Release Date: 30 April 2006
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313245222
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: KRAUS
Description
Joseph Martin Kraus (1756–1792) Complete German Songs A contemporary of Mozart, born in the same year and dying in 1792, a year after Mozart's death, Joseph Martin Kraus was born in Miltenberg am Main, had his first musical training at Buchen im Odenwald, where he was a pupil at the Latin School, and from 1768 to 1773 continued his education as a scholar at the Jesuit High School in Mannheim, seat of the Elector Palatine until 1778. Mannheim had a distinguished place in the musical world of the time, its orchestra once described by Charles Burney as an 'army of generals', until 1778, when the Elector and most of his musicians moved to Munich. Kraus, however, benefited from instruction by leading members of the court musical establishment, then at the height of its fame, and from singing in the church and the theatre. From 1773 to 1775 he studied at the universities of Mainz, then of Erfurt, after which his education was interrupted by a libel case brought against his father, who had served as town clerk in Mainz. Kraus returned for a year or so to Buchen, using the period to develop his musical interests, in particular in a series of church compositions. In November 1777 he renewed his studies, now at Göttingen. It was this last that brought another strong literary influence to his work. In 1773 he had published in Mainz his Versuch von Schäfersgedichte (Pastoral Poems), and his oratorio Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus) of 1776 had been composed to his own text. In Göttingen he met members of the Göttinger Hainbund, a group of students and their friends under the literary influence of Klopstock and who were opposed to the formal conventions epitomized by Wieland. The group had come into being in September 1772 during the course of a moonlit walk through the woods, when those present, who included Hölty and Johann Heinrich Voss, who gave the group its name, joined hands to dance round an oak-tree. The name the league assumed derived from this event, which took place in a woodland grove (Hain) and from Klopstock's poem 'Der Hügel und der Hain'(The Hill and the Grove). Kraus became involved with this literary circle, dedicated to the poetic celebration of Nature, friendship and love, as it was nearing its end, although the influence of some of its members, notably Voss and Hölty, continued. In 1778 Kraus wrote his treatise Etwas von und über Musik fürs Jahr 1777 (Something of and about Music for the Year 1777), which remains of interest for its critical assessment of Anton Schweitzer's opera Alceste (Naxos 8.555925-26), a collaboration between Schweitzer and Wieland.In 1778 Kraus was persuaded by a Swedish fellow-student to go with him to Stockholm to see what opportunities might lie there. By 1781 he had begun to make a name for himself with appointment as assistant Kapellmästare in the court musical establishment and opera. King Gustavus III sent
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
