José Avelino Canongia (1784-1842)
- Troisixième Concerto (Mib majeur) pour la clarinette avec Orchestre ou Quatuor dédié à S. M. Dom Fernando second (c.1840)
Performers: Julien Hеrvе (clarinet); Orquestra Sinfónica da ESMAE; António Sаiοte (conductor)
Further info: José Avelino Canongia (1784-1842)
---
Portuguese clarinetist and composer. He was born into a family of
Catalan origin. His father, Ignacio Canongia, the principal clarinettist
of the Teatro São Carlos, had emigrated from Catalonia in the 1780s. He
pursued his son to study at the music school of the Confraria do
Apóstolo Paulo, where Canongia learned to sing, play the piano and the
violin. He later studied clarinet with Johann Anton Wisse, a German
musician active in Lisbon. Few time later he was promoted first as
musician of the Teatro de São Carlos orchestra and then of the Teatro do
Salitre orchestra. From 1806 to 1808, he settled in Paris and then in
Nantes. Following solo performances in Paris and London, and upon his
return to Portugal, he was appointed principal clarinettist at the
Portuguese Royal Court. He embarked on numerous tours throughout Europe:
in 1818, he gave recitals in Genoa and Bologna; in 1819 in Saint
Petersburg; in 1820 in Turin, Zurich, Dresden, Weimar, Frankfurt, and
Berlin. His appearance at the Concerts Spirituels in 1820 was greatly
appreciated by the Parisian public. In 1821, after concerts in Munich,
he returned to Lisbon via Paris, where he became a soloist of the Teatro
de São Carlos orchestra in a post he held until his death in 1842. As a
composer, and along with João Domingos Bomtempo, he is considered one
of the greatest virtuoso musicians in Portugal during the early 19th
century. He possessed a brilliant technique, and during his tour of
Germany, his playing was compared to that of Heinrich Joseph Bärmann and
Johann Simon Hermstedt. His compositions include four concertos,
variations, fantasies, and other works for clarinet.
