divendres, 31 de juliol del 2026

STRATIKO, Josip Mihovil (1728-1783) - Concerto a due Violini Obbligati

Elias Mögel (?-1786) - Still life with a violin (1760)


Josip Mihovil Stratiko (1728-1783) - Concerto (D-Dur) a due Violini Obbligati
Performers: Bojan Čіčіć & Ivan Jаkšеkovіć (violins); Croаtіаn Baroque Ensemble

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Croatian composer and violinist. The son of a Venetian nobleman, he received his education in Padua, where he studied under Giuseppe Tartini and Antonio Sberti. Sometime between 1758 and 1763 he moved to Sanguinetto, a town near Verona, where he accepted the position of vicario. Also there, he wrote his treatise, Trattato di musica, as well as taught pupils. Due to his family connections, he had little need to find employment, and thus he could concentrate on his own theories and musical composition. His works still need a thorough study and include 35 symphonies, 61 violin concertos, 15 violin duos, 170 violin sonatas, six string quartets, and 50 trios, as well as a number of smaller chamber works. His finest compositions are his concertos for the violin, which are strongly influenced by Tartini, and his six string quartets. His brother Symeon Filippos Stratigos (1733-1824) was a prominent physician, educator and scientist known to Goldoni and Voltaire.

dimecres, 29 de juliol del 2026

ROSQUELLES, Miquel (c.1641-1684) - Magnificat anima mea

Johann III Stridbeck (1707-1772) - Barcelona, die Haupt Statt in Catalonien (c.1745)


Miquel Rosquelles (c.1641-1684) - Magnificat anima mea
Performers: La Companyia Musical; Josep Cabré (conductor)

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Spanish teacher and composer. Almost nothing is known of his life. He began his association with the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona in 1669, when the incumbent mestre Josep Reig ceded the duties of the post to him. Rosquelles formally succeeded Reig on 22 February 1674, in a post he held until his death. As a composer, his surviving output comprises five villancicos for 11 to 13 voices, an eight-voice mass, a Nunc dimittis and a Compline (both scored for 15 voices), a Magnificat and the hymn Te lucis ante terminum. As a teacher, his most notable pupil was the prominent theorist and composer Francesc Valls.

dilluns, 27 de juliol del 2026

MOZART, Franz Xaver (1791-1844) - Concerto pour le Piano Forte (c.1809)

Karl Gottlieb Schweikart (1772-1855) - Portrait of Franz Xavier Wolfgang Mozart (1825)


Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844) - Concerto (C-Dur) pour le Piano Forte, Op.14 (c.1809)
Performers: Henri Sigfridsson (piano); International New Symphony Orchestra; Gunhard Mattes (conductor)

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Austrian composer and pianist, the sixth child and younger surviving son of Wolfgang Amadeus and Constanze Mozart. He received his first piano instruction in 1796 from František Xaver Dušek in Prague, where he lived with the Dušek family. In Vienna he continued his studies under Sigismund Neukomm, Andreas Streicher, J.N. Hummel, Antonio Salieri, G.J. Vogler and J.G. Albrechtsberger. His first compositions, which include the Piano Quartet op.1, appeared in 1805. On 30 March 1807 Salieri declared his pupil to possess ‘a rare talent for music’, and prophesied a career for him ‘not inferior to that of his celebrated father’. On 22 October 1807 Franz Xaver went to Lemberg (now L'viv). In Podkamien he accepted a post as tutor in the home of Count Viktor Baworowski, a position he held until December 1810. In 1811 he became a music teacher in the home of the imperial chamberlain, Janiszewski, in Sarki (near Lemberg). He gave up that post in 1813 and lived as a freelance musician in Lemberg, where he supervised the training of Julie Baroni-Cavalcabò. From 1819 to 1821 he undertook an extended concert tour during which he played in Kiev, Warsaw, Copenhagen (where he saw his mother and his stepfather, Georg Nikolaus Nissen), Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden (where he visited his cousin, Carl Maria von Weber), Prague, Vienna, Venice, Milan (where he visited his brother Carl), Zürich, Berne, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Augsburg, Munich and Salzburg (where he visited his aunt, Maria Anna).

In 1822 he returned to teach in Lemberg; in 1826 he went to Salzburg to see his mother. In the same year he renewed his studies in counterpoint with Wagenseil’s pupil, Johann Mederitsch, who bequeathed him all his compositions. Also in that year he founded the Cäcilien-Verein in Lemberg, but in 1838 he left Lemberg and settled in Vienna. In 1841 he was made honorary Kapellmeister of the Dommusikverein and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and in 1842 he stayed with his brother there during celebrations on the unveiling of the Mozart memorial; at the festival concert he played his father’s D minor Piano Concerto k466. In December of the same year the Congregazione ed Accademia di S Cecilia in Rome named him maestro compositore onorario. In his will Franz Xaver stipulated, among other things, that any of his father’s autographs found in his papers, his father’s portrait and piano, as well as his own library, should be given to the Dommusikverein and the Mozarteum as a lasting memorial to his father. This Mozart-Nachlass passed partly to the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum and partly to the consistorial archive in Salzburg. The brilliant pianistic figuration prominent in Franz Xaver’s music reveals the particular influence of his teacher Hummel. The more relaxed quality and richer sonority of his piano writing, as reflected especially in his Second Piano Concerto (1818), however, hint at the characteristic piano style of Chopin and Liszt.

diumenge, 26 de juliol del 2026

STEFFANI, Agostino (1654-1728) - Dixit Dominus a 10

Simon Vouet (1590-1649) - Model for Altarpiece in St. Peters


Agostino Steffani (1654-1728) - Dixit Dominus a 10
Performers: Neue Hofkapelle Munchen; Christoph Hammer (conductor)

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Italian diplomat and composer. His musical career began as a soprano at the church of Il Santo in Padua, and he sang in a Carnival opera of Venice, probably Carlo Pallavicino’s 'Demetrio' in 1666. The Elector Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria took him to Munich, where he studied with Johann Caspar Kerll. He visited Rome in 1672 for more education and had his first sacred music published. In July 1674, he was appointed court organist in Munich. In 1678 and 1679, he visited Paris and heard a tragédie lyrique of Jean-Baptiste Lully, and in January 1681, his first opera, 'Marco Aurelio', was mounted in Munich. He made his first contact with Hanover on a diplomatic mission and was appointed Kapellmeister by Duke Ernst August in summer 1688. In the 1690s, he was occupied increasingly by diplomatic work concerning the status of Hanover and the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1703, he entered the service of Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm, in Düsseldorf, and thereafter composed very little music. He continued to take an interest, however, and was even elected president of London’s Academy of Ancient Music on 1 June 1727. A composer who, as diplomat, helped to secure the elevation of the city of Hanover to electorate status and, as churchman after his ordination in 1680, rose to the rank of apostolic vicar for northern Germany and also left a legacy of about 14 operas, 3 lighter stage works, 10 psalm settings, a Stabat Mater (his greatest work in his own estimation), a few instrumental works, and about 75 chamber cantatas for two voices, almost all composed before 1702, the music for which he was most famous in his time.

divendres, 24 de juliol del 2026

BUSTIJN, Pieter (1649-1722) - Suite in g-moll (c.1712)

Isaac de Moucheron (1667-1744) - An italianate landscape with figures resting by a fountain


Pieter Bustijn (1649-1722) - Suitte (V, g-moll) pour le Clavessin (c.1712)
Performers: Bob van Asperen (harpsichord)

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Dutch organist, carillonneur and composer. His family were French-speaking. He may have studied with Remigius Schrijver (?-1681), a Middelburg organist; he completed the music for 'Uitbreidinge over het Bouk der Psalmen' (1682, lost), begun by Schrijver, who had died before completion of the work. In 1681 he was appointed organist of the Nieuwe Kerk, and carillonneur of the abbey bell tower in Middelburg. He served as organ adviser in Middelburg and Goes and may have been director of the Middelburg collegium musicum during the period 1681-1729. In 1712 the carillon of the Middleburg abbey tower was destroyed; its replacement, constructed by the famous bellfounders Jan Albert de Grave and Claas Noorden of Amsterdam in 1714, was inspected by Bustijn and Abraham de Coup, organist of the Walloon church and carillonneur of the market bell-tower, and, according to various reports, was of outstanding quality. Relatively little Dutch keyboard music of the time has survived. Bustijn’s IX suittes pour le clavessin (Amsterdam, c.1712) are of great importance to the history of the genre in the Netherlands. Their balanced arrangement by key is reminiscent of the use of symmetrical cycles culminating in the art of Bach. Their style points to that of the keyboard works of Bach and Handel, as well as showing some French influence.

dimecres, 22 de juliol del 2026

QUILMETES, Carles (1775-1834) - Sinfonia 1a (1804)

Balthasar Beschey (1708-1776) - Fishmarket


Carles Quilmetes (1775-1834) - Sinfonia 1a (1804)
Performers: Música Antiga de Girona; Albert Bosch (conductor)

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Spanish violinist, double bassist, and composer. After receiving his studies in composition in Barcelona, he was appointed as a violinist at Girona Cathedral, where his tenure spanned more than forty years. Notably, he was the first lay musician to secure a permanent position within the cathedral's musical chapel (capella de música), frequently performing on both the violin and the double bass. His career was severely disrupted in 1809 by the Siege of Girona during the Peninsular War. As liturgical music was marginalized, lay musicians faced acute financial hardship due to the chapter's inability to provide regular stipends. Following the French occupation, he petitioned for readmission in 1811; initially granted only charitable alms, he was formally reinstated in December of that year under a severely diminished annual salary of twenty pounds. Upon his retirement in 1826, the cathedral chapter permitted his grandson, Carles Sipiera Quilmetes, to act as his substitute, though the youth was denied a permanent chair owing to his age. As a composer, he belonged to a prominent multi-generational lineage of cathedral string players that also included his son, the priest and long-standing chapel violinist Josep Quilmetes. While the vast majority of his works are lost, his surviving output is distinguished by a three-movement work, the Symphony No.1 (1804). 

dilluns, 20 de juliol del 2026

BORGHI, Luigi (c.1745-c.1806) - Sonata pour Violon et Basse (1772)

Paul Sandby (1731-1809) - The North Terrace of Windsor Castle


Luigi Borghi (c.1745-c.1806) - Sonata pour Violon et Basse from
'Six | SOLOS | for a | Violin and Bass | Humbly Dedicated to | SIR ROWLAND WYNNE Bar' (1772)
Performers: Daniel Pintеño (violin); Concеrto 1700

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Italian composer and violinist. A student of Gaetano Pugnani, he moved to London in 1769 at the behest of William Hamilton. A prominent orchestral violinist, he was leader of the second violins at the Handel Commemoration of 1784 and at the Professional Concert from 1785 until 1792. He composed ballet music for the Italian opera, was assistant manager of O’Reilly’s opera company at the Pantheon in 1791 and, shortly afterwards, married the prima donna Anna Casentini (fl. 1787-1796). The bulk of his music was published during his lifetime and includes six violin concertos, six symphonies-overtures, two ballets, 12 violin sonatas (titled “solos”), nine duos for two violins, 12 duets, 64 cadenzas, and a sonata for viola d’amore. His music is representative of the 'Empfindsamkeit style', with good contrast and lyrical motivic lines. He was not related to Giovanni Battista Borghi (1738-1796).

diumenge, 19 de juliol del 2026

SINGER, Josef Anton (1810-1882) - Missa pastoralis (1860)

Wilhelm Ludwig Friedrich Riefstahl (1827-1888) - Kinderbegräbnis in Passeier (Tirol) (1886)


Josef Anton Singer (1810-1882) - Missa pastoralis (1860)
Performers: Heike Heilmann (soprano); Julia Diefenbach (soprano); Johannes Puchleitner (tenor);
Andreas Dürlinger (tenor); Markus Flaig (bass);
Chor und Orchester der Akademie St. Blasius; Karlheinz Siessl (conductor)

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Austrian composer, organist, music theorist, and instrument maker. The son of a miller, bell founder, and instrument maker, he attended the gymnasium in Hall in Tirol from 1824 to 1830 before entering the Franciscan Order in Salzburg in 1829, where he took his simple vows in 1830, solemn profession in 1833, and was ordained a priest in 1834. He pursued theological studies in Salzburg, Schwaz, and Bolzano until 1837, subsequently serving as organist and choir director in Bolzano and Innsbruck between 1837 and 1840. From 1840 onward, he resided at the Franciscan monastery in Salzburg, where he also held the position of master of novices. In addition to developing a harmonium and several physharmonica variants, he constructed the Pansymphonikon in 1845, a reed-based keyboard instrument designed to emulate a full orchestra that drew widespread admiration from notable contemporary figures, including Franz Lachner, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner. In his theoretical treatise 'Metaphysische Blicke' he drew upon the traditions of Jean-Philippe Rameau and Anton Reicha to argue that all music derives from the tonic triad, a concept he termed the "primal harmony" (Urharmonie) and associated with the Holy Trinity, alongside its auxiliary harmonies, namely the dominant seventh and the subdominant with an added sixth. As a composer, he adhered to the standard Franciscan scoring for organ and choir, occasionally utilizing vocal soloists; however, his orchestral style of organ accompaniment, rich harmonic language, and unconventional text setting (characterized by omissions and rearrangements) stood in stark contrast to the aesthetic tenets of the Caecilian movement. Conversely, his virtuosic organ performances, particularly his pedal technique, were highly acclaimed by both Franz Liszt and Anton Bruckner.

divendres, 17 de juliol del 2026

HEINICHEN, Johann David (1683-1729) - Concerto con Corni da Caccia

Scuola del XVIII secolo - Ritratto di gentiluomo con lettera


Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) Work: Concerto (F-Dur) con Corni da Caccia, Seibel deest
Performers: Musica Antiqua Köln; Reinhard Goebel (conductor)

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German composer and theorist. He was the son of David Heinichen who, after an education at Leipzig's Thomasschule and the university, moved to Krössuln for a lifelong career as pastor. Johann David also attended the Thomasschule Leipzig. There he studied music with Johann Schelle and later received organ and harpsichord lessons with Johann Kuhnau. The future composer Christoph Graupner was also a student of Kuhnau at the time. Heinichen enrolled in 1702 to study law at the University of Leipzig and in 1705-06 qualified as a lawyer (in the early 18th century the law was a favored route for composers; Kuhnau, Graupner and Georg Philipp Telemann were also lawyers). Heinichen practiced law in Weissenfels until 1709. However, Heinichen maintained his interest in music and was concurrently composing operas. In 1710, he published the first edition of his major treatise on the thoroughbass. He went to Italy and spent seven formative years there, mostly in Venice, with great success with two operas, Mario and Le passioni per troppo amore (1713). Mario was staged again in Hamburg in 1716 with the German title, Calpurnia, oder die romische Grossmut. In 1712, he taught music to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, who took him as composer. The same prince would appoint Johann Sebastian Bach Kapellmeister at the end of 1717. In 1716, Heinichen met in Venice Prince Augustus III of Poland, son of King Augustus II the Strong, and thanks to him was appointed the Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Kapellmeister in Dresden. His pupils included Johann Georg Pisendel. In 1721, Heinichen married in Weissenfels; the birth of his only child is recorded as January 1723. In his final years, Heinichen's health suffered greatly; on the afternoon of 16 July 1729, he was buried in the Johannes cemetery after finally succumbing to tuberculosis. 

dimecres, 15 de juliol del 2026

HOTTETERRE, Jacques-Martin (1673-1763) - Suite en Re majeur (1708)

Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743) - Picnic after the Hunt


Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1673-1763) - Suite en Re majeur des 'Première livre de Pieces pour la flûte-traversiere, et autres instruments, avec la basse-continue ... augmentée de plusieurs agréments, et d’une démonstration de la manière qu’ils se doivent faire; ensemble une basse adjoutée aux pièces de deux flûtes' (1708)
Performers: Frans Brüggen (1934-2014, flute); Wieland Kuijken (cello); Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012, harpsichord)

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French composer. Son of Martin Hotteterre (c.1635-1712), he was the most celebrated member of the family, and had a brilliant career as a player, teacher and composer. In about 1704, he succeeded his cousin Jacques Hotteterre in the post of basse de hautbois et taille de violon at the royal court. Hotteterre lived and studied in Rome early in his career, and his nickname le Romain (the Roman) came from this period. He spent two years (1698-1700) employed by Prince Francesco Ruspoli in Rome, before adopting the nickname of "Le Romain" at some point between 1705 and 1707. By 1708, he became a musician to the King of France, in the king's 'Grande Écurie, and in 1717, he inherited René Pignon Descoteaux's post as Jouëur de Fluste de la musique de chambre. He owed his fame largely to his talent for playing the flute, an instrument for which he wrote a number of pieces, significantly extending the repertory for the instrument. In addition, he played the bassoon, oboe, and musette. Hotteterre was also an internationally celebrated teacher to aristocratic patrons. He wrote one method for the transverse flute, recorder, and oboe, published in 1707, as well as a method for the musette, published in 1737. His 'L'Art de préluder sur la flûte traversière' was published in 1719. It was Europe's first flute manual and was used widely. He died in Paris in 1763.

dilluns, 13 de juliol del 2026

DALL'ABACO, Evaristo Felice (1675-1742) - Concerto à più istrumenti

Jan Carel Vierpeyl (c.1675-c.1723) - Merry Company Making Music


Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco (1675-1742) - Concerto (VI, Re maggiore) à più istrumenti, Opera Quinta (c.1722)
Performers: Convіvіum Musіcum Münchеn

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Italian cellist and composer. Born into a prominent family, he trained on the violin and cello during his youth before establishing himself as a sought-after musician in Modena by 1696, where he likely developed his affinity for the French style. In 1704, he joined the Bavarian court orchestra as a cellist. Following the Elector Maximilian II Emmanuel’s defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession, he accompanied the exiled court through the Netherlands and France, during which time he married Marie Clémence Bultinck. Upon the court's return to Munich in 1715, his loyalty was rewarded with appointments as Konzertmeister and electoral councillor. His subsequent compositions increasingly integrated French stylistic traits, and he became a central figure in Munich's musical life, hosting early academic soirées. However, following Maximilian's death in 1726, the successor Karl Albrecht favored a more contemporary musical style, leading to Dall'Abaco's gradual marginalization. His final published work, '12 Concerti à più istrumenti ... opera VI', appeared in 1735, and he retired on a pension in 1740. His son Joseph-Marie-Clément Dall'Abaco (1710-1805) was a cellist and composer.

diumenge, 12 de juliol del 2026

RAISON, André (c.1640-1719) - Messe du huictiesme ton (1688)

Anthonie de Lorme (1605-1673) - Intérieur d'église animé de personnages


André Raison (c.1640-1719) - Messe du huictiesme ton des 'Livre d'orgue contenant cinq Messes suffisantes pour tous les tons de l'Eglise ou quinze Magnificats pour ceux qui n'ont pas besoin de messe avec des elevations toutes particulieres. Ensuite des Benedictus : et une offerte en action de grace pour l'heureuse convalescence du Roy en 1687. Laquelle se peut aussi toucher sur le clavecin' (1688)
Performers: Jеan-Patricе Brossе (1950-2021, orgue); EnsеmbIe Vox Cantoris

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French organist, composer and teacher. He was educated at the seminary of Ste Geneviève, Nanterre. From about 1665 he was organist at the royal abbey of Ste Geneviève, Paris; later he became organist at the church of the Jacobins (rue St Jacques). A tax register of 1695 places him in the top rank of Parisian organists, along with François Couperin, D’Anglebert, Gigault, Marchand and Grigny. He taught L.-N. Clérambault, who dedicated his Premier Livre d’orgue (1710) to Raison. Raison’s Livre d’orgue constitutes a major portion of the extant organ mass repertory. The masses follow the usual pattern of short organ versets for alternatim performance of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. Genres used include the traditional plein jeu, duo, trio, récit, basse de trompette, fugue and grands jeux. Raison made no use of a plainchant cantus firmus, but this was not unusual. These organ masses were intended for use in convents and monasteries that had their own contemporary mass chants (messes musicales); hence, the lack of plainchant made the book more versatile and enabled Raison to claim that the five masses could also be used to form 15 Magnificat settings. His Deuxième Livre d’orgue commemorates the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) with a setting of the Da pacem; this is followed by a fugue on the same theme, several preludes and fugues, an offertory and an overture. The remainder of the volume consists of an allemande and many noëls with variations. Raison’s music is characterized by rhythmic vitality, consistent use of imitative counterpoint and imaginative use of registration, often requiring the full resources of a four-manual French Baroque organ. Since Raison designed his first Livre d’orgue to assist secluded monastic musicians, its preface contains a wealth of valuable information about performing practice. His advice about observing the metre of each piece to determine which dance movement is implied is often quoted; however, it should not be inferred that Raison used dance rhythm more than his contemporaries, or that his music is unusually ‘secular’ in nature. The book contains detailed information on registration, ornamentation, notes inégales and fingering. A striking example of Raison’s didacticism and attention to detail is his early use of the double dot in the French overture-style offertory. Raison’s influence is clear in Clérambault’s organ works; further it seems that J.S. Bach borrowed the theme of his ‘Christe: Trio en passacaille’ (Messe du deuxième ton) for his Passacaglia in C minor.

divendres, 10 de juliol del 2026

WESTENHOLZ, Sophia Maria (1759-1838) - Theme avec Variations pour le Piano-Forte (1806)

French school (18th century) - Portrait d'une femme noble


Sophia Maria Westenholz (1759-1838) - Thème | avec | X VARIATIONS | pour le Piano=Forte | composées | par | SOPHIE WESTENHOLZ. | Oeuvre II. | Chez Rodolphe Werckmeister | à Berlin ... (1806)
Performers: No available
Further info: Variations A major

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German singer, pianist and composer. Born into a musical family, she was the daughter of Ferdinand Fritscher (?-1764), the organist of Neubrandenburg. At a young age, she received private piano and voice lessons from Johann Wilhelm Hertel. In 1775, she secured a position in the Schwerin court orchestra. Her professional and personal life intertwined in 1777 when she married Carl August Friedrich Westenholz (1736-1789), the Kapellmeister of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court in Ludwigslust. By 1779, she became an official member of that court, serving as both a singer and pianist. Her dedication to her musical career continued alongside her personal life, which included raising eight children. Following the premature death of her husband in 1789, she assumed a more central role in the court's musical life. She remained an active participant in court and church music for over three decades, until her retirement in 1821. During this period, she also held the esteemed position of piano instructor to the daughters of Duke Franz Friedrich I and Duchess Luise, further solidifying her influence within the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court. By the 1780s, she had established a regional reputation as a formidable pianist. Her virtuosic skill was praised by contemporaries, including the composer Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, who in 1782, enthusiastically described her as a "powerful female piano player" whose style was reminiscent of "the great Bach in Hamburg." This admiration was echoed by Carl Friedrich Cramer, who, in a review of six sonatinas dedicated to her by Wolf, celebrated her as "a true student of the only true, the Bachian style." Westenholz’s concert career flourished, and between 1792 and 1804, she performed as both a pianist and a glass harmonica player in major European cities such as Leipzig, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Hanover, and Berlin. From 1803 to 1837, Louis Massonneau, a violinist and later concertmaster in Ludwigslust, recorded the court concerts of the court orchestra in the so-called Ludwigsluster Diarium. This shows that Sophie Westenholz performed not only piano works by Mozart, Haydn, Pleyel, and other contemporary composers but also her own works. After her husband died in 1789 and his successor, Antonio Rosetti, died in 1792, she conducted the court music from the piano. The last performance by the musician in Ludwigslust is dated on 3 March 1813; she and her son, the pianist and composer Carl Ludwig Cornelius Westenholz (1788-1854), played a Mozart sonata for four hands. As a composer, in 1806 she published several works for piano and a collection of songs. The published Rondo (Op.1), Variations (Op.2), and Sonata for Four Hands (Op.3) were met with controversial reviews.

dimecres, 8 de juliol del 2026

PLATTI, Giovanni Benedetto (1697-1763) - Concerto per il Violino Principale

Claude Gillot (1673-1722) - Figures in an elegant interior watching an entertainment with Commedia dell'Arte characters


Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697-1763) - Concerto (A-Dur). | co V.|n|o conc:
VV.|n|i V.|l|a e Basso | 5. St.[immen] (c.1730)
Performers: Sergei Filchenko (violin); Pratum Integrum

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Italian composer. Almost nothing is known about him before 1722, but in Venice his teachers might have included Francesco Gasparini, Albinoni, Vivaldi, Lotti, Alessandro Marcello or Benedetto Marcello. His father Carlo Platti (c.1661-after 1727), a violetta player in the orchestra of the basilica of S Marco, may also have taught him. While he was still in Italy (until 1722), he probably saw the recently invented fortepiano and a few of his keyboard solo sonatas and concertos might have been composed for it instead of the harpsichord but this point is debatable. In the chamber works (duets and trios) the harpsichord is clearly the instrument required. No "piano" or "forte" indications are on Platti's keyboard parts in his concertos for harpsichord and strings, though. Also, the extension of at least one of these concertos asks for a D that is beyond Cristofori's instrument's compass (4 octaves CC to c4). In 1722, he was called to Würzburg to work for the prince-bishop of Bamberg and Würzburg, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn. There he married Theresia Langprückner, a soprano singer with whom he had at least two children. Platti spent the rest of his life in Würzburg, working as a singer, instrument virtuoso, composer and conductor. His duties included finding musicians for the court , as one can read in one of his autograph letters that are available. His music consists of three Masses, a Requiem, a Stabat mater, three cantatas, an offertory, 48 concertos (many lost), 22 trio sonatas, and 20 keyboard sonatas.

dilluns, 6 de juliol del 2026

Unknown composer (18th Century) - Concerto a 5

Maximilian Blommaert (18th Century) - A cottage interior


Unknown composer (18th Century) - Concerto a 5 | Violino Principahlo | Violino Primo |
Violino Secundo | Viola | Basso Continuo
Performers: Trondheim Symphony Orchestra

diumenge, 5 de juliol del 2026

DE MONTE, Philippe (1521-1603) - Missa sine nomine

Niccoló Frangipane (c.1550-c.1600) (attributed) - Bacchanal


Philippe de Monte (1521-1603) - Missa a 6 'Missa sine nomine'
Performers: La Capella Ducale; Roland Wilson (conductor)

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Flemish composer. It is likely that he received his first musical training as a choirboy at St Rombouts Cathedral in Mechelen. He was employed early on as an instructor to the children of the Genovese banker Domenico Pinelli, in Naples. He then went to Rome, where he published his first book of madrigals (1554), and from Rome to Antwerp in 1554, and then to England, where he served as 'chorus praefectus' in the private chapel of Philip II of Spain, the husband of the Queen, Mary Tudor. In September 1555 he left England and went to Italy again; in 1567 he was in Rome. On 1 May 1568, he became Imperial Court Kapellmeister to the Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna; he held this position until his death, which occurred while the court was at Prague during the summer of 1603. In 1572 he was appointed treasurer of Cambrai Cathedral, and in 1577, also a canon (residence was not required for either position there). He was greatly esteemed as a composer, numbering among his works some 1,000 madrigals, about 40 masses (mostly in cantus firmus, paraphrase and parody masses), and many other works of sacred music. He was an important representative of the last generation of great Flemish composers of the Renaissance, and was one of the major composers of Italian madrigals. 

divendres, 3 de juliol del 2026

POKORNY, František Xaver (1729-1794) - Concerto per due Corni (c.1750)

Unknown artist (18th Century) - Le Régal sur l'herbe


František Xaver Pokorný (1729-1794) - Concerto (F-Dur). Corno Primo | Corno Secundo Principale | Violino Primo | Violino 2do: | Flauto Primo | Flauto 2do | Viola | Basso d: 30 Juli Di Pokorni (c.1750)
Performers: Hermann Bаumаnn (horn); Christoph Kοhlеr (horn); Concerto Amsterdam;
Jaap Schrödеr (1925-2020, conductor)

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Bohemian composer and violinist. Son of a bureaucrat, he was sent to Regensburg as a youth to study under Joseph Riepel. In 1750 he obtained a post as violinist at the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein, and in 1753 he was given leave to further his studies in Mannheim, where his teachers included Johann Stamitz, Franz Xaver Richter, and Ignaz Holzbauer. Returning to Wallerstein he was also employed at the Thurn und Taxis court in Regensburg, commuting back and forth for several years before being offered a permanent position in the latter city in 1769. He was appointed as court chamber composer, though his relationship with the Kapellmeister, Baron Theodor von Schacht was not smooth, resulting in much of his music being deliberately misattributed to others after (and possibly before) his death in 1794. As a composer, he was one of the most prolific symphonists of the period, noted for his particular use of the orchestra. His works in this genre are mostly four movement, and in his numerous concertos he was able to exploit the technical capabilities of the instrumental solos. His works include at least 145 symphonies (with as many as another 100 still of possible attribution), 65 concertos (including 45 for keyboard), numerous serenades/divertimentos, three quartets, a piano quintet, three string trios, and five trio sonatas. Much of his music remains to be explored, primarily due to von Schacht’s intervention.

dimecres, 1 de juliol del 2026

Gessel (18th Century) - Schmecket und sehet wie freundlich der Herr ist

Jacques de La Joue II (c.1687-1761) - Allegory of Winter


Gessel (18th Century) - Dominica Laetare "Schmecket und sehet wie freundlich der Herr ist"
Performers: Ingrida Gapova (soprano); Jan Medrala (alto); Krzysztof Kozarek (tenor); Jacek Ozimkowski (bass); Goldberg Baroque Ensemble; Andrzej Mikołaj Szadejko (conductor)