Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777)
- Sinfonia in D-Dur (1746)
Performers: Vienna Baroque Ensemble; Theodor Guschlbauer (conductor)
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Austrian composer, keyboard player and teacher. Born into a prominent
Viennese family, he studied under Johann Joseph Fux and Mattheo Palotta
beginning around 1735. Fux was so impressed by his student that he
recommended him in 1739 for the post of court composer, which was
followed the next year by an appointment as organist for Dowager Empress
Elisabeth. By 1749 he had become hofklaviermeister with the
responsibility of instructing the royal family on the keyboard. Four
years earlier, in 1745, his opera 'Ariodante' launched a career in the
royal theatres, and by 1751 he had published a treatise 'Rudimenta
panduristae oder Geig- Fundamenta', which was a forerunner of Leopold
Mozart’s work. By 1765, however, he began to be afflicted with gout,
resulting in a diminishing of his capacity and confinement to his home
the final years of his life. Wagenseil was a much-appreciated teacher,
whose students included Frantisek Xaver Dusek, Leopold Hofmann, and
Johann Baptist Schenk. As a composer, he wrote 16 operas; three
oratorios; 17 Masses and a Requiem; over 90 other sacred works
(including canticles, Psalms, hymns, etc.); nine secular cantatas; 30
concert arias; 77 symphonies; 81 concertos for keyboard (most with
string accompaniment); other concertos for flute, violin, cello,
bassoon, and trombone; seven violin sonatas; seven divertimentos; four
flute quartets; 60 trio sonatas; and a large number of smaller works for
keyboard. Although his early Masses display a Baroque style, his
symphonies and concertos, of which he was one of the most prolific
composers of the period, were much more advanced, while his penchant for
solid, colorful orchestration, interesting harmony, and attention to
dramatic detail presage the opera reforms of Christoph Willibald von
Gluck in his opera serias. Georg Christoph Wagenseil can be considered
one of the pivotal figures in the development of the Classical style in
Vienna with a compositional career that spanned a period from Fux, his
teacher, to Haydn brothers and W.A. Mozart, for whom he served as a
precursor.
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