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.
Italian cellist and composer. Born into a prominent family, he trained
on the violin and cello during his youth before establishing himself as a
sought-after musician in Modena by 1696, where he likely developed his
affinity for the French style. In 1704, he joined the Bavarian court
orchestra as a cellist. Following the Elector Maximilian II Emmanuel’s
defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession, he accompanied the exiled
court through the Netherlands and France, during which time he married
Marie Clémence Bultinck. Upon the court's return to Munich in 1715, his
loyalty was rewarded with appointments as Konzertmeister and electoral
councillor. His subsequent compositions increasingly integrated French
stylistic traits, and he became a central figure in Munich's musical
life, hosting early academic soirées. However, following Maximilian's
death in 1726, the successor Karl Albrecht favored a more contemporary
musical style, leading to Dall'Abaco's gradual marginalization. His
final published work, '12 Concerti à più istrumenti ... opera VI',
appeared in 1735, and he retired on a pension in 1740. His son
Joseph-Marie-Clément Dall'Abaco (1710-1805) was a cellist and composer.
André Raison (c.1640-1719)
- Messe du huictiesme ton des 'Livre d'orgue contenant cinq Messes
suffisantes pour tous les tons de l'Eglise ou quinze Magnificats pour
ceux qui n'ont pas besoin de messe avec des elevations toutes
particulieres. Ensuite des Benedictus : et une offerte en action de
grace pour l'heureuse convalescence du Roy en 1687. Laquelle se peut
aussi toucher sur le clavecin' (1688)
French organist, composer and teacher. He was educated at the seminary
of Ste Geneviève, Nanterre. From about 1665 he was organist at the royal
abbey of Ste Geneviève, Paris; later he became organist at the church
of the Jacobins (rue St Jacques). A tax register of 1695 places him in
the top rank of Parisian organists, along with François Couperin,
D’Anglebert, Gigault, Marchand and Grigny. He taught L.-N. Clérambault,
who dedicated his Premier Livre d’orgue (1710) to Raison. Raison’s Livre
d’orgue constitutes a major portion of the extant organ mass repertory.
The masses follow the usual pattern of short organ versets for
alternatim performance of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei.
Genres used include the traditional plein jeu, duo, trio, récit, basse
de trompette, fugue and grands jeux. Raison made no use of a plainchant
cantus firmus, but this was not unusual. These organ masses were
intended for use in convents and monasteries that had their own
contemporary mass chants (messes musicales); hence, the lack of
plainchant made the book more versatile and enabled Raison to claim that
the five masses could also be used to form 15 Magnificat settings. His
Deuxième Livre d’orgue commemorates the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) with a
setting of the Da pacem; this is followed by a fugue on the same theme,
several preludes and fugues, an offertory and an overture. The remainder
of the volume consists of an allemande and many noëls with variations.
Raison’s music is characterized by rhythmic vitality, consistent use of
imitative counterpoint and imaginative use of registration, often
requiring the full resources of a four-manual French Baroque organ.
Since Raison designed his first Livre d’orgue to assist secluded
monastic musicians, its preface contains a wealth of valuable
information about performing practice. His advice about observing the
metre of each piece to determine which dance movement is implied is
often quoted; however, it should not be inferred that Raison used dance
rhythm more than his contemporaries, or that his music is unusually
‘secular’ in nature. The book contains detailed information on
registration, ornamentation, notes inégales and fingering. A striking
example of Raison’s didacticism and attention to detail is his early use
of the double dot in the French overture-style offertory. Raison’s
influence is clear in Clérambault’s organ works; further it seems that
J.S. Bach borrowed the theme of his ‘Christe: Trio en passacaille’
(Messe du deuxième ton) for his Passacaglia in C minor.
Sophia Maria Westenholz (1759-1838)
- Thème | avec | X VARIATIONS | pour le Piano=Forte | composées |
par | SOPHIE WESTENHOLZ. | Oeuvre II. | Chez Rodolphe Werckmeister | à
Berlin ... (1806)
German singer, pianist and composer. Born into a musical family, she was
the daughter of Ferdinand Fritscher (?-1764), the organist of
Neubrandenburg. At a young age, she received private piano and voice
lessons from Johann Wilhelm Hertel. In 1775, she secured a position in
the Schwerin court orchestra. Her professional and personal life
intertwined in 1777 when she married Carl August Friedrich Westenholz
(1736-1789), the Kapellmeister of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court in
Ludwigslust. By 1779, she became an official member of that court,
serving as both a singer and pianist. Her dedication to her musical
career continued alongside her personal life, which included raising
eight children. Following the premature death of her husband in 1789,
she assumed a more central role in the court's musical life. She
remained an active participant in court and church music for over three
decades, until her retirement in 1821. During this period, she also held
the esteemed position of piano instructor to the daughters of Duke
Franz Friedrich I and Duchess Luise, further solidifying her influence
within the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court. By the 1780s, she had established
a regional reputation as a formidable pianist. Her virtuosic skill was
praised by contemporaries, including the composer Ernst Wilhelm Wolf,
who in 1782, enthusiastically described her as a "powerful female piano
player" whose style was reminiscent of "the great Bach in Hamburg." This
admiration was echoed by Carl Friedrich Cramer, who, in a review of six
sonatinas dedicated to her by Wolf, celebrated her as "a true student
of the only true, the Bachian style." Westenholz’s concert career
flourished, and between 1792 and 1804, she performed as both a pianist
and a glass harmonica player in major European cities such as Leipzig,
Copenhagen, Hamburg, Hanover, and Berlin. From 1803 to 1837, Louis
Massonneau, a violinist and later concertmaster in Ludwigslust, recorded
the court concerts of the court orchestra in the so-called
Ludwigsluster Diarium. This shows that Sophie Westenholz performed not
only piano works by Mozart, Haydn, Pleyel, and other contemporary
composers but also her own works. After her husband died in 1789 and his
successor, Antonio Rosetti, died in 1792, she conducted the court music
from the piano. The last performance by the musician in Ludwigslust is
dated on 3 March 1813; she and her son, the pianist and composer Carl
Ludwig Cornelius Westenholz (1788-1854), played a Mozart sonata for four
hands. As a composer, in 1806 she published several works for piano and
a collection of songs. The published Rondo (Op.1), Variations (Op.2),
and Sonata for Four Hands (Op.3) were met with controversial reviews.
Italian composer. Almost nothing is known about him before 1722, but in
Venice his teachers might have included Francesco Gasparini, Albinoni,
Vivaldi, Lotti, Alessandro Marcello or Benedetto Marcello. His father
Carlo Platti (c.1661-after 1727), a violetta player in the orchestra of
the basilica of S Marco, may also have taught him. While he was still in
Italy (until 1722), he probably saw the recently invented fortepiano
and a few of his keyboard solo sonatas and concertos might have been
composed for it instead of the harpsichord but this point is debatable.
In the chamber works (duets and trios) the harpsichord is clearly the
instrument required. No "piano" or "forte" indications are on Platti's
keyboard parts in his concertos for harpsichord and strings, though.
Also, the extension of at least one of these concertos asks for a D that
is beyond Cristofori's instrument's compass (4 octaves CC to c4). In
1722, he was called to Würzburg to work for the prince-bishop of Bamberg
and Würzburg, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn. There he married
Theresia Langprückner, a soprano singer with whom he had at least two
children. Platti spent the rest of his life in Würzburg, working as a
singer, instrument virtuoso, composer and conductor. His duties included
finding musicians for the court , as one can read in one of his
autograph letters that are available. His music consists of three
Masses, a Requiem, a Stabat mater, three cantatas, an offertory, 48
concertos (many lost), 22 trio sonatas, and 20 keyboard sonatas.
