Johann Sebastian Bach

(31 March 1685, Eisenach - 28 July 1750, Leipzig)

Though he was well known and admired by his contemporary colleagues as being a virtuous harpsichord and organ player, Johann Sebastian Bach is considered today one of the most important composers of all time. Born in a family of organ musicians and cantors settled in Turingia with a tradition of over 200 years of playing music, at the age of almost 10 years he becomes and orphan. Luckily, his big brother Johann Cristoph takes him under his wing and assumes responsibility of continuing little Johann Sebastian's musical education commenced by his father.

The Ohrdruf period (1695-1700) was the first step towards making acquaintance with two of what came to be his favorite instruments (the harpsichord and the church organ), under the severe guidance of Johann Cristoph. Due to his unusually pleasant soprano-like voice, he was received with open arms at the school from Lüneburg. In the years spent here (1700-1702), he was part of the choir and orchestral ensemble (as a violinist) and first came into contact with french instrumental music. Here he meets and gets aquainted with Georg Böhm and his music who was an organist for the Saint John church and who also introduces little Bach to the Hamburg area way of playing the organ.

Another important period in his life is the one spent at Mühlhausen (1707-1708) where he is hired as the town organist. Over 15 years, Johann Sebastian Bach worked at the princely residences as court organist and chamber music director - first in Weimar (1708-1717), and then in Köthen (1717-1723). In Weimar, his life was becoming better and better, his financial situation was improving and his double role as an organist and chamber ensemble director was only going to offer him more opportunities to perfect his skills as a composer and performer. Unfortunately, the injustice committed against him when, following the death of Drese, the court Kapellmeister (director of music), instead of Bach, is preferred Drese's son (an untalented musician). This lead Bach to resign from these roles.

Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister - the highest rank given to a musician in the baroque period. Unlike Weimar, the prince from Köthen was passionate about music (he used to play the viola and sing, which made him pay a great deal of attention to musical entertainment - he even built a chapel).

Although he never fond of getting involved with the church again, after the death of Saint Thomas church in Leipzig (1722), Bach submits his application for the vacant job. In 1723 May 31st, Bach is officially confirmed as a cantor and, in the summer of the same year, he settles together with his family in the town in which he would later a series of remarkable pieces in the vocal-symphonic genre, such as: Magnificat, the Passions, Christmas Oratorio, Easter Oratorio, etc.

In the year of 1729 Bach takes leadership of the ”Collegium musicum”, a secular performance ensemble started by the composer Georg Philipp Telemann, who had an important role in the town's musical activity due to the organizing of regularly public concerts.

The fact that Bach studied both his contemporary colleagues and the ones that were before him, had great benefits on the development and the crystallization of his own unique style. It is very well known that  he was attached to the music of the German-Danish composer Dietrich Buxtehude and of his ”rival” Georg Philipp Telemann. Also, the concerts and arias of Antonio Vivaldi or the compositions of Giovanni Palestrina, Arcangelo Corelli, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Girolamo Frescobaldi had a great influence on Bach's cantatas and Passions.

Bach has composed music in almost all musical genres of the era in which he lived. He didn't compose opera, although some episodes of his cantatas come close. As far as his vocal compositions go, also due to his duties towards the church, they exceed with a number of over 224 cantatas, 7 motets 12 liturgical pieces in latin, 6 oratorios, 189 coral works to which we add arias, secular cantatas and other compositions.

His interest for instrumental music manifested through a very large number of compositions for keyboard instruments: around 247 compositions for organ and 223 for harpsichord, the rest being composed for solo instruments like the violin (an instrument of which Bach was very fond of) or for orchestral ensembles.

Bach wasn't a genre creator or forms, instead he resumed the ones left heritage by his predecessors and he broadened them considerately on a both structural and expressive levels elevating them to a point of perfection never known before him.

Here  you can find a list of all of Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions.

 François Couperin

(10 November 1668, Paris – 11 September 1733, Paris)

François Couperin, also named Couperin le Grand (”Couperin the Great”) -to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family- was a French Baroque composer (highly regarded as one of the leading composers of the French Baroque era), organist and harpsichordist. He is best known for his harpsichord works, all of which are found in the collection of more than 220 pieces entitled Pièces de clavecin, consisting of four books. He first studied music under his father, Charles Couperin who was the organist at Saint Gervais church and soon after his death, with Jacques Thomelin.

In 1685 he occupied the position of organist at the church of Saint-Gervais, a post he inherited from his father and that he would pass on to his cousin, Nicolas Couperin, and other members of the family. His (François) innovative 1690 collection of Pièces d'orgue was praised by his then teacher Lalande as ”worthy of being given to the public” and no doubt helped to establish him as a court organist in 1693. In 1700-17 he acquired the younger D'Anglebert's position as harpsichordist at Versailles. 

Just like his uncle Louis, François is well known above all for his harpsichord music. Between 1713 and 1730 he published four books of suites (called ”ordres” by him) for harpsichord. Unlike the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Friderich Handel and others, Couperin's music was highly ornamented and with complex accompaniments, containing frequent dialogues between treble and bass registers. Actually, this feature (high ornamentation) is very iconic for the French harpsichord baroque music.

His music was influenced by the works of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Arcangelo Corelli whom he acknowledged in two chamber works: Apothéose de Corelli (1724, ”The Apotheosis of Corelli”) and Apothéose de Lully (1725, ”The Apotheosis of Lully”). Moreover, he successfully integrated elements of the Italian and French styles in his  Les goût réunis ou nouveaux (”Tastes united”) concerts (1724) , a collection of chamber compositions for unspecified instruments. Many of his works were lost to posterity, as none of his original manuscripts has survived. 

There is evidence that Couperin also found time for concerts in the early part of the eighteenth century in Versailles and other nearby locales. Actually, relatively is known about Couperin's life from about 1700 onward. There is record of his renting a country home in 1710 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, confirming the view he was financially secure. In 1719, Couperin became harpsichordist to King Louis XV, a position he most probably had held in all but title for a number of years. By this time, he was recognized as the leading composer in France and the greatest exponent of organ and harpsichord teaching as well.

Couperin's legacy can be fairly divided into 3 categories: church music, chamber music and harpsichord music. He composed church music for the Royal Chapel under Louis XIV. The surviving Leçons de ténèbres are possibly the best example of this form of composition—settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah for the Holy Week liturgy. The first two of the three are for soprano solo and continuo (the vocal part of the second pitched slightly lower than that of the first), and the third is for two sopranos and continuo.

His chamber music includes a tribute to the two French and Italian composers, J.B.Lully and A.Corelli. It was an exploration of the rival French and Italian tastes in music, a quarrel in which Couperin remained neutral. The Concerts royaux represent another important element in Couperin’s music for instrumental ensemble.

Couperin's compositions for the harpsichord occupy a very important position in French music. His 27 suites, most of them published between 1713 and 1730, contain many pieces that are descriptive in one way or another. These richly varied suites, or ordres, represent the height of Couperin’s achievement as a composer and arguably that of the French harpsichord composers.

Here  you can find a complete list of François Couperin's works.

Lodovico Giustini

Lodovico Giustini (12 December 1685 – 7 February 1743) was an Italian composer and keyboard player of the late Baroque and early Classical eras. He was the first known composer ever to write music for the piano.

Lifeedit]

Giustini was born in Pistoia, of a family of musicians which can be traced back to the early 17th century; coincidentally he was born in the same year as Bach, Scarlatti, andHandel. Giustini's father was organist at the Congregazione dello Spirito Santo, a Jesuit-affiliated group, and an uncle, Domenico Giustini, was also a composer of sacred music.

In 1725, on his father's death, Giustini became organist at the Congregazione dello Spirito Santo, and acquired a reputation there as a composer of sacred music: mostlycantatas and oratorios. In 1728 he collaborated with Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari on a set of Lamentations which were performed that year. In 1734 he was hired as organist at S Maria dell'Umiltà, the Cathedral of Pistoia, a position he held for the rest of his life. In addition to playing the organ at both religious institutions, he performed on the harpsichordat numerous locations, often in his own oratorios.

Works and influenceedit]

Giustini's main fame rests on his collection of 12 Sonate da cimbalo di piano e forte detto volgarmente di martelletti, opus 1, published in Florence in 1732, which is the earliest music in any genre written specifically for the piano. They are dedicated to Dom António de Bragança, the younger brother of King João V of Portugal (the Portuguese court was one of the few places where the early piano was frequently played).

These pieces, which are sonate da chiesa, with alternating fast and slow sections (four or five movements per sonata), predate all other music specifically written for the piano by about 30 years. Giustini used all the expressive capabilities of the instrument, such as wide dynamic contrast: expressive possibilities which were not available on other keyboard instruments of the time. Harmonically the pieces are transitional between late Baroque and early Classical period practice, and include innovations such as augmented sixth chords and modulations to remote keys.

James Parakilas points out that it is quite surprising that these works should have been published at all. At the time of composition, there existed only a very small number of pianos, owned mainly by royalty. He conjectures that publication of the work was meant as an honor to Giustini; it "represents a gesture of magnificent presentation to a royal musician, rather than an act of commercial promotion."

While many performances of his large-scale sacred works are documented, all of that music is lost, with the exception of fragments such as scattered arias. Giustini's fame rests on his publication of the one set of piano pieces, although they seem to have attracted little interest at the time.

References and further readingedit]

?     Edward Higginbottom, "Lodovico Giustini", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2

?     Jean Grundy Fanelli: "Lodovico Giustini", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed November 14, 2005), (subscription access) (Note: the articles in the two editions of Grove are by different authors, and each contains unique material)

?     James Parakilas, Piano Roles: 300 Years of Life with the Piano. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-300-08055-7.

?     Lodovico Giustini, The 12 Sonatas for piano, ed. Dominique Ferran, 3 vol. Paris-San Diego, Drake Mabry Publishing, 2003.

?     Freeman, Daniel E. "Lodovico Giustini and the Emergence of the Keyboard Sonata in Italy." Anuario musical 58 (2003):111-30.

External linksedit]

?     Free scores by Lodovico Giustini at the International Music Score Library Project

?     Lodovico Giustini: short biography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodovico_Giustini

Most Popular Works

?      Sonate (12) da cimbalo di piano e forte, Op. 1: no 1 in G minor (2)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 10 in F minor (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 2 in C minor (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 7 in G major (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 8 in A major (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No.11 in E major (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 10 in F minor (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 2 in C minor (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 7 in G major (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 8 in A major (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No.11 in E major (1)

?      Sonate (12) da cimbalo di piano e forte, Op. 1 (1)

?      Sonate (12) da cimbalo di piano e forte, Op. 1: no 1 in G minor (2)

Complete List of Works

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 10 in F minor (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 2 in C minor (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 7 in G major (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No. 8 in A major (1)

?      Keyboard Sonata No.11 in E major (1)

?      Sonate (12) da cimbalo di piano e forte, Op. 1 (1)

?      Sonate (12) da cimbalo di piano e forte, Op. 1: no 1 in G minor (2)

?      Sonate (12) da cimbalo di piano e forte, Op. 1: no 3 in F major - Andante (1)

Review by James Manheim [-]

The six sonatas included on this release must be among the most obscure of genuine musical milestones: published in Florence in 1732, they are taken from the first volume of printed music specifically intended for the clavicembalo col piano e forte, later known as the fortepiano and eventually, with modifications, as the piano. The new instrument of Bartolomeo Cristofori had been around for several decades, and there may have been prior music written with its sound in mind, but none has survived, and the next pieces indicating a fortepiano didn't come along for another 30 years. Composer Lodovico Giustini, was an obscure church musician in the town of Pistoia, near Florence, and he got the commission for these works through a series of events, described in the booklet, that could be summed up with the statement that he was in the right place at the right time. The best news is that Giustini acquitted himself well in unfamiliar territory. He only occasionally exploits the new instrument's unique capability with loud-soft contrasts (the lines of the Dolce movement of the Suonata 11 in E major, track 13, are among the examples), but despite the contention of annotator Gerd Reuther that Giustini was "certainly not an avantgardist" there is much about the sonatas that is fresh, and it's almost as though the unusual medium stimulated the composer to innovations in other realms as well. Each sonata is in four or five movements. The harmonic moves of the binary forms of each individual movement are underscored with thematic or textural events, and the feel of the whole is lively and "pianistic." Domenico Scarlatti was part of the milieu in which these pieces originated, and despite the difference in large-scale plan they seem like works he might have known. Indeed, the playing by German keyboardist Wolfgang Brunner and the instrument he plays, a very clean-sounding modern reproduction of one of Cristofori's 1720s fortepianos, make a strong case for the contention that people ought to try Scarlatti on a fortepiano more often. Well worth hearing, these are inexplicably neglected works. Booklet notes are given in German, French, and English.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Lodovico-Giustini/Composer/4465-1

Video Links

Cristofori Piano: Sonata number 6 by Lodovico Giustini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1qDC1cjm4E

Lodovico Giustini - Sonata No. 9 in C, Op. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ejV_oMhIMQ&list=PLrwMdoP1kWgF5VlMSmptsJZgD4Kpi5L8g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIn2VUtDD54&list=PLrwMdoP1kWgF5VlMSmptsJZgD4Kpi5L8g&index=8

Lodovico Giustini Sonata I Andrea Coen Fortepiano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCo74LV5HrU

Mieczys?aw Horszowski plays Lodovico Giustini - Vol. 2

 Domenico Scarlatti

(26 October 1685, Naples – 23 July 1757, Madrid)

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer whose prodigious work acted as an inspiration for the early classic composers despite his style being highly baroque-based.

Born in the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, he was the sixth of ten children of the composer and teacher Alessandro Scarlatti. Having first studied music under his father who was then maestro di cappella (director of music) at the royal chapel, Domenico's musical gifts developed with an almost prodigious rapidity.

Other composers who may have been his early teachers include Gaetano Greco, Francesco Gasparii and Bernardo Pasquini, all of whom may have influenced his musical style.

By the time he was 15 years old he was already an excellent musician and with the help of his father he soon became an organist at the royal chapel in Naples until (1701-1704), when he went to join his father in Rome. In 1704, he revised Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's opera Irene for performance at Naples. Soon afterwards, his father sent him to Venice.

By 1713 Scarlatti had established relations with the Vatican, and from 1714 to 1719 he held the position of musical director of the Julian Chapel at St. Peter’s. Of the surviving church music that appears to date from this time, only the 10-voice Stabat Mater gives a hint of the genius that was to find its long-delayed flowering in the harpsichord sonatas.

Like his father, Domenico was a composer of great integrity, taste and fecundity. Some of his indelible works were the harpsichord pieces that happened to be one of the most novel productions of his career. His thematic development and taste in music also got him to compose a wide variety of keyboard sonatas, operas, concertos and even cantatas.

Having abandoned his post at the Vatican he moved to Lisbon on 29 November 1719 (according to Vicente Bicchi) where he taught music to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. He left Lisbon on 28 January 1727 for Rome, where he married Maria Caterina Gentili on 6 May 1728. In 1729 he moved to Seville, staying for four years. In 1733 he went to Madrid as music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house.

Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and some in early sonata form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes. (There are four for organ, and a few for small instrumental group). Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys. These one-movement sonatas are recognized as cornerstones of the keyboard repertoire, a bridge between the Baroque and the galant styles of keyboard writing.

Here you can find a list of Domenico Scarlatti's compositions.

Giovanni Benedetto Platti

Giovanni Benedetto Platti (born possibly 9 July 1697 (according to other sources 1690, 1692, 1700) in Padua, belonging to Venice at the time; died 11 January 1763 inWürzburg) was an Italian oboist and composer.

edit]

Platti studied music in Italy (mostly singing, the oboe and the violin). While he was still in Italy (until 1722), he also learned to play the recently invented fortepiano and composed sonatas specially dedicated to it.

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 eight children. Platti spent the rest of his life in Würzburg, working as a singer, instrument virtuoso and composer.

Worksedit]

Platti is said to have composed several oratorios, none of which were recovered. Only part of his work was edited:

?     Mass in F-Major

?     Stabat Mater Dolorosa

?     Concerti grossi, after op. 5 of Arcangelo Corelli

?     Concerto in G-Major for piano, oboe and string orchestra

?     Concerto in C minor for piano, strings and orchertra

?     6 flute sonatas op. 3

?     6 sonatas for harpsichord op. 4

?     Sonata in A-Major for flute and piano

?     Trio sonata in G-Major for transverse flute, violin and basso continuo

?     Trio sonata for oboe, bassoon and basso continuo in C minor

?     Sonata an oboe, violoncello and basso continuo in G minor

?     12 Sonate a cello e basso continuo

?     Sonata an oboe e basso continuo in C minor

External linksedit]

?     Free scores by Giovanni Benedetto Platti at the International Music Score Library Project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Benedetto_Platti

Georg Friedrich Händel 

(23 February 1685, Halle - 14 April 1759, London)

Born in the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers the Baroque era had (who is most famous for his operas, oratorios and concerti grossi). Although he was born in a family indifferent to music (his father was a barber-surgeon), he still received musical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in London (1712).

From an early age, Handel longed to study music and did so on every occasion he had. While his father disapproved this kind of behavior, doubting that music was a realistic source of income (he always intended him for the study of the Civil Law) his mother was, however, supportive, and encouraged him to develop his musical talent.
After traveling with his father to Weissenfels (1692) to visit either Handel's half-brother, Carl, or nephew, Georg Christian (who was serving as valet to Duke Johann Adolf I), he began to study musical composition and keyboard technique under the careful guidance of Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. It was Zachow who first introduced little Handel to harmony and counterpoint, which he later mastered.

Despite his dedication to his music, at his father’s insistence, Handel initially agreed to study law (1702, 5 years after his father's death) under Christian Thomasius at the University of Halle. Not surprisingly, he did not remain enrolled in law too much. In 1703 (Handel was 18 years old) he decided to fully dedicate himself to music by accepting a violinist’s position at the Hamburg Opera’s Goosemarket Theater. He quickly made himself noted in the field of composition as his two operas (Almira and Nero) were well received by the public. His success would later weaken his bond with two of his best friends (R.Keiser and Johann Mattheson). In a time where the invasion of italian opera was overwhelming, these 3 young musicians held high the standard for german art.

Following the theater's decline (who, in order to maintain itself, resorted to trivial music), without even waiting for the premiere of his newest opera (Florindo and Dafne), leaves Hamburg for Italy. Although he ”fought” against the invasion of italian opera while in Hamburg, in Italy he embraced the dramatic vocal style in which the recitative, arioso and aria alternated successfully.

After spending 4 years in Italy where he studied the cantata and oratorio and was somewhat influence by his contemporary colleagues (especially Domenico Scarlatti), Handel moved to Hanovra. Hired as the court kapellmeister (director of music) he commutes between Hanovra and London. Released during the 1710–1711 London opera season, Rinaldo was Handel’s breakthrough work. His most critically acclaimed work up to that date, it gained him the widespread recognition he would maintain throughout the rest of his musical career. In 1712 Handel settles in London becoming the english court's favorite musician.

London represented the most prolific period of his life, having the comfort of financial certainty and the adulation of the public he began composing most of his best works. In place of operas, oratorios became Handel’s new format of choice. In addition to his 22 oratorios, of which the most representative are: Esthera (1732), Athalia (1733), Deborah (1735), Saul (1739), Israel în Egipt (1739), Messia (1742), Samson (1743), Iuda Maccabeul (1746), Joshua (1748), Solomon (1749), Suzanna (1750) Theodora (1750), Iephta (1751), Händel wrote cantatas with secular signification as well.

As far as religious music goes, besides some motets, composed in Italy and England, he composed Anglican psalms, the most important being: Chandos Anthems, Coronatus Anthems and Ode for St. Cecilia's Day. As for instrumental music, Handel displays the same qualities as in the oratorio genre: melodicity and accessibility, radiancy and grandeur. The harpsichord pieces, in the form of Suites, are models of sound balance and expressive force, with catchy tunes and transparent polyphonic melodic lines.

Handel's legacy: include 42 operas; 29 oratorios; more than 120 cantatas, trios and duets; numerous arias; chamber music; a large number of ecumenical pieces; odes and serenatas; and 16 organ concerti.

His works were collected and preserved by two men: Sir Samuel Hellier, a country squire whose musical acquisitions form the nucleus of the Shaw-Hellier Collection, and the abolitionist Granville Sharp.

Here  you can find a list of all of Handel's compositions.

Synthesizing contemporary styles (as Bach did), he is a european baroque first class musician, opposing the rigid forms of that period with the sincere and monumental art that he created.

 Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

(4 march 1678, Venice - 28 July 1741, Vienna)

Known as one of the most representative characters which contributed to the development and crystallization of the baroque musical language and style, Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric. He is known mainly for composing many instrumental concertos for the violin and a variety of other instruments, as well as sacred choral works and operas.

 Georg Philipp Telemann

(14 March 1681, Magdeburg – 25 June 1767, Hamburg)

Born in an upper-middle-class family, Telemann was a german baroque composer, multi-instrumentalist and almost completely self-taught in music. Although many of the family members worked for the church, only a few distant relatives were musicians. Though he showed great musical gifts from an early age, he was discouraged by his familly from becoming a professional musician. In opposition to his mother's wishes, Telemann continued to study in secrecy until she later allowed him to train under the highly respected Kantor Benedict Christiani, at the Old City School. 

Having been self taught, he was capable of playing the flute, violin, viola da gamba, oboe, trombone, double bass and several keyboard instruments. At the age of 12 he composed his first opera, Sigismundus. In the late 1693 or early 1694 his mother sent him to a school in Zellerfeld, hoping that her son would chose a different career. However, the superintendent of this school, Caspar Calvoer, recognized his talents and even introduced him to musical theory. In 1697 Telemann left for Hildesheim, where he was admitted to the famous Gymnasium Andreanum. Here as well, his talents were recognized and in demand: the rector himself commissioned music from Telemann.

Among his early influences are composers such as Antonio Caldara, Arcangelor Corelli and Johann Rosenmuller. He used to frequently travel to courts at Hanover and Brunswick so that he could hear and study the latest musical styles. In 1701 he enrolled at the University of Leipzig as a law student, but a change meeting in Halle with 16-year-old Georg Friedrich Handel appears to have drawn him back to music. Telemann quickly became a local celebrity after he began writing cantatas for a church in Leipzig. In 1702 he was named director of the Leipzig Opera, and over the next three years he wrote four operas specifically for this company.

During this time at Leipzig, he was continually influenced by the music of Handel and Johann Kuhnau (Kantor of the Thomaskirche and city director of music in Leipzig) from whom he learned about counterpoint by studying his works. His next appointment was at Sorau as court kapellmeister (conductor of the court orchestra - 1705-1708) then as concertmaster (first violinist) and later, at Eisenach (1708-1712) as konzertmeister in charge of singers, thus began one of the most productive periods in Telemann's life. During his stay at Eisenach, he composed numerous instrumental pieces (sonatas and concertos) and sacred works, which included four or five complete annual cycles of church cantatas, 50 German and Italian cantatas, and some 20 serenatas.

The Frankfurt period (1712-1721) seemed to be as prosperous as the one spent at Eisenach. Receiving the role as kapellmeister, his duties were similar tot hose he had in Leipzig. He provided various music for two churches, the Barfüsserkirche and the Katharinenkirche as well as for civic ceremonies; he also revived the city's collegium musicum.

In 1721 Telemann was awarded by the Hamburg officials with the positions of Kantor of the Johanneum and musical director of 5 of the city's main churches. That same year, his opera Der geduldige Socrates was performed in Hamburg. In Hamburg, too, he directed a collegium musicum and presented public concerts. His time in Hamburg was even more productive than his time in Eisenach. A master of the principal styles of his time (German, Italian and French), he composed with ease and fluency equally as well for the church as for opera and concerts. His music was natural in melody, bold in harmonies, buoyant in rhythm and beautifully orchestrated. He produced both serious and comic works, many of which have been lost, or survive only as excerpts published in Der getreue Musikmeister.

Georg Philipp Telemann was considered the most important German composer of his day and his reputation outlasted him for some time, but ultimately it was unable to withstand the shadowy cast by the growing popularity of his contemporary, Johan Sebastian Bach. He was the most prolific composer of his time: his oeuvre comprises more than 3000 pieces.

Telemann was also one of the first composers to concentrate on the business of publishing his own music, and at least forty early prints of his music are known from editions which he prepared and sold himself. His enormous output of publications provided instrumental and vocal material for protestant churches throughout Germany, for orchestras and for a great variety of amateur and professional musicians.

Here  you can find a list of Telemann's vast compositions.

 Arcangelo Corelli

(17 February 1653, Fusignano – 8 January 1713, Rome)

Born in a family of land owners, Arcangelo Corelli (name received after the death of his father who was also named Arcangelo) was an Italian violinist and composer of the Baroque era. Though there are some anecdotes circulating, there actually isn't any reliable contemporary evidence documenting events in his life. It is thought that his first teacher was the curate of San Savino, a village on the outskirts of Fusignano. According to the poet Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, who presumably knew the composer well, Corelli first studied music under a priest in the nearby town of Faenza, then Lugo, before moving in 1666 to Bologna.

At that time, Bologna was a major centre of musical culture, it had a flourishing school of violinists associated with Ercole Gaibara and his pupils. Chronicles of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna indicate that the young Corelli, aged 17, was accepted as a member by 1670. The credibility of this attribution has been disputed, although the nickname Il Bolognese appears on the title-pages of Corelli's first three published sets of works (opus 1 to 3).

Although it is unclear quite when Corelli arrived in Rome, by February 3, 1675,he was already third violinist in the orchestra of the chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi, and by the following year he was second violinist. By 1679 he had entered the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, who had taken up residence in Rome 1655.

In 1687 Corelli led the festival performances of music for her patroness, Queen Christina of Sweden. Although Corelli used only a limited portion of his instrument's capabilities, he played an important role in the development of violin playing, his style of execution was later preserved by his pupils such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli, Pietro Castrucci, Francesco Gasparini and others. Nevertheless, his instrumental compositions are considered pillars in the history of chamber music.

His legacy can be divided in three ways: as a violinist, composer and teacher. As a violinist, it is probably safe to say that Corelli's popularity was as great in his time as was Paganini's during the 19th century. This period didn't emphasize on the virtuous skills of a violinist but rather on the beautiful singing tone alone for which Corelli was well known as his tone quality was the most remarkable in all Europe according to reports. He was also the first person to organize the basic elements of violin technique.

His notoriety as a violinist was equaled by his acclaim as a composer. His instrumental music was the most popular, as a result of being played all over Europe. One of Corelli's famous students, Geminiani, thought so much of the Opus 5 Sonatas that he arranged all the works in that group as Concerti Grossi. However, it is in his own Concerti Grossi Opus 6 that Corelli reached his creative peak and climaxed all his musical contributions.

Although he wasn't the inventor of the Concerto Grosso principle, he did prove the potentials of the form, popularized it and wrote the first great music for it. It's safe to say that Corelli paved the way for Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach's concerto grosso masterpieces. This form (the concerto grosso form) is build on the principle of contrasting two differently sized instrumental groups. In Corelli's works, the smaller group consists of two violins and a cello while the larger of a string orchestra.

Corelli's achievements as a teacher were outstanding, Antonio Vivaldi was one of his many students and it was he who became Corelli's successor as a composer of the great Concerti Grossi and who greatly influenced the music of Bach.

His compositions include: 48 trio sonatas, 12 violin and continuo sonatas and 12 concerti grossi

 Here you can find a list with Arcangelo Corelli's compositions.

 Henry Purcell

(10 September 1659, London – 21 November 1695, London)

Born in London in a family of singers (his father and uncle were both members of the Chapel Royal), he is well known as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era. He first received music lessons under Captain Henry Cooke (1664) and afterwards under Pelham Humfrey, Cooke's successor. Rumor has, that Purcell first composed at the age of 9 years old, but his earliest work is an ode for the King's birthday, written in 1670. When his voice broke in 1673, he was appointed assistant to John Hingston, keeper of the king's instruments. After Humfrey's death, he continued his studies with Dr. John Blow.

From 1674 to 1678 he tuned the organ at Westminster Abbey and was employed there in 1675–76 to copy organ parts of anthems. In 1677 he succeeded Matthew Locke as the composer for Charles II’s string orchestra. It is believed that many of his church works date from this time. In 1679, following John Blow's resignation if favor of his pupil, Purcell was appointed organist of the Westminster Abbey. He now devoted himself to the composition of sacred music, and for six years severed his connection with the theater. In addition to his royal duties, Purcell also devoted much of his talent to writing operas, or rather musical dramas, and incidental stage music; he also wrote chamber music in the form of harpsichord suites and trio sonatas thus, becoming involved with the growing London public concert scene.

Purcell composed his first ode for St. Cecilia's Day in 1683. The following month, upon Hingeston's death, he was named royal instrument keeper while retaining his other posts. The composer remained quite prolific in the middle part of the decade, primarily producing music for royal occasions.

Purcell came to be a very well known (maybe the best) as a songwriter because so many of his songs were printed in his lifetime and after his death were reprinted again and again. Between 1680 and 1688 Purcell wrote music for seven plays. The composition of his chamber opera Dido and Aeneas, which forms a very important landmark in the history of English dramatic music, has been attributed to this period, and its earliest production may well have predated the documented one of 1689. It was written to a libretto furnished by Nahum Tate, and performed in 1689 in cooperation with Josias Priest, a dancing master and the choreographer for the Dorset Garden Theater (having resumed his connection with the theater).

A fatal illness prevented him from finishing the music for the operatic version of John Dryden and Sir Robert Howard’s verse tragedy The Indian Queen (1664), which was completed after his death by his brother Daniel.  Henry Purcell's legacy includes almost every department of music. Considering his stage works, Purcell only wrote one full opera, a short work supposedly designed for a girls' school. The tragic story of Dido and Aeneas, with a libretto by Nahum Tate, has a perfection of its own. Dido’s final lament, before she kills herself, follows the model for such compositions established by Monteverdi 80 years before. Other stage works by Purcell are in the hybrid form now known as semi-opera, combining spoken drama with a musical element that in the concert hall may be performed apart from its wider dramatic context. These semi-operas include King Arthur, with a text by the poet John Dryden, a work that includes fascinating music for a chorus of cold people, frozen by the Cold Genius but thawed by the power of Love. The Fairy Queen, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, includes an interesting if apparently inappropriate Chinese masque, while The Tempest, again based on Shakespeare, includes songs and dance music of great interest. 

Purcell provided incidental music, dances and songs for a great many plays, including Aphra Behn’s Abdelazar or The Moor’s Revenge, a rondeau from which provides the theme for Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. He also composed songs and independent instrumental compositions, church music, secular vocal music and keyboard music.

Here  you can find a list with Henry Purcell's compositions.

 Jean Philippe Rameau

(25 September 1683, Dijon – 12 September 1764, Paris)

Jean Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He is widely accepted as the dominant composer of French opera and leading French composer of the harpsichord of his time, alongside François Couperin. Rameau was taught music before he could read or write, his father, Jean worked as an organist in several churches around Dijon and was probably his first teacher.

At the age of 18, after deciding to pursue a musical career, he traveled to Italy but seems to have gotten no farther than Milan. The following year, he received the first of a series of appointments as organist in various cities of central France: Avignon, Clermont, Dijon, Lyon. There was a brief interlude in the capital, but apparently Paris did not take an immediate fancy to the provincial organist, in spite of his having published there a fine suite of harpsichord pieces in A minor, Premier livre de pièces de clavecin (1706). These works show the beneficial influence of Louis Marchand, a famous organist-harpsichordist of the day whose playing Rameau greatly admired. About Rameau's early years little is known, the details of his life are generally obscure, especially his first 40 years, before he moved to Paris for good. His nature was quite secretive, not even his wife knew anything about his early life, which explains the scarcity of biographical information available.

He first appeared in the public eye in the 1720s after he won fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise on Harmony (1722) and also in the years that followed, as a composer of masterpieces for the harpsichord which circulated throughout Europe. He soon gained the attention and respect of Parisian musicians. But although his music (the harpsichord pieces, cantatas and music for the theaters) was greatly admired, he was unable to win an organ post in Paris. In 1724 he wrote a second volume of harpsichord pieces, Pieces de clavecin avec une méthode sur la mécanique des doigts (Harpsichord pieces, with a method for fingering) which was well received and brought him considerably more success than the first, thus, becoming a fashionable teacher of the instrument. 

He started giving lessons, among his pupils the talented Marie-Louise Mangeot, who became his wife in 1726. Soon after, he wrote his third book of harpsichord pieces, which like his second was largely devoted to pièces de caractère, he published his Observations sur la methode d'accompagnement pour le clavecin in the Mercure de France (February 1730), drawing upon his own brilliant technique of improvising on a figured bass. His most influential contact at this time was Le Riche de la Pouplinière, one of the wealthiest men in France and one of the greatest musical patrons of all time. Rameau was put in charge of La Pouplinière’s excellent private orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. The rich musical resources - singers, players and dancers - of Paris were augmented by virtuoso clarinettists and horn players brought in from Germany and Bohemia, providing Rameau with a private forum. It was for this circle that the virtuoso Pièces de clavecin en concerts (1741) were composed.

Rameau's complex orchestrations and the intensity of his accompanied recitatives seemed to baffle the average listener. Rameau himself, however, professed his admiration for his predecessor in the preface to Les Indes galantes, in which he praised the “beautiful declamation and handsome turns of phrase in the recitative of the great Lully,” and stated that he had sought to imitate it, though not as a “servile copyist.”

The year 1745 was a watershed in Rameau's career. He received several commissions from the court for works to celebrate the French victory at the Battle of Fontenoy and the marriage of the Dauphin to Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain. Rameau produced his most important comic opera, Platée, as well as two collaborations with Voltaire: the opéra-ballet Le temple de la gloire and the comédie-ballet La princesse de Navarre. Rameau composed prolifically in the late 1740s and early 1750s. After that, his rate of productivity dropped off, probably due to old age and ill health, although he was still able to write another comic opera, Les Paladins, in 1760. This was due to be followed by a final tragédie en musique, Les Boréades; but for unknown reasons, the opera was never produced and had to wait until the late 20th century for a proper staging.

Rameau's legacy can be divided into four distinct groups, which differ greatly in importance: a few cantatas, a few motets for large chorus, some pieces for solo harpsichord or harpsichord accompanied by other instruments, and his works for the stage, to which he dedicated the last thirty years of his career almost exclusively. 

Rameau's music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it. Today, he enjoys renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more frequent.

Here  you can find a list of Rameau's compositions.

 Johann Pachelbel

(baptized 1 September 1653, Nürnberg – 9 March 1706, Nürnberg)

Johann Pachelbel was an acclaimed German composer, organist and teacher who's contribution to the south German organ tradition gained him the title of one of the greatest organ masters of the generation before J.S.Bach. He is widely known as the composer of Canon in D major, for three violins and continuo.

Born in a middle-class family, he first received musical training from Heinrich Schwemmer, a musician and music teacher who later became the cantor of Saint Sebaldus Church. He continued his studies at the University of Altdorf (1669), where he also served as organist at the Lorenzkirche. Due to financial reasons, he was forced to leave the university after less than a year, and became a scholarship student at the Gymnasium poeticum at Regensburg, taking private lessons under Kaspar Prentz.

Having traveled to Vienna in 1673 he received the role of deputy organist at Saint Stephen's Cathedral. In 1677 he became organist in Thuringen at the Eisenach court, where he stayed for slightly over a year. It was here where he met the town's most proeminent musician, Johann Ambrosius Bach (the future father of Johann Sebastian Bach) and with whom he became a close friend.

In 1678, Pachelbel obtained the first of the two important positions he was to hold during his lifetime when he became organist at the Protestant Predigerkirche at Erfurt, where he established his reputation as organist, composer, and teacher. Among his pupils was Johann Christoph Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach's older brother from whom he took his first formal keyboard lessons.

Johann Pachelbel was one of the dominant figures of late seventeenth-century European keyboard music. An exact contemporary of Georg Muffat he belonged to the generation that included German composers Böhm, Bruhns and Fischer, French composers Raison, Jullien and François Couperin, and the Englishman Purcell, and that came chronologically between Buxtehude and Bach.

He published a small number of his compositions, since copper engraving was an expensive process. His first publication was a collection of four chorales with variations in 1683, which he entitle MusicalischeSterbensgedancken (Musical Thoughts of Death), next in Nuremberg, six Sonatas for two violins and bass, and the collection Musicalische Eigötzung (Musical Rejoicing, circa 1691), eight chorale preludes, Acht Choräle zum Praeambulieren in 1693, and lastly, in 1699, his master work, Hexachordum Apollinis, the Hexachord of Apollo, containing six Arias with variations in six different keys for harpsichord (or organ), including the famous Aria Sebaldina in F minor, and which includes a dedication to Buxtehude and his Vienna contemporary Ferdinand Tobias Richter. Also composed in the final years were Italian-influenced concertato Vespers and a set of more than ninety Magnificat fugues. In 1695 he was appointed organist at the Saint Sebaldus Church in Nürnberg.

Pachelbel's work had a simple contrapuntally style, his organ compositions show a knowledge of Italian forms derived from Frescobaldi. His art found its fullest expression in his treatment of the chorale. He mastered all the forms current at that time for setting chorale melodies.

Contrary to the general knowledge, Pachelbel's legacy isn't the Canon in D major alone, his lifetime work includes chamber music, organ music and church music. Although chamber music represents only a small part of Pachelbel's achievement as a composer, his Canon and Gigue have in recent years won enormous popularity.

As a leading organist, he wrote a considerable amount of organ music, including a series of organ chorales based on well-known Lutheran hymn tunes. Other organ music includes works in forms later used by J.S. Bach: fugues, toccatas, fantasias and a set of six chaconnes. Pachelbel's organ fugues and ricercares reflect the growing interest of Baroque musicians in the learned world of dialogue and formal elaboration, and their tendency to underline the theatrical aspect of the musical discourse through the development of a single underlying motif, the "subject" — at a time when, following the work of Descartes, the focus was on the complexity of the "thinking subject."

As far as church music goes, Pachelbel composed several sacred concertos, works for voices and a small group of instruments. Of special importance are his chorale preludes, which did much to establish the chorale melodies of Protestant northern Germany in the more lyrical musical atmosphere of the Catholic south.

Although the Canon in D is pretty much all he is remembered for now, Pachelbel was massive in the world of keyboard and chamber music in the late 17th century.

Here  you can find a complete list of Johann Pachelbel's compositions.

Anton Reicha

(26 February 1770, Prague - 28 May 1836, Paris)

Antonín Rejchawas a Czech-born later naturalized French composer of music with roots in the German style. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Beethoven, he is now best remembered for his substantial early contributions to the wind quintet literature and his role as teacher of pupils including Franz Liszt, Charles Gounod, Hector Berlioz and César Franck.

Antonio Salieri

(18 August 1750, Legnago - 7 May 1825, Viena)

Antonio Salieri was an Italian classical composer, conductor and teacher. He played an important role in the development of the late 18th century opera. Born and raised in a prosperous family of merchants, Salieri started his musical studies in his native town of Legnano. His first teacher was his older brother, Francesco Salieri (Giuseppe Tartini's student) who was a very talented violinist and from which he learned to play the violin and the harpsichord. Later on he studied with local organist Giuseppe Simoni.

After his formidable musical talents got noticed, a family friend, Giovanni Mocenigo, arranged for Salieri to move to Venice to continue his musical education. After a year he met the Viennese-band composer Florian Leopold Gassmann who immediately recognized Salieri's talent (now an orphan, after both of his parents died) and took him under his wing to further improve his musical skills.

Salieri and Gassmann arrived in Vienna on 15 June 1766. Gassmann's first act was to take Salieri to the Italian Church to consecrate his teaching and service to God, an event that left a deep impression on Salieri for the rest of his life. By 1768, Salieri had composed his first opera, La vestale, probably not a success and now lost. His first surviving opera, Le donne letterate, was good enough to have impressed his new friend Gluck. Armida followed in 1771 and achieved wide success, assuring Salieri recognition in the highest Viennese musical circles. His music studies revolved around vocal composition, figured bass, harmony and counterpoint. 

After the death of Gassmann in 1774, Salieri found himself in the honored position of Kammerkomponist (chamber music composer) for the Viennese imperial court. Among his duties, composing, conducting and serving as music director for the Italian opera in Vienna were also included. Salieri went on to score triumphs in Milan (L'Europa riconosciuta; 1778) and in Venice (La scuola de' gelosi; 1778), while he was on leave from the Vienna court for two years. He surpassed these successes with his next operas, given in Paris. With the help of Cristoph Willibald Gluck, Les Danaïdes (1784) was performed to enthusiastic audiences there, but was far overshadowed by the sensation of Tarare (1787).

In his final years, Salieri served as Hofkapellmeister (court director of music) for the Hapsburg court. He devoted most of his time to managing the court chapel and to writing sacred music for services. Over the next decade-and-a-half, Salieri felt that he no longer had the creative capacity to adapt or the emotional desire to continue and therefore did not explore new directions in his operatic style which led to his falling out of fashion.

Salieri’s last opera was performed in 1804, after which he fully devoted himself to composing sacred music. He was an important teacher as well; among his students were Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Franz Liszt and Carl Czerny.

Antonio Salieri's wrote 45 operas, ranging from Tarare, with a libretto by Beaumarchais, for Paris and settings of libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte for Vienna to the Shakespearean comedy Falstaff and the operetta Prima la musica poi le parole (First the Music then the Words), staged at the imperial palace of Schönbrunn in 1786 on the same evening as Mozart's German Singspiel Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario). He also wrote a considerable quantity of church music, a s well as oratorios. He left still more secular vocal music, ranging from cantatas and choruses to duets and solo arias. His instrumental music survived in a small number which include music for ballet, sinfonias, concertos and music for various smaller ensembles. As well as a significant quantity of ballet music, Salieri wrote concertos, including an organ concerto and a piano concerto, a Birthday Symphony and a set of variations on La folia di Spagna, (The Folly of Spain) the dance tune used by Corelli and many other Baroque composers. Salieri's chamber music consists principally of serenades, cassations and marches.

Although much has been made of the supposed rivalry between Mozart and Salieri (particularly since the production of Peter Shaffer’s stage play Amadeus and the subsequent Academy Award winning film), there isn't any evidence to support these claims.

Here  you can find a list with the surviving works of Antonio Salieri.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

(8 March 1714, Weimar – 14 December 1788, Hamburg)

C.P.E. Bach was a German musician and composer who lived in the Classical period, the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. He was also one of four Bach children to become professional musicians; all four received training in music almost entirely from their father. He could play his father's technically demanding keyboard pieces at sight by the time he was 7 years old.

Carl, like his brothers, pursued advanced studies in jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig (1731). He continued further study of law at Frankfurt (Oder) (1735). In 1738, at the age of 24, he obtained his degree. He turned his attention at once to music. In 1740 he was appointed harpsichordist to Frederick II of Prussia who was in fact a good flutist and so fond of music that he had his court orchestra accompany him in concerti every night except Mondays and Fridays, which were opera nights. He was by this time one of the foremost clavier players in Europe, and his compositions, which date from 1731, include about thirty sonatas and concert pieces for harpsichord and clavichord.

His publication, An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments was a definitive work on technique. It broke with rigid tradition in allowing, even encouraging the use of the thumbs, and became the standard on finger technique for keyboards. The essay basically lays out the fingering for each chord and some chord sequences. The techniques are largely followed to this day.

In the year of 1746, he was promoted to the post of chamber musician, and served the king alongside colleagues like Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda. C.P.E. Bach was mostly influenced by his father, Sebastian. His godfather, Georg Philipp Telemann provided creative inspiration as well as Georg Friederic Handel, Carl Heinrich Graun and Joseph Haydn. But he didn't stop at music, his interest in all types of art led to influence from poets, playwrights and philosophers such as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

Here he was exposed for the first time to Italian opera seria, which influenced his instrumental music. After Frederick directed his attention to the Seven Years' War, Bach found a select audience for his remarkable and experimental series of keyboard works such as the so-called ”Prussian” and ”Württemberg" sonatas (early 1740s) and the Sonatas with Varied Repeats (1760).

In his Magnificat (1749) and his Easter cantata (1756) one can clearly hear his father's influence. Although his main work was concentrated on the clavier, for which he composed (at that time) nearly 200 sonatas and other solos, he also composed several symphonies and concert works, at least 3 volumes of songs and a few secular cantatas.

Bach finally got himself released from Frederick's service in 1768 in order to succeed Telemann as cantor at the Johanneum in Hamburg, also serving as music director for the city's five major churches; he held this post until his death. He was the master of Empfindsamkeit or ”intimate expressiveness”. The dark, dramatic, improvisation-like passages that appear in some of Mozart's and Haydn's works are due in part to his influence; his music in time became known all over Europe. His impulsive works for solo keyboard, which lurch into unexpected keys, change tempo and dynamics abruptly, and fly along with wide-ranging themes, are especially compelling.

Through the latter half of the 18th century, the reputation of Emanuel Bach stood very high. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart said of him, "He is the father, we are the children." The best part of Joseph Haydn's training was derived from a study of his work. Ludwig van Beethoven expressed for his genius the most cordial admiration and regard. This position he owes mainly to his keyboard sonatas, which mark an important epoch in the history of musical form. Lucid in style, delicate and tender in expression, they are even more notable for the freedom and variety of their structural design; they break away altogether from both the Italian and the Viennese schools, moving instead toward the cyclical and improvisatory forms that would become common several generations later.

In the area of chamber music, Bach pulled the keyboard out of its subsidiary Baroque role and made it a full partner with, or even leader of, the other instruments. Yet here he fashioned the music to the public's conservative expectations, as he did with his church music. He composed prolifically in many genres, and much of his work awaits public rediscovery.

A precious musician who remained successful, C.P.E. Bach was his father's true successor and an important figure in his own right. He also played an important role in the development and crystallization of the bi-thematic sonata and of the symphony genre.

Here  you can find a complete list of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's works.

Daniel Steibelt

Daniel Gottlieb Steibelt (October 22, 1765 – October 2 [O.S. September 20] 1823) was a German pianist and composer who died in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Contents

 [hide]

• 1 Life and music

• 2 Selected list of his works

• 3 Notes

• 4 Selective discography

• 5 References

• 6 External links

Life and music[edit]

Daniel Steibelt was born in Berlin, and studied music with Johann Kirnberger before being forced by his father to join the Prussian army. Deserting, he began a nomadic career as a pianist before settling in 1790 in Paris, where he attained great popularity as a virtuoso by means of a piano sonata called La Coquette, which he composed for Marie Antoinette.[1] Also in Paris, his dramatic opera entitled Romeo et Juliette, which was later highly regarded by Hector Berlioz,[2] was produced at the Théâtre Feydeau in 1793. This is held by many to be his most original and artistically successful composition.

Steibelt began to share his time between Paris and London, where his piano-playing attracted great attention.[1] In 1797 he played in a concert of J. P. Salamon. In 1798 he produced his Concerto No. 3 in E flat containing a Storm Rondo characterised by extensive tremolos, which became very popular. In the following year Steibelt started on a professional tour in Germany; and, after playing with some success in Hamburg, Dresden, Prague and Berlin, he arrived in May 1800 at Vienna, where he challenged Beethovento a trial of skill at the house of Count von Fries. Accounts of the contest record it was a disaster for Steibelt; Beethoven reportedly carried the day by improvising at length on a theme taken from the cello part of a new Steibelt piece, placed upside down on the music rack.[3]

Following this public humiliation Steibelt quit his tour. He went again to Paris, where he organised the first performance of Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation, which took place on 24 Dec 1800 at the Opera House.[4] On his way to it, the First Consul Bonaparte narrowly escaped a bomb attack. Steibelt had just published one of his most accomplished sonatas, which he had dedicated to Bonaparte's wife, Josephine.[5] After a second stay in England (Summer 1802-Autumn 1805), Steibelt came back to Paris. He celebrated Napoleon's triumph at Austerlitz with a Musical Interlude named La Fête de Mars, whose première was attended by Napoleon in person (4 Feb 1806).[6]

In 1808 he was invited by Tsar Alexander I to Saint Petersburg, succeeding François-Adrien Boieldieu as director of the Royal Opera in 1811.[1] He remained there for the rest of his life. In 1812, he composed The Destruction of Moscow, a grand fantasy for piano dedicated to the Russian nation.

He generally ceased performing in 1814, but returned to the platform for his Concerto No. 8, which was premiered on March 16, 1820, in Saint Petersburg, and is notable for its choral finale. This was four years before Beethoven's unconventional Symphony No. 9, and was the only piano concerto ever written (excluding Beethoven's Choral Fantasy) with a part for a chorus until Henri Herz's 6th concerto, Op 192 (1858) and Ferruccio Busoni's Piano Concerto (1904).[7]

Besides his dramatic music, Steibelt left behind him an enormous number of compositions, mostly for the piano. His playing was said to be brilliant, though lacking the higher qualities which characterized that of such contemporaries as Cramer and Muzio Clementi.[1] Despite this, his playing and compositional skills enabled him to build a career across Europe. Grove describes him as "extraordinarily vain, arrogant, discourteous, recklessly extravagant and even dishonest." Such harsh moral judgements are justified by some of the facts of Steibelt's life as they have come down to us.[8] These and similar attacks on his character must be viewed with caution if a correct image of Steibelt's personality is to be reconstructed.

At his best Steibelt is an imaginative composer with strong individuality. His operas Cendrillon (1810) and Romeo et Juliette (1793), all his piano concerti, his chamber music, a selection of his numerous sonatas (e.g. Op. 45 in E flat - 1800 - and Op. 64 in G - 1809) and some piano pieces (caprices and preludes, studies Op. 78) are of a sufficient musical worth to be performed and enjoyed today.

Selected list of his works[edit]

1) Stage

• Romeo et Juliette, 3 acts (1793)
• Albert et Adelaide, 3 acts (1798)
• Le retour de Zephyre, 1 act ballet (1802)
• Le jugement de Berger, 3 acts ballet (1804)
• La Belle Laitière, ou Blanche Reine de Castille (1805)
• La Fête de Mars, intermezzo (1806)
• La Princesse de Babylone, 3 acts opera (1812)
• La Fête de l'Empereur, ballet (1809)
• Der Blöde Ritter (1810)
• Sargines, 3 acts, opera (1810)
• Cendrillon, 3 acts opera (1810)
• Le jugement de Midas (1823?)

2) Orchestral

• Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in C (1796)
• Concerto No. 2 for Piano, Violin and Orchestra in E minor (1796)
• Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra in E "L'orage" (1799)
• Concerto No. 4 for Piano and Orchestra in E? (1800)
• Concerto No. 5 for Piano and Orchestra in E? "À la chasse" Op. 64 (1802)
• Concerto No. 6 for Piano and Orchestra in G minor "Le voyage au mont Saint-Bernard" (1816)
• Concerto No. 7 for Piano and Orchestra in E minor "Grand concerto militaire dans le genre grec", with 2 orchestras, (1816)
• Concerto No. 8 for Piano and Orchestra in E? "with bacchanalian rondo, acc. chorus" (1820), not published.

• Harp Concerto (1807)
• Ouverture en Symphonie (1796)
• Marches and Waltzes

3) Chamber

• 3 String Quartets, Op. 17 (1790)
• 3 Quintets for Piano and Strings, Op. 28
• 3 String Quartets, Op. 49 (1800)
• 3 Violin Sonatas, Op. 69
• 1 Quartet for Piano and Strings
• 26 trios for piano and strings
• 6 trios for harp and strings
• 115 duos for piano and violin
• 6 duos for Piano and Harp (or for two pianos)
• 6 sonatas for harp
• 36 bacchanals and 12 divertissements for Piano, tambourine and triangle ad lib.
• 77 sonatas for piano solo
• 45 rondos
• 32 fantasias
• 21 divertissements
• 12 caprices or preludes
• 20 pots-pourris
• 2 series of serenades
• 25 series of variations
• 16 sonatas for piano 4 hands
• Descriptive pieces (Triumph, sieges, marches funebres...)
• Waltzes, danses.
• Studies, Op. 78

4) Methode de Pianoforte (1805)

5) Songs

• 6 romances (1798)
• Air d'Estelle (1798)
• 30 songs, Op. 10 (1794)

Notes[edit]

• ^ Jump up to:abcd One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Steibelt, Daniel". Encyclopædia Britannica25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 870.
• Jump up^ Hector Berlioz, article in the Journal des Débats, 13 Sept 1859.
• Jump up^ Ries (with Wegeler), Biographische Notizen über Ludwig van Beethoven (1838).
• Jump up^ G. Müller, Daniel Steibelt, Sein Leben und seine Klavierwerke, p. 41.
• Jump up^ G.Müller, op. cit., p.97.
• Jump up^ Théo Fleischman, Napoléon et la musique, Bruxelles, Brepols, 1965, p. 177.
• Jump up^Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists, p. 68
• Jump up^ As an example, Steibelt's kleptomania is documented in Norvins's Mémorial, Paris, 1896-1897, vol. I, ch XIV.

Selective discography[edit]

• Variations on two Russian Folksongs, Irina Ermakova, piano (Arte Nova ANO 516260, 1996)
• Sonata in E major, Hiroko Sakagami, piano (Hans Georg Nägeli, publisher and composer, MGB CD 6193, 2002)
• Grand Sonata in E flat major, op. 45, dedicated to Madame Bonaparte, Daniel Proper, piano (Echoes of the Battlefields, Forgotten Records, fr 16/17P, 2012)
• The Destruction of Moscow, a grand fantasia, Daniel Proper, piano (Echoes of the Battlefields, Forgotten Records, fr 16/17P, 2012)
• Grand concerto for harp, Masumi Nagasawa, harpe, Kölner Akademie, dir. Michael Alexander Willens (Ars Produktion, ARS 38 108, 2012)
• Sonata in C minor, op.6 n°2, Anna Petrova-Forster, piano (Gega New, GD 362, 2013)
• Etudes op.78 (n°50, 32 and 3), Anna Petrova-Forster, piano (Gega New, GD 362, 2013)
• Sonata in D major, op.82, Anna Petrova-Forster, piano (Gega New, GD 362, 2013)
• Concerto in G minor, n°6, Le voyage au Mont St. Bernard, Anna Petrova-Forster, piano (Gega New, GD 362, 2013)

References[edit]

• Frank Dawes a.o.. "Steibelt, Daniel (Gottlieb)", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 27 April 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).

• G.Müller :"Daniel Steibelt:sein leben und klavierwerke (Leipzig and Zurich, 1933/R1973)

• Karen A. Hagberg:"Daniel Steibelt's Cendrillon: a critical edition with notes on Steibelt's life and works"(diss.Eastman School of Music,1975)

External links[edit]

• Free scores by Daniel Steibelt at the International Music Score Library Project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Steibelt

http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/daniel-steibelt/

A native of Berlin, Daniel Steibelt was one of Europe's most renowned piano virtuosos who was driven from Vienna after being roundly humiliated by Beethoven in a piano contest

A native of Berlin, Daniel Steibelt was one of Europe's most renownedpiano virtuosos. He was a typical Prussian - formal, correct, proper. In 1800 he came to Vienna, no doubt with the aim of advancing his musical reputation.

It was quickly agreed among the city's musical patrons that Steibelt should compete against Beethoven in an improvisation contest.

These improvisation contests were a popular form of entertainment among Vienna's aristocracy. One nobleman would support one virtuoso pianist, another would support the other. In the salon of one of the noblemen, the two pianists would compete with each other, each setting the other a tune to improvise on.

The playing would go back and forth, increasing in intensity, until a winner was declared. In his early years in Vienna, Beethoven was made to take on the city's best talent and he quickly saw them off.

It was agreed that Prince Lobkowitz  would sponsor Steibelt and Prince Lichnowsky sponsor Beethoven, the improvisation contest to take place in Lobkowitz's palace.

As the challenger, Steibelt was to play first. He walked to the piano, tossing a piece of his own music on the side, and played. Steibelt was renowned for conjuring up a "storm" on the piano, and this he did to great effect, the "thunder" growling in the bass.

He rose to great applause, and all eyes turned to Beethoven, who took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and reluctantly - to the collective relief of everyone present - trudged to the piano.

When he got there he picked up the piece of music Steibelt had tossed on the side, looked at it, showed it the audience ..... and turned it upside down!

He sat at the piano and played the four notes in the opening bar of Steibelt's music. He began to vary them, embellish them ..... improvise on them.

He played on, imitated a Steibelt "storm", unpicked Steibelt's playing and put it together again, parodied it and mocked it.

Steibelt, realising he was not only being comprehensively outplayed but humiliated, strode out of the room. Prince Lobkowitz hurried after him, returning a few moments later to say Steibelt had said he would never again set foot in Vienna as long as Beethoven lived there.

Beethoven lived in Vienna for the rest of his life, and Steibelt kept his promise - he never returned.

Beethoven was never again asked to take on any piano virtuoso - his position as Vienna's supreme piano virtuoso was established. And those four notes - the first bar of Steibelt's music? They became, in time, the impetus that drives the Eroica Symphony.

Read more at http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/daniel-steibelt/#TOiUMLu2TJlGtWtx.99

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Steibelt,_Daniel

Compositions by: Steibelt, Daniel

The following 35 pages are in this category, out of 35 total.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT8cBX893ic

Beethoven vs. Steibelt

http://imslp.org/wiki/Rondos_and_Sonatinas_for_Pianoforte_%28Steibelt,_Daniel%29

Rondos and Sonatinas for Pianoforte (Steibelt, Daniel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfUdF547kh4

Steibelt - Piano Works CD / ????????? - ???????????? ??? ?????????? ????

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14pjzqHcdT8

Daniel Steibelt - Etude op.78 No.22, Anna Petrova-Forster, piano

Franz Joseph Haydn

(31 martie 1732, Rohrau an der Leitha – 31 mai 1809, Viena)

Henri Bertini

(28 October 1798, London – September 30, 1876, Meylan)

Henri Jérôme Bertini was a French composer and pianist who lived in the Classical era. Born in a family of musicians, he received his first piano lessons from his brother, who was a pupil of Muzio Clementi. Soon after he became recognized as a virtuoso and, by the age of 12 he was considered a child prodigy. From an early age he got accustomed with playing in front of a public, his father took him on a tour of England, Holland, Flanders, and Germany where he was enthusiastically received.

He continued his studies in composition in England and Scotland after which he was appointed professor of music in Brussels, but instead he returned to Paris in 1821. On April 20'th 1828 he performed his own transcription of Beethoven's 7th symphony for eight hands with Franz Liszt, Sowinsky and Schunke. 

In terms of chamber music, he was well admired as a great performer, he often gave concerts with his friends Antoine Fontaine (violin) and Auguste Franchomme (cello). In one of his letters Hector Berlioz professed himself to be a great admirer of Henri Bertini and that his music “made his heart beat fast”. Bertini later returned the favour, dedicating his last sextet to the French composer. He was active for a short period of time, in 1848 he retired from the musical scene.

Although he concertized widely, he was not celebrated a virtuoso as either Friedrich Kalkbrenner or Henri Herz. One of his contemporaries described his playing as having Clementi's evenness and clarity in rapid passages as well as the quality of sound, the manner of phrasing, and the ability to make the instrument sing characteristic of the school of Hummel and Moschelès.

He was also a great teacher, Antoine Marmontel wrote: ”He was unsurpassed as a teacher, giving his lessons with scrupulous care and the keenest interest in his pupils' progress. After he had given up teaching, a number of his pupils continued with me, and I recognized the soundness of the principles drawn from his instruction.”

Bertini’s complete études are hard to come by these days. Given the quality of this music we can only hope that a new critical version may one day be published. There is no doubt that such an edition would be of great interest to all those who love the piano.

Robert Schumann, in a review of one of Bertini's piano trios in the Gesammelte Schriften, comments that Bertini writes easily flowing harmony but that the movements are too long. He continues: "With the best will in the world, we find it difficult to be angry with Bertini, yet he drives us to distraction with his perfumed Parisian phrases; all his music is as smooth as silk and satin."German sentimentality has never appreciated French elegance.

He is best remembered today for his piano method Le Rudiment du pianiste, and his 20 books of aproximately 500 studies.

Here  you can find a list of Henri Bertini's works.

Jan Ladislav Dussek

(12 February 1760, Cáslav – 20 March 1812, Saint-Germain-en-Laye)

Baptized Václav Jan Dusík, with surname also written as Duschek or Düssek, Jan was a Czech composer and pianist who is best known for his piano and chamber music. Some argue that he was the first truly important touring piano virtuoso.

He was born in a family of musicians, his father who was a cathedral organist provided his early musical education. Little Jan showed great skill as a pianist and organist at an early age (he studied piano from the age of 5, and began playing the organ at 9), his voice was also found to be good, and so he joined the church choir. In 1778 he attended the University of Prague for one term. The same year he entered the services of Captain Männer, an Austrian military man.

Upon traveling to Belgium in 1779, he received the position of organist at the Saint Rumbold's cathedral in Mechelen. Here he gave his first public recital which consisted of his own compositions. Other public concerts were performed in Amsterdam and at The Hague where he was very well received by the royalty.

In 1782 he gave a concert in Hamburg on the ”new English fortepiano”. It is thought that while in Hamburg he may have studied under C.P.E. Bach. He also published his first works, 3 piano concertos and 3 violin sonatas (C 2-7), all of which were assigned Opus 1. He continued to tour as a pianist, performing in Saint Petersburg, Berlin, Paris and Italy. He made a successful debut in 1789 in London, where he established a music shop and gave many concerts, prompting the visiting Joseph Haydn to write about him in glowing terms.

He returned to Paris, where he stayed until shortly before the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789. During his time in Paris he may have met and played with a violinist by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. He also published a series of violin sonatas (C 27–29) dedicated to Eugénie de Beaumarchais, daughter of writer Pierre Beaumarchais.

In 1789 Dussek left France for England and settled in London. Shortly after his business failed in 1799, Dussek fled from England to escape his creditors. He subsequently stayed in Hamburg and Berlin (as kapellmeister), appeared in concerts in Cáslav and Prague, and lived in the household of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand in Paris from about 1807 until his death.
As a pianist Dussek possessed great dexterity and could elicit a singing tone that was much praised by his contemporaries. He is said to have been the first pianist to place his piano sideways on the platform, so that the public could see a profile view of the performer (an innovation often credited to Franz Liszt).

The vast majority of Dussek's music involves the piano or harp in some way. He wrote 35 sonatas for piano and 11 for piano duet, as well as numerous other works for both configurations. His chamber music output includes 65 violin sonatas, 24 piano (or harp) trios, and a variety of works for harp, harp or piano, or harp and piano. Some sonatas had trio parts added by J. B. Cramer. Orchestral works were limited to concertos, including 16 for piano (one of them had lost and two of them are remained dubious attribution), six for harp (three of them lost), and one for two pianos. He wrote a modest number of vocal works, include 12 songs, a cantata, a mass, and one opera, The Captive of Spilberg. His compositions also included arrangements of other works, especially opera overtures, for piano.

Here  you can find a list of Jan Vladislav Dussek's compositions.

Johann Christian Bach

 (5 September 1735, Leipzig – 1 January 1782, London)

J.C. Bach was a composer and pianist of the Classical era, the eleventh surviving child and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. Sometimes referred to as ”the London Bach” or ”the English Bach” he first received musical lessons from his father. It is thought that the second volume of the Well Tempered Clavier was composed for his musical education. After the death of his father in 1750, he moves to Berlin, to live with his brother C.P.E. Bach, who becomes his teacher.

In the 1754-1762 period, he studied counterpoint in Italy with Giovanni Battista Martini and accepted the organist position at the cathedral in Milano (1760). In the same period he switches from Lutheranism to Catholicism. He is the only son of Bach to write opera by the Italian tradition of the time.

He enjoyed a promising career, first as a composer then as a performer playing alongside Carl Friedrich Abel, the notable player of the viola da gamba. He composed cantatas, chamber music, keyboard and orchestral works, operas and symphonies.

In 1762 he settled in London for good, hence his nickname ”the London Bach”. In his 20 years spent in London he becomes the most popular musician in all England, particularly due to his operas played at the Royal Theater. Here he holds the position of Queen's musician, and one of his duties  was the musical education of the royal children, as well as to provide piano accompaniment for the king, who played the flute. Shortly after, his concerts became events of great attraction for the Londoner public.

In his first years spent in the British capital, he met and was drawn by a sincere friendship towards Mozart the child prodigy, which at that time was touring with his father. Many historians agree on the special influence that was exerted by Johann Christian Bach on little Mozart. After the death of ”the London Bach”, Mozart wrote to his father ”It's a great loss for the musical world!” The number 12 Piano Concerto in A major KV 414 is dedicated to his dear friend (J.C. Bach), which incorporates in its second part variations on a theme by Johann Christian Bach.

Bach also wrote music for notable political occasions on the Continent as well as in Britain. In the late 1770s, his fortunes declined. His music lost its popularity, and his steward embezzled practically all his wealth. His health declined, and he died in 1782 in considerable debt. Queen Sophie met the immediate expenses of the estate and established a life pension for Bach's widow, Cecilia.

Johann Christian Bach was one of the first composers to prefer the piano for harpsichord or other Baroque keyboard instruments. A full account of J. C. Bach’s career is given in the fourth volume of Charles Burney's History of Music. There are two others named Johann Christian Bach in the Bach family tree, but neither was a composer.

J.C. Bach’s music reflects the pleasant melodiousness of the galant, or Rococo, style. Its Italianate grace influenced composers of the Classical period. His symphonies,

contemporary with those of Haydn, were among the formative influences on the early Classical symphony; his sonatas and keyboard concerti performed a similar role. Although he never grew to be a profound composer, his music was always sensitive and imaginative.

Here  you can find a full list of Johann Christian Bach's compositions.

Leopold Kozeluch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Kozeluch

Leopold Koželuch (Czech pronunciation: [?l?opolt ?ko??lux], born Jan Antonín Koželuh, alternatively also Leopold Koželuh, Leopold Kotzeluch) (26 June 1747 – 7 May 1818) was a Czech composer and teacher of classical music. He was born in the town of Velvary, in Bohemia(present-day Czech Republic).

Contents

 [hide]

• 1 Life

• 2 Works

• 3 Sources

• 4 Further reading

• 5 External links

Life[edit]

Koželuch was the son of the shoemaker Antonín Bartholomäus Koželuh. The composer Jan Antonín Koželuh was his cousin and for a while his teacher. Later, the pianist Katharina Kozeluch was his daughter. To avoid confusion with his cousin, he changed his name in 1774. His teachers in the 1770s also included František Xaver Dušek.

In 1771 he contributed his first work, a ballet, to the National Theater in Prague, and in the coming seasons wrote 25 works for them. In 1778 he went to Vienna, and was likely for a short while a student of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger.

Already after this short while, Kozeluch had also entered the ranks of acclaimed pianists. The imperial court gave him the position that had belonged to Georg Christoph Wagenseil as teacher to the Archduchess Elisabeth, the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria. He was offered Wolfgang Mozart's position in Salzburg when Mozart left that office in 1781, but refused. He did however accept the position of court composer in Prague that Mozart's death left open in 1792.

Koželuch also joined Freemasonry around the 1790s, in a lodge in Vienna. He experienced during his lifetime acceptance of his work in all of Europe; in his last years however the criticism that he was too prolific became heard more often. Criticisms of his work by Mozart and Beethoven are still remembered. Many works of his point in the direction of musical romanticism, while there is a deliberately reactionary thread running through other works as shown by his continuing use of the term "trio sonata" to describe his piano trios.

Works[edit]

Koželuch left around 400 compositions. Among these there are about thirty symphonies, twenty-two piano concertos, including a concerto for piano four-hands, arguably one of the best examples of this rare genre, two clarinet concertos, twenty-four violin sonatas, sixty-three piano trios, six string quartets, two oratorios (one of which, Moses in Ägypten, has recently been produced and recorded), nine cantatas and various liturgical works. Among his music there are also operas and works for ballet, which—with the exception of one opera —have yet to be heard in recent years. Numerous arrangements by him of Scottish songs for the Edinburgh collector George Thomson were popular, and some of these have also been recorded.

His works are currently cataloged using Postolka numbers, after the work of the musicologist Milan Poštolka.

Symphonies & Overtures

• P I: 1 \ Symphony in D major "L'Arlechino"
• P I: 2 \ Symphony in C major
• P I: 3 \ Symphony in D major Op. 22 No. 1
• P I: 4 \ Symphony in F major Op. 22 No. 2
• P I: 5 \ Symphony in G minor Op. 22 No. 3
• P I: 6 \ Symphony in C major Op. 24 No. 1
• P I: 7 \ Symphony in A major Op. 24 No. 2
• P I: 8 \ Symphony in G major Op. 24 No. 3
• P I: 9 \ Symphony in C major
• P I:10 \ Symphony in A major "A la Française"
• P I:11 \ Symphony in B flat major "L'irresoluto"
• P I:A1 \ Symphony in A major
• P I:D1 \ Symphony in D major (lost)
• P I:D2 \ Symphony in D major
• P I:D3 \ Symphony in D major
• P I:E1 \ Symphony in E major
• P I:F1 \ Symphony in F major
• P I:G1 \ Symphony in G major
• P II:1 \ Sinfonia concertante in E flat major
• P II:2 \ Sinfonia concertante in C major
• P III:1 \ Overture in G major
• P III:1 \ Overture Op. 9 in G major
• P III:2 \ Overture in D major

Concertos

• P IV: 1 \ Keyboard Concerto Op. 12 in F major
• P IV: 2 \ Keyboard Concerto Op. 13 in B flat major
• P IV: 3 \ Keyboard Concerto Op. 11 in G major
• P IV: 4 \ Keyboard Concerto Op. 16 in A major
• P IV: 5 \ Keyboard Concerto Op. 15 in E flat major
• P IV: 6 \ Keyboard Concerto in C major
• P IV: 7 \ Keyboard Concerto Op. 25 in D major
• P IV: 8 \ Concerto for keyboard 4 hands in B flat major
• P IV: 9 \ Harpsichord Concerto in D major
• P IV:10 \ Harpsichord Concerto in D major
• P IV:11 \ Rondo Concerto for harpsichord in E flat major
• P IV:12 \ Harpsichord Concerto in E major
• P IV:13 \ Harpsichord Concerto in F major
• P IV:14 \ Keyboard Concerto in F major
• P IV:15 \ Keyboard Concerto Op. 36 in C major
• P IV:16 \ Keyboard Concerto Op. 45 in E flat major
• P IV:17 \ Piano Concerto in C major
• P IV:18 \ Piano Concerto in C major
• P IV:19 \ Fantasia for piano & orchestra in D minor
• P IV:20 \ Harpsichord Concerto in E major
• P IV:D1 \ Harpsichord Concerto in D major
• P IV:D2 \ Piano Concerto in D major
• P IV:F1 \ Harpsichord Concerto in F major
• P V: 1 \ Clarinet Concerto in E flat major
• P V: 2 \ Clarinet Concerto in E flat major
• P V: 3 \ Sonata for clarinet & orchestra in E flat major
• P V:B1 \ Bassoon Concerto in B flat major
• P V:C1 \ Bassoon Concerto in C major

Serenades & Parthias

• P VI: 1 \ Serenade Op. 11 No. 1 in D major
• P VI: 2 \ Serenade Op. 11 No. 2 in E flat major
• P VI: 3 \ Parthia in F major
• P VI: 4 \ Divertimento for wind quintet in D major
• P VI: 5 \ Divertimento for wind quintet in D major
• P VI: 6 \ Notturno in D major
• P VI: 7 \ Divertimento for wind quintet in E flat major
• P VI: 8 \ Parthia in F major
• P VI: 9 \ Divertimento for piano & winds in E flat major
• P VI:10 \ Divertimento for piano & winds in E flat major
• P VI:B1 \ Parthia a la Camera in B flat major
• P VI:B2 \ Parthia a la Camera in B flat major
• P VI:B3 \ Parthia a la Camera in B flat major
• P VI:c1 \ Parthia a la Camera in C minor
• P VI:d1 \ Parthia a la Camera in D minor
• P VI:D1 \ Wind Symphony in D major
• P VI:d2 \ Parthia a la Camera in D minor
• P VI:Es1 \ Cassation in E flat major
• P VI:Es2 \ Wind quintet in E flat major
• P VI:Es3 \ Parthia in E flat major
• P VI:F1 \ Parthia in F major (lost)

Dances & Marches

• P VII:1 \ 6 Contredanses
• P VII:2 \ 12 German Dances
• P VII:3 \ 15 German Dances
• P VII:4 \ 15 German Dances
• P VII:5 \ 12 German Dances
• P VII:6 \ March for Wiener Freykorps in C major

String Quartets

• P VIII:1 \ String Quartet Op. 32 No. 1 in B flat major
• P VIII:2 \ String Quartet Op. 32 No. 2 in G major
• P VIII:3 \ String Quartet Op. 32 No. 3 in E flat major
• P VIII:4 \ String Quartet Op. 33 No. 1 in C major
• P VIII:5 \ String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2 in A major
• P VIII:6 \ String Quartet Op. 33 No. 3 in F major

Keyboard Trios

• P IX: 1 \ Piano Trio Op. 3 No. 1 in D major
• P IX: 2 \ Piano Trio Op. 3 No. 2 in F major
• P IX: 3 \ Piano Trio Op. 3 No. 3 in E flat major
• P IX: 4 \ Piano Trio Op. 6 No. 1 in C major
• P IX: 5 \ Piano Trio Op. 6 No. 2 in G major
• P IX: 6 \ Piano Trio Op. 6 No. 3 in B flat major
• P IX: 7 \ Piano Trio Op. 21 No. 1 in C major
• P IX: 8 \ Piano Trio Op. 21 No. 2 in A major
• P IX: 9 \ Piano Trio Op. 21 No. 3 in E flat major
• P IX:10 \ Piano Trio Op. 23 No. 1 in G major
• P IX:11 \ Piano Trio Op. 23 No. 2 in C minor
• P IX:12 \ Piano Trio Op. 23 No. 3 in F major
• P IX:13 \ Piano Trio Op. 27 No. 1 in B flat major
• P IX:14 \ Piano Trio Op. 27 No. 2 in A major
• P IX:15 \ Piano Trio Op. 27 No. 3 in G minor
• P IX:16 \ Piano Trio Op. 28 No. 1 in E flat major
• P IX:17 \ Piano Trio Op. 28 No. 2 in D major
• P IX:18 \ Piano Trio Op. 28 No. 3 in E minor
• P IX:19 \ Piano Trio in G major
• P IX:20 \ Piano Trio in E flat major
• P IX:21 \ Piano Trio in C major
• P IX:22 \ Piano Trio in E flat major
• P IX:23 \ Piano Trio in F major
• P IX:24 \ Piano Trio Op. 34 No. 1 in B flat major
• P IX:25 \ Piano Trio Op. 34 No. 2 in G major
• P IX:26 \ Piano Trio Op. 34 No. 3 in C major
• P IX:27 \ Piano Trio Op. 36 in C major
• P IX:28 \ Piano Trio Op. 37 No. 1 in D major
• P IX:29 \ Piano Trio Op. 37 No. 2 in F major
• P IX:30 \ Piano Trio Op. 37 No. 3 in G major
• P IX:31 \ Piano Trio Op. 40 No. 1 in F major
• P IX:32 \ Piano Trio Op. 40 No. 2 in C major
• P IX:33 \ Piano Trio Op. 40 No. 3 in E minor
• P IX:34 \ Piano Trio Op. 41 No. 1 in B flat major
• P IX:35 \ Piano Trio Op. 41 No. 2 in D major
• P IX:36 \ Piano Trio Op. 41 No. 3 in G major
• P IX:37 \ Piano Trio Op. 44 No. 1 in F major
• P IX:38 \ Piano Trio Op. 44 No. 2 in G major
• P IX:39 \ Piano Trio Op. 44 No. 3 in D major
• P IX:40 \ Piano Trio Op. 46 No. 1 in G major
• P IX:41 \ Piano Trio Op. 46 No. 2 in B flat major
• P IX:42 \ Piano Trio Op. 46 No. 3 in F major
• P IX:43 \ Piano Trio Op. 47 No. 1 in C major
• P IX:44 \ Piano Trio Op. 47 No. 2 in A major
• P IX:45 \ Piano Trio Op. 47 No. 3 in G minor
• P IX:46 \ Piano Trio Op. 48 No. 1 in E flat major
• P IX:47 \ Piano Trio Op. 48 No. 2 in A major
• P IX:48 \ Piano Trio Op. 48 No. 3 in B flat major
• P IX:49 \ Piano Trio Op. 49 No. 1 in D major
• P IX:50 \ Piano Trio Op. 49 No. 2 in E flat major
• P IX:51 \ Piano Trio Op. 49 No. 3 in C major
• P IX:52 \ Piano Trio Op. 50 No. 1 in B flat major
• P IX:53 \ Piano Trio Op. 50 No. 2 in D major
• P IX:54 \ Piano Trio Op. 50 No. 3 in E flat major
• P IX:55 \ Piano Trio Op. 63 No. 1 in B flat major
• P IX:56 \ Piano Trio Op. 63 No. 2 in F major
• P IX:57 \ Piano Trio Op. 63 No. 3 in C major
• P IX:58 \ Piano Trio Op. 64 No. 1 in D major
• P IX:59 \ Piano Trio Op. 64 No. 2 in G major
• P IX:60 \ Piano Trio Op. 64 No. 3 in E flat major
• P IX:61 \ Piano Trio Op. 52 No. 1 in D major
• P IX:62 \ Piano Trio Op. 52 No. 2 in C major
• P IX:63 \ Piano Trio Op. 52 No. 3 in B flat major
• P IX:A1 \ Piano Trio in A major
• P IX:D1 \ Piano Trio in D major
• P IX:F1 \ Piano Trio in F major
• P IX:G1 \ Piano Trio in G major

Keyboard Sonatas

• P X: 1 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin in D major
• P X: 2 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin in F major
• P X: 3 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin in E flat major
• P X: 4 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 10 No. 1 in E flat major
• P X: 5 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 10 No. 2 in C major
• P X: 6 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 17 No. 1 in F minor
• P X: 7 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 17 No. 2 in A major
• P X: 8 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 17 No. 3 in E flat major
• P X: 9 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin in A major
• P X:10 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 20 No. 1 in D major (lost)
• P X:11 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 20 No. 2 in C major (lost)
• P X:12 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 20 No. 3 in G major (lost)
• P X:13 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 18 No. 1 in G minor
• P X:14 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 18 No. 2 in C major
• P X:15 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 18 No. 3 in A flat major
• P X:16 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 16 No. 1 in G major
• P X:17 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 16 No. 2 in C minor
• P X:18 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 16 No. 3 in F major
• P X:19 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 23 No. 1 in E major
• P X:20 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 23 No. 2 in G major
• P X:21 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 23 No. 3 in D major
• P X:22 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 23 No. 4 in B flat major
• P X:23 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 23 No. 5 in F minor
• P X:24 \ Keyboard Sonata with violin Op. 23 No. 6 in G major
• P XI:1 \ Sonata for keyboard 4 hands Op. 4 in F major
• P XI:2 \ Sonata for keyboard 4 hands Op. 8 No. 3 in B flat major
• P XI:3 \ Sonata for keyboard 4 hands Op. 19 in F major
• P XI:4 \ Sonata for keyboard 4 hands Op. 29 in B flat major
• P XI:5 \ Sonata for keyboard 4 hands Op. 12 No. 1 in C major
• P XI:6 \ Sonata for keyboard 4 hands Op. 12 No. 2 in F major
• P XI:7 \ Sonata for keyboard 4 hands Op. 12 No. 3 in D major
• P XII: 1 \ Harpsichord Sonata in F major
• P XII: 2 \ Keyboard Sonata in A major
• P XII: 3 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 13 No. 1 in E flat major
• P XII: 4 \ Keyboard Sonata in F major
• P XII: 5 \ Keyboard Sonata in C major
• P XII: 6 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 13 No. 3 in E minor
• P XII: 7 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 13 No. 2 in G major
• P XII: 8 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 1 No. 1 in F major
• P XII: 9 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 1 No. 2 in E flat major
• P XII:10 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 1 No. 3 in D major
• P XII:11 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 in B flat major
• P XII:12 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 2 No. 2 in A major
• P XII:13 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 2 No. 3 in C minor
• P XII:14 \ Keyboard Sonata in D major
• P XII:15 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 8 No. 1 in E flat major
• P XII:16 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 8 No. 2 in C major
• P XII:17 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 15 No. 1 in G minor
• P XII:18 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 15 No. 2 in C major
• P XII:19 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 15 No. 3 in A flat major
• P XII:20 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 17 No. 1 in F minor
• P XII:21 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 17 No. 2 in A major
• P XII:22 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 17 No. 3 in E flat major
• P XII:23 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 20 No. 1 in F major
• P XII:24 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 20 No. 2 in C major
• P XII:25 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 20 No. 3 in D minor
• P XII:26 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 26 No. 1 in D major
• P XII:27 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 26 No. 2 in A minor
• P XII:28 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 26 No. 3 in E flat major
• P XII:29 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 30 No. 1 in B flat major
• P XII:30 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 30 No. 2 in G major
• P XII:31 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 30 No. 3 in C minor
• P XII:32 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 35 No. 1 in F major
• P XII:33 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 35 No. 2 in A major
• P XII:34 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 35 No. 3 in G minor
• P XII:35 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 38 No. 1 in E flat major
• P XII:36 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 38 No. 2 in C major
• P XII:37 \ Keyboard Sonata Op. 38 No. 3 in F minor
• P XII:38 \ Piano Sonata Op. 51 No. 1 in E flat major
• P XII:39 \ Piano Sonata Op. 51 No. 2 in C minor
• P XII:40 \ Piano Sonata Op. 51 No. 3 in D minor
• P XII:41 \ Harpsichord Sonata in C major
• P XII:42 \ Harpsichord Sonata in E flat major
• P XII:43 \ Piano Sonata in B flat major (lost)
• P XII:44 \ Piano Sonata in A major (lost)
• P XII:45 \ Piano Sonata in E minor (lost)
• P XII:46 \ Keyboard Sonata in G major (lost)
• P XII:47 \ Keyboard Sonata in F major (lost)
• P XII:48 \ Keyboard Sonata in E flat major (lost)
• P XII:49 \ Piano Sonata in G major (lost)
• P XII:50 \ Piano Sonata in G major
• P XII:C1 \ Harpsichord Sonata in C major
• P XII:D1 \ Harpsichord Sonata in D major
• P XII:Es1 \ Harpsichord Sonata in E flat major
• P XII:Es2 \ Harpsichord Sonata in E flat major
• P XII:G1 \ Harpsichord Sonata in G major
• P XII:G2 \ Harpsichord Sonata in G major

Keyboard Pieces

• P XIII: 1 \ Andante & March for harpsichord
• P XIII: 2 \ La Chasse for keyboard Op. 5 in B flat major
• P XIII: 3 \ Caprice for piano Op. 45 No. 1 in E flat major
• P XIII: 4 \ Caprice for piano Op. 45 No. 2 in B flat major
• P XIII: 5 \ Caprice for piano Op. 45 No. 3 in C minor
• P XIII: 6 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 1 in A minor
• P XIII: 7 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 2 in C major
• P XIII: 8 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 3 in C major
• P XIII: 9 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 4 in C major
• P XIII:10 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 5 in F major
• P XIII:11 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 6 in G major
• P XIII:12 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 7 in G major
• P XIII:13 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 8 in C major
• P XIII:14 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 9 in A minor
• P XIII:15 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 10 in B minor
• P XIII:16 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 11 in D minor
• P XIII:17 \ Piece for piano Op. 43 No. 12 in E flat major
• P XIII:a1 \ Sicilienne for keyboard in A minor
• P XIII:C1 \ Bernoise for keyboard in C major
• P XIII:F1 \ La chasse au sanglier for keyboard in F major
• P XIII:g1 \ Pastorale for keyboard in G minor
• P XIII:G1 \ Romance for keyboard in G major
• P XIII:G2 \ Air cosaque for keyboard in G major
• P XIV: 1 \ 13 Menuets for harpsichord
• P XIV: 2 \ Menuetto angloise for harpsichord in F major
• P XIV: 3 \ Polonese for harpsichord in C major
• P XIV: 4 \ 9 Menuets for harpsichord
• P XIV: 5 \ 6 Contredanses for keyboard
• P XIV: 6 \ Wachtel Menuett for keyboard in F sharp minor
• P XIV: 7 \ 12 Menuets for keyboard
• P XIV: 8 \ 15 German Dances for keyboard
• P XIV: 9 \ 15 German Dances & 6 Ecossaises for piano
• P XIV:10 \ Marsch für das Corps der Freywilligen des Handelstandes von Wien in C major
• P XIV:11 \ 12 German Dances for piano
• P XIV:C1 \ 12 Ländler for keyboard in C major
• P XIV:D1 \ 10 German Dances & 12 Ländler for piano
• P XIV:Es1 \ 10 Ländler & Coda for piano in E flat major
• P XIV:F1 \ 7 Polonaises for piano

Other Chamber Music

• P XV:1 \ Violin Duet in D major
• P XV:2 \ Violin Duet in B flat major
• P XV:3 \ Violin Duet in G major
• P XV:4 \ Trio for flute, violin & cello in G major
• P XV:5 \ Hunting Fanfare for 3 horns in C major
• P XV:6 \ Duet for violin & viola in D major
• P XV:7 \ Duet for flute & cello in E minor
• P XV:8 \ Duet for flute & cello in C major
• P XV:9 \ Duet for flute & cello in D major

Oratorios

• P XVI:1 \ Moisè in Egitto
• P XVI:2 \ La Giuditta (lost)

Choral Pieces & Part-songs

• P XVII:1 \ Chorus for La Galatea P XIX:7 in C major
• P XVIII:1 \ Notturno Op. 42 No. 1 in C minor
• P XVIII:2 \ Notturno Op. 42 No. 2 in G minor
• P XVIII:3 \ Notturno Op. 42 No. 3 in B flat major
• P XVIII:4 \ Notturno Op. 42 No. 4 in D minor
• P XVIII:5 \ Notturno Op. 42 No. 5 in E flat major
• P XVIII:6 \ Notturno Op. 42 No. 6 in C major
• P XVIII:B1 \ Quartet: Dum ti dum in B flat major

Secular Cantatas & Arias

• P XIX:1 \ Denis Klage auf den Todt Marien Theresien
• P XIX:2 \ Cantata Op. 7: Quanto è mai tormentosa
• P XIX:3 \ Cantata Op. 11: Joseph, der Menschheit Segen
• P XIX:4 \ Cantata to Maria Theresia Paradis
• P XIX:5 \ Cantata Op. 8: Chloe, siehst du nicht voll grausen
• P XIX:6 \ Cantata for the Coronation of Leopold II
• P XIX:7 \ La Galatea (lost)
• P XIX:8 \ In un fiero contrasto
• P XIX:9 \ Cantata pastorale per la Natività di Nostro Signor Gesù Christo (lost)
• P XX:1 \ Caro bene in E flat major
• P XX:2 \ Misero me! che veggo in E flat major
• P XX:3 \ Se mai senti in G major

Songs

• P XXI: 1 \ 15 Lieder
• P XXI: 2 \ 12 Lieder
• P XXI: 3 \ The happy Pair in A flat major
• P XXI: 4 \ 12 Ariette Op. 31
• P XXI: 5 \ De l'arbre ces fruits in G major
• P XXI: 6 \ Marschlied für das Wiener Freycorps in C major
• P XXI: 7 \ Marschlied für das akademische Bürgercorps in B flat major
• P XXI: 8 \ 3 Airs François
• P XXI: 9 \ Hört! Maurer, auf der Weisheit lehren in A major
• P XXI:10 \ In questa tomba oscura in C minor
• P XXI:11 \ 12 Canzonette
• P XXI:12 \ Mein Mädchen in D major
• P XXI:13 \ Des Kriegers Abschied in C major
• P XXI:14 \ Leiser nannt' ich deinen Namen in C minor
• P XXI:15 \ Let the declining damask rose in G major
• P XXI:C1 \ Aufruf an die Böhmen in C major
• P XXI:C2 \ 27 Solfeggi
• P XXII:1 \ Scottish, Irish & Welsh Songs
• P XXII:2 \ Welsh Songs
• P XXII:A1 \ Scottish Melodies arranged for keyboard

Operas

• P XXIII:1 \ Le Muzet (lost)
• P XXIII:2 \ Debora e Sisara (lost)
• P XXIII:3 \ Didone abbandonata (lost)
• P XXIII:4 \ Télémaque dans l'île de Calypso (opera) (lost)
• P XXIII:5 \ Judith und Holofernes (lost)
• P XXIII:6 \ Gustav Vasa (lost)

Ballets

• P XXIV:1 \ Ballet Op. 39: La ritrovata figlia di Ottone II
• P XXIV:2 \ Arlechino (lost)
• P XXIV:3 \ Ballet in C major
• P XXIV:4 \ Ballet in F major
• P XXIV:5 \ Pantomime in A minor
• P XXIV:6 \ Télémaque dans l'île de Calypso (ballet) (lost)

Sacred Music

• P XXV: 1 \ Mass in C major
• P XXV: 2 \ Tantum ergo in F major
• P XXV: 3 \ Mandavit Deus in E flat major
• P XXV: 4 \ Quaeso ad me veni in E flat major
• P XXV: 5 \ Umbra noctis orbem tangit in B flat major
• P XXV: 6 \ Domine non sul dignus in E flat major
• P XXV: 7 \ Gottes Liebe in C sharp minor
• P XXV:A1 \ Mass in A major
• P XXV:A2 \ Offertory in A major
• P XXV:A3 \ Aeh quanta vis amoris in A major
• P XXV:A4 \ Mater dolorosa in A major
• P XXV:B1 \ Ad hoc festum chori in B flat major
• P XXV:B2 \ Omni die Mariae in B flat major
• P XXV:B3 \ Magne Deus audi in B flat major
• P XXV:C1 \ Missa brevis in C major
• P XXV:D1 \ Missa brevis in D major
• P XXV:D2 \ Amati quaeso montes in D major
• P XXV:Es1 \ Cernis o anima in E flat major
• P XXV:g1 \ Mass in G minor

Sources[edit]

• Flamm-Harten, C.: Leopold Kozeluch (1968)
• Kennedy, Michael and Bourne, Joyce, eds. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Fourth edition, 1996 (2004 reprint). Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860884-5.
• Sondheimer, Robert: Die Theorie der Sinfonie und die Beurteilung einzelner Sinfoniekomponisten bei den Musikschriftstellern des 18. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1925.

Further reading[edit]

• Deutsch, Otto Erich. Kozeluch Ritrovato. Music and letters. London. v. 26 no. 1, Jan. 1945, p. 47-50.
• Poštolka, Milan. Leopold Koželuh : život a dílo. Praha : Státní hudební vydavatelství, 1964. 387 p. with bibliography pp. 379–87 and 10 pp. illustrations.

External links[edit]

• Operone list of works
• Classical-composers.org page on Kozeluch
• Michael Haydn and His Contemporaries page on Kozeluch
• Kozeluch page in "Contemporaries of Mozart" section of mozartforum.com
• Free scores by Leopold Koželuch at the International Music Score Library Project

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Kozeluch,_Leopold

http://www.naxos.com/person/Leopold_Kozeluch/28061.htm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/323045/Leopold-Kozeluch

Leopold Koželuch, in full Leopold Anton Koželuch, Koželuch also spelled Kotzeluch    (born Dec. 9, 1752, Velvary, Bohemia [now in Czech Republic]—died May 7, 1818, Vienna, Austria), Czech composer of ballets, operas, and symphonies.

Koželuch studied composition in Prague with his uncle Jan Koželuch and pianowith F. Dussek and became known as a composer of ballets in the 1770s. In 1778 he went to Vienna, where he became a fashionable piano teacher. Koželuch refused the post of court organist at Salzburg vacated by Mozart in 1781 (it went to Michael Haydn instead), but he succeeded Mozart as court composer in Vienna in 1792. His compositions also include approximately 50 piano concerti, sonatas, and arrangements of Scottish songs for the Edinburgh collector George Thomson. His success as a pianist and teacher contributed substantially to the rapid displacement of the harpsichord by the piano in Vienna, even before Mozart settled there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMIlppMFmfI

Leopold Koželuch - Piano Sonata Op. 20, No. 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B94WEmp0c5A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yfWGcI9pPE

Kozeluch - Sonata op.38 No.3, I. Allegro agitato - Anna Petrova-Forster, piano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbBNJYgaBn0

Leopold kozeluch concierto para piano

Leopold Antonín Koželuch - Piano Concerto No. 1 in F major, Op. 12 (P IV : 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yfWGcI9pPE

 Muzio Clementi

(24 January 1752, Rome - 10 March 1832, Evesham)

Muzio Clementi was an Italian-born English composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer that lived in the Classical era. His piano etudes and sonatas developed the techniques of the early piano to such an extent that he was called ”the father of the piano”. Although he was born in Rome, he spent most of his life in England. Muzio wasn't born in a family of musicians, but his father, a noted silversmith, soon recognized his son's talents and arranged for private musical instruction with a relative, Antonio Baroni, the maestro din cappella at Saint Peter's Basilica.

When he was just 7 years old, Clementi began studies in figured bass with the organist Cordicelli, followed by voice lessons from Giuseppe Santarelli. At the age of 9 he was appointed as organist and by the age of 13 he had composed an oratorio, Martirio de' gloriosi santi Giuliano e Celso. He also received counterpoint lessons by Gaetano Carpani probably when he was 11 or 12 years old.

In 1766 Peter Beckford, a cousin of William Beckford, prevailed upon Clementi's father to allow him to take the boy to England, where he pursued a rigorous course of studies. In the same year, Muzio became organist of the parish San Lorenzo in Dámaso. For the next seven years Clementi lived, performed, and studied at the estate in Dorset. During this period, it appears, Clementi spent eight hours a day at the harpsichord, practicing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, George Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti and Bernardo Pasquini. His only compositions dated to this period are the Sonatas WO 13 and 14 and the Sei Sonate per clavicembalo o pianoforte, Op. 1.

His first public performance was in 1770 as an organist, the audience was pretty impressed with his playing, thus beginning one of the outstandingly successful concert pianist careers of the period. His success grew even bigger as he managed to establish himself as a composer and pianist following his spectacular debut in London (1773). Had Clementi matured anywhere else in Europe, he might have limited himself to the organ and harpsichord; but the piano was enormously popular in England, and Clementi furthered his career by capitalizing on the instrument's expanded capabilities.

In 1774, Clementi was freed from his obligations to Peter Beckford. During the winter of 1774–1775 he moved to London, making his first appearance as a harpsichordist in a benefit concert on April 3, 1775. He made several public appearances in London as a solo harpsichordist at benefit concerts for two local musicians, a singer and a harpist, and served as conductor (from the keyboard) at the King's Theater (Her Majesty's Theater), Haymarket, for at least part of this time. In 1780, he went on tour to the Continental capitals; in Vienna, Emperor Joseph II instigated a friendly musical duel between Clementi and Mozart. The composers were called upon to improvise and to perform selections from their own compositions. The Emperor diplomatically declared a tie.

In 1782 Clementi settled down in London where he divided his time between playing the piano, teaching and conducting. Among his students were: Johann Baptist Cramer, Ignaz Moscheles, Therese Jansen Bartolozzi, Ludwig Berger (who went on to teach Felix Mendelssohn), and John Field (who, in his turn, would become a major influence on Frédéric Chopin).

Toward the end of his life he traveled through Europe again and spent more and more time composing; during this time, he wrote several symphonies, but most have been lost. He is mainly remembered for his dozens of piano sonatas, and for his collection of studies, Gradus ad Parnassum (Steps Toward Parnassus), which has been the bane of piano students for two centuries and was parodied by Debussy in the opening movement of his Children's Corner. Clementi was the complete piano man, popularizing the instrument through his own performances, writing exercises to develop young pianists, writing sonatas for mature pianists to play, and manufacturing instruments for their use.

Here  you can find a list of Muzio Clementi's compositions.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(27 January 1756, Salzburg - 5 December 1791, Vienna)

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck

(2 July 1714, Erasbach - 15 November 1787, Viena)

Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini

(19 February 1743, Lucca - 28 May 1805, Madrid)

Luigi Bocherini was an Italian composer and cellist who lived in the Classical era. He retained a courtly and gallant style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Born in a family with musical background, he received his first cello lessons from his father when he was only 5 years old. Luigi continued his studies from the age of nine with Abbé Vanucci, music director of the cathedral at San Martino.

At the time he gave his first public performance, he was considered to have already surpassed his teacher's skills. Shortly after, he was sent to Rome by his father to continue his musical studies under G.B. Costanzi, music director of Saint Peter's Basilica. After one year in Rome, Luigi and his father were both summoned to Vienna, where they were hired by the Imperial Theater Orchestra.

Much of his chamber music follows models established by Joseph Haydn; however, Boccherini is often credited with improving Haydn's model of the string quartet by bringing the cello to prominence, whereas Haydn had frequently relegated it to an accompaniment role. Rather, some sources for Boccherini's style are in the works of a famous Italian cellist, Giovanni Battista Cirri, who was born before Boccherini and before Haydn, and in the Spanish popular music.

Luigi Boccherini's legacy consists of a large amount of chamber music, including over one hundred string quintets for two violins, viola and two cellos (a type which he pioneered), a dozen guitar quintets, nearly a hundred string quartets, and a number string trios and sonatas. Boccherini's style is characterized by the typical Rococo charm, lightness, and optimism, and exhibits much melodic and rhythmic invention, coupled with frequent influences from the guitar tradition of his adopted country, Spain.

Here  you can find a list of Luigi Boccherini's compositions.

Ludwig van Beethoven

(baptized 16 December 1770, Bonn - 26 March 1827, Vienna)

German composer and pianist, Beethoven was a crucial figure in the transition between Classical and Romantic eras in Western music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. Widely regarded as the greatest composer who ever lived, Ludwig van Beethoven dominates a period of musical history as no one else before or since.

Born in a family with musical background, Beethoven's talents emerged from an early age. He first studied music under his father who's didactic methods were harsh for a young boy. Beethoven's other teachers included the court organist Gilles van den Eeden, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer (a family friend who taught Beethoven the piano), and Franz Rovantini (a relative, who taught him how to play the violin and viola).

On March 26th 1778, at the age of 7 years, Ludwig van Beethoven gave his first public performance at Cologne. Some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was appointed the Court's Organist that year. Neefe taught Beethoven composition, and by March 1783 had helped him write his first published composition: a set of keyboard variations (WoO 63). Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid (1781), and then as a paid employee (1784) of the court chapel conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi. His first three piano sonatas, named "Kurfürst" ("Elector") for their dedication to the Elector Maximilian Friedrich (1708–1784), were published in 1783. Maximilian Frederick noticed Beethoven's talent early, and subsidised and encouraged the young man's musical studies.

Hoping of studying with Mozart, in March 1787 Beethoven traveled to Vienna for the first time. The details of their relationship are unclear, including whether or not they actually met. After two months Beethoven was forced to return to Bonn as he learned that his mother was severely ill. His mother died shortly thereafter which caused his father to lapse deeper into alcoholism. As of now, Beethoven was responsible for the care of his two younger brothers, he spent the next five years in Bonn working as a violist and organist at the theater orchestra. Following his encounter with Joseph Haydn in 1790 after which Haydn offered to take Beethoven as his pupil, in September 1792 the young composer moved to Vienna to study under the great Joseph Haydn. Beethoven did not immediately set out to establish himself as a composer, but rather devoted himself to study and performance. Working under Haydn's direction, he mastered his counterpoint skills under the erudite theorist and teacher Johann Georg Albrechsberger. He also studied violin under Ignaz Schuppanzigh and received occasional instruction from Antonio Salieri, primarily on Italian vocal composition style.

By 1793, Beethoven entered the Viennese musical life and had established himself as a piano virtuoso and also as a great improviser. His first public performance in Vienna was in March 1795, a concert in which he first performed one of his piano concertos. In 1800 his string and wind septet was played along with his first symphony, after which he played his first piano concert in C major and after the customs of that time, improvises on the piano.

At the peak of his creation, as his success increased continuously, the first signs of deafness appear. But that didn't stop Beethoven, between 1798 and 1800 he composed his first six string quartets (Op. 18) and in 1804 the no. 3 symphony  in E flat major (also named ”Eroica”) and his no. 23 piano sonata (also named ”Appassionata”) defining his own style. Meanwhile, Beethoven had finally finished his opera, Leonore, the only opera he ever wrote. He wrote and re-wrote four different overtures. The name of the opera therefore, changed to Fidelio, against the wishes of the composer. In the years that followed, the creative activity of the composer became intense. He composed many symphonies, amongst which were the Pastoral, the Coriolan Overture, and the famous Letter for Elise.

In the year of 1812, following Napoleon's first defeat in Russia, Beethoven composes his 7th and 8th symphonies. In his last years (1815-1827) following the progressive degrading of his hearing, his deepest works were composed. The downside of this was that he stopped performing (as a pianist) in public, being deaf he could no longer control the sound (he stroke the keys too hard in forte and too soft in piano).

Beethoven began a renewed study of older music, including works by J. S. Bach and Handel, that were then being published in the first attempts at complete editions. He composed the overture The Consecration of the House, which was the first work to attempt to incorporate these influences. A new style emerged, now called his "late period". He returned to the keyboard to compose his first piano sonatas in almost a decade: the works of the late period are commonly held to include the last five piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations, the last two sonatas for cello and piano, the late string quartets (see below), and two works for very large forces: the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony.

The last public performance (in Beethoven's lifetime) of his works was in 1824, when his 9th symphony was played along with some fragments of his Missa Solemnis, having a tremendous success. The whole performance of his Missa Solemnis took place in 1824 in Petersburg, along with 3 more string quartets (op. 127, op. 130, op. 132) commissioned by Prince Nikolas Golitsin.

His last year of creation, 1826, is marked only by two quartets and one Andante, extracted from his sketch for a quintet. His last piece of music, entirely composed, is the string quartet op. 135. Ludwig van Beethoven's musical life can be fairly divided into 3 periods. The first period (1790-1802) containing his youthful compositions from while he lived in Bonn and his first years in Vienna, embraces the style of Haydn and Mozart. A iconic example of this period is represented by his string quartet in A major, op. 18.

The second period (1807-1812), the so called ”heroic cycle”, encompasses compositions like the 3rd symphony (Eroica), piano concerts number 4 an 5 (the ”Emperor”), the Appassionata piano sonata. All these works reflect the depth of the musical themes, the unprecedented dramatic contrasts and their harmonic novelty. The third period spans from 1813 to 1827. His compositions from this period are each presented with its own and strong personality, freed from the traditional conventions. Beethoven incorporates recitatives and arias in his instrumental music; in fugues, variations and lyric elements, always in search of new ways of expression.

His legacy is also significant as he played an important part in the transformation of the composer's role in society. The medieval composer, who was in service of the aristocracy or church, with the presence of Beethoven, the composer became an artist which created as an inner necessity and not because he was ordered so. His influence on the next generations of composers was enormous. Admired and regarded by composers such as Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner and Arnold Schoenberg, as the founder of a new musical era and a revolutionary figure in the history of music.

Here  you can find a complete list of Ludwig van Beethoven's works.

Adolf von Henselt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portrait of Adolf von Henselt, with scrap of music

Adolf von Henselt (12 May 1814 – 10 October 1889) was a German composer and pianist.

Contents

 [hide]

• 1 Life

• 2 Works

• 2.1 Piano Solo
• 2.2 Orchestral
• 2.3 Chamber

• 3 Notes

• 4 References

• 5 External links

Life[edit]

Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Josepha von Fladt. On obtaining financial help from King Ludwig I of Bavaria he went to study under Johann Nepomuk Hummel in Weimar for some months, and thence in 1832 to Vienna, where, besides studying composition under Simon Sechter (the later teacher of Anton Bruckner), he made a great success as a concert pianist.

In order to improve his health he made a prolonged tour in 1836 through the chief German towns. In 1837 he settled at Breslau, where he had married Rosalie Vogel, but in the following year he migrated to Saint Petersburg, where previous visits had made him persona grata at Court. He then became court pianist and inspector of musical studies in theImperial Institute of Female Education, and was ennobled in 1876. He usually spent his summer holidays in his former homeland Germany. In 1852 and again in 1867 he visited England, though in the latter year he made no public appearance.

Statue of von Henselt in his hometown of Schwabach

Saint Petersburg was his home practically until his death, which occurred during a stay at Warmbrunn, Germany (now in Poland), due to cardiac disease. The characteristic of Henselt's playing was a combination of Franz Liszt's sonority with Hummel's smoothness. It was full of poetry, remarkable for the great use he made of extended chords, and for his perfect technique. Indeed, his cantabile playing was unequalled: Liszt once commented on the lengths to which Henselt had gone to achieve his famous legato, saying, "I could have had velvet paws like that if I had wanted to." Henselt's influence on the next generation of Russian pianists is immense. It is in Henselt's playing and teaching that the entire Russian school of music had its genesis, developing from the seeds planted by John Field. Sergei Rachmaninoff held him in very great esteem, and considered him one of his most important influences.

He excelled in his own works and in those of Carl Maria von Weber and Frédéric Chopin. His Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 16[1] was once frequently played in Europe; and of his many valuable studies, Si oiseau j'étais was very familiar. At one time Henselt was second to Anton Rubinstein in the direction of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

However, despite his relatively long life, Henselt ceased nearly all composition by the age of thirty. The reasons are unclear. Chronic stage fright, bordering on paranoia, caused him to withdraw from concert appearances by age thirty-three.

Works[edit]

Piano Solo[edit]

(selective list)

• Variations on ‘Io son' ricco’ from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Op. 1
• Rondo Serioso in D minor, Op. 1b
• Douze études caractéristiques, Op. 2 (No. 1 in D minor, "Orage, tu ne saurais abbattre"; No.2 in D-flat major, "Pensez un peu à moi"; No. 3 in B minor, "Exauce mes voeux"; No. 4 in B-flat major, "Repos d'amour"; No 5 in C-sharp minor, "Vie orageuse"; No. 6 in F-sharp major, "Si oiseau j'etais"; No. 7 in D Major, "C'est la jeunesse..."; No. 8 in E minor, "Tu m'attires, m'entraines"; No. 9 in F Major, "Jeunesse d'amour, plaisir céleste"; No. 10 in E minor, "Comme le ruisseau dans la mer repand"; No. 11 in E-flat major, "Dors tu ma vie"; No. 12 in B-flat minor, "Plein de soupirs, de souvenirs")
• Poème d'amour, Op. 3
• Rhapsodie in F minor, Op. 4
• Douze études de salon, Op. 5 (No. 1 in E-flat major, "Eroica"; No. 2 in G major; No. 3 in A minor, "Hexentanz"; No. 4 in E major, "Ave Maria"; No. 5 in F-sharp minor, "Verlorene Heimath"; No. 6 in A-flat major, "Danklied nach Sturm"; No. 7 in C major, "Elfenreigen"; No. 8 in G minor, "Romanze mit Chor-Refrain"; No. 9 in A major; No. 10 in F minor, "Entschwundenes Glück"; No. 11 in B major, "Liebeslied"; No. 12 in G-sharp minor, "Nächtlicher Geisterzug")
• Deux Nocturnes, Op. 6 (No. 1 in G-flat major, "Schmerz im Glück"; No. 2 in F major, "La Fontaine")
• Impromptu in C minor, Op. 7
• Pensée fugitive in F minor, Op. 8
• Scherzo in B minor, Op. 9
• Romance in B-flat minor, Op. 10
• Variations on a Theme by Meyerbeer, Op. 11 (Introduction, 5 variations, Finale)
• Concert Etudes, Op. 13 (No. 1, "Air russe"; No. 2 in G-flat major, "La Gondola"; No. 3, "Cavatine de Glinka"; No. 4, "Barcarolle de Glinka"; No. 5 in D-flat major, "Air de Balfe"; No. 6, "Mazurka et polka"; No. 7, "Rakoczy-Marche"; No. 8, "Marche, dédiée à S.M. l'Empereur Nicholas I"; No. 9, "Polka"; No. 10, "Romance russe de Tanéef")
• Frühlingslied, Op. 15
• Fantaisie sur un air bohemien-russe, Op. 16
• Impromptu No. 1, WoO
• Impromptu No. 2, Op. 17
• Vier Romanzen, Op. 18 (No. 1 in A-flat major; No. 2 in B-flat minor; No. 3 in B major; No. 4 in C-sharp minor)
• Arrangements of 12 numbers from Weber's operas Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon, Op. 19
• Deux romances russes de Soumarokoff, Op. 22 (No. 1 in D minor; No. 2 in A major)
• Marche funèbre in G minor, Op. 23 (dedicated to the memory of Grand Duke Mikhail, 1798-1849)
• Toccatina in E-flat major, Op. 25
• Transcription of Romance de R. Thal, Op. 27 (in A-flat major)
• Deux petites valses, Op. 28 (No. 1 in F major; No. 2 in C major)
• Sophie-polka, Op. 29
• Cadenza for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor (Op. 37), Op. 29b
• Grande valse – L'aurore boréale, Op. 30
• Ballade in B-flat major, Op. 31
• Nocturne in A-flat major, Op. 32
• Chant sans paroles in B minor, Op. 33
• Romance russe, Op. 33b (sometimes referred to as Romance No. 6)
• Impromptu No. 3 in B-flat minor, Op. 34
• Marche du couronnement d'Alexandre II, Op. 35 (in G major)
• Valse mélancolique in D minor, Op. 36
• Impromptu No. 4 in B minor, Op. 37
• Morgenständchen in D-flat major, Op. 39
• Wiegenlied in G-flat major, WoO, sometimes noted as Op. 45
• Etude in A minor, WoO
• Mon Chant du cynge, WoO
• Morgenlied von Uhland, WoO
• Petite Romance in B-flat minor, WoO
• Petite Valse in F major, WoO
• Poème d'amour - Andante et Allegro concertante, WoO, in B major
• Polka brilliante in D minor, WoO
• Preambules in all the keys, WoO
• Preparatory exercises, WoO
• Romance in D-flat major, WoO
• Souvenir de Varsovie, A-flat major, WoO

Orchestral[edit]

• Variations on Quand je quittai la Normandie from Meyerbeer's Robert le diable, Op. 11
• Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 16

Chamber[edit]

• Duo, Op. 14, for cello and piano
• Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 24

Notes[edit]

• Jump up^ Referred to as "Henselt's F-minor exercise in narcissism" by Glenn Gould in: Tim Page (ed.), The Glenn Gould Reader (Knopf, New York 1984), 74.

References[edit]

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Henselt, Adolf von". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• List of works taken from the article on Henselt by Richard Beattie Davis on Grove Music Online.
• `Edition I.M.E.` Bonn, Germany 2002. ISBN 3-89564-106-5http://www.studiopunktverlag.de
• Natalia Keil-Zenzerova "Adolph von Henselt. Ein Leben für die Klavierpädagogik in Rußland." (Frankfurt 2007) ISBN 3-631-53925-8http://www.peterlang.de In German & Russian
• Hyperion records CDA67495 “Etudes” op.2 & op.5; Piers Lane, pianist. Liner notes by Richard Beattie Davis.

External links[edit]

• Henselt Museum (German)
• Downloadable recordings of Henselt's works in MP3 format
• Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 24 Sound-bites and short bio sketch
• Free scores by Adolf von Henselt at the International Music Score Library Project
• International Henselt Society – http://www.henseltsociety.org
• Richard Beattie Davis "Henselt, Adolph von" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, 27 volumes. London: MacMillan 2000. ISBN 978-0-19-517067-2.

Adolfo Fumagalli

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adolfo Fumagalli smoking a cigar while playing. Judging by the devils around his hand, he is probably playing his Robert le Diable Fantasy.

Adolfo Fumagalli (October 19, 1828 – May 3, 1856) was a 19th-century Italian virtuoso pianist and composer, known today primarily for his virtuosic compositions for the left hand alone.

Born in Inzago, Italy, he grew up in a very musically-oriented environment. He had three brothers who also became musicians and composers, these being Luca (1837 - 1908), Disma (1826 - 1893) and Polibio (1830 - 1901). Fumagalli studied music with Angeloni at theMilan Conservatory and, in 1848, at the age of 20, made his Milan debut with some success. He then travelled to Turin, Paris, Belgium and Denmark, playing his own operatic fantasies and other salon works to great acclaim.

In 1856 he returned to Italy and, when he arrived, was soon thereafter given an Erard grand piano from the firm as an advertising promotion. On May 1 of that year he gave a concert but, shortly after, fell ill and died days later in Florence.

He created his greatest sensation when he began performing his works for left hand. Although he looked rather frail, as is evident from paintings of him, he had a phenomenal technique and strong fingers that astonished everyone.

Fumagalli's output is quite extensive, though almost all of it is extremely difficult to obtain today. His works consist primarily of operatic fantasies and character pieces. One of his most difficult and virtuosic works is his Grande Fantasie sur Robert le Diable de Meyerbeer, op.106 (dedicated to Liszt) for the left hand. He also composed an arrangement of Vincenzo Bellini's "Casta Diva" from Norma for the left hand. Almost his entire output is for solo piano and the works which employ other instruments all seem to include the piano in some way, a feature that is similar to Chopin's output. Although he was perhaps not a very inspired or ingenious composer, his works for left hand alone stand nonetheless as an important testament of the progress in technique and virtuosity of the period, especially of single-handed works.

Musical Works[edit]

List of works:[1]

• Op. 1 Fantaisie on motives from Verdi's opera Nabuccodonosor for piano
• Op. 2 Notturno-Studio for left hand
• Op. 3 The Devil's Galop for piano
• Op. 4a Reminiscences of Meyerbeer's opera Robert le Diable for piano
• Op. 6 Tarantelle for piano
• Op. 8 La fucina di Vulcano/ Il Canto dei Ciclopi : scherzo fantastique for piano
• Op. 11 Caprice romantique for piano
• Op. 12 Nocturne sentimentale in Ab Major for piano
• Op. 13 Il genio della danza : scherzo brillant for piano
• Op. 14 Grande fantaisie on motives from Bellini's La Sonnambula for piano
• Op. 16 Pensée pathétique for piano
• Op. 17 Nocturnino for piano
• Op. 18
• No.1 Studio da Concerto based on Fra poco a me ricovero from Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor for left hand
• No.2 Studio da Concerto based on Coro O Signore del tetto natio from Verdi's opera I Lombardi for left hand
• Op. 20 Les trois soeurs : petites fantaisies for piano
• No.1 Based on Verdi's opera Attila
• No.2 Based on Verdi's opera Foscari
• No.3 Based on Verdi's opera Ernani
• Op. 21 Les clochettes : grande concerto fantastique pour piano avec l'accompagnement d'un grand orchestra et une campanella
• Op. 23 Quatres airs de ballet variés from Verdi's opera Jérusalem for piano
• No.1 Pas de Quatre
• No.2 Pas de Deux
• No.3 Pas Seul
• No.4 Pas d'Ensemble
• Op. 26 Grande Fantaisie Drammatique on motives from Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor for piano
• Op. 27 Grande Caprice de Concert for piano
• Op. 28 Grande Fantasie on Bellini's opera I Puritani (Dedicated to his brother Polibio for piano
• Op. 29 Nenna : Tarantella Giocosa for piano
• Op. 30 Grande Fantaisie on Bellini's opera Norma for piano
• Op. 31 Petit morceau de salon on Verdi's opera Macbeth for piano
• Op. 32 Petit morceau de salon on Verdi's opera La Battaglia di Legnano for piano
• Op. 33 La pendule : caprice fantastique contenant un galop-carillon et un polka-mazurka for piano
• Op. 34 Petite Fantaisie on Verdi's opera Lucrezia Borgia for piano
• Op. 35 Petite Fantaisie on Donizetti's opera Elisir d'amore for piano
• Op. 36 Beatrice di tenda : petit morceau de salon for piano
• Op. 37 Souvenir de Nice : polka-caprice for piano
• Op. 38 Nocturne: Une Nuit d'Été, passetemps sentimental for piano
• Op. 39 Amorosa : mazurka sentimentale for piano
• Op. 40 La capricciosa : Tyrolienne for piano
• Op. 41 Morceau de salon : chanson espagnole from Rossi's opera Il domino nero for piano
• Op. 42 Morceau de salon on Rossi's opera Il domino nero for piano
• Op. 43 Le prophete : grande fantaisie de bravoure for piano
• Op. 44 La serenade espagnole : morceau elegant for piano
• Op. 45 Fantaisie on Bonoldi's opera Nera Orientale for piano
• Op. 47 Le Postillon : galop de concert for piano
• Op. 48 Le Ruisseau : etude impromptu for piano
• Op. 49 Grande Marche cosaque on a national air for piano
• Op. 50 Serenade napolitaine for piano
• Op. 51 Le Streghe : pièce fantastique for piano
• Op. 52 Musical Recreations: two divertimenti for piano on motives from Verdi's opera Luisa Miller
• No.1 Premier Divertimento
• No.2 Deuxième Divertimento'
• Op. 53 Esprits Folles : saltarelle for piano
• Op. 54 Fantaisie on Donizetti's opera Linda de Chamounix for piano
• Op. 55 Stabat Mater by Rossini for piano
• Op. 56 Fantaisie on Bellini's opera La Straniera for piano
• Op. 57 Si loin! : Mélodie de Paul Henrion variée for piano
• Op. 58 Luisa : polka de concert for piano
• Op. 59 Fantaisie on a melody from Verdi's opera Stiffelio
• Op. 60 Grande Fantaisie Militaire for piano
• No.1 Ronda Notturna for piano
• No.2 Una notte al campo for piano
• No.3 Signal d'alarme et conflit de guerre from Bellini's opera Norma for piano
• No.4 Marcia funèbre for piano
• No.5 Inno trionfale from Rossini's opera Le Siège de Corinthe for piano
• No.6 Orgia for piano
• Op. 60 Grande Fantaisie Militaire transcribed for four hands by the author
• Op. 61 Casta diva from Bellini's opera Norma for left hand
• Op. 62 La sacrilega parola : Variations on the Grande Adagio Finale from the 2nd act of Donizetti's opera Poliuto for piano
• Op. 63 Souvenir de Chopin : mazurka for piano
• Op. 64 La Derelitta : pensée romantique for piano
• Op. 65 La festa dell'innocenza : cinque morceaux brillants for piano
• Op. 66 Fantasie brillante on motives from Donizetti's opera Poliuto for piano
• Op. 68 Introduction et Grande Nocturne on Sanelli's opera Il Fornaretto for piano
• Op. 69 La Baccante : caprice burlesque for piano
• Op. 70 Sogno d'amore : pensée fugitive for piano
• Op. 71 Morceau de Salon : caprice on Chiaromonte's opera Il Gondoliero for piano
• Op. 72 Fantaisie Brillante on Verdi's opera I Due Foscari for piano
• Op. 73 Nocturne variée on the romanza Fior di bonta bell'angelo from Villanis's opera La Regina di Leone for piano
• Op. 74 Fantaisie Brillante on Verdi's opera Ernani for piano
• Op. 75 I Lombardi alla prima Crociata : introduction et grande adagio variées sur la terzette "Qual volutta trascorrere" for piano
• Op. 76 Laura : polonaise de concert for piano
• Op. 77 Saluto al Tamigi : deuxième polka de concert, capriccio-impromptu for piano
• Op. 78 Un lamento : deuxième mazurka sentimentale for piano
• Op. 79 L' Absence : romance variée for piano
• Op. 80 La Chasse : morceau brillant for piano
• Op. 81 Grande Ouverture de Benvenuto Cellini par Hector Berlioz : transcrite pour piano
• Op. 82 Nocturne elegant for piano
• Op. 83 La danse des sylphes, de Felix Godefroid : rondo brillant for piano
• Op. 84 Grande Fantaisie on Bellini's opera I Puritani for two pianos
• Op. 85 Preghiera alla Madonna "O Santissima Vergine" : Popular Tuscan song by L. Gordigiani transcribed for piano
• Op. 86 L' Étincelle : reverie de F. Bonoldi variée pour piano
• Op. 87 La buena ventura : chanson andalouse de Yradier variée for piano
• Op. 88 La cloche : mélodie de F. Bonoldi variée pour piano
• Op. 89 Introduction et adagio varié on the romanza "Sempre all'alba ed alla sera" from the opera Giovanna d'Arco for piano
• Op. 90 Le Palmier : polka des magots for piano
• Op. 91 Fantaisie on Verdi's Nabucodonosor for piano
• Op. 92 Paraphrase on the barcarolle Una Barchetta in Mar from Donizetti's opera Gianni di Calais for piano
• Op. 94 Paraphrase on the Grande adagio finale from Coccia's opera La solitaria delle Asturie for piano
• Op. 95 Un carnaval de plus, souvenir de Venice : Caprice de Concert for piano
• Op. 95b Fantaisie on Verdi's opera Il Trovatore for piano
• Op. 98 Fantaisie on Verdi's opera La Traviata for piano
• Op. 100 École Moderne du Pianiste : recueil de 24 morceaux caracteristiques for piano
• Op. 101 Tarantelle de bravoure on Thomas's opera La Tonelli for piano
• Op. 102 Mi mancha la voce (Andante) from Rossini's opera Mosé in Egitto for left hand
• Op. 103 Cantique de Noel for piano
• Op. 104 Berceuse for piano
• Op. 105 L' Échange : ariette for piano
• Op. 106 Grande Fantasie sur Robert le Diable de Meyerbeer (Dedicated to Franz Liszt) for left hand
• Op. 107 posth. Mon Ange : mélodie d'Auguste Morel transcrit pour piano
• Op. 108 posth. Illustrations from Verdi's opera Giovanna de Guzman (I Vespri Siciliani) for piano
• Op. 108 Premier Boléro
• Op. 109 posth. Ariele : nocturne variée from Leoni's opera Suddetta for piano
• Op. 110 Enfants, n'y touchez pas : romance for piano
• Op. 111 Paraphrase on Buzzolla's barcarolle Tace il vento in ciel sereno for piano
• Op. 112 posth. Duettino "Presso alla tomba" (the author's last work) for piano

Also included in his output are several songs for voice and piano.

References[edit]

1. Jump up^Informazioni

External links[edit]

• Free scores by Adolfo Fumagalli at the International Music Score Library Project

Adolphe Gutmann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolphe_Gutmann

=Adolphe Gutmann (originally Wilhelm Adolf Gutmann) (12 January 1819 – 22 October 1882) was a Germanpianist and composer who was a pupil and friend of Frédéric Chopin.

Contents

 [hide]

• 1 Life

• 2 Works

• 3 References

• 4 External links

Life[edit]

Gutmann was born in Heidelberg. He came to Paris in 1834,[1] at the age of 15, to study with Chopin, becoming one of the composer's favourites.[2] He performed in concert with Chopin, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Pierre-Joseph Zimmerman, Alkan's transcription of part ofBeethoven's Seventh Symphony at a concert of 1838.[3] Gutmann was also the dedicatee of Chopin's Scherzo, Op. 39, published in 1839.[4]

Gutmann acted as copyist for a number of Chopin's works, and acted as a courier to take Chopin's letters to his family in Warsaw. Gutmann's own set of Etudes (his Op. 12) is dedicated to Chopin.[3] He was present at Chopin's death bed and preserved the glass from which Chopin took his last drink of water. Both he and Alkan were bequeathed the notes that Chopin had compiled in preparation for a piano teaching method. Gutmann died in La Spezia.

Works[edit]

Inspired by the style of his master, Gutmann is the author of several nocturnes, and twelve studies, studies characteristics that seem to announce the coming of Impressionism(two of his studies are called Sea, and The Storm, and are respective replicas of the study No. 1, Op. 25, by Chopin, and the Révolutionnaire). All his works have been quite popular in their time; but faded thereafter.

• Nocturne Lyrique
• Nocturne No.7, Op.20
• Deux Nocturnes, Op.8
• Deux Nocturnes, Op.16
• Notturno grazioso, Op.51

References[edit]

• Jump up^ Szulc, Tad (1999). Chopin in Paris: The Life and Times of the Romantic Composer. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN0684867389.
• Jump up^ Niecks, Frederick (1980*). Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician. Library of Alexandria. pp. nn. ISBN146552374X. Check date values in: |date= (help)
• ^ Jump up to:ab"Wilhelm Adolf (Adolphe) Gutmann". Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina. Retrieved 2014-05-03.
• Jump up^ von Lenz, W. The great piano virtuosos of our time from personal acquaintance. ????? ???????. p. 70. ISBN5874708030.

5. Ewa S?awi?ska-Dahlig, Adolphe Gutmann - ulubiony ucze? Chopina, prefece Jan Ekier, ed. Zbigniew Skowron, Warszawa 2013.ISBN 978-83-61142-70-6

External links[edit]

• Free scores by Adolphe Gutmann at the International Music Score Library ProjecAdolphe Gutmann (originally Wilhelm Adolf Gutmann) (12 January 1819 – 22 October 1882) was a German pianist and composer who was a pupil and friend of Frédéric Chopin.
  
  Contents  [hide]
  1 Life
  2 Works
  3 References
  4 External links
  Life[edit]
  Gutmann was born in Heidelberg. He came to Paris in 1834,[1] at the age of 15, to study with Chopin, becoming one of the composer's favourites.[2] He performed in concert with Chopin, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Pierre-Joseph Zimmerman, Alkan's transcription of part of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony at a concert of 1838.[3] Gutmann was also the dedicatee of Chopin's Scherzo, Op. 39, published in 1839.[4]
  
  Gutmann acted as copyist for a number of Chopin's works, and acted as a courier to take Chopin's letters to his family in Warsaw. Gutmann's own set of Etudes (his Op. 12) is dedicated to Chopin.[3] He was present at Chopin's death bed and preserved the glass from which Chopin took his last drink of water. Both he and Alkan were bequeathed the notes that Chopin had compiled in preparation for a piano teaching method. Gutmann died in La Spezia.
  
  Works[edit]
  Inspired by the style of his master, Gutmann is the author of several nocturnes, and twelve studies, studies characteristics that seem to announce the coming of Impressionism (two of his studies are called Sea, and The Storm, and are respective replicas of the study No. 1, Op. 25, by Chopin, and the Révolutionnaire). All his works have been quite popular in their time; but faded thereafter.
  
  Nocturne Lyrique
  Nocturne No.7, Op.20
  Deux Nocturnes, Op.8
  Deux Nocturnes, Op.16
  Notturno grazioso, Op.51
  References[edit]
  Jump up ^ Szulc, Tad (1999). Chopin in Paris: The Life and Times of the Romantic Composer. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0684867389.
  Jump up ^ Niecks, Frederick (1980*). Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician. Library of Alexandria. pp. nn. ISBN 146552374X. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  ^ Jump up to: a b "Wilhelm Adolf (Adolphe) Gutmann". Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina. Retrieved 2014-05-03.
  Jump up ^ von Lenz, W. The great piano virtuosos of our time from personal acquaintance. ????? ???????. p. 70. ISBN 5874708030.
  5. Ewa S?awi?ska-Dahlig, Adolphe Gutmann - ulubiony ucze? Chopina, prefece Jan Ekier, ed. Zbigniew Skowron, Warszawa 2013. ISBN 978-83-61142-70-6
  External links[edit]
  Free scores by Adolphe Gutmann at the International Music Score Library Project

http://www.amazon.com/Adolphe-Gutmann/e/B00JXCJ6C4

IMAGES LINK

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0SO8zahGMJUw4oAhKtXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0dTEydXVrBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDU1MV8x?_adv_prop=image&fr=yset_chr_win-s&va=adolphe+gutmann

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/adolph-gutmann-mn0002242222/corrections

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/adolph-gutmann-mn0002242222/compositions

Video links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppbVhqHHv_4

Adolf Gutmann, La Mélancolie from Dix Etudes Op. 12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ_fe7Z4BE0

Adolf Gutmann:2 nocturnes, op.13, No.1 pf:???

Aleksander Zarzycki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksander_Zarzycki

Aleksander Zarzycki (26 February 1834 in Lviv (Lemberg), Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine) – 1 November 1895 in Warsaw) was a Polishpianist, composer and conductor. Author of piano and violin compositions, mazurkas, polonaises, krakowiaks, and songs.

In 1871 he co-founded and became a first director of the Warsaw Music Society (Warszawskie Towarzystwo Muzyczne). In the years of 1879–1888 director of the Warsaw Music Institute (Insytut Muzyczny w Warszawie).

Selected works[edit]

Orchestral

• Suite polonaise (Suita polska), Op. 37

1. À la polonaise (Tempo di polacca)
2. À la mazourka
3. Intermezzo cantabile
4. À la cracovienne

Concertante

• Grande polonaise for piano and orchestra, Op. 7
• Concerto (Koncert fortepianowy) for piano and orchestra, Op. 17
• Andante et polonaise (Andante i polonez A-dur) in A major for violin and orchestra (or piano), Op. 23
• Introduction et cracovienne (Introduction and Krakowiak; Introdukcja i Krakowiak D-dur) in D major for violin and orchestra, Op. 35

Chamber music

• Romance (Romans) for violin and piano or small ensemble accompaniment (flute, clarinet, 2 horns and strings), Op. 16 (published 1876) [1]
• Mazurka in G major for violin and piano or orchestra, Op. 26 (published 1884)[2]
• Mazurka No. 2 (II. Mazurek E-dur) in E major for violin and piano, Op. 39

Piano

• Valse brillante (1866)
• Grande valse, Op. 4 (published 1862)[3]
• 2 Chants sans paroles, Op. 6

1. Berceuse
2. Idylle

• 2 Nocturnes (G? major, A major), Op. 10 (published 1868)[4]
• 2 Mazurkas, Op. 12 (published in 1869)[5]
• Chant d'amour et Barcarolle, 2 Morceaux, Op. 19
• Sérénade et Valse-Impromptu, 2 Morceaux, Op. 24
• Mazurka in E, Op.38 (published 1894)[6]

Vocal

• "Mi?dzy nami nic nie by?o"
• 3 Lieder, Op. 11 (published 1868)[7]
• 3 Songs for soprano and piano, Op. 22

References[edit]

• Jump up^ HMB 1877, page 27. Early HMB 1877 so published 1876.
• Jump up^ HMB 1884, page 260.
• Jump up^Hofmeisters Monatsberichte (HMB) 1862, page 240.
• Jump up^ HMB 1868, page 74.
• Jump up^ HMB 1869, page 210.
• Jump up^ HMB 1894, page 393.
• Jump up^ HMB 1868, page 47.

• "Zarzycki Aleksander". Internetowa encyklopedia PWN (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
• "Zarzycki Aleksander". WIEM Encyklopedia (in Polish). Retrieved 2007-11-27.

External links[edit]

• Free scores by Aleksander Zarzycki at the International Music Score Library Project

The name of Aleksander Zarzycki (1834–1895) is barely known today and his music even less so. He played a significant role in the development of musical education in Warsaw, becoming the first director of the Warsaw Music Society in 1871 and later moving to the Music Institute in 1879, where among the teachers whom he engaged was Paderewski. He was also a fine pianist, having studied in Berlin in the mid-1850s before moving in 1857 to Paris (where Chopin had died just eight years earlier) to pursue his career as a composer. Three years into his studies, in the Salle Herz, he united both talents when he premiered two new compositions: the Grande Polonaise and Piano Concerto in A flat major.

Alexander Dreyschock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Dreyschock was famous for playing the left-hand arpeggios of Chopin's Revolutionary Étude in octaves, at every concert.

Alexander Dreyschock (October 15, 1818 – April 1, 1869) was a Czech pianist and composer.

Born in Žáky in Bohemia, his musical talents were first noticed at age of eight, and at age fifteen he travelled to Prague to study piano and composition with Václav Tomášek. By the age of twenty, Dreyshock undertook his first professional tour in December 1838, performing in various northern and central towns in Germany.

Subsequent tours saw Alexander visiting Russia (1840–42); Paris (spring 1843); London, the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary (1846); and Denmark and Sweden in 1849. Elsewhere he caused a sensation with prodigious execution of thirds, sixths, and octaves, plus other tricks. When he made his Paris debut in 1843 he included a piece for the left hand alone. Dreyschock's left-hand was renowned, and his most famous technical stunt was to play the left-hand arpeggios of Chopin's Revolutionary Étude in octaves. Observers of the time report that he played it in correct tempo, and it is known that he programmed it in all of his recitals.[1]

In 1862 Dreyschock became a staff member at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory at Anton Rubinstein's invitation. His students included Arkady Abaza. He was appointed Court Pianist to the Tsar as well as Director of the Imperial School of Music for the Operatic Stage. Whilst he maintained this double post for six years, his health suffered from the Russian climate. He moved to Italy in 1868, but the change of residence did him little good; on April 1, 1869, he died of tuberculosis in Venice, aged fifty. At the wish of his family he was buried in Prague.

Compositions[edit]

See also: List of compositions by Alexander Dreyschock

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ Schoenberg, Harold C., The Great Pianists

External links[edit]

• Free scores by Alexander Dreyschock at the International Music Score Library Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTs36iB8uQ0

Alexander Dreyschock : Un Doux Entretien (An amorous exchange), Idylle Op. 92 No. 3

DREYSCHOCK, Alexander, born Oct. 15, 1818, at Zack in Bohemia, died April 1, 1869, at Venice; a pianist of great executive attainment, and a well-trained musician to boot. J. B. Cramer, who in his old days heard him at Paris, exclaimed: 'The man has no left hand! here are two right hands!' Dreyschock was the hero of octaves, sixths, and thirds, his execution the non plus ultra of mechanical training. He played his own pieces principally, though his repertoire included many classical works, which latter he gave with faultless precision, but in a manner cold and essentially prosaic. In very early youth, already a brilliant performer, he became the pupil of Tomaschek at Prague. He began his travels in 1838, and continued them with little interruption for twenty years. Up to 1848, from which year the golden time for itinerant virtuosi began to decline, Dreyschock gathered applause, reputation, orders, decorations, and money in plenty, from one end of Europe to the other. In 1862 he was called to the professorship of the pianoforte at the Conservatoire of St. Petersburg, and was at the same time chosen director of the Imperial school for theatrical music, and appointed court pianist; but his health failed, and he was sent to Italy in 68, where in 69 he died. The body buried at Prague in accordance with the desires of his family. Dreyschock's publications for his instrument have not met with much success. They are 'salon music' of a correct but cold and sterile sort. He also brought forth sonata, a rondo with orchestra, a string-quartet and an overture for orchestra, all still born, spite of their solid and respectable musical parentage.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Dictionary_of_Music_and_Musicians/Dreyshock,_Alexander

Bohemian pianist and composer. It is presented in public with only 8 years old. In 1833 he settled in Prague, where he studied piano and composition with Tomasek. Then he began a brilliant career of virtuoso all over Europe, becoming one of the most spectacular pianists of his time. More interested in causing honda feeling in their public thanks to his prodigious technical skill which left a brilliant legacy of compositions, his works were conceived for interpretive purposes. Most of his works are currently forgotten and among his scores for piano, bright style, some are only written to be played with the left hand, a skill that he cultivated. He became famous internationally thanks to their ability to play with the left hand, reaching the Kullak composer declaring technically superior to Liszt.

In 1862 he settled in Petersburgo as Professor of the Conservatory and director of the school of music of the theatre; In addition there he became Court pianist. Thanks to his tours as a soloist, he amassed a great fortune. He died in Venice, where he arrived fleeing the Russian climate.

Bibliography

Marc Honegger. Dictionary of music. (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, Second Edition, 1993).

History of classical music. (Madrid: Planeta, 1983).

Alfred Jaëll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Ja%C3%ABll

Alfred Jaëll (5 March 1832 – 27 February 1882) was an Austrian pianist. His students included Benjamin Johnson Lang[1] and Samuel Sanford (the eponym of the Sanford Medal).[2]

Contents

 [hide]

• 1 Life

• 2 Notes

• 3 Sources

• 4 External links

Life[edit]

He was born in Trieste, then in the Austrian Empire. He studied under Carl Czerny[3][4] and began his public career at the age of 11, appearing at the Teatro San Benedetto, Venice, in 1843. The following year he studied with Ignaz Moscheles in Vienna. In 1845 and 1846 he lived in Brussels, then Paris. According to one source, he was a student of Chopin,[5] and according to another, he was a student ofLiszt;[6] however, most sources make no mention of these associations.

Jaëll made a tour of the United States, which was so successful that he stayed for three years, from 1851 to 1854. He made his New York debut on 15 November 1851, to ecstatic reviews. At his second concert on 22 November, he introduced Adelina Patti to the American public. He also gave recitals with Ole Bull. He was generally acknowledged to be the finest pianist ever to have visited North America up to that time. He took some of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s works into his repertoire and helped to popularise them.[3]He returned to Europe in 1854. He was made court pianist to the King of Hanover in 1855.[1] He performed in London in 1862 and 1866.

In 1866 he married Marie Trautmann, a French pianist and writer of pedagogical works. They toured together, performing their own works as well as the standard repertoire. He was one of Henryk Wieniawski’s accompanists for his famous performances of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata.[7] He was the soloist in the London premiere of Joachim Raff’s Piano Concerto in 1875.[8]

Alfred Jaëll died suddenly in Paris in 1882, aged only 49, leaving Marie a 35-year old widow. He left a number of "extremely effective" transcriptions from Wagner, Schumann andMendelssohn,[1] as well as original compositions, all now forgotten.

Notes[edit]

• ^ Jump up to:abcMargaret Ruthven Lang & Family
• Jump up^Leading clarinetist to receive Sanford Medal
• ^ Jump up to:abHarold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists
• Jump up^Greene’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers
• Jump up^Polish Music Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2
• Jump up^Jon Samson, Chopin: The Four Ballades
• Jump up^In Search of Lost Time: Programme notes
• Jump up^The Joachim Raff Society

Sources[edit]

• Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edition, 1954
• Marie-Laure Ingelaere, Alfred Jaëll, ami de Brahms et de Liszt : un pionnier. In : Marie Jaëll "un cerveau de philosophe et des doigts d'artiste"/Catherine Guichard, Laurent Hurpeau, Marie-Laure Ingelaere, Thérèse Klipffel, Laure Pasteau, Alexandre Sorel, Christiane de Turckheim. Lyon: Symétrie, 2004, pp.33–53. Biography and career reconstituted according to the musical press in nineteenth-century.

External links[edit]

• Free scores by Alfred Jaëll at the International Music Score Library Project

http://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Jaell/e/B00IQNCKP6

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/alfred-jaell-lambert-m-surhone/1029732807?ean=9786134826426

http://www.sheetzbox.org/piano/artists/19992/Alfred_Jaell_SheetMusic.html

Amédée Méreaux

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9d%C3%A9e_M%C3%A9reaux

Amédée Méreaux (full name Jean-Amédée Lefroid de Méreaux) (Paris, 17 September 1802 – Rouen, 25 April 1874) was a French musicologist, pianist, and composer. He was the author of Les clavecinistes de 1637 à 1790, written from 1864 to 1867, which had essays on the composers it mentioned.^[1] His grandfather, Nicolas-Jean Lefroid de Méreaux (1745–1797), was a composer of operas and oratorios, while his father, Jean-Nicolas Lefroid de Méreaux, was an organist and pianist and was a composer of piano sonatas.^[2] He was a friend of Frédéric Chopin.

His music, while obscure, is somewhat known for its sometimes immense difficulties (his piano works are sometimes more difficult than even those of Charles-Valentin Alkan), and his most famous work is his 60 Études, Op. 63. For example, his "Bravura" étude, Op. 63 No. 24, has passages where the pianist's two hands cross over each other simultaneously every quaver, at the speed of = 100. However, not all of his works have such difficulties. Although his works are considered by some (including Marc-André Hamelin) to be unmusical, this view is not held by all. Despite his current obscurity, some of his Op. 63 études were included in some piano collections edited by Isidor Philipp, and there is a street in Rouen named after him.^[2]Recently, five of his Op. 63 études have been recorded by Cyprien Katsaris.

Referencesedit]

?      Jump up^"Amédée Méreaux - Unknown French composer reviving thread. - Piano World Piano & Digital Piano Forums". Pianoworld.com. Retrieved 2012-09-29.

?      ^ Jump up to:^ab"Les Lefroid de Méreaux sont une famille d'artistes et de musiciens dont deux générations au moins s'illustrèrent à Paris.". Mereaux.pagesperso-orange.fr. Retrieved 2012-09-29 (French). Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

External linksedit]

?     Free scores by Amédée Méreaux at the International Music Score Library Project

?     Live performance of Méreaux's étude, Op. 63 No. 24 "Bravura", by an amateur pianist on YouTube

Anton Diabelli

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Diabelli

Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 1781 – 7 April 1858) was an Austrianmusic publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-threeDiabelli Variations.^[1]

Contents

  [hide]

        1 Early life

        2 Career

        3 Compositions

        3.1 Diabelli Variations

        4 Cultural references

        5 See also

        6 References

        7 Publications

        8 External links

        8.1 Sheetmusic

Early lifeedit]

Diabelli was born in Mattsee near Salzburg. A musical child, he sang in the boys' choir at the Salzburg Cathedral where he is believed to have taken music lessons with Michael Haydn. By age 19, Diabelli had already composed several important compositions, including six masses.

Diabelli was trained to enter the priesthood and in 1800 he joined the monastery at Raitenhaslach, Bavaria.^[1] He remained there until 1803 when Bavaria closed all its monasteries.

Careeredit]

In 1803 Diabelli moved to Vienna and began teaching piano and guitar and found work as a proofreader for a music publisher. During this period he learned the music publishing business while continuing to compose. In 1809 he composed his comic opera, Adam in der Klemme. In 1817 he started a music publishing business and 1818, partnered withPietro Cappi to create the music publishing firm of Cappi & Diabelli.

The firm, Cappi & Diabelli became well known by arranging popular pieces so they could be played by amateurs at home. A master of promotion, Diabelli selected widely-accessible music such as famous opera tune arrangements, dance music, or hundreds of the latest popular comic theatre songs.

The firm soon established a reputation in more serious music circles by championing the works of Franz Schubert. It was Diabelli who first recognized the composer's potential, become the very first to publish Schubert's work with "Der Erlkönig" in 1821. Diabelli's firm continued to publish Schubert's work until 1823 when an argument between Cappi and Schubert terminated their business. The following year, Diabelli and Cappi parted ways, with Diabelli launching a new publishing house, Diabelli & Co, in 1824.

Following Schubert's early death in 1828, Diabelli purchased a large portion of the composer's massive musical estate from Schubert's brother Ferdinand. As Schubert's total compositions number nearly 1000, Diabelli's firm was able to publish "new" Schubert works for more than 30 years after the composer's death.

Diabelli's publishing house expanded throughout his life, before he retired in 1851, leaving it under the control of Carl Anton Spina. When Diabelli died in 1858, Spina continued to run the firm, and published much music by Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss. In 1872, the firm was taken over by Friedrich Schreiber, and in 1876 it merged with the firm ofAugust Cranz, who bought the company in 1879 and ran it under his name.

He died in Vienna at the age of 76.

Compositionsedit]

Diabelli produced a number of well known works as a composer, including an operetta called Adam in der Klemme, several masses and songs and numerous piano and classical guitar pieces. Among these are pieces for piano four hands that are popular among pianists of all ages. His music goes on to be the fundamentals of opera, and is considered by some to have set the fundamental stepping stones for classic jazz.

Diabelli's composition Pleasures of Youth: Six Sonatinas is a collection of six sonatinas depicting a struggle between unknown opposing forces. This is suggested by the sharp and frequent change in dynamics from forte to piano. When forte is indicated, the pianist is meant to evoke a sense of wickedness, thus depicting the antagonist. In contrast, the markings of piano represent the protagonist with its softer, more tranquil tones.

Diabelli Variationsedit]

The composition for which Diabelli is now best known was actually written as part of an adventuring story. In 1819, as a promotional idea, he decided to try to publish a volume of variations on a "patriotic" waltz he had penned expressly for this purpose, with one variation by every important Austrian composer living at the time, as well as several significant non-Austrians. The combined contributions would be published in an anthology called Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Fifty-one composers responded with pieces, including Beethoven, Schubert, Archduke Rudolph of Austria, F.X. Wolfgang Mozart (jun.), Moritz Count von Dietrichstein, Heinrich Eduard Josef Baron von Lannoy, Ignaz Franz Baron von Mosel, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, and the eight-year-old Franz Liszt (although it seems Liszt was not invited personally, but his teacher Czerny arranged for him to be involved). Czerny was also enlisted to write a coda. Beethoven, however, instead of providing just one variation, provided 33, and his formed Part I of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. They constitute what is generally regarded as one of the greatest of Beethoven's piano pieces and as the greatest set of variations of their time, and are generally known simply as the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120. The other 50 variations were published as Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein.

Cultural referencesedit]

A sonatina of Diabelli's, presumably Sonatina in F major, Op. 168, No. 1 (I: Moderato cantabile), provides the title and a motif for the French novellaModerato Cantabile byMarguerite Duras.

See alsoedit]

?     List of compositions by Anton Diabelli

Referencesedit]

?      ^ Jump up to:^abAllMusic.com

Publicationsedit]

?     Anton Diabelli's guitar works - a thematic catalogue with an introduction; Doctoral Thesis by Jukka Savijoki (Sibelius Academy; 1996)

?     Anton Diabelli's Guitar Works: A Thematic Catalogue by Jukka Savijoki (Editions Orphée)

External linksedit]

?     Anton Diabelli at the Internet Movie Database

Sheetmusicedit]

?     Rischel & Birket-Smith's Collection of guitar music Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Denmark

?     Boije Collection The Music Library of Sweden

?     www.karadar.com/Dictionary/diabelli.html

?     Free scores by Anton Diabelli at the International Music Score Library Project

?     Free scores by Anton Diabelli in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

?     Free scores at the Mutopia Project

Diabelli, Antonio

Diabelli, Antonio Biography

Anton1781 - April 7, 1858) was an Austrianmusic publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltzLudwig van BeethovenDiabelli Variations.

MattseeSalzburg. He was trained to enter the priesthood, but also took music lessons with Michael Haydn. He moved to Vienna to teach the pianoguitar before becoming partners with Pietro Cappi in 1818 and setting up a music publishing firm with him.

arranging popular pieces so they could be played by amateurs at home. The firm became well known in more serious music circles by becoming the first to publish works by Franz Schubert, a composer the firm later championed.

Diabelli produced a modest number of works as a composer, including an operetta called Adam in der Klemme, a number ofmassessongs and a large number of piano pieces. Among these are pieces for four hands (two pianists playing at one piano), which are popular amongst amateur pianists.

Ironically, perhaps, the composition for which Diabelli is now best known was actually written as part of a publishing venture. In 1819, he decided to try to publish a volume of variations on a waltz he had penned expressly for this purpose, with one variation by every important Austrian composer living at the time, as well as several significant non-Austrians. Fifty composers responded with pieces, including Schubert, Franz LisztJohann Nepomuk HummelCarl Czernycoda, and they were published as Vaterländische Künstlerverein.

Beethoven, however, instead of providing just one variation, provided thirty-three, and his were published in a volume of their own in 1824. They constitiute what is generally regarded as one of the greatest of Beethoven's piano pieces and as the greatest set of variations of their time, and are generally known simply as the Diabelli Variations.

Diabelli's publishing house expanded throughout his life, before he retired in 1851, leaving it under the control of Carl Anton Spina. When Diabelli died in 1858, Spina continued to run the firm, and published much music by Johann Strauss IIJosef Strauss. In 1872, the firm was taken over by Friedrich SchreiberAugust Cranz, who bought the company in 1879 and ran it under his name.

http://www.8notes.com/biographies/diabelli.asp

ton Diabelli,  (born Sept. 6, 1781, Mattsee, near Salzburg, Archbishopric of Salzburg, Austrian Habsburg domain [now in Austria]—died April 7, 1858, Vienna), Austrian music publisher and composer best known for his waltz, orLändler, on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his 33 variations for piano(Diabelli Variations, 1823).

Diabelli intended to enter the priesthood and entered the monastery at Raitenhaslach, where his studies were supervised by composer Joseph Haydn’s brother Michael Haydn. Diabelli left the monastery in 1803, when the Bavarian monasteries were secularized, and went to Vienna, where he became a piano and guitar teacher. In 1818, with Peter Cappi, he founded a publishing firm, which he took over entirely in 1824. He issued an invitation in 1819 to many composers to contribute variations on one of his own waltzes in order to form a “patriotic anthology” published by his firm. About 50 composers responded, including Beethoven, whose monumental set of 33 variations was finally completed in 1823 and published separately as Diabelli Variations. Respected for his instincts as a publisher, Diabelli published several other works of Beethoven and was the principal publisher for Franz Schubert, issuing the first thematic catalogue of Schubert’s works in 1851. Diabelli’s own compositions include operettas, church music, and numerous light pieces for piano, flute, guitar, and other instruments.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/160916/Anton-Diabelli

Video links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAI4-9yc6kA

Beethoven - Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 [Grigory Sokolov]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffbJ82m9hZY

Anton Diabelli : Sonatina in F major, Op. 168 No. 1

MUSIC LISTING:

http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=DiabelliA

Available at this link are Music Pieces and Audio material pertaining to the topic Anton Diabelli

Antonín Dvorák

(8 September 1841, Nelahozeves - 1 May 1904, Prague)

Antonín Leopold Dvorák was a Czech composer, the first Bohemian composer to achieve worldwide recognition. He is most remembered today for turning folk material into the language of the 19th century Romantic music. He was not born in poverty, as his father was an innkeeper and butcher, who was also a very skilled zither player. It is speculated that as a child, he became familiarized with music in his father's inn.

In 1847 Dvorák entered primary school and learned to play violin from his teacher Joseph Spitz. From an early age he showed promising talent and skill, he even played in a village band and in church. At the age of 12 (or 13) he was sent to Zlonice to live with an aunt and uncle where he began the study of harmony, piano, violin and organ with his with his German-language teacher, Anton Liehmann, who was also the church organist in Zlonice. During a period of 3 years of which he spent here, he composed his earliest works, his first being the Forget-Me-Not Polka in C major. Dvorak took further organ and music theory lessons at Ceská Kamenice under Frankz Hanke, who encouraged his musical talents even further.

In 1857 advised by a perspective music teacher, Dvorák was enrolled at the Institute for Church Music in Prague. Here he completed a two-year course and played the viola in various inns and with theater bands, augmenting his small salary with a few private pupils. The varied works of this period show that his earlier leanings toward the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert were becoming increasingly tinged with the influence of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.

Pushed by his constant need to supplement his income he started giving piano lessons. It was through these piano lessons that he later met his future wife. In 1874, Dvorák received a grant from the Austrian government. This not only eased his financial stress, but also brought him to the attention of Brahms, who was one of the members of the jury and with whom he formed a close and fruitful friendship. Brahms not only gave him valuable technical advice but also found him an influential publisher in Fritz Simrock, and it was with his firm’s publication of the Moravian Duets (composed 1876) for soprano and contralto and the Slavonic Dances (1878) for piano duet that Dvorák first attracted worldwide attention to himself and to his country’s music.

In 1884 he made the first of 10 visits to England, where the success of his works, especially his choral works, was a source of constant pride to him, although only the Stabat Mater (1877) and Te Deum (1892) continue to hold a position among the finer works of their kind. In 1890 he enjoyed a personal triumph in Moscow, where two concerts were arranged for him by his friend Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The following year he was made an honorary doctor of music of the University of Cambridge.

From 1891 to 1892 he held the position of professor of composition and instrumentation at the Prague Conservatory, and from 1892 to 1895 he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. In the winter and spring of 1893, Dvorák was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to write Symphony No.9, "From the New World", which was premiered under the baton of Anton Seidl, to tumultuous applause. Though he found much to interest and stimulate him in the New World environment, he soon came to miss his own country, and he returned to Bohemia in 1895. The final years of his life saw the composition of several string quartets and symphonic poems and his last three operas.

Although it was Bedrich Smetana who laid the foundations of the Czech nationalist movement in music, it was Dvorák who developed and extended it through his impressive series of works that quickly came to rank in popularity with those of the great German contemporaries.

Many of Dvorák's compositions, such as the Slavonic Dances and his large collection of songs, were directly inspired by Czech, Moravian, and other Slavic traditional music. All Dvorák’s mature symphonies are of high quality, though only the sombre Symphony No. 7 in D Minor (1885) is as satisfactory in its symphonic structure as it is musically. (It should be explained that Dvorák’s mature symphonies were long known as No. 1 to 5, even though he had written four earlier (and unnumbered) ones. All nine of his symphonies have since been renumbered from the traditional order to their actual order of composition.) Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor (From the New World; 1893) remains his best-known work, partly, no doubt, because it was thought to be based on African American spirituals and other influences gained during his years in the United States.

Many of Dvorák’s most attractive works are among his miscellaneous, less-ambitious ones—the Slavonic Dances (1878, 1886) and other piano duets, the Symphonic Variations (1877), the Bagatelles (1878), the Gypsy Songs (1880), and the Scherzo Capriccioso (1883).

Dvorák's own style has been described as 'the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them'.

Here  you can find a list of Antonin Dvorák's works.

 Anton Rubinstein

(16 November/28 November -New Style 1829, Vykhvatinets - 8 November/20 November 1894, Peterhof)

Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian composer, conductor, teacher and pianist (one of the greatest pianists of the 19th century) who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He took his first piano lessons from his mother, who was a competent musician, at the age of 5 until the teacher Alexander Villoing took little Anton under his wing as a non-paying student.

His first public appearance was at a charity benefit concert at the age of 9. Later that year he sought to enroll at the Paris Conservatoire but was rejected. In 1840 Rubinstein performed in the Salle Érard for an audience that included Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. After touring extensively in Europe and Western Russia, they finally returned to Moscow in June 1843. In the 1844-1846 period, both he and his brother (Nikolay) studied music theory in Berlin, Anton prolonging his stay with 2 more years to study piano and composition. On his return to Russia in 1848 he settled in St. Petersburg where he taught, gave concerts and performed frequently at the Imperial court. In 1852 his first opera, Dmitry Donskoy (now lost except for the overture), was produced; Fomka durachok (Fomka the Fool) and Sibirskiye okhotniki (The Siberian Hunters) were introduced in St. Petersburg in 1853.

He also played and conducted several of his works, including the Ocean Symphony in its original four-movement form, his Second Piano Concerto and several solo works. In 1854 Rubinstein embarked on a 4 year concert tour of Europe, his first major concert tour in a decade. Under the patronage of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, Rubinstein in 1859 founded the Russian Music Society and later became conductor of its orchestral concerts. In 1862 he founded and became the director of the Imperial (or St. Petersburg) Conservatory, and in 1866 his brother founded the Moscow Conservatory, where Nikolay remained as director until his death in 1881.

In 1867 Rubinstein resigned from his position as director of the Imperial Conservatory and resumed touring throughout Europe. Unlike his previous tours where he played primarily his own works, he began increasingly featuring the works of other composers. During the 1872-1873 season, Rubinstein toured in the United States giving 215 concerts in 239 days, sometimes two and three a day in as many cities.

(to be continued)

Anton Stepanovich Arensky

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Arensky

Anton Stepanovich Arensky (12 July [O.S. 30 June] 1861 – 25 February [O.S. 12 February] 1906), was aRussiancomposer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music.

Contents

 [hide]

• 1 Biography

• 2 Music

• 3 Selected works

• 3.1 Opera
• 3.2 Ballet
• 3.3 Orchestral
• 3.4 Chamber
• 3.5 Piano
• 3.6 Choral
• 3.7 Solo vocal
• 3.8 Arrangements of Arensky's music

• 4 External links

Biography[edit]

Arensky was born in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and had composed a number of songs and piano pieces by the age of nine. With his mother and father, he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1879, where he studied composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

After graduating from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1882, Arensky became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his students there were Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Gretchaninov. See: List of music students by teacher: A to F#Anton Arensky.

In 1895 Arensky returned to Saint Petersburg as the director of the Imperial Choir, a post for which he had been recommended by Mily Balakirev. Arensky retired from this position in 1901, spending his remaining time as a pianist, conductor, and composer.

Arensky died of tuberculosis in a sanatorium in Perkjärvi, Finland at the age of 44. It is alleged that drinking and gambling undermined his health. The AntarcticArensky Glacier was named after him.

Music[edit]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was the greatest influence on Arensky's musical compositions. Indeed, Rimsky-Korsakov said, "In his youth Arensky did not escape some influence from me; later the influence came from Tchaikovsky. He will quickly be forgotten." The perception that he lacked a distinctive personal style contributed to long-term neglect of his music, though in recent years a large number of his compositions have been recorded. Especially popular are the Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky for string orchestra, Op. 35a - arranged from the slow movement of Arensky's 2nd string quartet, and based on one of Tchaikovsky's Songs for Children, Op. 54.

Arensky was perhaps at his best in chamber music, in which genre he wrote two string quartets, two piano trios, and a piano quintet.

Selected works[edit]

Opera[edit]

• ??? ?? ????? (Son na Volge / Dream on the Volga), Op. 16 (1888), libretto by Anton Arensky after Alexander Ostrovsky's play Voyevoda, premiere: January 2, 1891 [OS December 21, 1890], Moscow, Bolshoy Theatre
• ??????? (Rafael / Raphael), Op. 37 (1894), libretto by A. Kryukov, premiere: May 6 [OS April 24], 1894, Moscow, Conservatory
• ???? ? ???????? (Nal' i Damayanti / Nal and Damayanti), Op. 47 (1903), after Indian epos "Mahabharata", libretto by Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky after the novel by Vasily Zhukovsky, premiere: January 22, [OS January 9], 1904, Moscow, Bolshoy Theatre)

Ballet[edit]

• Nuits égyptiennes (Russian: «?????????? ????») or Une Nuit d'Egypte (1900). Divertissement-Ballet in one act. Originally composed for the Imperial Ballet, St. Petersburg. Choreography by Lev Ivanov. Production was never given due to the death of the choreographer before completion.
• revival by Mikhail Fokine for the Imperial Ballet. Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, 8 March [O.S. 24 February] 1908.
• revival by Mikhail Fokine as Cléopâtre for the Ballets Russes. Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, 2 June 1909. Additional music by Alexander Glazunov, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky,Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Taneyev, and Nikolai Tcherepnin.

Orchestral[edit]

• Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F minor, Op. 2 (1881)
• Symphony No. 1 in B minor, Op. 4 (1883)
• Intermezzo in G minor, Op. 13 (1882)
• Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 22 (1889)
• Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a, for string orchestra (1894)
• Fantasia on Themes of Ryabinin, Op. 48, for piano and orchestra (1899), also known as Fantasia on Russian Folksongs
• Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 54 (1891)
• Pamyati Suvorova (To the Memory of Suvorov, 1900)

Chamber[edit]

• String Quartet No. 1 in G major, Op. 11
• Serenade, Op. 30, No. 2, for violin and piano
• Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32 (1894)
• String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 35 (1894), for violin, viola and two cellos
• Piano Quintet in D major, Op. 51
• Two Pieces, Op. 12, for cello and piano
• Four Pieces, Op. 56, for cello and piano
• Piano Trio No. 2 in F minor, Op. 73 (1905)

Piano[edit]

(for solo piano unless otherwise specified)

• Suite for Two Pianos No. 1 in F major, Op. 15 (1888)
• Suite for Two Pianos No. 2, Op. 23, "Silhouettes" (1892), also orchestral version
• Impromptu No. 1, Op. 25
• Suite for Two Pianos No. 3 in C major, Op. 33, "Variations" (pub. 1894), also orchestral version
• 24 Morceaux caractéristiques, Op. 36 (covering all 24 major and minor keys)
• Four Etudes, Op. 41
• Suite for Two Pianos No. 4, Op. 62 (1903)
• Twelve Preludes, Op. 63
• Twelve Pieces for Two Pianos, Op. 66
• Twelve Etudes, Op. 74

Choral[edit]

• Cantata for the Tenth Anniversary of the Sacred Coronation of Their Imperial Highnesses, Op. 25 (1893)
• The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Op. 46, cantata
• The Diver, Op. 61, cantata

Solo vocal[edit]

• Three Vocal Quartets, Op. 57, with cello accompaniment

Arrangements of Arensky's music[edit]

• Tempo di Valse from the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op.54, arranged for violin and piano by Jascha Heifetz performed in this video by violinist Nate Robinson onYouTube

External links[edit]

• Biography on Dr. Estrella's Incredibly Abridged Dictionary of Composers
• Anton Arensky's works on The Lied and Art Song Texts Page
• Anton Arensky Chamber Music discussion of works and soundbites
• Find-A-Grave profile for Anton Arensky
• Brief overview of his life and information about Opus 35
• Free scores by Anton Arensky at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Anton Arensky in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

Arensky, Anton (Stepanovich) (bNovgorod, 1861; d Terijoki, Finland, 1906). Russ. composer. Prof. of harmony and counterpoint, Moscow Cons. 1882. Comp. 3 operas, 2 str. qts., and 2 syms., but best-known works are the pf. conc., vn. conc. in A minor, pf. trio in D minor (in memory of the cellist Davidov),Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky for str., and many pf. pieces.

 Bedrich Smetana

(2 March 1824, Leitomischl - 12 May 1884, Prague)

In 1839, having received his father's approval, he enrolled at the Prague's Academic Grammar School under Josef Jungmann, a distinguished poet and linguist who was a leading figure in the movement for Czech national revival. After Liszt gave a series of piano recitals in the city, Smetana became convinced that he would find satisfaction only in a musical career. However, the Prague idyll ended when his father found out that he was skipping class, and removed him from the city.

One of Smetana's earliest composition that has survived is Louisa's Polka, dedicated to his cousin Louisa with whom he enjoyed a brief romance. Around 1843 he composed several pieces, among which are two Quadrilles, a song duet, an incomplete piano study for the left hand and his first orchestral piece, a B flat minuet.

Having persuaded his father, in August 1843 Smetana departed for Prague to follow his musical career. He was introduced by Katerina Kolárová's mother to Josef Proksch, head of the Prague Music institute and in January 1844 Smetana became his pupil. His father's fortunes had declined and so he had to provide for himself. That same year, he secured an appointment as music teacher to the family of Leopold, Count von Thun. 

For the next 3 years he continued to study theory and composition under Proksch. In this period he composed songs, dances, bagatelles, impromptus and his G minor Piano Sonata. In June 1847 he resigned his position in the Thun household and set out on a tour of Western Bohemia, hoping to establish a reputation as a concert pianist. Smetana's concert tour didn't go as he had hoped, lacking support, he returned to Prague where he secured his financial situation with private lessons and occasional public appearances. He also began work on his first major orchestral work, the Overture in D major. In late August 1848, encouraged by Franz Liszt, he opened a piano school in Prague and the next year married the pianist Katerina Kolárová. In 1856 he wrote his first symphonic poems and in the same year was appointed conductor of the philharmonic society of Gothenburg (Sweden), where he remained until 1861. He then returned to Prague, where he played the leading part in the establishment of the national opera house.

His first opera, The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, was produced in Prague on 5 January 1866 and was well received by the public and critics establishing Smetana's reputation as a distinctively Czech composer. A second opera, The Bartered Bride, was composed over a period of 3 years and premiered on 30 May 1866. The opera's first performance was a failure; it was held on one of the hottest evenings of the year, on the eve of the Austro-Prussian War with Bohemia under imminent threat of invasion by Prussian troops. Unsurprisingly the occasion was poorly attended, and receipts failed to cover costs. After several revisions and restructures (the two-act version was added another act), the work was finally presented at the Provisional Theater in its final form, in September 1870, achieving a tremendous public success. Dalibor, written under the influence of Wagner, was performed in 1868. Libuše, named after a legendary figure in the history of Prague and intended to celebrate the projected coronation (which never took place) of the emperor Francis Joseph as king of Bohemia, was not produced until 1881.

In 1874, for reasons that concerned his health, Smetana resigned his conductorship of the Prague Opera. He became totally deaf in late 1874, but between that year and 1879 he wrote the cycle of six symphonic poems bearing the collective title Má vlast (My Country), which includes Vltava (The Moldau), Z ceských luhu a háju (From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests), and Vyšehrad (the name of a fortress in Prague). From this period also came the string quartet to which he gave the title Z mého života (From My Life), considered among his finest works; Hubicka (The Kiss), successfully produced in 1876; Certova stena (The Devil’s Wall), performed in 1882; and a number of piano solos, including many polkas.

Smetana had been, from early in life, a virtuoso performer on the piano, and for many years most of his works were composed for it. Those compositions, augmented by the more mature piano pieces of his difficult last years, constitute an important body of piano literature. Following attacks of depression and symptoms of mental instability, Smetana entered an asylum at Prague and died there.

The basic materials from which Smetana fashioned his art, according to Newmarch, were nationalism, realism and romanticism. A particular feature of all his later music is its descriptive character (a strong characteristic of the program music). Smetana's champions have recognized the major influences on his work as Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz – the "progressives" – while those same advocates have often played down the significance of "traditionalist" composers such as Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Meyerbeer.

Here  you can find a list of Bedrich Smetana's works.

 Franz Schubert

(31 January 1797, Himmelpfortgrund - 19 November 1828, Vienna)

Franz Schubert was an extremely prolific Austrian composer who bridged the worlds of Classical and Romantic music. Although not a musician, his father, a well-known teacher, passed on certain musical basics to his son. He began receiving regular music lessons from his father by the age of 6 and a year later was enrolled at his father's school, his formal musical education started around the same time. He also received some musical training from his brother Ignaz and from the parish church organist (Michael Holzer) in organ playing and musical theory.

The family was musical and cultivated string quartet playing in the home, the boy Franz playing the viola. Franz wrote his earliest string quartets for this ensemble. In 1808, having won a scholarship, he was admitted at Stadtkonvikt boarding school (Vienna) where he earned a place in the imperial court chapel choir and education. Here he studied under Wenzel Ruzicka (the imperial court organist), and later, the composer Antonio Salieri, who revealed to Franz the style of Italian opera music.

His music horizon broadened after the audition of Gluck, Spontini and Mozart's works which alternated between comic opera, opera buffa and German Singspiel. His exposure to these and other symphonic works by Mozart and Joseph Haydn (such as symphonies and overtures), laid the foundation for a broader musical education. Schubert was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikt's orchestra, and  Salieri decided tot start training him privately in music theory and even in composition. 

At the age of 16 (1813), Schubert left the Stadtkonvikt, and after 10 months, he became teacher at the school in Lichtenthal, alongside his father where he taught writing and reading for the next 5 years. His best lieder works date from this period. The numerous compositions he wrote between 1813 and 1815 are remarkable for their variety and intrinsic worth. They are the products of young genius, still short of maturity but displaying style, originality, and imagination. One of Schubert's most prolific years was 1815. He composed over 20,000 bars of music, more than half of which was for orchestra, including nine church works (despite being agnostic), a symphony, and about 140 Lieder.

Following his brief tenure as a music teacher in 1818 at the court of Count Johann Karl Esterházy in Zseliz, he got acquainted with the popular Hungarian songs of the time and the music of Hungarian fiddlers. In the last 10 years of his life, he toured with Johann Michael Vogl (baritone) in 1819, 1823 and 1825, crossing through different cities of Austria, where they held public and private concerts. His many works are a testament of the richness of his imagination and ease with which he could lay out his thoughts on paper.

The many unfinished fragments and sketches of songs left by Schubert provide some insight into the working of his creative mind. Clearly, the primary stimulus was melodic. The compositions of 1819 and 1820 show a marked advance in development and maturity of style. The unfinished oratorio "Lazarus" (D 689) was begun in February; later followed, amid a number of smaller works, by the Hymn "Der 23. Psalm" (D 706), the Octet "Gesang der Geister über den Wassern" (D 714), the Quartettsatz in C minor (D 703), and the Fantasy in C major for piano Wanderer Fantasy (D 760). Of most notable interest is the staging in 1820 of two of Schubert's operas: "Die Zwillingsbrüder" (D 647) appeared at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 14 June, and "Die Zauberharfe" (D 644) appeared at the Theater an der Wien on 21 August.

Although his operas remained unperformed, there were frequent public performances of his songs and part-songs in Vienna during these and the following years. Publication proceeded rapidly, and his financial position, though still strained, was at any rate eased. This was the period of the Lady of the Lake songs, including the once popular but later neglected ”Ave Maria”. He also composed two piano sonatas and sketched a symphony during the summer holiday (in all probability the beginnings of the Symphony in C major, completed in 1828).

In 1824, following the resignation of Salieri as imperial Kapellmeister (musical director), Josef Eybler (deputy Kapellmeister at that time) was promoted. In 1826 Schubert applied for the vacant post of deputy musical director at the Stadtkonvikt but was rejected, in spite of strong support from several influential people. A succession of masterpieces marks the last year of his life. Early in the year he composed the greatest of his piano duets, the Fantasy in F Minor. The Great Symphony was concluded in March, as was also the cantataMiriams Siegesgesang (Miriam’s Victory Song). In June he worked at his sixth mass—in E-flat Major.

The only public concert Schubert gave took place on March 26, 1828. It was both artistically and financially a success, and the impecunious composer was at last able to buy himself a piano. At the end of August he moved into lodgings with his brother Ferdinand. Schubert’s health, broken by the illness of 1823, had deteriorated, and his ceaseless work had exhausted him.

Franz Schubert manifested itself in a wide variety of forms and genres, including opera, liturgical music, chamber and solo piano music, and symphonic works. Clearly influenced by the classical sonata forms of Beethoven and Mozart, his formal structures and his developments tend to give the impression more of melodic development than of harmonic drama. His legacy consists of over 600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music.

Although his music was rather limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, decades after his death, the interest in his work increased significantly especially after Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the late Classical era and early Romantic era and is one of the most frequently performed composers of the early nineteenth century.

Here  you can find a complete list of Franz Schubert's works.

 Richard Wilhelm Wagner

(22 May 1813, Leipzig - 13 February 1883, Venice)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

(25 April (7 May, New Style) 1840, Votkinsk - 25 October (6 November) 1893, Sankt Petersburg)

The first person to truly appreciate Tchaikovsky's talents was the Italian singing instructor Luigi Piccioli, who influenced young Pyotr so much that he developed a lifelong passion for Italian music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni had a great impact on him that deeply affected his musical taste. When St. Petersburg Conservatory opened in the fall of 1861, Tchaikovsky was among its first students. That same year, he attended classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky palace (now the Russian Museum) in St. Petersburg. After making the decision to dedicate his life to music, he resigned from the Ministry of Justice, where he had been employed as a clerk.

From 1862 to 1865 he studied harmony and counterpoint with Zaremba. Rubinstein who was the director and founder of the Conservatory, taught him instrumentation and composition. One of his earliest orchestral works was an overture entitled The Storm (1864), a mature attempt at dramatic program music. His works were first premiered in August 1865, when Johann Strauss the Younger conducted Tchaikovsky's Characteristic Dnaces at a concert in Pavlovks, near St. Petersburg. In 1868, Tchaikovsky's First Symphony in G Minor (composed in 1866) was well received by the Moscow public, the following year, his first opera The Voyevoda, made its way to the stage.

In March 1871 the audience at Moscow’s Hall of Nobility witnessed the successful performance of Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 (1871), and in April 1872 he finished another opera, The Oprichnik, premiered in 1874. By this time, Tchaikovsky had also earned praise for his Second Symphony (1873). After traveling to Paris (1876) with his brother, Modest, he visited Bayreuth, where he met Liszt. By 1877, Tchaikovsky was an established composer. This was the year of Swan Lake's premiere and the time he began work on the Fourth Symphony (1877-1878).

In his attempt to focus his efforts entirely on composing, he resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878. As a result, he spent the remainder of his career composing more prolifically than ever. Early in 1878 he finished several of his most famous compositions: the Eugene Onegin opera, the Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, and the Violin Concerto in D Major. His popularity soon grew both within and outside of Russia which resulted in public interest in him and his personal life.

Over the next 10 years Tchaikovsky produced his operas Mazepa (1883; based on Aleksandr Pushkin’s Poltava) and The Enchantress (1887), as well as the masterly symphonies Manfred (1885) and Symphony No. 5 in E Minor (1888). His other major achievements of this period include Serenade for Strings in C Major, Opus 48 (1880), Capriccio italien (1880), and the 1812 Overture (1880).  In both 1888 and 1889, Tchaikovsky went on successful European tours as a conductor, meeting Brahms, Grieg, Dvorák, Gounod, and other notable musical figures. Sleeping Beauty was premiered in 1890, and The Nutcracker in 1892, both with success. Throughout Tchaikovsky's last years, he was continually tormented by anxiety and depression. Following his trip to Paris and the United States in 1891, he had one dark nervous episode. He died 10 days after the premiere of his Sixth Symphony ”Pathétique” in October 1893.

American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote of Tchaikovsky's "sweet, inexhaustible, supersensuous fund of melody," a feature that has ensured his music's continued success with audiences. Tchaikovsky’s approach to solo piano music, on the other hand, remained mostly traditional, that is, it more or less satisfied the 19th-century taste for short salon pieces with descriptive titles, usually arranged in groups, as in the famous The Seasons (1875–76). In several of his piano pieces, Tchaikovsky’s melodic flair surfaces, but on the whole he was far less committed when composing these works than he was when writing his orchestral music, concertos, operas, and chamber compositions.

It cannot be denied that the quality of Tchaikovsky’s oeuvre remains uneven. Some of his music is undistinguished—hastily written, repetitious, or self-indulgent. But in such symphonies as his No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, and Manfred and in many of his overtures, suites, and songs, he achieved the unity of melodic inspiration, dramatic content, and mastery of form that elevates him to the premiere rank of the world’s composers.

Here  you can find a list of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's compositions.

Johannes Brahms

(7 May 1833, Hamburg – 3 April 1897, Vienna)

Frédéric Chopin

(22 February or 1 March 1810, Zelazowa Wola - 17 October 1849, Paris)

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish-French composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Today he is best known for his solo pieces for piano and his piano concerti. Born in a family with some artistic learnings, his father, a Frenchman emigrant, played the flute and violin, Frédéric took his first piano lessons from his mother. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Warsaw, where his father was a high school french teacher. His talent emerged quickly and so Wojciech Zywny, a Czech pianist, took little Frédéric under his wing to nurture his talent, soon after he made a reputation as a pianist in the saloons of Warsaw. By the age of seven Fryderyk had begun giving public concerts, and in 1817 he composed two polonaises, in G minor and B-flat major.

After he graduated high school, he attended the Warsaw Lyceum, where he studied composition with the Silesian composer Józef Elsner. Having noticed his exceptional talent, his teachers did not encase him in a rigid education but rather stimulated his special qualities.

In the Warsaw musical life, the Italian opera occupied an important place (endeared by Chopin) as well as the pre-Romantic music of Hummel, Moscheles, Field and the national music. It was the period in which close contact with folk music became necessary for asserting national culture, used as a weapon of struggle for liberation from the tyranny of the tsarist.After his trip to Berlin and Prague, where he comes in contact with the works of Spontini, Rossini and Mayerbeer, Chopin visited Vienna and made his performance debut there in 1829. In March and October 1830 he presented his new works to the Warsaw public and then left Poland with the intention of visiting Germany and Italy for further study.

During his brief stay in Germany he finished his Scherzo No. 1, marking a new stage in his creation, not only by lyrical confessions, but also by echoes of the adamant Polish fight against tsarism. At Stuttgart, he composed his Revolutionary Etudein C minor, in which he expresses his vigorous protest against the oppressors of the Polish nation, and a call to arms of all Polish patriots.

In the year of 1831 he arrives to Paris, where he will live for the rest of his life. He began giving piano lessons and concerts in public halls, but more often in the private salons of nobility, for he didn't love the big concert hall, he found the experience of playing for a small audience more intimate. His new piano works at this time included two startlingly poetic books of études (1829–36), the Ballade in G Minor (1831–35), the Fantaisie-Impromptu (1835), and many smaller pieces, among them mazurkas and polonaises inspired by Chopin’s strong nationalist feeling.

During his years in Paris he was to become acquainted with, among many others, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Ferdinand Hiller, Heinrich Heine, Eugène Delacroix, and Alfred de Vigny. Chopin was also acquainted with the poet Adam Mickiewicz, principal of the Polish Literary Society, some of whose verses he set as songs. Chopin received invitations to other salons, even at the court of King Louis Philippe. Thus, in October 1839, both Chopin and Moscheles were invited to Saint-Claude to perform in front of the King, Princess d'Orléans, and the Queen. In the beginning there wasn't a friendship relationship between the two, Chopin considered him mediocre while Moscheles considered Chopin a fancy Polish. Having met more often, they somehow became friends.

After his health got worse, in early March 1839 he arrived in Marseille, and, thanks to a skilled physician, Chopin was sufficiently recovered after just under three months for him to start planning a return to Paris. From 1842 onwards, Chopin showed signs of serious illness. After a solo recital in Paris on 21 February 1842, he wrote to Grzymala: "I have to lie in bed all day long, my mouth and tonsils are aching so much." He was forced by illness to decline a written invitation from Alkan to participate in a repeat performance of the Beethoven Seventh Symphony arrangement at Erard's on 1 March 1843.

In February 1848 he gave his last concert in Paris and then traveled with his student Jane Stirling to England and Scotland for a long concert tour, that exhausted him. His reception in London was enthusiastic, and he struggled through an exhausting round of lessons and appearances at fashionable parties. Chopin lacked the strength to sustain this socializing, however, and he was also unable to compose. By now his health was deteriorating rapidly, and he made his last public appearance on a concert platform at the Guildhall in London on November 16, 1848, when, in a final patriotic gesture, he played for the benefit of Polish refugees.

Chopin’s small output was mostly confined to solo piano; yet within its limited framework its range is seen to be vast, comprehending every variety of musical expression. Over 230 works of Chopin survive, some of his compositions from early childhood have been lost. All his known works involve the piano, and only a few range beyond solo piano music, as either piano concertos, songs or chamber music. He took the new salon genre of the nocturne (invented by the Irish composer John Field) to a deeper level of sophistication, he was also the first to write ballades and scherzi as individual concert pieces. He exploited the poetic potential of the concept of the concert étude, already being developed in the 1820s and 1830s by Liszt, Clementi and Moscheles, in his two sets of studies (Op. 10 published in 1833, Op. 25 in 1837).

He gained and has maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation."

Here  you can find a list of Frédéric Chopin's compositions.

Johann Strauss II

(25 October 1825, St. Ulrich - 3 June 1899, Vienna)

Giuseppe Verdi

(10 October 1813, Le Roncole - 27 January 1901, Milano)