Ignaz Holzbauer (1711-1783)
- Missa Brevissima F-Dur
Performers: Collegium Vocale et instrumentale Nova Ars Cаntаndi; Giovаnni Acciаi (conductor)
Further info: Ignaz Holzbauer (1711-1783) - Quintet in G
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Austrian composer. He contributed significantly to 18th-century musical
life in Mannheim, where he was Kapellmeister at the famous electoral
court for 25 years (1753-78), and in Vienna. An autobiographical sketch,
written apparently in 1782 and first published in 1790, provides basic
information about Holzbauer’s life but few reliable dates. 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. Pursuing musical training nevertheless, he applied to the
young members of the choir at the Stephansdom for instruction in
singing, piano, violin and cello. In return, he provided them with his
new compositions. He studied Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum on his own
initiative and eventually arranged a meeting with Fux, who, after
examining a sample exercise, declared him an innate genius and
recommended a journey to Italy as a means of refining his musical
knowledge. Following a short term of employment with Count
Thurn-Valsassina of Laibach (Ljubljana), and a brief excursion to
Venice, he was appointed Kapellmeister to Count Rottal of Holešov in
Moravia. There his opera Lucio Papirio dittatore was staged in 1737;
that same year he married the singer Rosalie Andreides. According to the
autobiography, the couple left Holešov for Vienna a year later.
Subsequently, they journeyed to Italy, where they remained for three
years, travelling to Milan, Venice and other cities.
In 1744 Holzbauer collaborated with Franz Hilverding in creating ballets
for a Viennese performance of Hasse’s Ipermestra, and from 1746 to 1750
he was engaged in Vienna to compose ballet music for the Burgtheater;
in 1746 his name was also associated with the Viennese popular theatre.
In 1751 Holzbauer succeeded Brescianello as Oberkapellmeister at
Stuttgart, where he and his wife became ensnared in court intrigue.
Fortunately, following the successful 1753 performance of his opera Il
figlio delle selve at Schwetzingen (Elector Carl Theodor’s summer
residence), he was appointed ‘Kapellmeister für das Theater’ at
Mannheim, where his own works dominated the stage until 1760. Several
excursions – to Rome (1756), Turin for the performance of his Nitteti
(1758), Paris (1758) and Milan for the production of his Alessandro
nell’Indie (1759) – helped to expand his artistic horizons but failed to
secure him a lasting international reputation. Early in the next decade
Holzbauer evidently cultivated musical ties with Vienna: his name
appeared in connection with Burgtheater orchestral concerts (1761–3),
and his oratorio La Betulia liberata received several performances. In
Mannheim, where he assumed duties as director of the Hofkapelle
following Carlo Grua’s death in 1773, his activities had shifted from
theatre to sacred music, but he did not turn his back on opera
permanently: his greatest success came early in 1777 with the favourable
reception of his German opera Günther von Schwarzburg. Declining to
follow the electoral court to Munich, he remained at Mannheim, where his
one-act opera La morte di Didone was produced in 1779. Though suffering
acute hearing loss and other ailments, he managed to complete another
opera, Tancredi, for the court theatre in Munich shortly before his
death.
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