18th-Century Symphony 8554761 The World of the 18th-Century Symphony .- - - The World of the Eighteenth-Century Symphony The qmphony in its vaiow guises was cultivated ultimately a Viennese achievement, during the middle by comp,sers of every nation, state and principality decades of the eightwnth eentury many of the most dUring the eighteenth centmy. From Auseia to the influential sympbonists were working at thecourt ofthe Americas, from Mannheim to Moscow, symphonies Elector Palatine, Prince Karl Tkwlor* at Mamheii. were penned in their thousands by ge~uses,dullards, Among the fmt genemfion of compose^^ working itinerant virtuosi and amateurs, both taiented and at Mannheim were Johann St&, Franz Xavier unlalented. Over 16,000 symphonies have been Richter and lgnaz Holzbauer, an of whom wrote large identified to date, of which those of Haydn and Mozart numbers of symphonies. Together they establi$hed a account for around 1%. Even when the names of high reputation for the musical activities of the ewrt impoaant secondq figwes are added, such as Carl and camfully nu& its continuation through a second Philipp Emanuel Baeh, lohann Christian Baeh, Carl generation of composers, among whom were Stamia's Dittors von Dinersdorf and Johann Baptist Vailhal. the sons Carl and Anron, lris star pupil Fnrnz lgaaz Beck, percentage of this repertoire which is in any way familias who worked most of his life in FI~w, and his is minuscule. Naxos is committed to changing this and successor as diitor of the emorchestra. Christian its landmark series The Eigltteentiz Cea~NnySyr~rphony, Cannabich. As gifted players and accomplished undertaken in Conjunction with the New Zealand composers, these two generations of musicians publishing house Artaria Editions, is already proving a developed an orchestra and styie of orchesrai playing veritable treagun trove of wonderful, unknown music. that was widely regarded as being without peer. Much H'itoty is selective though cruel. Many of the of out modern orchestral performance practice ean be composers repnsented on this rec~rdingare unfamiliar Wed to this famws orchestra to audiences today and yet, in their own lifetimes, they More important than the size and discipline of the were considered major musical figures. Their works Manuheim orchestra was the way composers wrote for often riraUed those of Haydn and Mozart in popularity it. The use of whd instruments in the orchesm may and each composer in hi own way made a distinctive have come to Mannhcirn via Paris but the local and important conuibutionto the evolution of the genre. composers were singularly adept at using them. Even This recording focuses principally on composers more striking was the stock of o~hesraieffects refined who worked in Mannheim and Vinna, although it also and exploited by the Mannheimers such as the thrilling includes works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the crescerrdo, heard on this resording in the example by foremost representative of the Nonh German symphonic Johann Stamitz;The MWirsalso evolved certain tradition, Johann Christian Bach, whose sunny ltalianate stock melodic patterns, among them the vigorons rising fityle captivated the young Mmand Joseph Martin triadic Byre colourfully described as the 'Manobein Kraus, a man both Haydn aad Gluck considered a Rockett, used to great effect here by Fm@-Joseph blazing genius and whose best work was written for the Gossec. This predilection for orchestral display in the glittering coun of Gustav IIl in Stockholm. symphonies of the Mannheim composers was encouraged by another critical factor in its MannheIm & Paris - The Ylrtuoso Orchestra development: the practice of composing mh for While the fully-fledged classical symphony was performance in front of a large, public audience. The Mannheim style was p~cularlypopular in connasts of mood, extreme modulatim and abrupt Paris and local publishers issued wofks by most of its closes, hdmarks of the so-called E~~~pJi~adxw~terStil of lead'mg exp8nents. Tbe origins af Ibis popularity may which Baclr is the supme repmentative. be traced to S!amitz's residen~ein Paris for a season in Emaaue1 Bach pwessed one of the mast original the mid-175k although it is &ely that many of his musical mbds af Ihe century, albeit it one that reflected works were well-known there before this date. One local attiludes. In some respects his musical style Pads resident who certaialy feu under his spell was rhe represents a brilliant dead end but h infloenee on young Walloon composer Gossec, who played for a Haydn ancl later on Beahoven ensured that its spirit rime in Stamitz's omhestra. eventually triumphed. In terms of the cightwnth-cenhny symphony it is The Sons of FQch - The North-South Divide hard to imagine a greater conttast than between the The two most influential sons of J.S. Baeh, Carl nervous, flighty briliiee of Emanuel Bach's works Philipp Emanuel and fohann Christian, represent the and the suave, polished, worldliness of those of his North-South divide of the eighteenth-century youngest brother and former pupil, Joham Christian. symphonic tradition. Lie many musicians of the period - but unlike The north of Germany was a relative backwater in memtrem of his own family - Johann Christian Bach the evolution of the symphony. North German writers was attracted by Italy. In 1956 he became a pnpil of on music, reflecting a long tradition of serious- Padre Martini in Bologna and, after convetting to mindedness, regarded the new genre - and indeed the Catholicism, was appointed organist at Milan new style in general - with contempt, considering it Cathedral. Baeh very quickly turned his attentions to frivolous and indulgent. The very patnes ofthelr own opera and consequently to the Italian opera sinfonia. In musical tradition blinded many eritics and composers to 1762 he moved to London where he wan great sueceu the importance of the revolution occurring elsewhere. as a composer of opun and as music master to Queen Through a combination of natural conservatism, Sophie Charlotte. Bach's famous concerts at the stubbornness and pride, the north of Germany slid into Hanover Square Rooms, mounted in partnership with a lingering Baroque twilight. the Geman composer and viola da gmba virtuoso Carl In 1768 C.P.E. Bach managed to secure his release Friedrich Abel, were the finest in Landon. from the stifling court pf Frederick the Great, where he Christian Bach's early professional exposure to had spent the last 28 years as court harpsichordist, to Itaan opera and instrumental eomposition left an take up the coveted post of music director in Homburg. indelible mark on his style. He was an unrivalled After Berlin and Potsdam, Hamburg came as a breath of exponent of the galant style and his extraord'mary fresh air to Baeh and. h?ce of the blinkered, conservative melodic gifts, coupled with clear, concise formal tastes of the King, he was able to adopt a lighter, freer thinking and sparkling orchestration, struck an style of composition. irnmdtate chmd with Mozart. The 'Hamburg' Sinfonias date from 1773 and were The Sir Syr~lplionfes, Op. 3. also known as commissioned by the future patron of Haydn and O~wrta~es,wne published in 1765 in London and also Mom, Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Many of C.P.E. circulated widely on the Continent. Short in duration Bach's most characteristic touches can be found in these hnt rich in invention, the Op. 3 Syr~rphonies are symphonies; energetic frrttis abound; there are sudden miniature masterpieces of their kind. Vienna - Developlnent and Expansion symphonies than Hohann and over a much bnger While the Marmheim fever was sweeping Parieand period. There is a huge stylistic range in his works fmm Christian Bach was writkg his stunning Italianate descriptive and programmatic symphbnEes Like those symphonies in post-Handelian London, a generation of based on Ovid's Metm~to~pltoses,to powerful, absolute young Vinnese composers clearly believed that the works like the G minor Synplrony of around 1768. symphony as a genre was capable of radical Dittersdorf was also an inveterate expedmenter with developmenr and expansion. structure. In this symphony he anticipates the Fitrale by In spite of the fame of the Mannheim court and its incorporating a dose simulation of its development leading composers, the Mannheim style did not exert a sealon in tbe anplogous place in the first movement strong influence on the developing Viennese symphony. What seems bizarre at the wining of the work is From a comparatively early date it appears as if revealed as supremely logical at the end! Viennese composersmognked that there was a Iimit to Johann Baptist Vaal was also a prolific the number of times the same old bag of orchestrat sympk~nistand his finest works can easily be compared tricks could be employed and that the future of the gem to those af Hayda Vaahal worked as a freelance lay less in surface effect than in musical substance. Tlre composw and teacher in Vienna and this dictated to a greatest symphonist of the period, Haydn, has been certain extent what he composed. During the prosperous largely given the credit for transforming the symphony 17M)s many wealthy noblemen maintained standing from light entertainment music into a vehicle capable of orchestras and there was, as a consequence, an insatiable expressing the most profound musical thoughts. While demand for new symphonies. Veilbal, like Uofmann, he was the most spectmularIy successful in this he was Dittersdorf and others, was only too happy to oblige. As not alone in his endeavoars. ihe economy weakened and many of Vienna's pd~te Among Haydn's immediate Viennese contempor- archastras were disbanded, the demand for new aries three composers stand out: Laopold Hofmann, symphonies tailed off. Hofmann stopped writing them in Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and 3ohmn Baptist Vailhal.