Johann Christoph Pez (1664-1716)
- Concert (F-Dur) pastorella
Performers: Austrian Tοnkuenstler orchestra; Zlatko Tοpοlski (conductor)
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German singer, instrumentalist, and composer. His family had long been
connected with music at the Peterskirche, Munich. He first studied at
the choir school there and then pursued studies at that city's Jesuit
school, where he sang in its choir and played in its orchestra. After
singing tenor at Peterskirche, he served as its choirmaster (1687-88).
He then was made a chamber musician at the court of the Elector Max
Emanuel, who provided for the completion of his studies in Rome
(1689-92). Following a brief return to the Munich court, he was called
to Bonn by Joseph Clemens, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and Bishop of
Liege, to reorganize its music establishment in 1694. In 1696 he became
Kapellmeister there. With the outbreak of the War of the Spanish
Succession, he returned to the almost moribund Munich court in 1701,
where he led its church music. From 1706 he served as Kapellmeister at
the Wiittemberg court in Stuttgart, where he remained until his death.
Pez’s music shows strong Italian influence, the result not only of his
visit to Italy but also of his contacts with other Italian-trained
musicians in Munich, especially Kerll, who was one of the first
composers to bring the Italian concertato style of church music there.
He composed various dramatic scores, school operas, instrumental music,
and sacred vocal pieces. He published a set of 12 sonatas (Augsburg,
1696) under the title 'Duplex Genius sive Gallo-italus Instrumentorum
Concentus'; also a Psalm. Two of his operas were produced in Bonn.
