ZELENKA, Jan Dismas (1679-1745) - Ouverture à 7 concertanti (1723)

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) - Ouverture (F-Dur) à 7 | Concerta:

| Violin 2 | Oboe 2 | Viola | Fagotto e | Basso Contin. | à Praga | 1723

Performers: Il Fondamento; Paul Dombrecht (conductor)

Painting: Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761) - Outdoor party

Further info: Jan Dismas Zelenka - Prague 1723

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Jan (Lukáš Ignatius) Dismas Zelenka [Zekenka]

(Louňovice pod Blaníkem, bap. 16 October 1679 - Dresden, 22/23 December 1745)

Bohemian composer. He was the son of an organist and it is most probable that he received his early music training from his father. About 1710 he went to Prague, where he attended the Jesuit Clementinum. He also learned to play the double bass and was a member of the orchestra of Count Hartog. Upon Hartog's recommendation in 1710, he was accepted as a member of the Dresden court orchestra. In 1715 he went to Venice to study with Lotti and, between 1716 and 1719, he spent considerable time in Vienna studying with Johann Joseph Fux. With his training completed, he remained at the Dresden court for the rest of his life. In 1721 he became vice-Kapellmeister there, but was passed over as Kapellmeister in 1731 when Hasse accepted the court's appointment. In 1735 he was named Kirchen-compositeur to the court. Zelenka was particularly known during his lifetime as a composer of sacred music, winning the admiration of Bach and Telemann. His extensive output of such music included the oratorios 'Il serpente di bronzo' (1730), 'Gesu al Calvario' (1735), and 'I Penitenti al sepolchro del Redentore' (1736), about 20 masses, 2 Magnificats, over 35 cantatas, and various motets, Psalms, antiphons, hymns, and other pieces. For the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI as King of Bohemia, he composed the Melodrama de Sancto Wenceslao ("Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis conspicua orbi Regia Bohemiae Corona"), which was first performed in Frankfurt am Main on 12 November 1723. Almost all of the manuscripts of Zelenka's sacred music were lost in 1945. Since several of his instrumental works were published in his lifetime, copies have survived and today Zelenka is known as a distinguished and refreshing composer of instrumental music. Among his extant works for orchestra are 5 capriccios (1-4, 1717-18; 5, 1729), a Simphonie a 8 Concertante (1723), a Concerto a 8 Concertante (1723), and the Hipocondrie a 7 Concercante (1723). Also extant are 6 Trio or Quadro Sonatas for 2 Oboes, Bassoon, and Basso Continuo (c.1720).

BESOZZI, Carlo (1738-1791) - Concerto à Oboe obligato

Carlo Besozzi (1738-1791) - Concerto (Sol maggiore) à Oboe obligato,

Violino Primo, Violino Secondo, Alto Viola e Basso

Performers: Jаn Adаmus (oboè); Prаgue Chamber Orchestra

Painting: Follower of Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780) - Dresden from the right bank of the Elbe

Further info: Oboe Concertos

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Carlo Besozzi [Besuzzi, Bezocy, Bezozi, et al.]

(Naples or Dresden, 1738 - Dresden, 22 March 1791)

Italian oboist and composer. Son of Antonio Besozzi (1714-1781), he received music lessons from his father. He must have displayed phenomenal ability for in 1755 he became a regular member of the Dresden court orchestra, a position which he retained throughout his life. His tours of Europe with his father included visits to Paris (1757) and Stuttgart (1758-59). He was judged favourably by Burney and by Leopold Mozart, who heard him play in Salzburg in 1778. Joseph Schubert heard Carlo in Augsburg and referred to him as the monarch of oboists and a great, ‘but somewhat unusual’, theorist. Even though none of Carlo’s music was printed during his lifetime, 23 concertos, 26 sonatas and a divertimento have survived. The concertos were clearly written for Carlo to play himself, and while conceived to display his skill, they rarely indulge in virtuoso display per se. The final movements are more serious than was common at that time and often introduce Sturm und Drang characteristics. There is an emphasis on novelty, frequently of an unexpectedly chromatic nature. The works for wind ensemble are, with one exception, in major keys and each of the four movements is usually in the tonic key. Carlo’s son Francesco Besozzi (1766-c.1816) succeeded him as oboist in the Dresden royal chapel in 1792. Francesco was one of the best-known oboists of his time but no compositions by him are known to have survived.

PETERSEN, David (1651-c.1737) - Sonata a 4 (1683)

David Petersen (1651-c.1737) - Sonata a 4 aus

'Speelstukken samengestelt door David Petersen, dese stukken werden gespeelt met en viool en bas continuo, waar by gevoegt kan werden een theorbe, of viool dagamba' (1683)

Performers: Manfredo Kraemer (violin); The Rare Fruits Council

Painting: Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde (1638-1698) - The town hall on the Dam, Amsterdam

Further info: David Petersen - Speelstukken

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David Petersen [Pietersen, Peterson]

(Lübeck, 1651 - Amsterdam, c.1737)

Dutch composer and violinist. He went to Lund (Sweden) with Gregor Zuber, possibly his tutor and almost certainly his mentor; both were employed as university musicians there during the early 1670s. From shortly before 1680 onwards he was active in Amsterdam; it is not clear whether he worked as a professional musician. Considering his 'Speelstukken' of 1683 and a possible connection between Johann Jacob Walther and Amsterdam (as expressed in Walther’s 'Hortulus chelicus'), it is possible that Walther taught Petersen. Petersen dedicated the 'Speelstukken' to an Amsterdam burgomaster and subsequently received a few small city appointments, which he held until his death. The 'Speelstukken' mentioned was his most important composition. The sonatas included are in a virtuoso style with many polyphonic passages, rapid scales and other figures, and the use of high positions. He also wrote numerous continuo songs to Dutch poems mostly by Abraham Alewijn, a close friend. David Petersen belongs to the generation of Dutch composers that includes Johannes Schenk, Carolus Hacquart, Servaas de Konink and Hendrik Anders, all of whom were influenced by German, French and Italian music.

GHERARDESCHI, Filippo Maria (1738-1808) - Messa in re minore

 

Filippo Maria Gherardeschi (1738-1808) Work: Messa in re minore

Performers: Coro Polifonico S.Nicola; Camerata Musicale; Stefano Barandoni (conductor)

Painting: Aloysia Fauquet (18th Century) - Filippo Maria Gherardeschi (1773)

Further info: Il Settecento Musicale Pisano

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Filippo Maria Gherardeschi [Gherardesca]

(Pistoia, 11 October 1738 - Pisa, 30 September 1808)

Italian organist and composer. He began his musical education in his home town, where his father, Giuseppe Gherardeschi, was organist at the churches of SS Trinità and Santa Maria dell’Umiltà, and his uncle, Atto Gherardeschi, was cantor in the chapel of Pistoia Cathedral. He continued his studies in Bologna with Giovanni Battista Martini from 1756 to about 1761, when he was admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica. In 1763 he was appointed as maestro di cappella in Volterra, at the same time as he functioned as organist in Pisa. There he soon attained notable fame, being invited to play the harpsichord at court, for the patrician families of Pisa, and at the town theatre of the Accademia dei Costanti. In 1770 he obtained the post of director at the Pistoia cathedral. In 1771 he resigned from the cathedral, and the post was taken up by his brother Domenico Gherardeschi (1733-1800), who was already organist there. In 1783 Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, appointed him 'maestro di musica' to his children and director of concerts (when the court was resident in Pisa), and in 1785 appointed him organist and maestro di cappella at the Chiesa Conventuale dei Cavalieri di San Stefano at Pisa, a post he retained until his death. Despite he spent his whole life in Tuscany, he corresponded with Padre Martini until the latter’s death in 1784 (39 letters). As a composer, his music is little known, but includes seven operas, 10 sonatas, a concerto, and numerous sacred works, as well as a treatise, 'Elementi per suonare il cembalo'.

KONIGSPERGER, Marianus (1708-1769) - Concerto à Cembalo Principali

Marianus Königsperger (1708-1769) - Concerto (G-Dur) à Cembalo Principali aus

'CERTAMEN MUSICUM | COMPLECTENS | VI. | CONCERTA | COMMUNIA | & | II. PASTORITIA | AD FACILEM CUJUSVIS USUM | ACCOMMODATA. | Organo Principali | 2. Violinis & Alto Viola necessariis, | 2. Clarinis vel Cornibus & Violoncello ad libitum | Modulatore | R. F. Mariano Königsperger, | Ord. S. P. Benedicti, in Exempto | Monasterio Priflingensi Professo. | OPUS XVIII. | AUGUSTÆ-VINDELICORUM, | Sumptibus JOANNIS JACOBI LOTTERI Hæredum. MDCCLIV' (1754)

Performers: Consortium Musicum Passau; Markus Eberhardt (harpsichord)

Painting: Anoniem - Herrenporträt und Justitia vor der Ansicht von Regensburg (c.1750)

Further info: Donaubarock II

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Marianus (Johann Erhard) Königsperger

(Roding, nr Regensburg, 4 December 1708 - Prüfening, nr Regensburg, 9 October 1769)

German monastic composer and organist. The son of an instrument maker, he went to the Benedictine abbey of Prüfening as a choirboy. Although he was the son of a music instrument maker, he intended to enter the priesthood as a teacher of theology. In 1734 he entered the Benedictine monastery at Prüfening, becoming regens chori and eventually Kapellmeister. His main musical focus was on the development of suitable church music for smaller churches in Bavaria, and he partnered with the firm of Lotter in Augsburg to publish sets of works that could be performed with limited musical forces. His music thus gained tremendous popularity throughout the region. His works include a number of sacred Singspiels (now lost), 59 Masses, five Requiems, 33 sacred odes, six Stabat maters, over 30 offertories, 12 litanies, numerous Marian antiphons, several Te Deums, and other sacred music, almost all of which was published.