Recorded at:		-
	Live / Studio		Studio
	Producer		-
	Balance engineer		-
	First LP Edition		BASF | 29 21195-9 | 2 LPs | durata 49' 14" - 48' 12" | (p) 1972
	First CD Edition		PILZ - ACANTA | 44 2189-2 | 2 CDs | durata 49' 14" - 48' 12" | (c) 1993 | ADD
	Note		-

Musik aus Schlössernb & Residenzen (20 CD Collection) Membran | 234355 | (c) 2016 (in CD 11 & 12)

Augsburg’s golden age in the field of music was the 16th Century. It was then that the Free Imperial City of Augsburg, the leading metropolis of trade at the time, was able to develop into one of the most important centres of music in Europe, a fact which was due to no small degree to the patronage of the Fugger family. The Thirty Years War, as well as political changes, seriously affected the city’s cultural life, however soon after 1648 the interest in music was revived anew. The Church was now joined by the middle classes in its efforts to foster music. „This is not the place where great singers or virtuosos can be well paid. Rather, it is more important that there are musicians who love their art and try to perfect their skills so as to satisfy their own keenness. As there is no shortage of such persons, various musicians can gain honour in concert performances.“ This was written in a contemporary city chronicle. In 1712 Philipp David Kräuter, the cantor and also one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s pupils founded a civil „collegium musicum“, which attracted many of Augsburg’s lovers of music and professional musicians. Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), the son of an Augsburg bookbinder, is bound to have received considerable stimulation from the activities of this group during his years at grammar school (up until 1737). Even after shifting to Salzburg, he still kept in close contact with the group, which was reorganized in 1752 and from then on was called the „Music-making Society at the Baker’s Hall“ („Musikübende Gesellschaft zum Beckenhaus“). Once a week music was played in the guildhall of the Augsburg bakers. Music was also played before a large audience at the inn „Zu den drei Königinnen“. In charge of this „eminent and praiseworthy collegium musician „ (Leopold Mozart’s words) was Anton Christoph Gignoux who, according to Mozart, „could not be spoken of highly enough“. Gignoux, an Augsburg manufacturer of calico and an amateur painter, was on friendly terms with the Mozart family. The orchestral works of Leopold Mozart enjoyed a high degree of popularity at this „Music-making Society“. In 1756, the year in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born, the divertimento „Die Bauernhochzeit“ („Peasant Wedding“) and „Die musikalische Schlittenfahrt“ („Musical Sleighride“) were accorded abundant applause when first performed at society concerts. As a result the Salzburger „by choice“, who was held in very high opinion in his native town, was asked to send more of his „musique“ to Augsburg. We can therefore assume that works such as the Concert for two Horns (1752), the Sinfonia di Camera with a solo violin and a solo horn (1755), the Sinfonia da caccia or Hunting Symphony (1756) and the Sinfonia burlesca (1760), remarkable for the absence of violins in the orchestra, were also heard here. The works referred to last were closely related to the popular symphonies „Peasant Wedding“ and „Musical Sleighride“. A certain instruction should be followed when playing the Hunting Symphony, the first movement of which is distinctly reminiscent of the Volkslied („folk song“) „Frisch auf zum fröhlichen Jagen“. According to the instructions given, it is necessary to have „several dogs which bark, the others must cry together ho ho etc., however only for 6 bars“. The Sinfonia burlesca indicates close relationship with the Comedia dell’ arte by virtue of the headings for movements 3 (II Signor Pantalone) and 4 (Harlequino). It may have been the music accompanying a pantomime. Among the composers in Augsburg Friedrich Hartmann Graf (1727-1795), the musical director of the Lutheran churches, was one who, above all, was regarded very highly. He came from Thuringia, had been in charge (for a time) – with Georg Philipp Telemann – of public concerts in Hamburg and, after lengthy and successful travels throughout Europe as a virtuoso flutist, was called to the Free Imperial City of Augsburg. In 1779 Paul von Stetten said the following about Graf s works for the flute: „The compositions for his favourite instrument are highly regarded by flute experts and are exceptionally popular, especially in England, Holland and Switzerland, as well as at German courts“. Graf – whom W. A. Mozart had judged too critically after their meeting in Augsburg in 1777 – set up a general „city concert enterprise“ in 1779. He later succeeded Johann Christian Bach as head of the Professional Concerts in London, was awarded a doctor of music from Oxford University and became an honorary member of the Musical Academy in Copenhagen, Franz Bühler (1760-1823), a generation younger than Graf, became Cathedral Kapellmeister („musical director“) in 1801 and thus occupied the most important position in Augsburg as far as catholic chapel music is concerned. As P. Gregor he had been a Benedicter for 10 years at the monastery „Hl. Kreuz“ in Donauwörth. Released from the Benedictine Order in 1794, he had then become an organist in Bozen. His numerous musical works for the Church, which were written with a light hand, were well-known for a long time throughout Southern Germany and beyond. Bühler’s instrumental compositons were less well-known however; the Grand Sonate for piano, clarinet 2 horns and string instruments, which was published in 1804, is the most noteworthy of all these compositions. Robert Münster