František Kočvara (1730-1791)
- Sonata (II, Do majeur) pour Alto Viola des
'Quatre sonates [G, C,
G, C] pour alto viola avec accompagnement de basse ... œuvre 2'
Performers: Regina Shteynman (viola); Elena Keylina-Reuther (organ)
Further info: František Kočvara (1730-1791)
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Bohemian contrabassist and composer. Little is known about his early
life or education. He first appeared in 1775 in London, where he had
arrived as an itinerant musician and where he published collections of
trio sonatas and string quartets. There he became involved in the
cultural life of the city, performing and publishing his music, mainly
sonatas. In the late 1780s he was in Ireland. Back in London he took
part in the Concert of Ancient Music and in the Handel Commemoration of
May 1791. At the time of his death he played the double bass at the
King’s Theatre. François-Joseph Fétis claimed to have met and performed
for Kočvara while a child in his father’s house in Mons, though his
dating of the event (1792) is mistaken. According to Fétis, Kočvara
played not only the viola and double bass, but also the piano, violin,
cello, oboe, flute, bassoon and cittern. Kočvara gained special
notoriety by the manner of his death, with which most early accounts of
him are primarily concerned. He was reputed to have had unusual vices,
and was accidentally hanged while conducting an experiment in a house of
ill repute. Susan Hill, his accomplice in the experiment, was tried for
murder at the Old Bailey on 16 September 1791 and was acquitted. As a
composer, his most famous composition, 'The Battle for Prague', appears
to have been written in commemoration of an event from 1758. His
surviving works include three serenades, a symphony, some 26 sonatas, 12
trio sonatas, six quartets, and several songs. His music is imitative
of major European composers of the period, principally Joseph Haydn.
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