AUTHORITATIVE | CURATED | First 500 words Free

• Personalities
• Classical
• Classical Era
• Composer

(Yo’-han Vent’-zel An’-ton Shta’-mit) 1717–57 Bohemian composer Born in Bohemia, by 1741 Stamitz was working at the Mannheim court, where he became leading violinist in 1743, Konzertmeister soon after, and director in 1750. He made the Mannheim orchestra the most famous in Europe for its discipline and its capacity to achieve new effects. Although he composed concertos and ...

• Instruments
• Brass
• Electric & Electronic
• Keyboards
• Percussion
• Stringed
• Woodwind

in several keys thanks to the use of crooks. Both Bach and Handel used them as solo instruments and in the 1740s, German composers such as Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (1717–57) wrote extremely high parts for the instrument, in registers where there were more available notes. Transverse flutes were becoming more common as solo instruments and were replacing recorders ...

• Instruments
• Stringed

when its construction made it difficult to play with any virtuosity – the viola proved its immense musical worth hundreds of years ago. Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767), Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (1717–57) and Mozart provided early concerti; Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826), Louis-Hector Berlioz (1803–69) and Mendelssohn soon expanded the instrument’s reputation for solo playing. The great works for ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Classical Era
• Composer

mushrooms. Recommended Recording: Quartets, Trios, Sonatas, Luigi Sgrizzi, Chiara Banchini, Ensemble 415 (Harmonia Mundi) Introduction | Classical Era | Classical Personalities | Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz | Classical Era | Classical ...

• Classical
• Classical Era

a concentration of resources. This cosmopolitanism was perhaps one of the reasons for the synthesis in Vienna of national styles drawn from the rest of Europe. Key Events 1750 Johann Stamitz appointed leader of Europe’s finest orchestra, at Mannheim c. 1762 Robert Adam’s Syon House echoes classical Roman architectural styles 1770s Haydn’s early mature works; classical era in music reckoned ...

• Opera
• Classical Era

, the new style meant that opera acquired a wider appeal and mirrored the concerns of real people in the real, everyday world. Key Events 1750 Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz appointed leader of Europe’s finest orchestra – the Mannheim 1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his dictionary 1756 The Seven Years’ War begins 1762 Catherine the Great becomes ruler of Russia 1770 ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Classical Era
• Composer

he moved on to Mannheim. This was one of the liveliest courts in Germany. Presided over by the Elector Carl Theodor, it had a fine orchestra, created by Stamitz, which developed a new style of orchestral playing. Mozart was eager to be part of this distinguished group and quickly made friends there. He even composed a piano sonata ...

• Styles & Forms
• Classical
• Classical Era

sonorities and a pleasing melodic line. Notable contributors to the genre include Gossec, Cambini and Ignace Pleyel (1757–1831). Composers at the famous Mannheim court, particularly Cannabich and Karl Stamitz (1745–1801), also contributed to the early flowering of the new genre of symphonie concertante. In London, J. C. Bach’s feeling for orchestral colour attracted him to the symphonie concertante ...

• Performance
• Classical
• Classical Era

the Palatine court at Mannheim under Elector Carl Theodor, who reigned from 1742 until he became Elector of Bavaria in 1778 and the court dissolved. Carl Theodor appointed Johann Stamitz (1717–57) leader of the orchestra in the 1740s and director in 1750. Stamitz assembled an orchestra of unprecedented skill, many of them composers; Charles Burney (1726–1814) called them ‘an ...

• Performance
• Classical
• Classical Era

standards of the orchestra members perhaps encouraged this flamboyant compositional style; they knew how to exploit their talents to create new and bold effects. The orchestra’s first musical director, Stamitz, was also extremely influential in the early development of the symphony; he was strongly influenced by the style of the Italian overture, and was the first composer to ...

• Inside the Music
• Classical
• Late Baroque

A crucial centre for the emergence of the symphony was the electoral court at Mannheim, where the orchestra achieved an international reputation under its director Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (1717–57). Elsewhere in Europe, orchestral music figured significantly in the mixed programmes of the public concerts that formed a feature of musical life in many cities from the early 1700s. ...