Un portal on escoltar i gaudir de l'art musical dels segles XVI, XVII, XVIII i XIX. Compartir la bellesa de la música és l'objectiu d'aquest espai i fer-ho donant a conèixer obres de compositors molt o poc coneguts és el mètode.
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).
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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)
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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;
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.
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)
