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.
Spanish composer. Baptized in the Santa Maria del Mar parish in
Barcelona, he began his musical studies as a choirboy at the Escolania
de Montserrat. In 1778 he was appointed 'maestro de capilla' at Seu
d'Urgell Cathedral. After his ordination as a priest in 1780, he secured
the post of 'maestro de capilla' at Girona Cathedral in 1781,
succeeding Francesc Juncà, and in a post he held until 1785. In that
year he transferred to Córdoba to assume this magisterium, a position he
retained until his death, with one brief interruption between 1787 to
1789 to assume the post of 'maestro de capilla' of the Royal Convent of
La Encarnación in Madrid. As a composer, his legacy is exceptionally
prolific, with a corpus that exceeds 900 cataloged compositions, mainly
sacred. His style is rooted in the classicism of the Viennese school.
German composer, pianist and conductor. Sister of Felix Mendelssohn
(1809-1847), she was the eldest of four children born into a
post-Enlightenment, cultured Jewish family. She enjoyed an excellent
general and musical education throughout her childhood, but while he was
encouraged to pursue music professionally, she was prevented from doing
so by her father. Nevertheless, music remained centrally important to
her within private spaces such as the salon. She received her earliest
musical instruction from her mother, Lea Salomon (1777-1842), who taught
her the piano (she is reputed to have noted her daughter’s ‘Bach
fingers’ at birth). She then studied the piano with Ludwig Berger, and
in 1816 with Marie Bigot in Paris. A few years later she embarked on
theory and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter, a conservative
musician and early champion of Johann Sebastian Bach. Her first
composition dates from December 1819, a lied in honour of her father’s
birthday. In 1820 she enrolled at the newly opened Berlin Sing-Akademie.
During the next few years Mendelssohn produced many lieder and piano
pieces; such works were to be the mainstay of her output of about 500
compositions. In 1825, the Mendelssohns moved to Leipziger Straße 3, a
large property which allowed the family to establish one of the most
impressive musical salons of the century. In 1829, she married the
painter Wilhelm Hensel (1794-1861), whose active support of her gifts
meant that, exceptionally, marriage and motherhood did not spell the end
of her compositional life. She collaborated closely with her husband in
a purpose-built studio, Hensel responding to her music with drawings,
and she composing songs to his poetry. Beginning in the early 1830s, she
became the central figure in a flourishing salon, for which she created
most of her compositions and where she performed on the piano and
conducted. Two trips to Italy, in 1839-40 and 1845, were among the
highpoints of her life. In Rome she formed a close relationship with
Charles Gounod, who later noted Fanny’s influence on his budding musical
career. Her impressions of the first Italian trip are inscribed in 'Das
Jahr', a set of 12 character-pieces that combine musical and
autobiographical motifs. Her last composition, the lied 'Bergeslust',
was written on 13 May 1847, a day before her sudden death from a stroke.
Italian violinist and composer. Born in the center of the Italian violin
makers at Cremona, he received his earliest training on the violin from
his father and, subsequently, from Giacomo Civeri and Carlo Ricci. An
invitation from Antonio Caldara, who had met him while passing through
Casalmaggiore, took him to Vienna, where he became a well-known virtuoso
and teacher without, however, obtaining an official position in the
service of the imperial court. In 1736, however, he returned to
Casalmaggiore on the death of his mentor, remaining there as a performer
and teacher. He died in a carriage accident on the way to Mantua. His
works are mostly in the style of Antonio Vivaldi, including the 12
violin concertos and the 18 trio sonatas (six of which were published in
1727). His set of six symphonies published in 1729, however, reflect
the styles and structures of Milanese works by Antonio Brioschi and
Giovanni Battista Sammartini.
German composer. He began organ studies with local organist Johann
Philipp Pitzler, with whom he traveled. In 1710 he met Johann David
Heinichen in Weissenfels, who at the time was working as a lawyer. With
Heinichen, he took lessons in general bass and also began studying
composition. When Heinichen went to Italy, Förster moved to Merseburg
where he continued his studies with the Kapellmeister and court organist
Georg Friedrich Kaufmann. Later, in 1717 he was employed as a chamber
musician in the Sachsen-Merseburg Hofkapelle where he played second
violin to Johann Gottlieb Graun, whom he later superseded as
Konzertmeister. In 1723, Förster traveled to Prague with his employer
for the coronation of Charles VII of Bohemia. In Prague, he made the
acquaintance of the Viennese court musicians Fux, Caldara, Conti and
Piani and also took part in a performance of Fux's Constanza e Fortezza
and performed in a concert as a harpsichord soloist and violinist for a
Dutch ambassador. He continued to serve at his post in Merseburg until
the Hofkapelle was dissolved in 1738 following the death of the Duke
Moritz Wilhelm. At the birthday of Frederick Anton, Prince of
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt he played as a soloist under the leadership of
Kapellmeister Johann Graf. Still without a fixed position, he applied
for the position of vice-kapellmeister in Rudolstadt which he received
on 3 May 1743 without a fixed salary. He died there two years later in
1745. Throughout his life, Förster maintained numerous contacts with
other musicians. Most notably, he is known to have subscribed to two of
Telemann's publications of the 1730s; Tafelmusik and the Paris quartets.
It was Telemann who published Förster's Sei Duetti, Op. 1 in Paris in
1737. Förster was proficient in the Italian style of composition, which
he learned from Heinichen and from his subsequent trips to Leipzig and
Dresden (1719), and then Prague (1723). This is evident in his wealth of
orchestral and chamber music, much of which was probably composed for
performance at the Merseburg court. During his time in Merseburg he was
also required to compose Italian cantatas, and purportedly also learned
Italian for this purpose. Although there are several Italian cantatas
listed in Breitkopf's thematic catalogue, few, if any, of these pieces
have survived.
Brazilian singer, composer, and conductor. In 1752, he joined the
Brotherhood of São José dos Homens Pardos, where he served as a tenor
until the end of his life, and also as a 'regente'
(conductor/choirmaster) starting in 1792. He assumed the same post at
the Church of Nossa Senhora das Mercês de Baixo from 1776 to 1782. He
was also an organist and worked for the Senado da Câmara of Vila Rica,
often performing as a tenor using the falsetto tradition of the time,
following the Spanish and Portuguese style, rather than the Italian
castrato tradition. As a composer, a significant portion of his musical
output has been lost. Among the extant works, a Salve Regina, mass
settings, a Ladainha (1789), the Ofício para os Funerais do Rei D. Pedro
III, and the Oratório ao Menino Deus Para a Noite de Natal.
