Vanhal: Violin Concertos In G Major, B Flat Major, And G Major

Description

Johann Baptist Vaňhal (1739-1813) Violin ConcertosDespite his popularity and wide recognition as one of Vienna's foremost composers, relatively little is known about Haydn's close contemporary Johann Baptist Vaňhal (Wanhal). One of the most interesting aspects of his career is that he made a decision relatively early in life to live as a freelance musician rather than accept the post of Kapellmeister to his patron, Baron Riesch. Paul Bryan, the leading Vaňhal authority, has suggested that his motivation for doing so can be traced to his origins as the son of bonded parents. Having literally purchased his freedom in the 1760s, he had no intention of ever again exposing himself to the whims of a capricious employer, preferring instead to live entirely on his wits. His freelance career was very successful and in some respects mirrored that of Mozart. He taught, composed on commission, and turned increasingly to publication as a means of earning his living. During the latter part of his career he abandoned writing the symphonies that had won him fame throughout Europe and turned instead to the composition of works based around the keyboard. These included not only a large number of sonatas, sets of variations, dances and other small-scale works, but also imaginative programmatic works such as The Battle of Trafalgar and Death of the English Admiral Nelson (1806). While it is true to say that by 1813, the year of his death, Vaňhal was considered something of a relic from the past, his keyboard music continued to be played by amateurs and his church works, of which he composed many, remained at the heart of the repertory for decades.Vaňhal was a prolific and popular composer of concertos. His total output, which runs to over sixty works, can be compared with that of Leopold Hofmann whose concertos also enjoyed great popularity during the 1760s and 1770s. Like Hofmann, Vaňhal did not write concertos exclusively for his own use, although he doubtless played a number of them when and where occasion demanded. There is little way of knowing for whom the majority of them were written, given the scope of his freelance activities, but the fact that so many of the works were published – or found their way into contemporary thematic catalogues – suggests that he sought a wide public for them. As one would expect, the most important works numerically are the keyboard concertos, twenty in number, and the seventeen violin concertos. Vaňhal, who also played the violoncello, composed three concertos for viola, four for violoncello, two for double bass, five for oboe or flute, and four for bassoon. It is impossible to assign accurate composition dates to any of the concertos although corroborative dating from contemporary catalogues, publishers' announcements, and the evolution of Vaňhal's style, makes it possible at least to group the works into three broad categories: early con