Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750)
- Sonata (d-moll) No. 20
Performers: Birgit Schwаb (baroque lute); Daniel Ahlеrt (mandolin)
Painting: Johann Conrad Seekatz (1719-1768) - Zwei Knaben, von denen einer auf einem Hackbrett spielt (c.1758)
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German lutenist and composer. A son of Johann Jacob Weiss (c.1662-1754)
and brother of Johann Sigismund Weiss (c.1690-1737), he was trained by
his father and in his seventh year he performed for Emperor Leopold I.
He began composing as early as 1706. From 1710 to 1714, he was in Rome
in the service of Polish Prince Alexander Sobieski, whose mother
employed both Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. Doubtless, Weiss also
knew Arcangelo Corelli in Rome. He then served Carl Philipp, imperial
governor of the Tyrol, probably from 1715 to 1717, at which point he
went to Dresden with a considerable salary increase. About this time, he
married Maria Elizabeth (c.1700-1759), and they had 11 children. His
son Johann Adolf Faustinus Weiss (1741-1814) was also lutenist and
composer. Silvius Leopold Weiss was regarded as one of the greatest
lutenists of music history, he spent most of his career in the court of
the Elector of Saxony at Dresden, from 1718 to his death, but his fame
created demand for performances and instruction at the courts of Vienna,
Munich, Prague, and Berlin, among other places he visited. His legacy
of compositions is the largest in the history of the lute, more than 600
works: hundreds of dances organized into suites (“sonatas”) following
the “classic” suite pattern of allemande, courante, bourrée, sarabande,
minuet, and gigue, often preceded by an unmeasured prelude. Johann
Sebastian Bach arranged No. 47 as a violin sonata with harpsichord (BWV
1025).
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