Release Date: 01 January 2000
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099440929
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BENDA, J. A.
Description
Jiri Antonin Benda (1722-1795)Sinfonias Vol. 2Sinfonia No. 7 in D MajorSinfonia No. 8 in D MajorSinfonia No. 9 in A MajorSinfonia No. 10 in G MajorSinfonia No. 11 in F MajorSinfonia No. 12 in A MajorThe Benda family has occupied an important and continuing placein music in Germanyfor some 250 years. The founder of the musical dynasty, Jan JiriBenda, was born in 1686 in a village in Bohemia and combined thetrades of weaver and musician. He married Dorota Brixi, a member of the Skalskobranch of a distinguished family of Czech musicians, and five of their sixchildren became musicians, working in Germany. There the eldest son ofthe family, Frantisek, composer of some eighty violin sonatas and fifteenconcertos, entered the service of the Prussian Crown Prince, continuing as Konzertmeister after the latter's accession to the throneas Frederick the Great. Frantisek Benda was acolleague of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Potsdam, where both showeda certain originality in an otherwise musically conservative court, the formermore notably in his violin concertos. In 1742, two years after Frederick'saccession, the Benda family joined Frantisek in Potsdam. The second son,Jan Jiri Benda, had alsoentered the service of the Crown Prince as a viola-player, continuing hisservice at Potsdamas a violinist, while the fourth, Joseph Benda,joined the Prussian royal orchestra in 1742 and later succeeded his eldestbrother as Konzertmeister. A daughter of the family,Anna, found a career for herself as Kamrnersangerinin the service of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, on therecommendation of her brother Jiri Antonin. In Gotha she married the courtviolinist and composer Dismas Hatas.Jiri Antonin Benda, known in German asGeorg Benda, was born in1722 at Stare Benatky andhad his schooling in Bohemia before moving in1742 with the rest of his family to join his brother Frantisek at Potsdam, where he becamea violinist in the court orchestra. In 1750 he became Kapellmeister to Duke Friederich III of Saxe-Gotha. Gothahad long and distinguished musical traditions, to which Bendacontributed, breaking new ground there with his Italian opera seria Xindo riconnosciuto, written for the Duchess Luise Dorothea. There followed a period in Italy forfurther study which resulted in the composition of two Intermezzi, Il buon marito and Il nuovo maestro di capella, performed in Gotha in 1766 and 1767. More significantly he was largelyresponsible for giving wide popularity to the form of melodrama. His early andvery successful attempts at the genre were written after the arrival in Gotha in 1774 of the theatricaltroupe directed by the Swiss actor Abel Seyler, acompany which had been active in Hanover and Weimar. For the Seyler troupe Benda wrote hismelodramas Ariadne auf Naxos, Medea and Pygmalion, the first two of which aroused the admiration of Mozart,who heard performances in Mannheimand planned something of the same kind on the subject of Semiramide. Bendaalso wrote a series of Singspiel for the Gotha the
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
