dimecres, 19 de gener del 2022

CANNABICH, Christian (1731-1798) - Sinfonia (B-Dur) à 12 strumenti

Unknown master (18th Century) - Promenade og. Parade Platz i Mannheim (c.1780)


Christian Cannabich (1731-1798) - Sinfonia (B-Dur) à 12 strumenti
Performers: Nοrthern Sinfonia Orchestra; Boris Brott

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German composer. He was the third of the five children born to Matthias and Rosina Cannabich. He received his earliest musical training from his father. His early promise on the violin enabled him to enter the Mannheim orchestra at the age of 12 as a ‘scholar’ earning 50 gulden (6 May 1744), and by February 1746 he was earning 125 gulden as a violinist. After instruction in composition and the violin from Johann Stamitz, he studied with Nicolò Jommelli in Rome from about 1752 to July 1753, then followed him to Stuttgart, remaining there until February 1754. In March of that year he visited Milan, where he encountered the music of G.B. Sammartini and other Italian composers. He returned to Mannheim by 1756, when Marpurg reported that he held the position of third violinist under Stamitz and Dominicus Basconi. After Stamitz's death in March 1757 he was promoted. By 1759 he was joint Konzertmeister with C.J. Toeschi, receiving 700 gulden per year (200 more than Toeschi) and carrying out new duties that included directing the orchestra and preparing music for various court occasions and performances, in particular the académies and ballets. Contemporaries considered him a ‘a born Konzertmeister’ (Schubart) on account of his conducting technique and violin bowing. Mozart called him the best director he had ever seen (letter of 9 July 1778). His fine musical instruction shaped some of the best performers of the century, most notably Wilhelm Cramer and Carl Stamitz. On 8 January 1759 he married Maria Elisabetha de La Motte, who had been in service to the Duchess of Zweibrücken. The marriage produced six children (two died in infancy) of whom Carl August took after his father as a violinist and composer. Two daughters, Rosina (Rosa) Theresia (bap. 18 April 1764) and Elisabetha Augusta (bap. 11 April 1776), were also musically talented. Mozart taught Rosina during his stay in Mannheim in 1777 and wrote a piano sonata for her (? k309/284b); Elisabetha became a singer and studied in Italy in 1793 under a stipend from the Elector of Bavaria. 

The period from 1759 to 1778 was the most productive in Cannabich's career as a composer, giving rise to over 50 symphonies and 20 ballets. In 1774 he was appointed director of instrumental music at Mannheim, a title he held for the rest of his life; his salary was listed at 1500 gulden in 1776. Mozart and the Cannabich family became close friends during Mozart's stays in Mannheim in 1777-78. Cannabich's household was a constant centre of musical activity, and the letters of Mozart and his mother describe many performances and social occasions held there, as well as the writing, copying and playing of various compositions. The Mozart family's comments about Cannabich as a composer range from Leopold's of 6 April 1778, describing Cannabich as ‘a wretched scribbler of symphonies’, to Wolfgang's high praise of an overture of his in a letter of 8 November 1780. In 1778 Carl Theodor became the ruler of the combined Palatinate and Bavaria, causing the Mannheim court to move to Munich. Cannabich became the director of the merged Mannheim and Munich orchestras on 1 October of that year, again at a salary of 1500 gulden, but the expense of the move forced him to proceed to Munich without his family; despite 35 years of service, he had to plead with the elector for a loan to defray family debts. When the family was reunited in Munich, his home again became a hub of musical activity. No salary increases were offered, and in 1790, after Toeschi's death, he had to request additional payments to bring his income to 1800 gulden as compensation for writing the symphonies that had been the responsibility of his colleague. He composed his last symphony in 1794 in Vienna, where the unfinished autograph score, numbered 73, remains; according to Reichardt's Musikalischer Almanach he was there in 1796, supposedly owing to the disturbances of the Napoleonic campaigns. On 26 October 1797 Carl Theodor cut the number of his musicians from 95 to 70, and reduced the salaries of those remaining. Cannabich's salary dropped to 1200 gulden. Shortly thereafter he went to Frankfurt to visit his son Carl, and he died there at the age of 66.

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