Sperger: String Symphonies

Description

Johannes MatthiasSperger (1750-1812)Symphonies in C, F andB flat majorJohannes Matthias Sperger was among the more prolific composers of histime. Nevertheless his contemporary reputation rested largely on his abilitiesas a player of the double bass, an instrument for which he wrote eighteenconcertos, as a performer using a five-string bass with various tunings. Bornin Feldsberg, the modern Valtice, he apparently studied first there with theorganist Franz Anton Becker, before moving to Vienna, where he was a doublebass pupil of Friedrich Pichlberger, for whom, with the bass Franz Gerl, thefirst Sarastro, Mozart wrote his concert aria Per questa bella mano. Pichlbergerwas a member of Emanuel Schikaneder's orchestra and also took part in the firstperformances of The Magic Flute. Sperger took composition lessons fromBeethoven's later teacher, Albrechtsberger, and made his debut in Vienna withhis own compositions at the age of eighteen. There are records of a performanceof a symphony and a double bass concerto by Sperger in Vienna by theTonk??nstler-Sozietat on 20th December 1778 and the following year he became amember of the society. From 1777 until 1783 he served as a chamber musician inthe musical establishment of the Cardinal Primate of Hungary, Prince Joseph vonBatthyanyi in Pressburg, the modern Bratislava and, as Pozsony, the thencapital of the kingdom of Hungary, giving solo performances also at theStadttheater in Br??nn (Brno). The Pressburg orchestra included fifteenstring-players, the oboists Johann and Philipp Teimer and the horn-players KarlFranz and Anton Bock, and there were string-players able to double onclarinets, bassoon and flute, as necessary. Trumpets and drums were alsoavailable, as usual in establishments of this kind. Sperger entered the serviceof Count Ladislav Erdody at Fidisch in 1783, continuing there until hispatron's death in 1786. In the following years he continued to appear as asoloist, travelling to various cities in Germany and in 1789 to Northern Italy.In 1788 he had played in Ludwigslust and the following year he was appointed tothe musical establishment of the Grand Duke Friedrich Franz I ofMecklenburg-Schwerin, with its band of 21 musicians, continuing in thisemployment until his death in 1812, when he was commemorated by a performance,a fortnight after his death, of Mozart's Requiem.Sperger wrote a large part of his music, his concertos, cassations,serenades and 45 symphonies, during the period he spent in Pressburg. Thesymphonies have survived in various forms. The simplest version of the Symphonyin C major is found in the Slovak scores of the Jesuit and Piaristestablishment at Trenčin, amplified at Schwerin into a four-movement workwith the addition of oboes and French horns and, in a third version, oftrumpets and timpani. The Symphony in F major and the Symphony in B flatmajor survive in an earlier version found at Pruske, and were also extended inlater versions. The second of these was sent by Sperger