HABERMANN, František Václav (1706-1783) - Missa I. S. Wenceslai (1747)

František Václav Habermann (1706-1783) - Missa I. S. Wenceslai, opus I (1747)

Performers: Soloists and Choir 'Chorus Carolinus Kladno'; Collegium paedagogicum Praha a hosté;

Karel Procházka (conductor)

Drawing: Martin Tyroff (1704-1759) und Johann Andreas Pfeffel (1674-1748) - Prospect des so genannten

Wallischen Platzes in der Königl. klein Stadt Prag

Further info: Masses–D major

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František (Franz, Franciscus) Václav (Wenzel) Habermann [Haabermann]

(Königswart, 20 September 1706 - Eger, 8 April 1783)

Bohemian teacher, organist and composer. Following early musical education at the Jesuit school in Klatovy, he was sent to complete his training in Spain and Italy. Following a brief time as organist for various churches in Prague, in 1731 he entered the service of the Prince of Condé, whose diplomatic missions took him to Florence. A decade later he returned to Prague, where he directed choirs in various monastic churches until 1773, when he accepted the post of cantor at Eger. A versatile and facile composer, his music displays the flowing lyrical melodies of Bohemian works. Though it has been little studied, works consist of five oratorios, two stage works (including a Czech pastoral), 19 Masses, six litanies, a motet, two concertos, and numerous symphonies. In Habermann’s later works elements of the pre-Classical and early Classical style are predominant. He was renowned among his contemporaries for his contrapuntal writing. The most outstanding of his pupils were Josef Myslivecek, Joannes Oehlschlägel and František Xaver Dušek. His brothers, Antonín Habermann (1704-1787) and Karel Habermann (1712-1766), were also organists and composers, both active in Prague.

STUPAN VON EHRENSTEIN, Johann Jakob (1664-1739) - Ouverture d-moll

Johann Jakob Stupan von Ehrenstein (1664-1739) - Ouverture (d-moll) aus

'Rosetum musicum in 6 divisum arcolas, vulgo partittas' (1702)

Performers: Ars Antiqua Austria; Gunar Letzbor (conductor)

Drawing: Jacob Hoefnagel (c.1575-1632) - VIENNA AVSTRIAE (1609)

Further info: The Music Of The Habsburg Empire

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Johann Jakob (Jacob) Stupan von Ehrenstein

(1664 - Vienna, 17 January 1739)

Austrian composer and court official. Nothing is extant about his early life. He is mentioned on 31 July 1709, when his drama 'Martis exilium, e pacis reditus' was performed in Vienna. In 1710, he was appointed high steward for the imperial court in Vienna. Also in the same year he also became secretary to Prince Maximilian Wilhelm of Brunswick-Lüneburg. His final appointment was as councillor to the Dowager Empress Amalie. As a composer, his known music dates from 1702 to 1711. He wrote the music for three Jesuit dramas, the mentioned 'Martis exilium' (1709), and 'Radimirus ex reo rex' (1710), both lost, and 'Nundinae deorum' (1711), which according some sources played an important role in the development of Jesuit drama and suggests that he was a gifted composer. With its ‘bravura arias firmly in the Neapolitan style and accompanied by various instrumental combinations … brief, unassuming secco recitatives [and] extended, well-wrought arias’, it shows that the genre had shed the features that characterized it up to about 1700. He also left two collections of three-part music; 'Rosetum musicum in 6 divisum arcolas, vulgo partittas' (Ulm, 1702) and 'Armonica compendiosa' (Ulm, 1703).

GEMINIANI, Francesco (1687-1762) - Concerto Grosso (1729)

Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) - Concerto Grosso (d minor) from 'CONCERTI GROSSI | Con due Violini, Viola e Violoncello | di Concertino Obligati, e due altri Violini | e Basso di Concerto Grosso

Opera Quinta' (1729), H.143

Performers: Concerto Copеnhagеn

Painting: Andrea Soldi (c.1703-1771) - Francesco Geminiani (c.1739)

Further info: Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) - Concerto Grossi

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Francesco (Saverio, Xaviero) Geminiani [Giminiani, Dzheminiani]

(Lucca, bap. 5 December 1687 - Dublin, 17 September 1762)

Italian composer, violinist and theorist. His father was a violinist at the Cappella Palatina in Lucca and probably taught his son. Francesco Geminiani played professional violin in Naples by December 1706 and then, on 27 August 1707, returned to Lucca to take his father’s position. During this period, he may have studied with Arcangelo Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti. He left Lucca in September 1709. He appears in London in 1714, where he began a career for himself as a violin teacher and, with occasional public performances, won considerable notice. Geminiani left London for Paris in 1732 and then, on 6 December 1733, arrived in Dublin to enter the service of Charles Moore, Baron of Tullamore. Apart from occasional trips to Paris to publish his works, and to London, he remained in this service until his death. His last public performance took place on 3 March 1760. In 1761, on one of his sojourns in Dublin, a servant robbed him of a musical manuscript on which he had bestowed much time and labour. His vexation at this loss is said to have hastened his death. As a composer, he published 48 violin sonatas, and of 47 published concerti grossi, 23 are original, and 24 are arrangements of Corelli trio and violin sonatas. As a theorist, his 'Art of Playing the Violin' (1751) as well as the 'Guida Harmonia' (1752) are seminal works demonstrating performance practice of this period. His contemporaries in England considered him the equal of Georg Friedrich Handel and Corelli. He was one of the greatest violinists of his time, an original if not a prolific composer and an important theorist.

Sig. Filippo (18th Century) - Sonata per il Clavi Cempallo

Sig. Filippo (18th Century) - Sonata (Fa maggiore) per il Clavi Cempallo

Performers: Milko Bizjak (harpsichord)

Painting: Pietro Longhi (1701-1785) - La consegna del pacco

Further info: Sonatas–F major

PALUSELLI, Stefan (1748-1805) - Diana et Ursus (1802)

Stefan Paluselli (1748-1805) - Diana et Ursus (1802)

Performers: Reingard Didusch (soprano); Hans Kiemer (bass); Das Innsbrucker Kammerorchester;

Othmar Costa (1928-2018, conductor)

Painting: James Ward (1769-1859) - Diana at the Bath (1830)

Further info: Der Singende Bär Und Die Göttin Der Jagd

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(Johann Anton) Stefan (Stephan) Paluselli [Paluschelli, Pallusello]

(Kurtatsch, 9 January 1748 - Stams, 27 February 1805)

Austrian monastic composer and teacher. In 1760 he was sent to Innsbruck for his education, studying at the St. Nikolaus school and functioning as a chorister at the university church. By 1768 he was a student at the University of Innsbruck in philosophy, and in 1770 his Singspiel Das alte deutsche Wörtlein tut was premiered. He entered the Cistercian abbey at Stams the same year, becoming ordained as a priest in 1774. He functioned as a teacher of violin at the abbey school, later being appointed as regens chori in 1791. Although his music adheres to the older stile antico, his instrumental works show awareness of the forms and structures found in the mainstream cities of Austria. His Singspiels, most in dialect, were particularly popular in the Tyrol; he composed 11 of these. He also composed several small occasional cantatas; six Masses; over 100 sacred works such as hymns, Psalms, motets, sacred Lieder, and antiphons; an oratorio; 10 divertimentos (partitas, cassations); a large serenade; a string quartet; a symphony; and a series of sogetti in 1790 as exercises for the voice. He was, undoubtedly, one of the most notable musical personalities of 18th-Century Tyrol.

CARR, Benjamin (1768-1831) - The federal overture (1794)

Benjamin Carr (1768-1831) - The federal overture (1794)

Performers: Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä; Patrick Gallois (conductor)

Drawing: Joseph Yeager (c.1792-1859) - Procession of Victuallers of Philadelphia, on the 15th of March 1821

Further info: The 18th Century American Overture

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Benjamin Carr

(London, 12 September 1768 - Philadelphia, 24 May 1831)

English composer, publisher, and performer. Son of Joseph Carr (1739-1819), he studied the organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold, and probably learnt engraving at his father's shop in London. After 1789 he assisted Arnold as harpsichordist and principal tenor for the Academy of Ancient Music, and his earliest known opera, Philander and Silvia, was performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in October 1792. In 1793 he immigrated to the United States where he worked as a singer and musician at the Chestnut Street Theatre, making his debut the following year. He also established a business selling musical instruments and, eventually, as a publisher. He was choir director at the St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, as well as a founding member of the Musical Fund Society. As a composer, his works include six stage pieces (operas, ballets), around 50 songs (his setting of Scott's Hymn to the Virgin [1810] is generally considered the finest early American song), a Federal Overture (his most famous orchestral work), 12 keyboard sonatas (as well as other keyboard works). He also regularly published music in journals and magazines for the public, including Carr’s Musical Miscellany. His brother Thomas Carr (1780-1849) was also a composer and organist, mainly active in Philadelphia.

PURCELL, Henry (1659-1695) - Overture in g

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) - Overture (Suite in g) from 'The Fairy Queen', ZimP 629

Performers: Concеrto Copеnhagen

Painting: Cornelis de Man (1621-1706) - Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz

Further info: Henry Purcell (1659-1695) - The Harpsichord Music

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Henry (Henri) Purcell [Purcel]

(Westminster, 10 September 1659 - Westminster, 21 November 1695)

English composer and organist. Son of Henry Purcell (?-1664), and brother of Daniel Purcell (c.1664-1717), he received music lessons as a chorister in the Chapel Royal, London, from the late 1660s until December 1673, when he was hired as keeper of the king’s instruments. He probably studied with John Blow and Christopher Gibbons, composers associated with the Chapel Royal. On 10 September 1677, he succeeded Matthew Locke as 'composer-in-ordinary' to the king and, in 1679, was appointed organist to Westminster Abbey when Blow stepped down, apparently to create an opening for Purcell, and then, on 14 July 1682, was appointed as organist to the Chapel Royal. He retained these positions for his whole life. In 1680, he married Frances Peters with whom he had three sons, among them, Edward Henry Purcell (1689-1765), organist at London. As a court composer, Henry Purcell was responsible for providing the required ceremonial music, including birthday odes, welcome songs, anthems, voluntaries, and other music for coronations. Under King Charles II, who ruled until 1685, and James II, until 1688, these duties kept Purcell busy and provided adequate income. Attempts to introduce Italian- and French-style opera into England early in the Restoration period had failed, but after the Glorious Revolution had exiled James and brought King William III and Queen Mary II to the throne in 1689, the musical establishment at court was reduced considerably, and this may have caused Purcell to seek more income outside from the stage. In 1689, Purcell worked with the future poet laureate of England, Nahum Tate, to produce his only true opera, 'Dido and Aeneas'. Henry Purcell is generally acknowledged as the finest setter of English text, sometimes called the greatest native English composer, his oeuvre may be divided into three generic areas. He composed the instrumental incidental music to over 40 plays between 1680 and 1695, as well as 14 fantasias, 3 overtures, 5 pavans, 24 sonatas, and much harpsichord music. His musical dramas were composed later, including one complete opera and five semi-operas, mostly after 1688. The third group, sacred music, was composed throughout his career: 56 masterly verse anthems, 18 full anthems (all before 1682), 4 Latin psalms, 34 other sacred songs, a morning and evening service, and a few works for organ. His music, especially the earlier instrumental music, often experimented with unorthodox chromaticism and dissonance but always shows a mastery of contrapuntal art. He was one of the most important 17th-century composers and one of the greatest of all English composers. 

OTTANI, Bernardo (1736-1827) - Sinfonia 'L'amore senza malizia' (1767)

Bernardo Ottani (1736-1827) - Sinfonia 'L'amore senza malizia' (1767)

Performers: Orchestre des Pays de Sаvoie; Reinhard Goеbеl (conductor)

Drawing: Bartolomeo Pinelli (1771-1835) - A carnival scene in Rome around Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Triton fountain

Further info: Musiques a la Cour de Savoie

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Bernardo (Bernhardin, Bernardino) Ottani [Ottini]

(Bologna, 8 September 1736 - Turin, 26 April 1827)

Italian composer. A student of Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna, he made his debut as a composer with an oratorio in 1765, the same year he was elected to the Accademia Filarmonica. The following year he began to receive commissions from Turin, Venice, and Genoa, later touring Germany as a composer of opera. In 1769 he was appointed as maestro di cappella at the church of San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna, later becoming a keyboardist at the Teatro Publico. For Good Friday of 1770 he wrote another oratorio, and later that year he was one of ten musicians chosen by the Accademia to compose and conduct works for its annual day-long concert, which took place on 30 August with Charles Burney and the Mozarts in attendance. Burney thought him ‘young and promising’, and described the Laudate pueri as containing ‘many ingenious, pretty things’. Shortly after this, on 9 October, Ottani was one of Wolfgang’s examiners for his election to the academy. In 1774 Ottani served as the academy’s president. In 1779 the successful performance of an opera at the Teatro Regio in Turin led to him being appointed as maestro di cappella there, a position he retained his entire life. During the French occupation he was involved in the dissolution of the Royal Chapel in 1798, the closing of the Teatro Regio and the shutting down of musical activity. Continuing his duties at the cathedral he wrote several religious compositions for the coronation of Napoleon and was nominated maestro di musica to the Prince and Princess Borghese. As the only survivor of the old order at the time of the Restoration, he was entrusted with the task of reorganizing a new Royal Chapel in 1814. As a composer, his music, little studied, includes 46 Masses, 14 operas, including 'L'amore senza malizia' (Venice, 1767), 'Le virtuose ridicole' (Dresden, 1769), and 'L'amore industrioso' (Dresden, 1769), numerous arias and other insertions, an oratorio, three cantatas, 10 sacred works, and six keyboard sonatas. His brother, Gaetano Ottani (c.1734-1808), was a wellknown tenor and landscape painter.

GLETLE, Johann Melchior (1626-1683) - Litaniae Lauretanae (1681)

Johann Melchior Gletle (1626-1683) - Litaniae Lauretanae aus 'EXPEDITIONIS MVSICÆ | CLASSIS V. | LITANIÆ | B. V. LAVRETANÆ. | Plerumque | à V. Vocibus Concertantibus necessariis; | cum V. Instrumentis Concertantibus ad libitum, | & V. Ripienis, seu Pleno Choro. ... OPVS VI' (1681)

Performers: Musica Fiοrita; Daniela Dοlci (conductor)

Painting: Adriaen van Nieulandt (1587-1658) - Christ's entry into Jerusalem (1655)

Further info: Triumphale Canticum

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Johann (Johannes, Ioannes) Melchior (Melchiore) Gletle [Glettle]

(Bremgarten, 1626 - Augsburg, 6 September 1683)

Swiss composer and organist. Almost nothing is known about his life. In 1651 he was appointed organist of Augsburg Cathedral and from 1654, Kapellmeister at the same Cathedral. He held both positions until his death. After 1670 his poor health greatly restricted his activities. As a composer, 219 compositions are extant. All the sacred music is in the Italian-influenced concertato style common to Austria, southern Germany and Switzerland in the 17th century. In both the secular and sacred works the melodies are songlike, revealing both Italian and folk influences. His son Johann Baptist Gletle (1652-1699) was also organist and composer.

DEVIENNE, François (1759-1803) - Sinfonie concertante pour cor et basson

François Devienne (1759-1803) - Sinfonie concertante [F] pour cor et basson (1785)

Performers: Klаus Wаllendorf (horn); Kаrl-Otto Hаrtmаnn (bassoon); Rundfundorchester Hannover;

Wolf-Dieter Hauschild (conductor)

Painting: Louis-Nicolas de Lespinasse (1734-1803) - Third exterior view of Paris (1782)

Further info: François Devienne (1759-1803) - Simphonie concertante (c.1800)

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François (Frederic) Devienne

(Joinville, 31 January 1759 - Paris, 5 September 1803)

French flautist, bassoonist, composer and teacher. He was the seventh of eight children born to Pierre Devienne and his second wife Marie Petit. Following early musical education as a choirboy, he was sent to Paris to study flute with Félix Rault. In 1780 he joined the orchestra of the Prince de Rohan, making his debut at the Concerts spirituels in 1782. From then until 1785 he performed there as a soloist at least 18 times, but after 3 April 1785 he did not appear there for four years. From 1785 to 1789 his place of employment is uncertain; he may have been a member of the Swiss Guards Band in Versailles. Devienne probably returned to Paris in autumn or winter 1788. Thereafter he played flute and bassoon at the Opéra until the Revolution, when he joined the military band of the French Guards. In 1795 he was appointed as an inspector and professor of flute at the new Conservatoire following the publication two years earlier of his treatise 'Méthode de flûte théoretique et pratique'. In May 1803 he entered Charenton, a Parisian home for the mentally ill, where he died the following September after a long illness which ended by impairing his reason. He was an extraordinarily prolific composer of peculiar importance from the impulse that he gave to perfecting the technique of wind instruments. He wrote 12 operas, seven sinfonia concertantes, 14 flute and five bassoon concertos, 25 quintets and quartets, 46 trios, 147 duos, and 67 sonatas, as well as a symphony and two Revolutionary hymns. As a teacher, Joseph Guillou was one of his most famous pupils. François Devienne was regarded in his lifetime as a flute virtuoso, and his works were frequently reprinted abroad.

COSTANZI, Giovanni Battista (1704-1778) - Dixit Dominus

Giovanni Battista Costanzi (1704-1778) - Dixit Dominus

Performers: Harmonia Sacra; Peter Leech (conductor)

Painting: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Giovanni Battista Costanzi (1775)

Further info: Princely Splendour - Choral Works From 18th Century Rome

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Giovanni Battista (Giambattista, Juan) Costanzi [Costanza, Costanzj, Giovannino del Violoncello et al.]

(Rome, 3 September 1704 - Rome, 5 March 1778)

Italian composer, teacher, cellist and organist. A student of Giovanni Lulier, he entered the service of Cardinal Ottoboni in 1721. After the brilliant success of his opera 'Carlo Magno' in 1729, he was appointed to a number of the most important posts of maestro di cappella in Rome: at San Luigi dei Francesi in 1729, at San Lorenzo in Damaso in 1731, at San Marco and Santa Maria in Vallicella in 1743, and at San Pietro (Cappella Giulia) in 1755. As a teacher, his most famous student was Luigi Boccherini. As a composer, his own music has been little studied but includes 17 operas, four cantatas, and a large amount of sacred music as well as few instrumental works, among them, cello concertos and sonatas, and five symphonies. Giovanni Battista Costanzi was among the most prolific composers of the 18th century but only a part of his output has survived. According to André Ernest Modeste Grétry he was one of the best-loved church composers in Rome.

BARTHELEMON, Cecilia Maria (1767-1859) - Sonata for the Harpsichord With Accompaniments (1792)

Cecilia Maria Barthélemon (1767-1859) - Sonata (II, F-Major) from 'Two sonatas for the piano-forte or harpsichord, with accompaniments for the violin, german flute & violoncello ... opera seconda' (1792)

Performers: Irene Schmidt (flute); Fine Zimmermann (harpsichord); Wladimir Kissin (cello)

Painting: Emil Bærentzen (1799-1868) - Family Portrait (1828)

Further info: Cecilia Maria Barthélemon (1767-1859) - Sonata (I) for the harpsichord, Opera prima (1786)

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Cecilia Maria Barthélemon [Hinchcliffe, Henslow]

(London, 1 September 1767 - Tottenhill, 5 December 1859)

English singer, composer, pianist and organist. Daughter of François-Hippolyte and Maria Barthélemon, she went with her parents on their continental tour (1776-77) and sang before the King of Naples and Marie Antoinette. She repeated the scena which she had performed for them at her mother’s benefit concert in London in March 1778 and continued to appear with her parents as a singer, often in duets with her mother, and later as a pianist. She does not appear to have had an independent performing career or to have composed after her marriage to Captain E.P. Henslowe (not W.H. Henslowe; see the memoir Francis Barthélemon, 1896). Haydn was a friend of the Barthélemons and Cecilia treasured memories of his visits to them during his London years. She dedicated her keyboard sonata op.3 to Haydn and was a subscriber (listed as ‘Mrs Ed. Henslow’) to The Creation. After married with Captain E.P. Henslow around December 1796, she definitely stopped performing and composing.