DE CASTRO, Francisco José (c.1670-c.1730) - Concerti accademici a quattro

Francisco José de Castro (c.1670-c.1730) - Concerti accademici a quattro, cioe un'oboe, due violini e violone con la parte per il cembalo consecrati all'Illustrissimo Signore Carlo da Persico dall'Accademico Formato, Opera Quarta (1708)

Performers: Collegium Instrumentale

Painting: Carel van Falens (1683-1733) - Noblemen on horseback conversing with peasants

Further info: Conciertos académicos de Francisco José de Castro

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Francisco José (Francesco Giuseppe) de Castro [‘Accademico Formato’]

(Sevilla, c.1670 - c.1730)

Spanish composer. He was a Jesuit novice, educated at the Collegio dei Nobili di San Antonio Viennese in Brescia, where he studied music with the composer and organist Paris Francesco Alghisi. He was sponsored as a member of the Accademia dei Formati by Count Cayetano Giovanelli, to whom he dedicated his first publication, 'Trattenimenti armonici da camera a tre, due violini, violoncello, o cembalo ... opera prima' (Bologna, 1695). Like Castro's other three publications, the Trattenimenti armonici were issued under the pseudonym ‘Accademico Formato’. No exemplars of opp.2 and 3 are known; op.4 is a set of 'Concerti accademici a quattro, cioe un'oboe, due violini e violone con la parte per il cembalo ... Opera Quarta' (Bologna, 1708). He was one of the few Spanish composers of this period who cultivated the non-religious instrumental music genre. He was not related to Spanish playwright Francisco de Castro (1672-1713).

IVANSCHIZ, Amandus (1727-1758) - Missa ex D

Amandus Ivanschiz (1727-1758) - Missa ex D# | a | Canto Alto | Tenore Basso |

Violino primo | Violino Secundo | Alto Viola obligata | Clarinis 2|b|u|s Organo

Performers: Aleksandra Lewandowska (soprano); Katarzyna Hołysz (mezzosoprano); Piotr Szewczyk (tenor);

Maciej Straburzyński (bass); Accademia dell' Arcadia; Bartłomiej Stankowiak (conductor)

Painting: Bernardo Bellotto (1721-1780) - The Freyung in Vienna

Further info: Jasnogórska Muzyka Dawna vol.26

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Amandus (Matthias Leopold) Ivanschiz [Ivanschitz, Ivanschütz, Ivanscics, Ivančić, Ivančič et al.]

(Wien, bap. 24 December 1727 - Ort?, 1758)

Austrian composer. Only fragmentary information about his life is available. He entered the Pauline order in his hometown and choose the name of Amandus likely by the end of 1742. After his novitiate in the Ranna monastery at the age of 16 (1743) he took his monastic vows. He then studied in Maria Trost and Wiener Neustadt, where he was ordained a priest on November 15, 1750. Between 1751 and 1754 he stayed in Rome as an assistant to the Procurator General of the order, from where he returned to Wiener Neustadt. In 1755 he was sent again to the Maria Trost monastery, where he died in 1758, at the young age of 31. He was a prolific and popular composer: there survive about 100 works by him in manuscripts copies, dating mostly from 1762 to 1772 and scattered throughout the Habsburg Empire and in south Germany. His music is characteristic of the transition from late Baroque to early Classical style, and his best works are his masses and symphonies. The masses are mostly scored for four soloists, four-part choir, two violins and bass and a pair of trumpets; some are of considerable dimensions, and they show distinct Neapolitan traits. The symphonies, many of which have four movements, are scored for strings, sometimes with a pair of trumpets or horns. The trios, entitled variously ‘Divertimento’, ‘Nocturno’, ‘Sinfonia’, ‘Sonata’ and ‘Parthia’, are mostly in three movements in the same key; Ivanschiz’s frequent use of the viola as the second solo instrument is a forward-looking trait.

BYSTROM, Thomas (1772-1839) - Sonate pour le Pianoforte et Violon obligé

Thomas Byström (1772-1839) - Sonate (B-Dur) des 'Trois sonates pour le clavecin ou pianoforte

avec accompagnement d'un violon obligé composées par ... Oeuvre. 1 (1801)

Performers: Izumi Tateno (piano); Yoshiko Arai (violin)

Drawing: James Gillray (1757-1815) - Playing in Parts

Further info: Musica Fennica 1772-1843

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Thomas Byström

(Helsinki, 28 August 1772 - Stockholm, 2 October 1839)

Finnish-Swedish music teacher, composer and military officer. The son of a successful statesman in the province of Finland (then part of Sweden), he was encouraged to study violin and piano at an early age by his father. In 1787 he enrolled at a military academy in St. Petersburg, later joining the Swedish army in 1792 as an adjutant and subsequently aide-de-camp to Gustav IV Adolph. He was mostly stationed in Stockholm beginning with his Swedish army career and was thus able to participate in musical social circles. He was elected in 1794 to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and in 1801 he published a set of violin sonatas, as well as a series of strophic Lieder. As a government military official, however, his compositional career was limited. He taught music for a period (1813-1825) at the Royal Academy. He was elected an honorary member of the Harmoniska Sällskapet in 1832. As a composer, his works, dated from the period 1794 to 1805, include the three violin sonatas, nine songs, and a set of variations on a Russian theme, as well as several smaller keyboard works. His style has been likened to early Ludwig van Beethoven in its use of motives and sequencing, as well as bold harmonic modulations.

DE FESCH, Willem (1687-1761) - Concerto Grosso (1741)

Willem de Fesch (1687-1761) - Concerto Grosso (D-Dur) des

'VIII Concerto's in seven parts' ... Opera the Tenth (1741)

Performers: La Sfera Armoniosa; Mike Fentross (conductor)

Painting: Jan Josef Horemans (1714-1792) - A music party on a terrace

Further info: Willem de Fesch - Concerti Grossi and Violin Concerto

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Willem (William, Guillaume, Guglielmus) de Fesch [Defesch, de Veg, de Feghg, du Feche]

(Alkmaar, bap. 26 August 1687 - London, 3 January 1761)

Dutch composer and violinist. He was the son of Louis de Fesch and Johanna Maasbragt. Despite his parents’ marriage in Amsterdam (1685) and his brother’s birth in Alkmaar, the family orginated from the Pays de Liège and returned to Liège before 1690. De Fesch may have been a choirboy or even a singer in Liège during the 1690s. By about 1710 both he and his elder brother Pieter (1685-?) had settled in Amsterdam: Pieter had stayed some years in Leiden, where he was registered as a musician at the University on 6 June 1706. In Amsterdam De Fesch married Anna Maria Rosier, daughter of the composer Carl Rosier, who was active in Bonn, Amsterdam and Cologne. The names Willem, Pieter and Anna Maria de Fesch occur in the accounts of the City Theatre for dancing, singing and playing during the years 1708-21. De Fesch remained in Amsterdam until 1725. During this period he made several appearances as a concert violinist, including three at Antwerp in 1718, 1719 and 1722. In 1725 he was appointed kapelmeester at Antwerp Cathedral in succession to Alphonse d’Eve, a post he held until 1731, when he resigned because of repeated quarrels with the chapter and the chapel – quarrels for which his temperamental, mean and slovenly character was apparently to blame. A few years later De Fesch was with his family in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. In London, De Fesch was able to develop his activity as a concert violinist and virtuoso to the full. He seems to have been organist of the Venetian Chapel in London during the first years of his stay in England. He also appeared frequently as a concert violinist, often performing his own compositions. In 1748 and 1749 De Fesch directed the orchestra at Marylebone Gardens. After 1750 he seems to have withdrawn from public life.

ROSENMULLER, Johann (1619-1684) - Sinfonie con cinque stromenti (1660)

Johann Rosenmüller (1619-1684) - Sinfonie con cinque stromenti aus 'Sonate da camera cioè sinfonie, alemande, correnti, balletti, sarabande, da suonare con cinque stromenti da arco, et altri' (1660)

Performers: Gradus ad Parnassum Wien; Ton Kοοpman (conductor)

Painting: Follower of Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666) - Homer playing the violin, in the company of a pupil

Further info: Sonate da camera

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Johann (Giovanni) Rosenmüller [Rosenmiller]

(Oelsnitz nr Zwickau, 24 August 1619 - Wolfenbüttel, bur. 12 September 1684)

German composer, trombonist, organist and teacher. He studied music at the Olsnitz Lateinschule and theology at the University of Leipzig (1640). There he most likely continued his musical studies with Tobias Michael, cantor of the Thomasschule, and he is listed as an assistant there in 1642, being made first assistant in 1650. He was also named organist of the Nicolaikirche in 1651 and music director in absentia of the Altenburg court in 1654. However, he lost these posts when he and several of the schoolboys were arrested and incarcerated as homosexuals in 1655. He escaped and eventually made his way to Venice, where he became a trombonist at San Marco in 1658. He secured a position as a composer there by 1660, and later was composer at the Ospedale della Pieta (1678-1682). He then returned to Germany to serve as Kapellmeister at the Wolfenbuttel court. He was a distinguished composer of both sacred vocal works and instrumental music. His compositions were well known in Germany and helped to advance the acceptance of the northern Italian styles.