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.
German lutenist and composer. Son of Johann Jacob Weiss (c.1662-1754)
and brother of Silvius Leopold Weiss (1686-1750), he probably was
trained by his father with whom, in 1708, was appointed lutenist at the
court of the Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf; he remained at the Palatine
court until his death. After Elector Johann Wilhelm died in 1716 the
court music positions became unstable. In 1718 a lutenist, ‘Mr Weys’,
gave weekly chamber concerts in London for several months and played for
the king, possibly seeking a position at Court. This was probably
Johann Sigismund Weiss rather than his elder brother. By 1732 he had
been promoted to director of instrumental music, and in a personnel list
of 1734 is cited as both Konzertmeister and theorbo player. He married
in 1726, and remarried two years after his first wife’s death in 1732.
Ernst Gottlieb Baron described him as not only a lutenist ‘but also an
excellent gambist and violinist and composer’.
French pianist, composer and teacher. Son of Gabriel Henri de Castille
de Leaumont (1723-1795) and Perrine Victoire Therese Bezin (?-1794), he
was born into an aristocratic family in the French West Indies. He
served in the American Revolutionary War as an officer in the French
Régiment d’Agenois, and was wounded at the battle of Yorktown in October
1781. After the war he was made a Chevalier of the Royal Order of St.
Louis and returned to his life as a wealthy planter and amateur
musician. In 1784 he published his 'Six Trios Concertants Pour deux
Violons et Basse' and in 1786 his 'Duo concertant pour le clavecin ou le
forte-piano et violoncelle', both in Paris. Around 1795, and after the
Haitian Revolution stripped his fortune out, he fled to the United
States. From 1796 he was active at the Federal Street Theatre in Boston
as a violinist and orchestra leader. He relocated to Charleston, South
Carolina by December 1799, when he advertised there to teach singing,
piano, violin, cello, and fencing. For the remainder of his life, he was
an active concert performer, theater musician and music teacher in
Charleston.
Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812)
- Concerto (D-Dur) pour le clavecin, ou pianoforté, avec deux
violons, deux hautbois, deux cors, alto et basse ... œuvre 24 (1789)
Performers: Wilhelm Neuhaus (piano); Cologne Chamber Orchestra; Helmut
Muller-Bruhl (1933-2012, conductor)
German composer and music publisher. He attended the University of
Vienna in law beginning in 1768, but shortly thereafter he decided to
pursue a career in music. In 1783 he began to publish his own music, and
by 1785 he had established a firm in Vienna to compete with Artaria.
Well educated, erudite, and congenial, he was a welcomed guest in
intellectual circles in the Austrian capital for the next several
decades, while his publishing business thrived with a branch in Linz and
collaborations with others such as Bösseler in Speyer. After 1790 he
began to devote himself more to his music, and in 1799 he undertook a
concert tour as a keyboardist to Germany and France. In Leipzig he
formed a partnership with Ambrosius Kühnel, which became one of the
early progenitors of the firm of C. F. Peters. The international success
of particularly his Singspiel Der Königssohn aus Ithaka made it
possible for him to divest himself from his businesses by 1805. As a
composer, he concentrated mostly upon instrumental works, since these
were the most publishable and salable music. He was extraordinarily
prolific and many of his Viennese works were also popular in foreign
cities: by 1803 his most successful opera, 'Der Königssohn aus Ithaka'
(Vienna, 1795), had been performed in Budapest, Hamburg, Prague,
Temesvár (now Timişoara), Warsaw and Weimar; his numerous chamber works
were published in Amsterdam, London, Paris and Venice, as well as
throughout German-speaking regions. Although his symphonies were admired
for their flowing melodies and his pedagogical works for being both
pleasant and instructive, his style is generally lacking in originality
and depth. His works include nine Singspiels, two cantatas/oratorios, an
offertory, 66 symphonies, 11 serenades, 54 sets of dances, 59 concertos
(25 for fortepiano, 14 for flute, and 20 for other instruments,
including five sinfonia concertantes), 30 quintets (string, flute, and
other), 57 string quartets, 46 flute quartets, nine piano quartets, 18
string trios, 12 flute trios, 76 string duets, 130 flute duets, 50
violin sonatas, five flute and viola sonatas, 26 piano sonatas, and
numerous other pieces for winds and keyboard.
Jan Václav Voříšek (1791-1825)
- Missa solemnis (c.1820)
Performers: Patrice Michaels (soprano); Tami Jantzi (mezzo-soprano); William Watson (tenor); Peter Van De Graaff (bass);
Prague Chamber Chorus; Czech National Symphony Orchestra; Paul Freeman (1936-2015, conductor)
Bohemian composer, pianist and organist. He was the youngest son of
Václav František Voříšek (1749-1815) who taught him the piano and
singing. He later studied the organ and the violin and began to compose.
As a child prodigy, he started to perform publicly in Bohemian towns at
the age of nine. After settled in Prague, he studied at a grammar
school and later he went on at the Prague University. At the same time,
he took piano and composition lessons from Václav Tomášek. In 1813 he
moved to Vienna to study law at the university as well as music under
Johann Nepomuk Hummel. In Vienna he personally met Ludwig van Beethoven
(1814) and many other important personalities of European musical life;
among others Franz Schubert, with whom they became good friends. He
finished his law studies only in 1821 and for a short time made his
living as a clerk; at the same time he composed, conducted and taught
piano. In 1824 he was appointed the first court organist in Vienna. At
that time, however, he suffered from tuberculosis; his treatment in Graz
did not help and he died in his age of 34. As a composer, he mainly
wrote piano works; he started in the classical style but soon romantic
elements predominated. He also composed, among others, a Symphony
(1821), several chamber works and a Solemn Mass. Although he was born in
Bohemia, Voříšek's music bears hardly a trace of what was later
considered to be Czech national style. Well versed in Viennese
classicism, he was among the last of the many Bohemian émigrés of his
time to compose in the internationalized late-Classical style associated
with Vienna. Voříšek's music provides a remarkably accurate picture of
the musical trends prevalent in Biedermeier Vienna, especially during
the decade 1815-1825. His brother František Voříšek (1785-1843), a
priest, was also a musician, and the two daughters, Eleonora Voříšek and
Anna Voříšek, were pianists.
French composer, violinist and dancer. His father was the master
lacemaker and cellist Antoine Leclair. He studied violin, dancing, and
lacemaking in his youth, excelling in all three. He then began his
career as a dancer at the Lyons Opera, where he met Marie-Rose
Casthagnie; they were married in 1716. About 1722 he went to Turin,
where he was active as a ballet master. During a visit to Paris in 1723
to arrange for the publication of his op.1, a distinguished set of
sonatas, he acquired a wealthy patron in Joseph Bonnier. Returning to
Turin, he wrote ballets for the Teatro Regio Ducale and also received
instruction from Giovanni Battista Somis. He then made a series of
appearances at the Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1728. He also visited
London, and then made a great impression when he played at the Kassel
court with Pietro Locatelli. He subsequently received additional
instruction from Andre Cheron in Paris. After the death of his first
wife, he married Louise Roussel (1700-c.1774) in 1730; she engraved all
of his works from op.2 forward. From 1733 to 1737 he served as
'ordinaire de la musique du roi' to Louis XV. He then entered the
service of Princess Anne at the Orange court in the Netherlands in 1738,
and was honored with the Croix Neerlandaise du Lion. He was active
three months of the year at the court, and, from 1740, spent the
remaining months as maestro di cappella to the commoner François du Liz
at The Hague. He returned to Paris in 1743. With the exception of a
brief period of service with the Spanish Prince Don Philippe in Chamhery
in 1744, he remained in Paris for the rest of his life. From 1748 until
his death, he was music director and composer to his former student,
the Duke of Gramont, who maintained a private theater in the Parisian
suburb of Puteaux. He separated from his wife about 1758. He was
murdered as he was entering his home. The Paris police report listed
three suspects: His gardener (who discovered his body), his estranged
wife, and his nephew, the violinist Guillaume-François Vial, with whom
he was on poor terms. The evidence clearly pointed to the nephew, but he
was never charged with the deed. As a violinist, he was the founder of
the French violin school. He was also a distinguished composer who
successfully combined the finest elements of the Italian and French
styles of his day. His brothers Jean-Marie Leclair [le cadet]
(1703-1777), Pierre Leclair (1709-1784) and Jean-Benoît Leclair
(1714-c.1759) were also violinists and composers.
