Karl Joseph Toeschi (1731-1788) - Sinfonia a 11 istromenti (c.1773)
Performers: Convivium Musicum München
Further info: Premieren aus bayerischen Sammlungen
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German composer and violinist, son of Alessandro Toeschi (before
1700-1758) by his second marriage. A pupil of Johann Stamitz and Anton
Fils, he soon became a good concert violinist, and from 1752 was a
member of the Mannheim court orchestra. In 1759 he became Konzertmeister
and in 1774 music director of the electoral cabinet. During these years
he directed performances of opera and ballet and frequently travelled
to Paris, where from 1760 most of his instrumental works appeared in
print, and where until 1783 his works were frequently performed at the
Concert Spirituel. In 1778 he chose to follow the Elector Carl Theodor
to Munich, as did most of the Mannheim orchestra. His French wife
Susanna (née Nayer), in Gerber’s estimation an outstanding singer, was a
member of the Munich court opera until 1802. As the composer of more
than 66 symphonies, about 30 ballets and numerous chamber works, Toeschi
is one of the foremost representatives of the second generation of the
Mannheim school. His style was based primarily on the works of Stamitz
and Fils, but also on Italian models such as Pergolesi and Jommelli.
After unconvincing early attempts in a severe Baroque-like style, and
other superficial efforts in the manner of Fils, in the 1760s he was
able to develop a personal style which, through the influence of the
French opéra comique, was distinguished by singable melodies and clarity
of form and instrumentation. His symphonies of this period are
noteworthy for their frequent passages of imitation and for their fusion
of single-motif and dualistic sonata form principles. By 1770 he was
regarded in Paris, along with Cannabich, as one of the leading German
symphonists; many striking characteristics of Mozart’s Paris Symphony
(k297/300a) resemble Toeschi’s symphonic style of the 1770s, of which
the Symphony in D (published 1773; in Riemann, 1902: thematic catalogue,
D major, no.11) is a particularly good example. He was no less highly
regarded as a composer of ballets, to which his style was particularly
well suited. With his quatuors dialogués (1762–6) Toeschi also played an
important role in the differentiation of instrumental roles in chamber
music, and his flute compositions, praised by his contemporary Junker as
‘epoch-making’, are among the earliest works for this instrument to
depart from Baroque style.
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