Recorded at:		-
	Live / Studio		Studio
	Producer		-
	Balance engineer		-
	First LP Edition		BASF | 29 21194-0 | 2 LPs | durata 45' 29" - 40' 35" | (p) 1972
	First CD Edition		PILZ - ACANTA | 44 2163-2 | 2 CDs | durata 45' 29" - 40' 35" | (c) 1993 | ADD
	Note		-

Musik aus Schlössernb & Residenzen (20 CD Collection) Membran | 234355 | (c) 2016 (in CD 7 & 8)

Constructed in the first half of the 18th century and brilliantly decorated by the leading artists of the day, the superb, lavishly built Würzburg Residenz came to symbolize a culturally active court of which music, too, was an integral part. Under the patronage of the Prince-Bishops Friedrich Karl von Schönborn and Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim music here reached its zenith. Up until the middle of the eighteenth century all the important musical figures at the court, the Kapellmeisters and composers, were Italian, but later more and more local talent came to the fore. Without opera, concerts and festive church music court life was unthinkable. The court orchestra provided for both court ceremonial and pleasant diversion. As was customary at the smaller courts some of the musicians also served as valets or footmen or were otherwise employed. When, in 1802, as a result of the secularization of the ecclesiastical principalities, the Episcopal Palace of Wurzburg fell to Bavaria, music at the court had long been largely confined to church services, and, with the end of the Wurzburg Grand Duchy (1806 - 1814) court music ceased to exist altogether. For several decades the citizens of Wurzburg had been upholding the city’s musical tradition in lieu of the court. Thus after 1770 we find chamber music concerts being organized by various groups of music-lovers in the town and a Collegium musicum. In 1803 the city instituted something which was to set an example for the whole of Germany. The musical journal, Leipziger Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, reported in June 1804 that: „In Wurzburg there has been in existence for some time now an extremely well supported musical society made up of professional men, at the head of which was the young lawyer Herr Fröhlich, a most able musician in respect of both the theory and practice of the art. His fruitful efforts have procured for him now a position as... teacher and director with a salary of 400 guilders. For those young persons wanting to follow an academic course in music this is an institution indeed quite unique in Germany, and deserves to be copied by other universities.“ Thus Germany’s oldest state music academy came into being. Franz Joseph Fröhlich (1780- 1856), who was born in Wurzburg, directed the „Royal School of Music“, as it was then called, for no less than 54 years, during which time its reputation grew steadily, both as an institute of learning and as a concert centre. Unfortunately, as the result of wars, practically all of Fröhlich’s compositions have been lost. His Serenade for Wind Instruments and Strings, one of the very few works from his pen remaining to us, is indeed proof of his great ability. Joseph Küffner (1777 - 1856), son of a Wurzburg court Kapellmeister, was himself a court musician at Wurzburg and also a military director of music. After 1814 he devoted himself entirely to composing. According to one of his contemporaries Küffner believed „that by paying homage to contemporary taste he could reach a wider public and better recommend himself. His first three serenades were written for guitar, flute and alto and were received with rapturous applause.“ These attractive period pieces still have a definite appeal today, not least on account of the delightful way the three instruments are used. Küffner produced several hundred works altogether. He was held in considerable esteem in the mid-nineteenth century, as the following extract from Gaßner’s dictionary of music (1849) shows: „Küffner has proved himself to be an excellent composer and is highly regarded in all countries. He leads a simple life, his little house and garden cut off from the rest of the world, so neat, pretty and clean that one is almost envious, and showing from its exterior that it is the home of a contented man.“ Although Küffner being a fashionable composer was undoubtedly very popular, Friedrich Witt (1770 - 1836) must be regarded as Wurzburg’s greatest musician after the turn of the century. Witt was the last of the Wurzburg court Kapellmeisters and continued to run the city’s music after 1814 as well, directing church, theatre and concert performances. His name recently became known again in our century when it was discovered that he was the real composer of the „Jena“ Symphony, previously thought to be an early work of Beethoven’s. Before moving to Wurzburg he was employed at the court of the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein as violoncellist and took lessons there from Antonio Rosetti, who was the court Kapellmeister at the time. At the Wallerstein court solo concertos for one or two horns enjoyed much popularity and consequently Witt was also inspired to write some. His concert in F major for two horns, a work demanding a considerable amount of technical accomplishment, certainly justifies the contemporary allusion to „the brilliant wealth, the forcefulness and diversity of his ideas“. It is not without fascination to recall that the young Richard Wagner worked under Friedrich Witt, when the latter was choral director at the Wurzburg theatre, and composed his first opera „Die Feen“, there. Dr. Robert Münster