MASSONNEAU, Louis (1766-1848) - Sinfonie à grand orchestre (1794)

Louis Massonneau (1766-1848) - Sinfonie (c-moll) à grand orchestre 'La tempête et le calme'

... œuvre 5me (1794)

Performers: Mеcklеnburg-Schwеriner Hofkapelle; Ivаn Törzs (conductor)

Painting: Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) - Vesuvius in eruption, viewed from Posillipo (1789)

Further info: Musik der Mecklenburg-Schweriner Hofkapelle

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Louis Massonneau [Freyhold]

(Kassel, 10 January 1766 - Ludwigslust, 4 October 1848)

German violinist, composer and conductor of French descent. He was a son of a French chef cuisinier at the Kassel court; there he studied the violin with the Kapellmeister Jacques Heuzé and composition with the violinist Joseph-Karl Rodewald. In 1783 he became a violinist and viola d'amore player in the Hofkapelle of Landgrave Frederick II. In 1785, after the death of the landgrave, he moved to Göttingen to become first violinist at the Academic Concerts, under the direction of Johann Nikolaus Forkel. In 1795 he was appointed conductor at Frankfurt, two years later he occupied the same post at the new theatre in Altona and in 1799 he was conductor of the prince's chapel at Dessau. In April 1803, he settled in Ludwigslust, as assistant to the Kapellmeister Eligio Celestino. When Celestino died on 24 January 1812, he assumed the roles of orchestral conductor and Kapellmeister until his retirement in 1837. As a composer, he wrote three symphonies, several concertos, and many chamber music as well as sacred and secular music. His music shows familiarity with the violinistic idiom, fine feeling for orchestral sonority and gift for lyricism.

VANURA, Česlav (1694-1736) - Laetentur coeli (1736)

Česlav Vaňura (1694-1736) - Laetentur coeli aus 'Cultus Latriae seu duodecim offertoria solemnia, accomodata primariis per annum festivitatis domini, a quatuor vocibus, canto, alto, tenore, basso, violinis duobus, alto-viola, trombis partim duobus, partim quatuor tymp. & organo ... op. 2' (1736)

Performers: Thurgauer Kammerchor; Thurgauer Barockensemble; Raimund Rüegge (conductor)

Drawing: Martin Tyroff (1704-1759) und Johann Andreas Pfeffel (1674-1748) - Prospect des so genannten Wallischen Platzes in der Königl. klein Stadt Prag

Further info: Festliche Musik aus Böhmen

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(Jan) Česlav (Ceslaus) Vaňura [Vanczura, Wanczura, Waniura et al.]

(Miletín, 28 December 1694 - Prague, 7 January 1736)

Boehmian composer. Nothing is known about his youth. As a member of the Minorite order he was appointed first organist to the convent church of St James at Prague in 1734. On the title-page of his 'Offertories Cultus Latriae seu duodecim offertoria solemnia ... Op.2' he is referred to as regens chori there. In 1735 he was awarded the degree of magister musicae. Although he might have been active at the Prague Minorite convent in the same years as his elder contemporary Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský, he was apparently not Černohorský's pupil. As a composer, his works stand near to Černohorský and Šimon Brixi, especially the offertories, written in a late Baroque idiom with a characteristic mixture of concerto style and contrapuntal texture. His 'Litanies' are primarily homophonic. He sometimes aimed at pictorial interpretation of the text, and his orchestration is varied, with emphasis on the brass instruments.

STARZER, Joseph (1726-1787) - Divertimento in C-Dur

Joseph Starzer (1726-1787) - Divertimento in C-Dur

Performers: Seattle Trumpet Consort

Painting: Cornelis Troost (1696-1750) - Suijpe Steijn (1742)

Further info: Music For The Natural Trumpet

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Joseph (Josef) (Johann Michael) Starzer [Stärtzer, Sterzer]

(Vienna, bap. 5 January 1728 - Vienna, 22 April 1787)

Austrian composer and violinist. No details of his musical training are known, but it has been surmised that he studied with court composer Giuseppe Bonno, the teacher of his sister Catharina Starzer. By about 1752 he was a violinist in Vienna's Burgtheater orchestra, where he began his career as a composer of ballets. During the winter of 1758-59, he went to Russia, where he was active at the Imperial court in St. Petersburg; gave concerts and later was made Konzertmeister and then deputy Kapellmeister and composer of ballet music; served as maitre de chapelle et directeur des concerts in 1763. Returning to Vienna about 1768, he composed several notable ballets. With Florian Leopold Gassmann, he helped in 1771 to organize the Tonkiinstler-Sozietat, for which he wrote a number of works. In 1779 he retired as a violinist and in 1785 gave up his duties with the society. Joseph Starzer was one of the leading Austrian composers of his day, winning distinction not only for his ballets but for his orchestral and chamber music; his string quartets have been compared favorably with those of Joseph Haydn. 

PERGOLESI, Giovanni Battista (1710-1736) - In hac die tam decora (c.1732)

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) - Mottetto a Più voci 'In hac die tam decora' (c.1732)

Performers: Rachel Redmont (soprano); Marta Fumagalli (contralto); Ghislieri Choir & Consort; Giulio Prandi (conductor)

Painting: Jean-François de Troy (1679-1752) - The Abduction of Europa (1716)

Further info: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) - Concerto per il flauto in Sol Maggiore

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Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Pergolesi [Percolese, Bertolesi, Bergolese, Pere Golese et al.]

(Jesi, 4 January 1710 - Pozzuoli, 16 March 1736)

Italian composer and violinist. Following early training in Jesi under Francesco Santini, he enrolled in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in Naples, where his teachers were Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo. He began his compositional career composing oratorios, such as the 1731 'La conversion e morte di San Guglielmo'. His first opera, 'Salustia', written for Naples in 1732, was a limited success, but he was appointed as maestro di capella to Prince Ferdinando Colonna Stigliano. Other operatic successes followed, but the most important was his 1733 'Il prigionero superbo' with its two-act intermezzo 'La serva padrona'. This is considered a seminal work in the creation of the buffa. A second appointment at the court of the Duke of Maddaloni in 1734 led to further commissions, such as the opera 'L’Olimpiade', which premiered at the Teatro Tordinona in Rome in 1735. Although this work was initially not a success, Pergolesi’s career was meteoric. His health, however, deteriorated and in 1736 he was confined to the Capuchin monastery in Pozzuoli, where he died from tuberculosis. Although he was only 26, he completed 11 operas and oratorios, two Masses, five cantatas (including Orfeo in 1736), two Salve Reginas, one Magnificat, a set of Marian vespers, and his most famous work, the Stabat mater, which was commissioned by the Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo shortly before his death (although a later composer, Giovanni Paisiello, claimed it had actually been written around 1730). His instrumental works were few, including four violin sonatas and possibly a violin concerto. Following his untimely death, his reputation spread throughout Europe, and a number of works were falsely attributed to him, such as a set of six concerti grossi (now known to be by Uno van Wassenaer). His Stabat mater was performed widely (in various arrangements), and his Serva padrona was considered the epitome of the new Italian comic style, particularly in Paris, where it served as the center of the Querelle des bouffons. His style emphasizes diatonic melody and triadic harmony, often with good contrasting themes. He was a leading figure in the rise of Italian comic opera in the 18th century.  

BRIXI, František Xaver (1732-1771) - Concerto ex F Organo Principale

František Xaver Brixi (1732-1771) - Concerto ex F Organo Principale

Performers: Ales Bаrtа (organ); Virtuosi di Prаga; Oldrich Vlcеk (conductor)

Painting: Francesco Battaglioli (1725-1796) - Architectural Capriccio

Further info: František Xaver Brixi (1732-1771) - Concerto ex C a Viola Principali

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František (Vojtěch Emanuel) Xaver Brixi [Bricsi, Brigsi, Brixen, Prix et al.]

(Prague, 2 January 1732 - Prague, 14 October 1771)

Bohemian organist and composer. Son of Šimon Brixi (1693-1735), he received his musical education at the Piarist Gymnasium in Kosmonosy. His teachers included Václav Kalous, a significant composer. In 1749 he left Kosmonosy and returned to Prague, where he worked as an organist at several churches. In 1759 he was appointed Regens chori (choir director) and Kapellmeister of St Vitus Cathedral, thus attaining, at age 27, the highest musical position in the city; this office he held till his early death. He wrote some 290 church works (of the most varied type), cantatas and oratorios, chamber compositions, and orchestral compositions. He was a prolific composer of music for the liturgy, and wrote more than 100 masses, vespers and motets, among others. He also composed secular music such as oratorios and incidental music, concertos and symphonies. Brixi died of tuberculosis in Prague in 1771, at the age of 39.