Recorded at:		-
	Live / Studio		Studio
	Producer		-
	Balance engineer		-
	First LP Edition		BASF | 29 21142-8 | 2 LPs | durata 40' 07" - 42' 12" | (p) 1972
	First CD Edition		PILZ - ACANTA | 44 2178-2 | 2 CDs | durata 40' 07" - 42' 12" | (c) 1993 | ADD
	Note		-

Musik aus Schlössernb & Residenzen (20 CD Collection) Membran | 234355 | (c) 2016 (in CD 1 & 2)

Few courts in southern Germany have such a fine musical tradition as the Court of Donaueschingen. This rather sleepy residence of the Princes of Fürstenberg serves as a model for unconventional and unbureaucratic music-making. During the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century the court orchestra there enjoyed a high standard of achievement, and since 1921 Donaueschingen has been a favourite centre for contemporary music. Whereas during the Renaissance and Baroque periods the music of this court was only of significance locally, the establishing, around 1762, of a proper court orchestra under the patronage of Prince Joseph Wenzel, himself a good pianist and cellist, saw the advent of a musical era that was to flourish right up to the death of Prince Karl Egon II in 1853. Each week at the palace three concerts of chamber music were given in which artists of international fame often took part. In 1766, for instance, Leopold Mozart and his children performed there. Unfortunately the works for violoncello which Mozart had to write under the watchful eye of the Prince have been lost. The court’s connection with the Mozart family was kept up for a long time. As late as 1786 Mozart sent the Prince a list of his „latest births“, at the same time offering his services as court composer. Up until this time the repertoire of the court orchestra had consisted mainly of works by masters of the Mannheim and Viennese schools, and a few by Bohemian composers. From 1789 onwards the music at the court was in the hands of Karl Joseph von Hampeln, a concert violinist and quartet player from Munich. It was he who managed to procure the services of several distinguished performers and composers. Among them was, for example, the oboist and composer Joseph Fiala, whom Mozart regarded very highly. „An adornment to the orchestra“, Kala was employed at Donaueschingen from 1792 as oboist, cellist and viol player. Mozart had made his acquaintance in Munich in 1777 at a concert of music for wind instruments, and said of him: „One can easily tell they have been trained by Kala. They played some of his pieces, and I must say they are really attractive. He has good ideas.“ Fiala, for his part, admired Mozart’s works tremendously. Leopold Mozart, however, did not always entirely trust his son’s admirer: „Questo uomo non fa confidenza ai suoi amici, come gia sapete, é Boemo.“ Fiala died at Donaueschingen in 1816, highly esteemed and revered. Mozart's opinion of his works is fully confirmed by his Quartet for Oboe and String Trio presented on this recording. In 1790 the court orchestra still comprised only 18 players, but with the onset of the Romantic movement and the appointment by Prince Egon II of Konradin Kreutzer as court Kapellmeister it was to reach hitherto unattained heights. Kreutzer took up his post on September 20th, 1818, and remained there until March 1822 as director of the orchestra, which in the meantime had increased to 28 players. Under Kreutzer’s direction there were weekly concerts of high niveau. He wrote that he was now „swimming in music“, and that, encouraged by the Prince, every member of the orchestra was „inspired by great enthusiasm for and delight in his art“, and that visitors expressed their „amazement at the precision and impressiveness of this small orchestra“. Some of his more important works were written at Donaueschingen, including the Scenes from Faust, his Te Deum, his Septet Opus 62 (which shows a marked indebtedness to Beethoven’s Opus 20) and his Quartet for Clarinet and String Trio. The compositions recorded here, the first of Kreutzer’s numerous works to be issued, reveal a master, who pledged himself to the German Romantic movement at its very outset, and, who, without any doubt, had great musical personality. In December of the year 1822 yet another important personage in European musical life took on the post of court Kapellmeister and composer at Donaueschingen. It was the Bohemian violin virtuoso and composer Johannes Wenceslaus Kalliwoda, who already enjoyed an international reputation. A close friend of Carl Maria von Weber, and held in high esteem by many of the German Romantics, he seemed destined for a brilliant career. No less a person than Robert Schumann acclaimed in Kalliwoda’s 5th Symphony „the delicacy and sweetness prevailing in all the movements, its numerous fine and subtle features and its brilliant instrumentation“. His work at Donaueschingen, which continued until 1850, his international reputation as a composer and his instrumental music – regrettably completely unknown today – would justify devoting an entire recording to this „lesser master of the German Romantic movement“. For this reason we shall not go into any more details of his work here. Instead, for our present purposes, we shall turn our attention elsewhere. An outstanding characteristic of the court at Donaueschingen was its readiness to accept the „modern“ music of the beginning of the 19th century. To illustrate this we are introducing on record for the first time the work of an unjustly forgotten German composer of great merit, Andreas Späth, whose name means something to only few present-day musicologists. As Kapellmeister to the Duke of Gotha and Coburg Späth accompanied him on long journeys all over Europe, taking in Vienna „in order to study the finer points of composition there.“ His works were published by Schott – Mainz, Andre – Offenbach, and Paccini – Paris, and were sold all over Europe. His Nonet Instrumental, which, like all his compositions, has never before been recorded, was composed in 1840 and is dedicated to Karl Egon III of Fürstenberg. The basis for our recording is an autograph from the library at Donaueschingen. It only remains to be said that it is not the purpose of this box to present the entire musical history of Donaueschingen. We have, instead, selected a number of items of musical value, intending to attract the attention of the musical world to a city and a court that, through the boldness of its ventures both past and present, is a living monument to music. Dieter Klöcker