WAGENSEIL, Georg Christoph (1715-1777) - Sinfonia à 5

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) - Sinfonia (D-Dur) | a | Corno Primo | Corno Secondo | Oboe Primo | Oboe Secondo | Violino Primo | Violino Secondo | Viola | et | Basso, MicWka 374

Performers: Camerata Bern; Thomas Fսri (conductor)

Painting: Bernardo Bellotto (1721-1780) - Hof Palace, Seen from the North

Further info: Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) - Sinfonia in D-Dur (1746)

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Georg Christoph Wagenseil [Waghenseil, Vangenzeil, Vagensäll et al.]

(Vienna, 29 January 1715 - Vienna, 1 March 1777)

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.

DEPPISCH, Valentin (c.1746-1782) - Te Deum laudamus in C

Valentin Deppisch (c.1746-1782) - Te Deum laudamus in C. / a / 4 Vocibus, / 2 Violinis,

2 Obois obi: / 2 Clarinis, / Tympanis / Violone el / Organo.

Performers: Angelika Czabán (soprano); Anita Huszár (mezzosoprano); Károly Komódi (tenor); Gábor Kari (baritone); Sol Oriens Kórus És Kamarazenekar; Deményi Sarolta (conductor)

Painting: Philippe Canot (c.1715-1783) - Ceiling Design

Further info: Sol Oriens Kórus És Kamarazenekar

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Valentin (Bálint) (Joseph) Deppisch [Depisch, Debitsch, Debisch, Tepics]

(Austria?, c.1746 - Pécs, 14 March 1782)

Austrian (?) composer. The name Deppisch is of Bavarian origin, derived from the Middle High German terms 'täppisch' or 'tölpatschig', meaning unskilled or clumsy. While his arrival in Pécs may have been part of the broader 18th-century German emigration, it is more likely he originated from Austria, as the name remains extant in Vienna and the Styrian town of Fürstenfeld near the Hungarian border. Valentin Deppisch arrived in Pécs in 1769 at the age of 23 and began working as a second organist at the cathedral. In 1772, he purchased a house in Obere Franciscaner Gasse for 230 Rhine forints, though he moved to Caposvarer Gasse in 1774 due to the construction of a girls' institute. On 1 January 1778, he was promoted to first organist following the death of Joseph Fuckinger, which increased his salary by 25 forints. His professional duties included maintaining the parish church organ and providing accommodation and tuition for choirboys. He was married to Magdalena Dorn, a choir singer, with whom he had five children. Valentin Deppisch died on 14 March 1782, at the age of 36, after which his widow petitioned the Chapter for financial aid in exchange for her continued service in the church choir. As a composer, he received an annual payment of 75 forints from 1779 until his death, though archival dates on his Lauda Sion and Mass in C major indicate he was active as early as 1775. His extant output includes 4 Masses, a Requiem, two set of Vesperae, one Magnificat, and other sacred works as well as a symphony and one organ work.

HAYES, William (1708-1777) - Symphony 'The Fall of Jericho'

William Hayes (1708-1777) - Symphony (d minor) 'The Fall of Jericho' (c.1740)

Performers: Capricio Basel

Painting: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Card and music township (c.1730)

Further info: Concerti, Ouvertüre und Sinfonia

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William Hayes

(Gloucester, bap. 26 January 1708 - Oxford, 27 July 1777)

English composer, organist and singer. He showed an early talent for music. He trained at Gloucester Cathedral where the cathedral account books record his name amongst the choristers from 1717. He spent the early part of his working life as organist of St Mary's, Shrewsbury (1729) and Worcester Cathedral (1731). The majority of his career was spent at the University of Oxford where he was appointed organist of Magdalen College in 1734, and established his credentials with the degrees of B.Mus in 1735 and D.Mus in 1749. (He was painted by John Cornish in his doctoral robes around 1749.) In 1741 he was unanimously elected Heather Professor of Music and organist of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. He presided over Oxford's concert life for the next 30 years, and was instrumental in the building of the Holywell Music Room in 1748, the oldest purpose-built music room in Europe. He was one of the earliest members of the Royal Society of Musicians, and in 1765 was elected a "privileged member" of the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club. He died in Oxford, aged 69. His sons Philip Hayes (1738-1797) and William Hayes (1741-1790) were also singers and composers.

HOFFMANN, Ernest Theodor Amadeus (1776-1822) - Miserere (1809)

Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822) - MISERERE (b-moll) | posto in Musica (1809), AllH 42

Performers: Krisztina Laki (soprano); Gwendolyn Killebrew (alto); Aldo Baldin (tenor); Nikolaus Hillebrand (bass); Kölner Rundfunkchor; Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester; Roland Bader (conductor)

Painting: Eduard Gaertner (1801-1877) - Der Gendarmenmarkt im Winter

Further info: Miserere B-Moll

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Ernst Theodor Amadeus (E. T. A.) Hoffmann [Hôffman, Gofman, Chofman, Hofuman et al.]

(Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], 24 January 1776 - Berlin, 25 June 1822)

German writer, composer, and jurist. After studying law and serving as a legal assessor in Poznan, he pursued formal musical training under the organist Christian Podbielski. His professional career in music included tenures as music director at the Bamberg theater and opera conductor in Leipzig and Dresden (1813-14) before he permanently relocated to Berlin in 1814. Utilizing the pseudonym Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler, he contributed a series of influential essays to the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, which were subsequently compiled in the collection Phantasiestücke in Callot’s Manier (1814). Hoffmann's literary output, characterized by the use of the fantastic, exerted a profound influence on the Romantic school of literature and indirectly shaped the evolution of German musical composition. As a composer, his catalog includes several operas, the ballet Harlekin, a symphony, and various chamber works, including a piano trio and four piano sonatas; while historically neglected, these works are noted for their technical originality. Furthermore, he was an accomplished artist known for his sketches and caricatures, as well as a music critic whose analytical reviews provided a rigorous theoretical framework for Romantic aesthetics. His multidisciplinary contributions significantly impacted subsequent generations of European artists, writers, and musicians. 

DER GROSSE, Friedrich (1712-1786) - Concerto à 5 (c.1745)

Friedrich der Grosse (1712-1786) - Concerto (G-Dur) à 5. | Flauto Traversiero, | Violino Primo, |

Violino Secondo, | Violetta, | è | Basso (c.1745), KHM 1318

Performers: Manfred Friedrich (flute); Chamber Orchestra Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach;

Hartmut Haenchen (conductor)

Painting: David Matthieu (1697-1756) - Friedrich II von Preußen als junger Heerführer

Further info: Friedrich der Grosse (1712-1786) - Sinfonia in D-Dur (1747)

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Frederick II [Friedrich der Grosse; Frederick the Great]

(Berlin, 24 January 1712 - Potsdam, 17 August 1786)

German monarch, patron of the arts, flautist and composer. His father, Friedrich Wilhelm I, was alarmed at his son’s early preference for intellectual and artistic pursuits over the military and religious. In spite of being supervised day and night and in the face of his father’s rages and corporal punishments, Frederick managed, partly through the complicity of his mother and his older sister Wilhelmina, to read forbidden books, to affect French dress and manners and to play flute duets with his servant. As a seven-year-old he was permitted to study thoroughbass and four-part composition with the cathedral organist Gottlieb Hayne. Wilhelmina, also musically talented, joined him in impromptu concerts. On a visit to Dresden in 1728 the prince was overwhelmed at hearing his first opera, Hasse’s Cleofide; there he also first heard the playing of the flautist J.J. Quantz, who soon thereafter began making occasional visits to Berlin to give Frederick flute lessons. The king tolerated such amusements for a while, but by 1730 his disapproval had hardened to prohibition. On 4 August 1730, in his 18th year, Frederick attempted to escape to England. The result was his imprisonment and the beheading of one of his ‘accomplices’ in his presence. Instead of breaking, the prince became more sober and orthodox. In 1733 he reluctantly married the bride chosen for him, Elisabeth Christina of Brunswick. He took command of a regiment and immersed himself so thoroughly in statecraft that he eventually won the confidence of even his father. But he had no intention of giving up his interests: at his residence in Ruppin he maintained a small group of instrumentalists; the occasional lessons with Quantz continued; he appointed C.H. Graun as general court musician in 1735; and in 1736, when he moved to Rheinsberg, 17 musicians moved with him, including C.H. and J.G. Graun, Franz and Johann Benda, Christoph Schaffrath and J.G. Janitsch. 

When Frederick finally acceded to the throne on 31 May 1740 he plunged into social and political reforms, military conquest and the rehabilitation of Prussian arts and letters, all at once. Other agents, such as Voltaire and Algarotti, were commissioned to engage actors and dancers in Paris and more singers from Italy, along with machinists, costumiers and librettists. Amid this ferment, when the Emperor Charles of Austria died on 20 October, Frederick immediately began plans which culminated in his invasion of Silesia, the first of the many military campaigns through which he transformed Prussia into a great modern state. When Graun returned to Berlin with his Italian troupe of singers in March 1741, Frederick was on the battlefield. Indeed, in the first years of his reign Frederick enlarged both Prussia’s geographical and cultural boundaries, with equal verve. C.P.E. Bach, having already performed regularly at Rheinsberg, joined the court orchestra officially in 1740 as first cembalist; Quantz, released from his position in Dresden, was appointed in 1741. Christoph Nichelmann was retained in 1744 as second cembalist. In 1754 some 50 musicians, excluding singers for court intermezzos and members of the opera chorus, were in Frederick’s employ. In addition to C.H. Graun as Kapellmeister and chief composer for the opera, and J.F. Agricola as court composer. The new opera house on the avenue Unter den Linden, whose replica still stands in Berlin, was opened on 7 December 1742. From that date to the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756, the standard season featured two new operas by Graun and an occasional work by Hasse, composers who were the foremost representatives of Italian opera in Germany. In the successful but bitter Seven Years War (1756-63) Frederick gradually became ‘der alte Fritz’, inflexible and reactionary. Instrumental music at the court stagnated: Nichelmann left in 1756, C.P.E. Bach in 1767. From March 1756 to December 1764 no operas were produced at the Berlin Opera House; and from the end of the war to Frederick’s death in 1786 almost all the opera productions there were revivals of pre-war works.

Unknown composer (18th Century) - Sinfonie in D-Dur

Unknown composer (18th Century) - Sinfonie in D-Dur

Performers: Sephira Ensemble Stuttgart

Painting: Follower of Jean-Baptiste Pater (1695-1736) - Fête champêtre

Further info: Glanz des Rokoko

GORDINI, Paolo (18th Century) - Sonata per il Cembalo

Paolo Gordini (18th Century) - Sonata (Fa maggiore) per il Cembalo

Performers: Vаnia dаI Mаso (cembalo)

Painting: Giovanni Antonio Canal 'Canaletto' (1697-1768) - The Prisons and the Bridge of Sighs

Further info: Il Clavicembalo a Venezia

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Paolo Gordini (18th Century)

Italian composer and harpsichordist primarily active in Venice during the transition from the late Baroque to the Galant style. Nothing is known about his life. As a composer, he left several harpsichord sonatas. His musical language is characterized by the melodic elegance and rhythmic clarity typical of the Venetian school, drawing stylistic parallels to contemporaries such as Baldassare Galuppi and Domenico Alberti.

PERNECKHER, Franciszek (1712-1769) - Vesperae Dominicales â 9 Stromenti

Franciszek Perneckher (1712-1769) - Vesperae Dominicales (C-Dur) â 9 Stromenti | Canto Alto Tenore Basso | 2 Violini | 2 Clarini | Con | Organo | Pro Choro Clari Montis C. Nro. 34

Performers: Anna Krawczyk (soprano); Piotr Olech (alto); Maciej Gocman (tenor); Mirosław Borczyński (bass);

Concerto Polacco; Marek Toporowski (conductor)

Painting: Scuola veneta del secolo XVIII - Cena in casa di Simone da Paolo Veronese

Further info: Musica Claromontana vol.47

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Franciszek (Francesco) Perneckher [Paerneckher]

(1712 - 1769)

Polish violinist and composer. While much of his personal life remains unknown, he was documented as a violinist and Kapellmeister at the Pauline Monastery at Jasna Góra in between 1759 and 1768. He must have been a unique musician when compared with other band members, as at 250 złoties his remuneration ranked among the highest in the ensemble’s history. Although early thematic catalogues, such as the one by Paweł Podejko, originally attributed six Masses to him, modern musicological research, including handwriting analysis and RISM database comparisons, has confirmed that only two can be definitively attributed to Perneckher: the Missa Nativitatis Domini in A and the Missa Nativitatis in F. He also left, among others, two collection of Vesperae, two sonatas, two symphonies, and Offertories. Other works formerly associated with his name have since been reattributed to contemporary composers like František Xaver Brixi or remain unidentified due to the fragmentary state of the surviving sources. 

MANCINI, Francesco (1672-1737) - Concerto a 4 (1725)

Francesco Mancini (1672-1737) - Concerto (sol minore) di Flauto, Violini, Violetta e Basso (1725)

Performers: Jean-Pierre Boullet (recorder); Ensemble Baroque Le Rondeau

Drawing: Unknown artist (18th Century) - Europe

Further info: Francesco Mancini (1672-1737) - Missa septimus a 5 concertata

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Francesco Mancini

(Naples, 16 January 1672 - Naples, 22 September 1737)

Italian organist and composer. He entered the Conservatorio di S Maria della Pietà dei Turchini in 1688 as a student of organ, where he studied with Provenzale and Ursino; after six years he was employed as an organist. At the beginning of the 18th century he entered the service of the viceroy and in 1704 became the principal organist of the royal chapel. He was appointed maestro di cappella there in 1708 but by December of that year the post was returned to Alessandro Scarlatti and Mancini became his deputy (in 1718 he obtained a guarantee that he would succeed Scarlatti). In 1720 he became Director of the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, and so played an important part in the training of a new generation of composers. Mancini succeeded Scarlatti in 1725, remaining in the post until his death. In 1735, however, he suffered a stroke and remained semi-paralysed until his death two years later.

GRAUPNER, Christoph (1683-1760) - Sinfonia a 5 (1747)

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) - Sinfonia (D-Dur) | a | 2 Corn: | Tymp: | 2 Violin | Viola | e | Cembalo (1747)

Performers: Idées heureuses Ensemble

Painting: Johann Samuel Mock (1687-1737) - Die Parnaß mit dem thronenden August dem Starken und Musikern der Dresdner Hofkapelle im Aufzug zum Karussell-Rennen am 19. Juni 1709 in Dresden

Further info: Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) - Ouverture in G (c.1733)

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Christoph (Christopher) (Johann) Graupner [Craupner]

(Kirchberg, 13 January 1683 - Darmstadt, 10 May 1760)

German composer. The son of Christoph Graupner (1650-1721) and Maria Hochmuth (1653-1721), he was born into a family of tailors and clothmakers. He received his earliest musical training from the local Kantor Michael Mylius (who early detected Graupner’s exceptional abilities to sing at sight) and the organist Nikolaus Kuster. In 1694 he followed Kuster to Reichenbach, remaining there under his guidance until admitted as an alumnus of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he remained from 1696 to 1704. His teachers there included Johann Schelle and Johann Kuhnau, for whom he also worked as copyist and amanuensis. His subsequent studies in jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig were broken off in 1706 through a Swedish military invasion, and he emigrated to Hamburg. In Leipzig he had already made firm and artistically stimulating friendships with G.P. Telemann (then director of the collegium musicum) and Gottfried Grünewald. At Hamburg in 1707 he succeeded J.C. Schiefferdecker as harpsichordist of the Gänsemarktoper. Between 1707 and 1709 Graupner composed five operas for this theatre and possibly collaborated with Reinhard Keiser in the joint composition of another three. His librettists included Hinrich Hinsch and Barthold Feind, a jurist-satirist-aesthetician. In 1709, in response to an invitation from Ernst Ludwig, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, he accepted the position of vice-Kapellmeister to W.C. Briegel, whom he succeeded on the latter’s death in 1712. In 1711 he was married to Sophie Elisabeth Eckard, who bore him six sons and a daughter; her younger sister was married to a Lutheran pastor, Johann Conrad Lichtenberg of Neunkirchen in Odenwald, the author of the texts of most of Graupner’s subsequent cantatas. 

Under Graupner’s direction the Darmstadt Hofkapelle experienced a period of vigorous expansion. At its peak (1714-18) the Kapelle employed 40 musicians, many of whom, in keeping with practices of the day, were adept in several different instruments. In these early years of his long incumbency, Italian operas were performed frequently and he centred his activities on operatic compositions. Between 1712 and 1721 he also renewed his early friendship with Telemann, then active in Frankfurt. After 1719, however, financial pressures enforced a reduction in the size of the Kapelle and Graupner composed no more operas, concentrating instead on the cantata, orchestral and instrumental forms. During this period most of the orchestral personnel were obliged to find subsidiary employment, often in other court duties, and the relationship between the Landgrave and his musicians deteriorated. In 1722-23 he successfully applied (in competition with J.S. Bach) for the Thomaskirche cantorate in Leipzig, on Telemann’s withdrawal, but when the Landgrave refused acceptance of his resignation, granting him a significant increase in salary and other emoluments, he decided to remain in Darmstadt. There his reputation attracted a number of important composers, including J.F. Fasch, as his students. Until his activities were restricted by failing eyesight and eventually blindness in 1754, he remained extraordinarily prolific, producing 1418 church cantatas, 24 secular cantatas, 113 symphonies, about 50 concertos, 86 overture-suites, 36 sonatas for instrumental combinations and a substantial body of keyboard music.

HAINDL, Franz Sebastian (1727-1812) - Synfonia in G (c.1765)

Franz Sebastian Haindl (1727-1812) - Synfonia in G. à 2 Violini, Viola Obl. 2 Corni in G. e Basso (c.1765)

Performers: Innsbrucker Kammerorchester; Othmar Costa (1928-2018, conductor)

Drawing: Cornelis Troost (1696-1750) - The Wedding of Kloris and Roosje

Further info: Franz Sebastian Haindl (1727-1812) - Parthia in D (c.1765)

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Franz Sebastian Haindl [Heindl]

(Altötting, 11 January 1727 - Passau, 23 April 1812)

German Kapellmeister, violinist and composer. His grandfather Philipp Haindl (?-c.1681) was a choral director at Ebersberg (near Munich), and his father Johann Sebastian Haindl (1645-1732) was a choirboy at Munich Cathedral, a singer in the Damenstift at Hall, and the choral director at Altötting (1683-1706, and from 1715). Haindl first studied music with his stepfather, the tenor Wolfgang Stängelmayr, and as a choirboy at the Altötting collegiate church. He studied the violin at Munich and went to Innsbruck in 1748. In 1752 Duke Clemens of Bavaria appointed him first violinist at the Munich court, a post he held until about 1778, though he stayed much of the time at Innsbruck, where he met Leopold Mozart. After Duke Clemens's death in 1770 he frequently performed festival music at monasteries in the Tyrol, where most of his extant works are held. From 1785 to 1803 he served the Bishop of Passau as a violinist, personal servant and (according to Gerber) from 1793 as musical director of the theatre.

PUCKLITZ, Johann Daniel (1705-1774) - Erstanden ist der heil'ge Christ

Johann Daniel Pucklitz (1705-1774) - Concerto. ex D.# | auf Ostern. (Erstanden ist der heil'ge Christ) | a 2 Chör | C. A. T. B. | Due Oboen | Due Violini | Viola | C. A. T. B. | Due Clarini e Tympani |

2 Oboes Si: pl: | Taille e Basson | a 4 | Tromboni Rip: | e | Fondamento

Performers: Heike Hеilmann (soprano); Ewa Zеunеr (alto); Virgil Hartingеr (tenor); Marek Rzеpka (bass);

Goldbеrg Baroque Ensemble; Andrzej Mikolаj Szаdеjko (conductor & organ)

Drawing: Nicolaes Visscher (1619-1679) - Gesamtansicht Dantzig

Further info: Easter Cantatas of 18th Century Gdańsk

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Johann Daniel Pucklitz

(Danzig, 1705 - Danzig, 11 January 1774)

German composer. Almost nothing is known about him. A lifelong resident of the city of Danzig (now Gdańsk), he was a member of the City Council Ensemble, which served both the municipal government and St. Mary’s Church, and he organized public concerts on Młyńska Street. His 62 surviving works, written in the Late Baroque style, include cantatas, oratorios, and masses. His cantata 'Freue dich, Danzig' was dedicated to the young harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, a future student of Johann Sebastian Bach and the work's likely first performer. Pucklitz's compositions, such as the Christmas cantata 'Denen zu Zion wird ein Erlöser', are notable for their use of the bombard, an instrument that remained active in Danzig after it had fallen out of use in the rest of Europe. His manuscripts are held at the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

MASSONNEAU, Louis (1766-1848) - Sinfonie à grand orchestre (1794)

Louis Massonneau (1766-1848) - Sinfonie (c-moll) à grand orchestre 'La tempête et le calme'

... œuvre 5me (1794)

Performers: Mеcklеnburg-Schwеriner Hofkapelle; Ivаn Törzs (conductor)

Painting: Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) - Vesuvius in eruption, viewed from Posillipo (1789)

Further info: Musik der Mecklenburg-Schweriner Hofkapelle

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Louis Massonneau [Freyhold]

(Kassel, 10 January 1766 - Ludwigslust, 4 October 1848)

German violinist, composer and conductor of French descent. He was a son of a French chef cuisinier at the Kassel court; there he studied the violin with the Kapellmeister Jacques Heuzé and composition with the violinist Joseph-Karl Rodewald. In 1783 he became a violinist and viola d'amore player in the Hofkapelle of Landgrave Frederick II. In 1785, after the death of the landgrave, he moved to Göttingen to become first violinist at the Academic Concerts, under the direction of Johann Nikolaus Forkel. In 1795 he was appointed conductor at Frankfurt, two years later he occupied the same post at the new theatre in Altona and in 1799 he was conductor of the prince's chapel at Dessau. In April 1803, he settled in Ludwigslust, as assistant to the Kapellmeister Eligio Celestino. When Celestino died on 24 January 1812, he assumed the roles of orchestral conductor and Kapellmeister until his retirement in 1837. As a composer, he wrote three symphonies, several concertos, and many chamber music as well as sacred and secular music. His music shows familiarity with the violinistic idiom, fine feeling for orchestral sonority and gift for lyricism.

VANURA, Česlav (1694-1736) - Laetentur coeli (1736)

Česlav Vaňura (1694-1736) - Laetentur coeli aus 'Cultus Latriae seu duodecim offertoria solemnia, accomodata primariis per annum festivitatis domini, a quatuor vocibus, canto, alto, tenore, basso, violinis duobus, alto-viola, trombis partim duobus, partim quatuor tymp. & organo ... op. 2' (1736)

Performers: Thurgauer Kammerchor; Thurgauer Barockensemble; Raimund Rüegge (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: Festliche Musik aus Böhmen

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(Jan) Česlav (Ceslaus) Vaňura [Vanczura, Wanczura, Waniura et al.]

(Miletín, 28 December 1694 - Prague, 7 January 1736)

Boehmian composer. Nothing is known about his youth. As a member of the Minorite order he was appointed first organist to the convent church of St James at Prague in 1734. On the title-page of his 'Offertories Cultus Latriae seu duodecim offertoria solemnia ... Op.2' he is referred to as regens chori there. In 1735 he was awarded the degree of magister musicae. Although he might have been active at the Prague Minorite convent in the same years as his elder contemporary Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský, he was apparently not Černohorský's pupil. As a composer, his works stand near to Černohorský and Šimon Brixi, especially the offertories, written in a late Baroque idiom with a characteristic mixture of concerto style and contrapuntal texture. His 'Litanies' are primarily homophonic. He sometimes aimed at pictorial interpretation of the text, and his orchestration is varied, with emphasis on the brass instruments.

STARZER, Joseph (1726-1787) - Divertimento in C-Dur

Joseph Starzer (1726-1787) - Divertimento in C-Dur

Performers: Seattle Trumpet Consort

Painting: Cornelis Troost (1696-1750) - Suijpe Steijn (1742)

Further info: Music For The Natural Trumpet

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Joseph (Josef) (Johann Michael) Starzer [Stärtzer, Sterzer]

(Vienna, bap. 5 January 1728 - Vienna, 22 April 1787)

Austrian composer and violinist. No details of his musical training are known, but it has been surmised that he studied with court composer Giuseppe Bonno, the teacher of his sister Catharina Starzer. By about 1752 he was a violinist in Vienna's Burgtheater orchestra, where he began his career as a composer of ballets. During the winter of 1758-59, he went to Russia, where he was active at the Imperial court in St. Petersburg; gave concerts and later was made Konzertmeister and then deputy Kapellmeister and composer of ballet music; served as maitre de chapelle et directeur des concerts in 1763. Returning to Vienna about 1768, he composed several notable ballets. With Florian Leopold Gassmann, he helped in 1771 to organize the Tonkiinstler-Sozietat, for which he wrote a number of works. In 1779 he retired as a violinist and in 1785 gave up his duties with the society. Joseph Starzer was one of the leading Austrian composers of his day, winning distinction not only for his ballets but for his orchestral and chamber music; his string quartets have been compared favorably with those of Joseph Haydn. 

PERGOLESI, Giovanni Battista (1710-1736) - In hac die tam decora (c.1732)

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) - Mottetto a Più voci 'In hac die tam decora' (c.1732)

Performers: Rachel Redmont (soprano); Marta Fumagalli (contralto); Ghislieri Choir & Consort; Giulio Prandi (conductor)

Painting: Jean-François de Troy (1679-1752) - The Abduction of Europa (1716)

Further info: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) - Concerto per il flauto in Sol Maggiore

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Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Pergolesi [Percolese, Bertolesi, Bergolese, Pere Golese et al.]

(Jesi, 4 January 1710 - Pozzuoli, 16 March 1736)

Italian composer and violinist. Following early training in Jesi under Francesco Santini, he enrolled in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in Naples, where his teachers were Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo. He began his compositional career composing oratorios, such as the 1731 'La conversion e morte di San Guglielmo'. His first opera, 'Salustia', written for Naples in 1732, was a limited success, but he was appointed as maestro di capella to Prince Ferdinando Colonna Stigliano. Other operatic successes followed, but the most important was his 1733 'Il prigionero superbo' with its two-act intermezzo 'La serva padrona'. This is considered a seminal work in the creation of the buffa. A second appointment at the court of the Duke of Maddaloni in 1734 led to further commissions, such as the opera 'L’Olimpiade', which premiered at the Teatro Tordinona in Rome in 1735. Although this work was initially not a success, Pergolesi’s career was meteoric. His health, however, deteriorated and in 1736 he was confined to the Capuchin monastery in Pozzuoli, where he died from tuberculosis. Although he was only 26, he completed 11 operas and oratorios, two Masses, five cantatas (including Orfeo in 1736), two Salve Reginas, one Magnificat, a set of Marian vespers, and his most famous work, the Stabat mater, which was commissioned by the Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo shortly before his death (although a later composer, Giovanni Paisiello, claimed it had actually been written around 1730). His instrumental works were few, including four violin sonatas and possibly a violin concerto. Following his untimely death, his reputation spread throughout Europe, and a number of works were falsely attributed to him, such as a set of six concerti grossi (now known to be by Uno van Wassenaer). His Stabat mater was performed widely (in various arrangements), and his Serva padrona was considered the epitome of the new Italian comic style, particularly in Paris, where it served as the center of the Querelle des bouffons. His style emphasizes diatonic melody and triadic harmony, often with good contrasting themes. He was a leading figure in the rise of Italian comic opera in the 18th century.  

BRIXI, František Xaver (1732-1771) - Concerto ex F Organo Principale

František Xaver Brixi (1732-1771) - Concerto ex F Organo Principale

Performers: Ales Bаrtа (organ); Virtuosi di Prаga; Oldrich Vlcеk (conductor)

Painting: Francesco Battaglioli (1725-1796) - Architectural Capriccio

Further info: František Xaver Brixi (1732-1771) - Concerto ex C a Viola Principali

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František (Vojtěch Emanuel) Xaver Brixi [Bricsi, Brigsi, Brixen, Prix et al.]

(Prague, 2 January 1732 - Prague, 14 October 1771)

Bohemian organist and composer. Son of Šimon Brixi (1693-1735), he received his musical education at the Piarist Gymnasium in Kosmonosy. His teachers included Václav Kalous, a significant composer. In 1749 he left Kosmonosy and returned to Prague, where he worked as an organist at several churches. In 1759 he was appointed Regens chori (choir director) and Kapellmeister of St Vitus Cathedral, thus attaining, at age 27, the highest musical position in the city; this office he held till his early death. He wrote some 290 church works (of the most varied type), cantatas and oratorios, chamber compositions, and orchestral compositions. He was a prolific composer of music for the liturgy, and wrote more than 100 masses, vespers and motets, among others. He also composed secular music such as oratorios and incidental music, concertos and symphonies. Brixi died of tuberculosis in Prague in 1771, at the age of 39.