dilluns, 29 de gener del 2024

QUANTZ, Johann Joachim (1697-1773) - Concerto per il Flauto (1760)

Andreas Ludwig Krüger (1743-1822) - West side of the Palast Barberini in Potsdam (1779)


Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) - Concerto (e-moll) per il Flauto (1760), QV 5:120
Performers: Karlheinz Zöller (1928-2005, flute); Berliner Philharmoniker; Hans Von Benda (1888-1972, conductor)

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German flautist, composer, writer on music and flute maker. The son of a blacksmith, he began his musical training in 1708 with his uncle, Justus Quantz, a town musician in Merseburg. After Justus’s death three months later, Quantz continued his apprenticeship with his uncle’s successor and son-in-law, J.A. Fleischhack, whom he served as a journeyman after the completion of the apprenticeship in 1713. During his apprenticeship, Quantz achieved proficiency on most of the principal string instruments, the oboe and the trumpet. Taking advantage of a period of mourning for the reigning duke’s brother in 1714, he visited Pirna where he came across some of Vivaldi’s violin concertos, which were to have a decisive influence on his artistic development. In March 1716 he accepted an invitation by Gottfried Heyne to join the Dresden town band. Quantz spent part of 1717 in Vienna studying counterpoint with J.D. Zelenka. In 1718 he became oboist in the Polish chapel of Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, accompanying him on official visits to Warsaw but remaining in Dresden for substantial periods. Because Quantz found little opportunity for advancement as an oboist, he turned to the transverse flute in 1719, studying briefly with P.G. Buffardin. However, he credited J.G. Pisendel, the leading violinist and representative of the ‘mixed taste’ (French and Italian), with the greatest influence on his development as a performer and composer. His interest in composition, particularly in works for the flute, continued to grow, stimulated by a wide range of Italian and French works then performed in Dresden. In the Saxon court’s repertory, however, influenced by opera seria and the instrumental compositions of Corelli, Torelli and Vivaldi, the Italian musical style gradually superseded the French. 

Between 1724 and 1727 Quantz completed his training with a period of study in Italy and shorter stays in France and England. He studied counterpoint with Francesco Gasparini in Rome, impressed Alessandro Scarlatti favourably and met, among many others, the future Dresden Kapellmeister J.A. Hasse, who was then studying with Scarlatti. From August 1726 to March 1727 he visited Paris. While in Paris he for the first time had a second key added to his flutes to improve their intonation. After a ten-week stay in England, where he met Handel, Quantz returned to Dresden in July 1727. The three-year tour established his reputation outside Germany, paving the way for the future international dissemination of his music. In March 1728 he was promoted to a member of the regular Dresden court chapel, where he was no longer required to double on the oboe. With this promotion he had finally won recognition as one of the outstanding performers in Dresden. In May 1728 Quantz, Pisendel, Buffardin and others accompanied Augustus II on a state visit to Berlin. Quantz made a particularly deep impression on Prince Frederick, and returned to the Prussian court twice a year to teach him the flute. When Augustus II died in 1733, Quantz was not allowed to transfer to Berlin. When Frederick became King of Prussia in 1740 he could offer Quantz 2000 thalers a year, exemption from duties in the opera orchestra and an agreement to take orders only from him. In December 1741 Quantz moved to Berlin, and for the remainder of his career his duties centred on the supervision of the king’s private evening concerts, for which he wrote new works and at which he alone had the privilege of criticizing Frederick’s playing. Quantz remained at Frederick's court at Potsdam until his death in 1773.

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