Recorded at:		-
	Live / Studio		Studio
	Producer		-
	Balance engineer		-
	First LP Edition		BASF | 29 21191-6 | 2 LPs | durata 46' 31" - 40' 32" | (p) 1972
	First CD Edition		PILZ - ACANTA | 44 2173-2 | 2 CDs | durata 46' 31" - 40' 32" | (c) 1993 | ADD
	Note		-

Musik aus Schlössernb & Residenzen (20 CD Collection) Membran | 234355 | (c) 2016 (in CD 3 & 4)

The numerous manuscripts which, in the 18th and 19th centuries, were in the possession of Southern German princely families and which are now awaiting ressurrection in libraries and archives are of inestimable musical value. They date from a culturally rich period in which numerous princes maintained their private operas and orchestras and rivalled one another in attracting the best composers and musicians: Danzi, Cannabich, Rosetti Reicha, Fiala and Kalliwoda were in their time highly estimated orchestra leaders, who composed music in order to entertain and to display the dignity of those who reigned by the Grace of God. In Germany the name „Thurn and Taxis“ is inseparably bound up with the origins of a postal service. The connection goes right back to the end of the 15th century when members of the family began to set up postal links between all the larger towns of the „Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation“. The family, which originally came from Northern Italy, working with great resourcefulness and energy, gradually established a permanent and reliable service. A hereditary title was created, and, in 1615, the family of Thurn and Taxis was officially appointed Postmaster General to the Empire. In 1624 Lamoral von Taxis was given the title of count and in 1695 Eugen Alexander was made a Reichsprinz. The family residence, during the 16th century in Brussels and after 1702 in Frankfurt on Main, was, in 1748, transferred to Regensburg, the seat of the permanent Reichstag (Parliamentary Diet). This move was brought about by Prince Alexander Ferdinand’s additional appointment as Chief Commissioner of the Reich, a post which necessitated his continual presence in Regensburg, where he had to represent the Emperor at the Reichstag. This office was held by the Thurn and Taxis family right up to the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. The duties involved were mainly ceremonial. On the occasion of the Emperor’s accession to the throne it was the Prince to whom the city paid homage. Soon after moving to Regensburg Alexander Ferdinand had assembled his own court orchestra, and by 1755 we find 14 court musicians listed in the „Etat de la musique“. By 1760 the princes had opened their own French theatre. Prince Carl Anselm, who took over the title in 1773, was even fonder of music and the theatre than his father had been. His enthusiasm and generosity enabled the orchestra to expand and the court theatre to be enlarged. The Prince appointed Theodor Freiherr von Schacht, who had been in the service of the family since 1771, as Director of the Court Music and Opera. Under the Prince’s generous patronage von Schacht succeeded in creating a flourishing musical centre. First-rate instrumentalists were acquired for the court orchestra, many of them from foreign countries. Croes from the Netherlands, Kaffka and Pokorny from Bohemia, Touchemolin from France and two Italian virtuoso wind players, Agostinelli and Palestrini were all engaged at Regensburg. Schacht could justifiably boast in a letter of 30.1.1796, „Since anno 1773 I have been in charge as director of the department and flatter myself that I have attained for His Highness’s orchestra a reputation of the first order.“ Schacht spared no effort to provide a continual flow of new works to delight his music-loving Serene Highness, works representative of very contemporary trend. The royal collection in Regensburg today contains music by 378 different composers. The repertoire was also enriched by contributions from a number of Thurn and Taxis musicians. The content of the 3000 manuscripts and prints that make up the Regensburg collection clearly indicates that the wind instruments enjoyed the greatest popularity at the Thurn and Taxis court. As well as numerous flute and oboe concertos there are concertos for clarinet, basset horn, bassoon and horn. It is from these that we have made our selection for this recording. Theodor von Schacht, the composer of the Clarinet Concerto in B flat, was born in Strasbourg in 1748. After his early musical training in Regensburg, where he studied under Küffner and Riepel, both court musicians, he went to Stuttgart in 1766. There he became a pupil of the Italian composer Jommelli. Two years after returning to Regensburg in 1771 he was appointed Director of Court Music, a post he retained until his retirement in 1805. Between 1774 and 1778 and from 1784 until the closure of the court theatre in 1786 he was also Musical Director for Italian Opera. In the summer of 1805 Schacht journeyed to Vienna in the hope of finding some official recognition of his musical ability there. This successful enterprise was crowned by meetings with the Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven’s friend, and Emperor Napoleon I, the latter commissioning six masses from him. Schacht returned to Germany in 1812. He died in 1823 in Regensburg, where 17 years earlier, in 1806, the court orchestra had been disbanded. There are 155 works by Schacht in the Regensburg collection, including 25 symphonies, 37 concertos, 21 sacred works and 5 operas. Franz Xaver Pokorny was born in Bohemia in 1728. In 1753 he became a court musician at the court of Count Oettingen-Wallerstein and in 1754 studied composition in Mannheim under Stamitz, Holzbauer and Richter. In 1770 he left Oettingen at his own request and entered the service of Thurn and Taxis in Regensburg, where he worked as violinist and composer up until his death in 1794. The Regensburg collection has 198 works by Pokorny, most of them scored in his own hand. In addition to 109 symphonies there are 66 concertos, divertimenti, serenades and other chamber music compositions. Karl Friedrich Abel was born in Cöthen in 1723. He was a skilled player of the bass viol and was a member of the Dresden Court Chapel from 1748 to 1758. He went to London in 1759 and settled there, introducing, in partnership with the „English Bach“, Johann Christian, the famous series of concertos known as the Bach-Abel concerts. He died in London in 1787. His compositions show close links with the Mannheim school and, probably for this reason, found particular favour at the Regensburg court. As well as his Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet, Violin and Orchestra, recorded here, there are 12 symphonies included in the Regensburg collection. On the original copies of the solo parts used in our recording we can see the names of the Regensburg soloists written in Schacht’s own hand: the oboist Hanisch, the clarinetist Schierl and the violinist Kaffka – all members of the Thurn and Taxis court orchestra for many years. Franz Anton Hoffmeister was born at Rottenburg on Neckar in 1754. He turned to music at an early age and eventually became one of Vienna’s best-known music publishers, publishing many of the works of his famous contemporaries (Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven). He died in Vienna in 1812. Hoffmeister was a much respected composer himself, and, included in the numerous publications that Schacht obtained from him were many works of his own. At Regensburg there are copies of the orchestral parts for 8 symphonies, a flute concerto and the clarinet concerto recorded here, as well as printed editions of 21 string quartets. Hugo Angerer