fest-Ouvertüre' which he
had dedicated to his native town, as part of the festival to celebrate
the 300th anniversary of the university. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of
Prussia was so impressed that he tried to tempt him to Berlin; Nicolai,
however, did not at first respond to the offer. October 1847 saw him
installed as Kapellmeister at the Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin and,
as Mendelssohn’s successor, artistic director of the cathedral choir.
Wishing to reform Prussian church services, he immediately began to
compose a series of large-scale religious works. Soon afterwards he
joined the Tonkünstlerverband, a society concerned with the
reorganization of Prussian musical life; 'Die lustigen Weiber'
eventually received its première, without huge success, on 9 March 1849.
Two months later, Nicolai died. On the same day he was elected a member
of the Akademie der Künste, but too late to receive the news.
Austrian composer and organist. Almost nothing is known about his youth
until he was documented as organist at the Benedictine abbey of Göttweig
in 1736, a post he held until 1746. That year he was appointed choral
director of St Veit, Krems an der Donau (1746-1753) while he was
studying philosophy and theology. In 1752 he was ordained priest and a
year later he was appointed to the charge of the Chapel of All Saints at
Stein an der Donau, in a post he held the rest of his life. As a
composer, he show the influence of his fellows Johann Joseph Fux and
Antonio Caldara, both active in Vienna, but evolving to early Classical
style in his later works. Despite he focused on sacred music, among
them, masses (the foremost was his Große Orgelmesse in C, 1761),
requiems, and many liturgical pieces, he also wrote instrumental music
very close to Georg Christoph Wagenseil and Georg Matthias Monn on style
terms.
Spanish composer, organist, and cleric. Born in Peníscola, he belonged
to a family of musicians, including his brother Manuel Ciurana Ardiol
(fl. 1800-1842), who served as organist at Sant Nicolau in Valencia and
known for his 'Gran Salmodia de Misas' (1842). Tomás Ciurana Ardiol was
organist at the church of Morella before moving to the Collegiate church
of Xàtiva to occupy the same position. His tenure in Xàtiva included
the professional formation of successors such as Joaquin Aparicio
Ibáñez, who resided in Ciurana’s household on Sant Domènec Street. As a
composer, his output consists of works for keyboard instruments, ranging
from liturgical pieces like 'pasos y fugas' to sonatas influenced by
the European Galant style. Historical records in Xàtiva, including his
testamentary documents, provide evidence of his role in the city's
religious institutions and the continuation of local organ traditions.
