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.
Austrian composer. He was attracted to music at an early age, but this
inclination received no support from his father, a Viennese leather
merchant, who wanted him to study law. His earliest musical education
was under Johann Joseph Fux, following which he served as choirmaster at
the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, as well as studied theology at the
University of Vienna. In 1730 he was persuaded to pursue further
musical education in Venice by Fux. Positions in Laibach (now Ljubljana)
and Holešov followed, during which he successfully produced in 1737 an
opera, 'Luciano Papiro'. By 1746 he was musical director at the
Burgtheater, and in 1750 he traveled to Stuttgart as hofKapellmeister.
By 1753 he was hired by Elector Carl Theodor as Kapellmeister in
Mannheim, where he composed works such as 'Günther von Schwarzburg' in
1777, one of the first Classical German operas based upon a historical
subject. When the court moved to Munich in 1778, he accepted a post in
Monaco but returned to Mannheim to retire in 1781. As a composer, he was
one of the most prolific composers of the 18th century, particularly in
the realm of the symphony. His music is noted for its powerful dramatic
style, particularly in the use of the orchestra as well as progressive
harmony. He composed around 200 symphonies, 13 concertos (mainly for
strings), 18 string quartets, 24 orchestral minuets, two piano quintets,
around 15 trios, 18 operas, several ballets, four oratorios, 32 Masses,
two Requiems, and 44 other sacred works including cantatas, Te Deums,
hymns, and such. His music had a significant influence on Viennese
composers.
Austrian composer. Brother of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), he went to
Vienna at the age of eight and entered the choir school at the
Stephansdom. About 1753 his voice broke and he was dismissed from the
choir school. By 1757 he left Vienna for Grosswardein. His solemn Missa
SS Cyrilli et Methodii (1758) was one his earliest and finest works
composed there. He was apparently back in the vicinity of Vienna in
1762. It was during this time that he came to the attention of Count
Vinzenz Joseph Schrattenbach, the nephew of Sigismund Christoph,
Archbishop of Salzburg, who recommended that Haydn be offered a position
in Salzburg. From the quantity of Haydn's music that was copied for
performances in eastern Austria during the 1750s and 60s, it would seem
that he was quite well known throughout the region. The death of J.E.
Eberlin in 1762 led to a reshuffling of the prominent musicians in
Salzburg and eventually to Haydn's appointment as court Konzertmeister.
Among his colleagues were Leopold Mozart, A.C. Adlgasser, G.F. Lolli and
later W.A. Mozart. On 24 July 1763 some ‘Tafelmusique’ by him was
performed, and on 14 August he officially assumed his new position,
which involved playing the organ as well as the violin. From then until
the death of Archbishop Schrattenbach late in 1771, he mainly wrote
dramatic works for the theatre of the Benedictine University; Die
Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (1767) was the result of a collaboration
between Haydn, Adlgasser and the 11-year-old Mozart. On 17 August 1768
he married Maria Magdalena Lipp (1745-1827), a singer in the Hofkapelle
and daughter of the court organist, Franz Ignaz Lipp. The couple lived
in an apartment owned by the Abbey of St Peter, for which Haydn composed
a number of occasional works. The Haydns’ only child, Aloysia Josepha,
was born in 1770, but died within a year. Hieronymus, Count Colloredo,
was enthroned as Prince-Archbishop in March 1772, and he immediately
instituted tighter fiscal controls which greatly restricted the
activities of the university theatre.
A planned trip to Italy probably never materialized because he was
promptly given the position of organist at the Dreifaltigkeitskirche
when Adlgasser died suddenly on 22 December 1777. Bitter that the
position was not given to his son, Leopold Mozart, who had previously
praised his colleague, described Haydn as prone to heavy drinking and
laziness. Haydn composed his best-known works between 1771 and 1777: the
Requiem (1771) and the Missa S. Hieronymi (1777). In 1782 he assumed
the position of court organist. On the 1200th anniversary of the
archiepiscopate, in the same year, Colloredo published a pastoral
letter, the first of a series of proclamations intended to simplify
church services. In response, Haydn composed about 100 settings of Mass
Propers in a simple homophonic style. During the 1780s, Haydn completed
20 symphonies. Writing from Vienna in 1784, Mozart expressed his
astonishment at how quickly he was able to obtain copies of Michael
Haydn’s most recent symphonies. During the 1790s Haydn enjoyed an
expanding sphere of influence as a teacher of composition; Anton
Diabelli was involved in the publication of many of Haydn's sacred works
by the Viennese publishing firm that later bore his name. Sigismund
Neukomm was a pupil of Haydn in the 1790s. The young C.M. von Weber came
to Haydn in 1797; and Franz Schubert, though never one of his pupils,
visited Haydn's grave in Salzburg and included words of admiration for
him in a letter to his brother Ferdinand. In January 1801 his apartment
was plundered by French soldiers, and this was possibly a catalyst for a
trip to Vienna. By September 1801 he was again in Vienna rehearsing a
mass commissioned by Empress Maria Theresia, who sang a solo part in a
performance. He began work on a Requiem (1806), commissioned by the
empress, but owing to his declining health he never finished it.
Although he expected the coming spring to bring an improvement in his
health, it did not; and he died, with friends and students at his
bedside, on 10 August 1806.
Spanish composer, organist and theorist. According to a document from
1738 he was baptised in the parish church of San Esteban in Valencia and
it also stated he was a choirboy at the College of Corpus Christi (El
Patriarca) in Valencia. When he was 18 years old he was appointed
assistant of Francisco Vicente, the main organist there. In 1749, and
after the death of Francisco Vicente, he was subsquently promoted as
interim organist there. From 1752 to 1771 he was titular organist at the
Collegiate Church of Játiva where he was ordained a priest. In 1757 he
unsuccessfully applied to the position of chapel master at the Cathedral
of Valencia and in 1761 he was appointed the organist there but he only
remained few months before going back to Játiva. In 1768 he fruitlessly
applied for the vacant position of chapel master at the Cathedral of
Málaga and applied, also unsuccessfully, for a position as organist at
the Royal Chapel of Madrid, which was awarded to José Lidón. In 1771 he
resigned from his position as organist in Játiva, presumably to take
over the organist post at the Descalzas Reales in Madrid. Around 1775 he
returned to Valencia where he died few months later. As a composer, he
mainly wrote sacred music, among them, 7 masses and 26 psalms. He also
left an harpsichord concerto (1767) as well as 7 keyboard sonatas. His
extant output, around 70 works, is only preserved in manuscript.
Italian violinist and composer. From an early age he studied violin,
initially in his native town and later in Modena, under the tuition of
Paolo Guastaroba. In 1768, he moved to Padua, where for some time he
studied at the school of Giuseppe Tartini. In the following years he
appeared as soloist in Rome and Florence; in the latter city he resided
from 1771 to 1775, working in the school of one of Tartini's most famous
pupils, Leghorn-born Pietro Nardini (1722-1793), and employed as a
violinist at Teatro della Pergola. In Florence he also gave successful
concerts, reviewed by Gazzetta Toscana, and became a friend of the young
Luigi Cherubini. Wishing to widen his horizons and to start a soloist
career, in 1776 he left Italy and moved to Freising, Bavaria, where he
entered the service of bishop Ludwig von Welten as Konzertmeister at
court. He remained until 1779, during which time he also gave well
received concerts in Poland, Latvia and Sweden. Later he spent several
years in Dresden, and continued to appear in public in northern Europe,
returning twice to Italy, in 1784 and 1788. In 1797 he became
Konzertmeister of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. In that city, the
musician published his Violin Method, which soon became extremely
popular in all of Europe. Meanwhile, as the famous orchestra's first
violin, he had the opportunity to become acquainted with and perform the
symphonic and instrumental output of the great Austro-German composers.
On the side he never stopped composing, and towards the end of the 18th
century a few of his works started to appear on the market: his Op.1,
Six Duos pour la Flute et Violon, was published around 1790 in Berlin;
others followed, for a total of 22 opus numbers. He also continued his
activity as itinerant performer. In Paris, in 1801, he met again with
his friend Cherubini, and made the acquaintance of Rodolphe Kreutzer,
whose violin concerto he performed in Leipzig in 1804, earning himself a
cautiously positive pronouncement by Louis Spohr. In 1816 he ended his
nearly twenty-year-long appointment with the Gewandhaus, and returned
for some time to Italy with his two daughters, Albertina Campagnoli
(1795-1848) and Giannina Campagnoli (1797-1848), both of whom were
singers. But in 1821 the violinist was already back in Germany, to take
up the position of Konzertmeister in Neustrelitz, probably to be close
to his daughters who, from 1819, had been enrolled at the Hannover
Theatre. After a last visit to Italy in 1826, he died in Neustrelitz.
German composer. He came from a family of craftsmen and attended the
grammar school run by Piarist friars (the order was founded in Rome in
1617 to promote the education of the poor). It was presumably here that
he received his first lessons in composition, the monastery archive
contains an early work by him, and learnt to play the keyboard and the
violin. He may have been first taught composition by the Kapellmeisters
and court musicians Johann Hönel and Augustin Pfleger, and by Georg
Bleyer. Since Duke Julius Franz sent gifted musicians to receive further
training elsewhere, and had connections with the Dresden court, he may
have acquired his high degree of contrapuntal skill from Christoph
Bernhard in Dresden. There is no evidence that he ever studied with
Lully in Paris. Lully's works were known and performed in Bohemia
through printed scores and from Georg Muffat's visit to Prague in 1677.
Fischer could have made an intensive study of them during his journeys
to Prague and Schloss Raudnitz on the Elbe in the course of his
professional duties. In 1689 or earlier Duke Julius Franz appointed
Fischer to succeed Pfleger as Kapellmeister in Schlackenwerth; his name
appears with that title in financial statements relating to the weddings
of the two princesses in 1690. After the partition of the state at the
end of 1690 Fischer may have been appointed Hofkapellmeister to Margrave
Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden. The margrave had married the heiress of
Schlackenwerth, Princess Sibylla Augusta, and made his residence there
at the time of the war with France. There is clear evidence of Fischer's
position in the titles of his printed works from 1695 onwards. The
court moved to Rastatt in 1705, but because of reductions in the
personnel during the war years Fischer did not accompany it. It was not
until October 1715, after a Piarist foundation had been set up in the
city, that he was finally given a post there, which he held until his
death. After his first wife's early death in 1698 he re-married,
probably at the beginning of 1700, and this marriage lasted until 1732.
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer served the Baden court for almost 60
years, albeit with the assistance of the man who was to succeed him,
Franz Ignaz Zwifelhofer, towards the end of his career. Sadly
underrepresented in today's concert repertoire, his music reveals itself
on closer study to possess a marked individuality, stylistic diversity
and elaborate harmonies.
