QUILMETES, Carles (1775-1834) - Sinfonia 1a (1804)

Carles Quilmetes (1775-1834) - Sinfonia 1a (1804)

Performers: Música Antiga de Girona; Albert Bosch (conductor)

Painting: Balthasar Beschey (1708-1776) - Fishmarket

Further info: Música Antiga de Girona

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Carles Quilmetes [Quilmetas]

(Vic, 1775 - Girona, 1834)

Spanish violinist, double bassist, and composer. After receiving his studies in composition in Barcelona, he was appointed as a violinist at Girona Cathedral, where his tenure spanned more than forty years. Notably, he was the first lay musician to secure a permanent position within the cathedral's musical chapel (capella de música), frequently performing on both the violin and the double bass. His career was severely disrupted in 1809 by the Siege of Girona during the Peninsular War. As liturgical music was marginalized, lay musicians faced acute financial hardship due to the chapter's inability to provide regular stipends. Following the French occupation, he petitioned for readmission in 1811; initially granted only charitable alms, he was formally reinstated in December of that year under a severely diminished annual salary of twenty pounds. Upon his retirement in 1826, the cathedral chapter permitted his grandson, Carles Sipiera Quilmetes, to act as his substitute, though the youth was denied a permanent chair owing to his age. As a composer, he belonged to a prominent multi-generational lineage of cathedral string players that also included his son, the priest and long-standing chapel violinist Josep Quilmetes. While the vast majority of his works are lost, his surviving output is distinguished by a three-movement work, the Symphony No.1 (1804). 

BORGHI, Luigi (c.1745-c.1806) - Sonata pour Violon et Basse (1772)

Luigi Borghi (c.1745-c.1806) - Sonata pour Violon et Basse from

'Six | SOLOS | for a | Violin and Bass | Humbly Dedicated to | SIR ROWLAND WYNNE Bar' (1772)

Performers: Daniel Pintеño (violin); Concеrto 1700

Drawing: Paul Sandby (1731-1809) - The North Terrace of Windsor Castle

Further info: Violin Sonatas in Late 18th-Century

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Luigi Borghi [Porchi, Porghi]

(Bologna, c.1745 - London, c.1806)

Italian composer and violinist. A student of Gaetano Pugnani, he moved to London in 1769 at the behest of William Hamilton. A prominent orchestral violinist, he was leader of the second violins at the Handel Commemoration of 1784 and at the Professional Concert from 1785 until 1792. He composed ballet music for the Italian opera, was assistant manager of O’Reilly’s opera company at the Pantheon in 1791 and, shortly afterwards, married the prima donna Anna Casentini (fl. 1787-1796). The bulk of his music was published during his lifetime and includes six violin concertos, six symphonies-overtures, two ballets, 12 violin sonatas (titled “solos”), nine duos for two violins, 12 duets, 64 cadenzas, and a sonata for viola d’amore. His music is representative of the 'Empfindsamkeit style', with good contrast and lyrical motivic lines. He was not related to Giovanni Battista Borghi (1738-1796).

SINGER, Josef Anton (1810-1882) - Missa pastoralis (1860)

Josef Anton Singer (1810-1882) - Missa pastoralis (1860)

Performers: Heike Heilmann (soprano); Julia Diefenbach (soprano); Johannes Puchleitner (tenor);

Andreas Dürlinger (tenor); Markus Flaig (bass);

Chor und Orchester der Akademie St. Blasius; Karlheinz Siessl (conductor)

Painting: Wilhelm Ludwig Friedrich Riefstahl (1827-1888) - Kinderbegräbnis in Passeier (Tirol) (1886)

Further info: Tiroler Weihnachtskonzert 2017

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(Josef Anton) Peter (Petrus) von Alcantara (Alkantara) Singer

(Unterhäselgehr, [now Häselgehr, Tyrol] 18 July 1810 - Salzburg, 25 January 1882)

Austrian composer, organist, music theorist, and instrument maker. The son of a miller, bell founder, and instrument maker, he attended the gymnasium in Hall in Tirol from 1824 to 1830 before entering the Franciscan Order in Salzburg in 1829, where he took his simple vows in 1830, solemn profession in 1833, and was ordained a priest in 1834. He pursued theological studies in Salzburg, Schwaz, and Bolzano until 1837, subsequently serving as organist and choir director in Bolzano and Innsbruck between 1837 and 1840. From 1840 onward, he resided at the Franciscan monastery in Salzburg, where he also held the position of master of novices. In addition to developing a harmonium and several physharmonica variants, he constructed the Pansymphonikon in 1845, a reed-based keyboard instrument designed to emulate a full orchestra that drew widespread admiration from notable contemporary figures, including Franz Lachner, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner. In his theoretical treatise 'Metaphysische Blicke' he drew upon the traditions of Jean-Philippe Rameau and Anton Reicha to argue that all music derives from the tonic triad, a concept he termed the "primal harmony" (Urharmonie) and associated with the Holy Trinity, alongside its auxiliary harmonies, namely the dominant seventh and the subdominant with an added sixth. As a composer, he adhered to the standard Franciscan scoring for organ and choir, occasionally utilizing vocal soloists; however, his orchestral style of organ accompaniment, rich harmonic language, and unconventional text setting (characterized by omissions and rearrangements) stood in stark contrast to the aesthetic tenets of the Caecilian movement. Conversely, his virtuosic organ performances, particularly his pedal technique, were highly acclaimed by both Franz Liszt and Anton Bruckner.

HEINICHEN, Johann David (1683-1729) - Concerto con Corni da Caccia

Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) Work: Concerto (F-Dur) con Corni da Caccia, Seibel deest

Performers: Musica Antiqua Köln; Reinhard Goebel (conductor)

Painting: Scuola del XVIII secolo - Ritratto di gentiluomo con lettera

Further info: Per L'Orchestra Di Dresda

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Johann David (Davidde) Heinichen [Heinchen, Heinnichen, Heinick]

(Krössuln, nr Weissenfels, 17 April 1683 - Dresden, 16 July 1729)

German composer and theorist. He was the son of David Heinichen who, after an education at Leipzig's Thomasschule and the university, moved to Krössuln for a lifelong career as pastor. Johann David also attended the Thomasschule Leipzig. There he studied music with Johann Schelle and later received organ and harpsichord lessons with Johann Kuhnau. The future composer Christoph Graupner was also a student of Kuhnau at the time. Heinichen enrolled in 1702 to study law at the University of Leipzig and in 1705-06 qualified as a lawyer (in the early 18th century the law was a favored route for composers; Kuhnau, Graupner and Georg Philipp Telemann were also lawyers). Heinichen practiced law in Weissenfels until 1709. However, Heinichen maintained his interest in music and was concurrently composing operas. In 1710, he published the first edition of his major treatise on the thoroughbass. He went to Italy and spent seven formative years there, mostly in Venice, with great success with two operas, Mario and Le passioni per troppo amore (1713). Mario was staged again in Hamburg in 1716 with the German title, Calpurnia, oder die romische Grossmut. In 1712, he taught music to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, who took him as composer. The same prince would appoint Johann Sebastian Bach Kapellmeister at the end of 1717. In 1716, Heinichen met in Venice Prince Augustus III of Poland, son of King Augustus II the Strong, and thanks to him was appointed the Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Kapellmeister in Dresden. His pupils included Johann Georg Pisendel. In 1721, Heinichen married in Weissenfels; the birth of his only child is recorded as January 1723. In his final years, Heinichen's health suffered greatly; on the afternoon of 16 July 1729, he was buried in the Johannes cemetery after finally succumbing to tuberculosis. 

HOTTETERRE, Jacques-Martin (1673-1763) - Suite en Re majeur (1708)

Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1673-1763) - Suite en Re majeur des 'Première livre de Pieces pour la flûte-traversiere, et autres instruments, avec la basse-continue ... augmentée de plusieurs agréments, et d’une démonstration de la manière qu’ils se doivent faire; ensemble une basse adjoutée aux pièces de deux flûtes' (1708)

Performers: Frans Brüggen (1934-2014, flute); Wieland Kuijken (cello); Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012, harpsichord)

Painting: Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743) - Picnic after the Hunt

Further info: Suites ∙ Sonatas ∙ Pièces ∙ Brunettes

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Jacques (Martin) Hotteterre ‘le Romain’ [Haulteterre, Haute terre, Hoteterre, Obterre et al.]

(Paris, 29 September 1673 - Paris, 16 July 1763)

French composer. Son of Martin Hotteterre (c.1635-1712), he was the most celebrated member of the family, and had a brilliant career as a player, teacher and composer. In about 1704, he succeeded his cousin Jacques Hotteterre in the post of basse de hautbois et taille de violon at the royal court. Hotteterre lived and studied in Rome early in his career, and his nickname le Romain (the Roman) came from this period. He spent two years (1698-1700) employed by Prince Francesco Ruspoli in Rome, before adopting the nickname of "Le Romain" at some point between 1705 and 1707. By 1708, he became a musician to the King of France, in the king's 'Grande Écurie, and in 1717, he inherited René Pignon Descoteaux's post as Jouëur de Fluste de la musique de chambre. He owed his fame largely to his talent for playing the flute, an instrument for which he wrote a number of pieces, significantly extending the repertory for the instrument. In addition, he played the bassoon, oboe, and musette. Hotteterre was also an internationally celebrated teacher to aristocratic patrons. He wrote one method for the transverse flute, recorder, and oboe, published in 1707, as well as a method for the musette, published in 1737. His 'L'Art de préluder sur la flûte traversière' was published in 1719. It was Europe's first flute manual and was used widely. He died in Paris in 1763.