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Leopold KOŽELUCH Joseph der Menschheit Segen (Masonic Cantata) Simona Eisinger, Soprano Siegfried Gohritz, Speaker Filip Dvořák, Harpsichord Czech Boys Choir Boni Pueri Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice Marek Štilec Leopold Koželuch (1747–1818) Leopold Joseph der Menschheit Segen As early as 1772 the English musician and music historian Koželuch, born in Velvary, a small town northwest of KOŽELUCH Dr Charles Burney described Vienna as ‘the imperial seat Prague, may have begun his musical training in just this (1747–1818) of music as well as of power’, drawing his readers’ kind of environment, but his advanced education took attention to the presence there of a number of gifted and place in Prague where he studied counterpoint and vocal Joseph der Menschheit Segen, PosK XIX: 3 (c. 1783) 33:20 highly productive composers. Its rise in importance as a writing with his cousin, Jan Antonín Koželuch (1738– 1(Text: Leopold Föderl, 1748–1817) musical centre was due largely to a decision made in the 1814) and piano and instrumental composition with 2 Introduzione. Adagio – Allegro 5:40 late 16th century to transfer the court from Prague to František Xaver Dušek (1731–1799). Dušek, a former 3 Coro. Andante (Segen kam auf uns hernieder …) 3:13 Vienna. Where the court went the nobility followed, and pupil of Georg Christoph Wagenseil in Vienna, was the 4 Melodrama. Allegro (Einst goß sich Barbarei …) 4:44 Vienna soon eclipsed Prague as the greatest city in the leading keyboard teacher in Prague and a highly far-flung Habsburg dominions. Like any imperial city, accomplished composer of instrumental music. Under his 5 Aria. Andante (Von ihm quoll Segen auf uns nieder ...) 2:46 Vienna was a magnet for talented and ambitious artists guidance Koželuch (who changed his name to Leopold to Coro. Allegro (Er schenkte Freiheit unsern Hallen …) 2:45 6 and musicians from all over Europe, but one group in avoid confusion with his cousin) developed into an Melodrama. Moderato (Heil Menschheit dir! …) 4:26 7 particular was unusually successful: the Bohemians. In the exceptional pianist and a composer of great promise. A 8 Aria. Adagio (Trockne sanft die heissen Zähren …) 4:25 middle decades of the 18th century, many of the leading flirtation with studying law was abandoned after the 9 Melodrama. Allegro maestoso (Wie herrlich schön …) 2:41 musical figures in Vienna were Bohemians, among them successful performance of his first ballets and Coro. Allegretto (Dem Maurer Bunde true zu handeln …) 2:40 Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787), Florian Leopold pantomimes in Prague, and in 1778 he moved to Vienna 0 Gassmann (1729–1774), Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739– to pursue a career as a professional musician. Koželuch’s Aria in B flat ‘Umbra noctis orbem tangit’, PosK XXV: 5 (after 1783) 6:12 1813) and Leopold Koželuch, while in other European reputation as a pianist, teacher and composer was (Text: unknown) centres composers such as Josef Mysliveček (1737–1781) sufficiently well established by 1781 for him to decline the ! and Antonio Rosetti (c. 1750–1792) enjoyed deserved position as court organist to the Archbishop of Salzburg Aria in E flat ‘Quaeso ad me veni, sponse divine’, PosK XXV: 4 (c. 1782) 6:11 fame as composers of international stature. made vacant by Mozart’s dismissal. He began publishing (Text: unknown) Visitors to Bohemia were universally impressed by the his own works by 1784 and in 1785 he founded a music high quality of the musicians there. Burney observed that publishing house (the Musikalisches Magazin) which was Missa in C, PosK XXV: 1 (date unknown) 11:54 he ‘had frequently been told that the Bohemians were the later managed by his younger brother, Antonín Tomáš (Text: Ordinarium Misae) most musical people of Germany, or, perhaps, of all Koželuch (1752–1805). Koželuch also cultivated @ Europe’, but on visiting there he realised that this apparent publishers elsewhere in Europe and his works seem to # Kyrie. Andante 2:02 musicality was firmly rooted in excellent teaching: have been particularly successful in London. It is $ Gloria. Allegro moderato 1:40 testimony to Koželuch’s reputation that the Bohemian % Credo. Allegro moderato 2:08 I found at length, that, not only in every large Estates commissioned him to compose a cantata for the ^ Sanctus. Adagio 1:05 town, but in all villages, where there is a reading coronation in Prague of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. & Benedictus. Andante 2:15 and writing school, children of both sexes are The success of this work almost certainly played a part in * Agnus Dei. Adagio 1:41 taught music … I went into the school [in Čáslav], Koželuch’s appointment in June 1792 as Kammer Dona nobis pacem. Allegro 1:38 which was full of little children of both sexes, from Kapellmeister and Hofmusik Compositor at the court of six to ten or eleven years old, who were reading, Leopold’s successor, Emperor Franz II. Klage auf den Todt Marien Theresien, PosK XIX: 1 (c. 1781) 9:51 writing, playing on violins, hautbois, bassoons, In 1797 Koželuch received a letter from the Scottish (Text: Michael Denis, 1729 –1800) and other instruments. The organist had in a song collector and publisher George Thomson inviting ( small room of his house four clavichords, with him to take over from Ignaz Pleyel the task of arranging ) Largo (Von meinem ersten Knabenalter …) 3:14 little boys practicing on them all: his son of nine the songs he had selected for inclusion in his ambitious A ¡ Andante (Er leiht sie nimmer länger …) 4:05 years old, was a very good performer. Select Collection of Scotish [sic] National Airs . Having Largo (Und nun herab, du falber Winterkranz! ...) 2:32 agreed on the terms, which also included a commission to as it did to non-Roman Catholic faiths. This important movements cast in the same key. In Joseph , this does not resemblance ends. The range of the soprano part write a series of accompanied sonatas incorporating change in status quickly led to a rapid expansion in happen: the overture is in G major and the final chorus is exceeds two octaves, employs frequent large intervallic Scots airs, Koželuch set to work with a purpose and numbers of professed members of the craft, and growing in B flat major. Instead of considering tonal relationships skips, but otherwise does not indulge in too many vocal proved in short order to be an excellent if at times rather somewhat alarmed, Joseph responded in 1785 by between the various movements in terms of musical fireworks. The mastery of compositional technique that testy collaborator. The scope of the project, which signalling a far-reaching reorganisation of the lodges. This structure, Koželuch chooses his keys according to their Koželuch displays in his symphonies is also evident in this expanded to include Welsh and Irish folksongs, and caused many lukewarm masons to resign or drift away expressive qualities. Thus, we see a sequence of work in which he maintains a skilful balance between Koželuch’s teaching and duties connected with his court from the craft and by the late 1780s, Freemasonry was no tonalities that carefully matches the structure of the text: expressive text-setting and larger structural concerns. position, inevitably had an impact on his own work and longer the political or social force it had been. G–E flat–C minor–D–B flat–E flat –G–B flat. Expressed as The second aria, Quaeso ad me veni, sponse divine, from around 1804 his productivity as a composer Koželuch’s Joseph der Menschheit Segen is a a series of key characteristics typical of those described PosK XXV: 4 , is a radical reworking of the cantata Quanta declined. masonic cantata and was performed for the first time on 1 by 18th-century musical theorists, the work progresses è mai tormentosa, PosK XIX: 2 , composed c. 1782. Koželuch was an influential figure as a pianist and September 1783 at three Viennese lodges: ‘Zu den drei from a feeling of true friendship and faithful love (G major) Koželuch’s original setting included obbligato parts for contemporary writers credited him with playing an Adlern’, ‘Zur gekrönten Hoffnung’ and ‘Zur Beständigkeit’. to aspiration for a better world (B flat major). Koželuch’s fortepiano and violin, which, in the present version, are important role in the development of an idiomatic style of Like Mozart’s masonic works, it was composed for placement of the two E flat movements is similarly careful. replaced by violin and clarinet. The work has a two-part piano playing at a time when the harpsichord was still performance within the masonic sphere rather than for a The key is heard first in the opening chorus where the structure: a Largo aria followed by a brisk, cheerful widely played. Like his compatriot Wanhal – and to a wider audience. The author of the text, Leopold Föderl number three is further emphasised by the three-part Alleluja chorus. The slow tempo of the aria rules out the certain extent, Mozart – Koželuch derived a significant (1748–1817), an ordained priest and professor of poesie choir, and returns in the second aria, a movement of great bravura passage-work that is all too often regarded as the proportion of his income from teaching. It was important at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Vienna, was a beauty. D major, the brightest key employed in the work hallmark of virtuosity, but it nonetheless demands a therefore that his output as a composer reinforced his dedicated mason who wrote a considerable number of and associated with ideas of victory and rejoicing, is singer who not only possesses a wide vocal range but reputation as a leading exponent of his instrument.