Recorded at:		-
	Live / Studio		Studio
	Producer		-
	Balance engineer		-
	First LP Edition		BASF | 29 21189-6 | 2 LPs | durata 49' 34" - 45' 25" | (p) 1972
	First CD Edition		PILZ - ACANTA | 44 2175-2 | 2 CDs | durata 37' 56" - 57' 03" | (c) 1993 | ADD
	Note		-

Musik aus Schlössernb & Residenzen (20 CD Collection) Membran | 234355 | (c) 2016 (in CD 5 & 6)

The Ries is a flat, fertile basin of volcanic origin lying between the Swabian and Franconian hills. Here, not far from Nördlingen, the Counts of Oettingen-Wallerstein had their residence. The family had lived in the district since the middle of the 16th century and their magnificent residence appears quite early in the annals of musical history. It was during the time of Count Kraft Ernst, however, that music at the Wallerstein Court really began to flourish. Kraft Ernst, soon to be made a Reichsprinz by the Emperor, on succeeding his father in 1773, immediately instituted a court chamber orchestra, engaging several excellent musicians, many of them Bohemian. In less than ten years the Prince had a fine orchestra of 11 violonists, 2 oboists, 2 flautists, 2 horn players, 1 bassoonist, 1 viola player, 1 cellist and 1 double-bass player. The Wallerstein court musicians were acclaimed by the writer Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, an observant chronicler of the period particularly in respect of its music, who admired their ability to produce „the most subtle and practically imperceptible gradations of tone“. No less an authority than Joseph Haydn himself affirmed that the Wallerstein Court Orchestra performed his symphonies with greater precision than any other orchestra he knew. The music collection in the Royal Harburg Library records that the Wallerstein court played works by masters of the Vienna and Mannheim Schools. The court made a point of keeping in constant touch with the international world of music, as the visits of both Mozart and Haydn to Wallerstein clearly show. The repertoire, however, included a large number of works by resident musicians as well, the first one of note being Ignaz Franz von Beecke, a friend of Gluck’s and well versed in the current musical trends in Paris and Mannheim. Franz Anton Rößler was in the service of the Oettingen-Wallerstein court for many years, as a double-bass player and as conductor of the orchestra. Like many of his contemporaries he italianized his name, being known as Antonio Rosetti. Rößler was born in 1750 in Northern Bohemia (near Leitmeritz). Much against his personal inclinations he was forced to enter Holy Orders, but eventually obtained a dispensation in order to devote himself entirely to music. In 1773 we find his name mentioned for the first time listed in the Wallerstein accounts. In 1789 he left the Wallerstein court to take up a more lucrative post at the court of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (in his last few years at Wallerstein he had been getting more and more heavily into debt). Schubart spoke of him as „one of the most popular composers“ of his day. Rößler’s Horn Concerto in F major, recorded here, was written during his time at Wallerstein. Joseph Reicha (uncle of the composer Antonin Reicha, the teacher friend of Beethoven) was born in 1746 at Klattau (Klatovy), South West Bohemia. He was a violoncellist of considerable distinction. For 11 years, from 1774 to 1785, he was in the service of the Oettingen-Wallerstein court, after which he obtained a post at the court of the Elector of Cologne. In 1789 he was appointed conductor of the new Electoral National Theatre Orchestra in Bonn, the orchestra in which from time to time the young Beethoven played the viola. Johann Georg Nisle, born at Geislingen (Württemberg) in 1731, was for several years hautboist in the Württemberg Ducal Guard at Ludwigsburg. In 1773 he entered the service of Prince Kraft Ernst at Oettingen-Wallerstein as a horn player and from 1777 until his death in 1788 held posts at the courts of Neuwied, Hildburghausen and Meiningen. Accompanied by his gifted sons, whom he set up as child prodigies, Nisle toured extensively, securing for himself a wide reputation as a horn virtuoso of phenomenal skill. Shortly after the death of Prince Kraft Ernst the principality of Oettingen-Wallerstein was annexed to the Kingdom of Bavaria. A year later, in 1807, the court orchestra had to be disbanded (the entire staff „with the exception of liveried servants“ was dismissed). It was not until 1812, when Prince Ludwig Kraft was able to take over the government, that court musical activities could be organised again. A court orchestra was re-formed, and in 1818 the distinguished musician Johann Andreas Amon was acquired as director. Once more music began to flourish at Wallerstein. Johann Andreas Amon, born in Bamberg in 1763, was a pupil of the famous horn virtuoso Johann Wenzel Stich (alias Giovanni Punto), a friend of Beethoven’s. An accomplished horn player himself, he undertook extensive concert tours, his travels taking him to Paris, where he studied composition with the successful opera composer, Antonio Salieri. He became a personal friend of both Haydn and Mozart. In 1789 he was appointed Municipal Director of Music at Heilbronn and in 1817 he entered the service of Prince Ludwig Kraft at Oettingen-Wallerstein, initially as director of the choir school. Amon composed works of all categories, one composition worth particular mention being a German Mass, which was a setting of words by Prince Ludwig Kraft. Hans-Christoph Worbs