# Carl Stamitz (1745-1801)



## neoshredder

Shocked there is no thread about him. Anyways, really enjoying his works lately. Here are some videos.















> *Carl Stamitz*
> Karl Philipp Stamitz (Czech: Karel Stamic; baptized 8 May 1745*- 9 November 1801), who later changed his given name to Carl, was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry (his mother was German), and a violin, viola and viola d'amore virtuoso. He was the most prominent representative of the second generation of the Mannheim School.
> 
> Carl Stamitz 1789
> He was the first composer to specify a left-hand pizzicato (an important virtuoso device) in a composition.[1] This occurs in his Viola Concerto in D*major where the passage in question is designated by an "0" above the notes.
> 
> He is particularly remembered for his clarinet and viola concertos. He never succeeded in attaining an adequate position with one of the major princes or orchestras of his time. He died in poverty. Nine years after his death in 1801 his estate was put up for auction to cover his debts; nothing was sold, and all of it consequently lost.
> 
> *1745-1770: Youth in Mannheim*
> 
> Mannheim Palace (modern view)
> Carl Stamitz[2] was the first son of Johann Stamitz (1717-1757), a violinist and composer of the pre-classical area.
> 
> Carl Stamitz was born at Mannheim in an era when the "Mannheim Gout" was causing a sensation in Europe. He received his first lessons in violin and composition from his father. After his father's death, Stamitz was taught by Christian Cannabich (1731-1798), his father's successor as concert-master and leader of the Mannheim orchestra. Ignaz Holzbauer (1711-1798), the court-director of music, and the court-composer Franz Xaver Richter (1709-1789) also had a hand in his education.
> 
> By the time he was 17 Stamitz was employed as a violinist in the court orchestra. In 1770 he resigned from his post and began travelling.
> 
> *1770-1794: Travelling virtuoso*
> 
> As a travelling virtuoso on the violin, the viola and viola d'amore, Stamitz often accepted short-term engagements but never managed to gain a permanent position with one of the European princes or in one of the orchestras of his time.
> 
> In 1770 Stamitz went to Paris where he went into service with Duke Louis of Noailles, who made him his court composer. He also appeared in the Concerts Spirituels, sometimes together with his brother Anton, who probably had come to Paris with him. With Paris as his base he made frequent concert tours to a number of German cities. On 12 April 1773 he appeared in Frankfurt am Main, a year later in Augsburg, and in 1775 he ventured as far as St. Petersburg in Russia.
> 
> In 1777 he dwelt for a time in Strasbourg where Franz Xaver Richter was music director. During the years 1777 and 1778 he was successful in London, one of many Austro-German musicians (Carl Friedrich Abel, Johann Christian Bach, and in his last years Joseph Haydn would be some other ones) to be drawn to that metropolis. His stay in London was possibly facilitated through his contact with Thomas Erskine, Earl of Kelly (1753-1781), who during a tour of the continent had received lessons from Carl's father Johann Stamitz.
> 
> Between 1782 and 1783 Stamitz was in the Netherlands where he gave concerts in The Hague and in Amsterdam. In 1785 Stamitz returned to Germany to appear in concerts in a number of cities and towns, e.g. Hamburg, Lübeck, Braunschweig, Magdeburg, and Leipzig. In the April 1786 he made his way to Berlin where on 19 May 1786 he participated in the performance of Handel's Messiah under Johann Adam Hiller's baton.
> 
> He then emerges in Dresden, Prague, Halle and finally in Nuremberg, where he staged a Great Allegorical Musical Festivity in Two Acts celebrating the balloon ascent of the French aviation pioneer Jean Pierre Blanchard (3 November 1787). During the winter of 1789-90 he directed the amateur concerts in Kassel, failed to gain an employment with the Schwerin court which forced him, by now married and father of four children who all died in infancy, to resume travelling.
> 
> On 12 November 1792 he gave a concert in the Weimar court theatre (then under the direction of Johann Wolfgang Goethe). In 1793 he undertook a last journey along the Rhein to his native Mannheim before he finally gave up travelling. Sometime in the winter of 1794-95 he moved his family to the university town of Jena.
> 
> *1795-1801: Last years in Jena*
> 
> Jena (ca. 1900)
> During the years Stamitz spent there, Jena had neither a town band nor an orchestra to speak of. According to some sources he was in some way connected to the university but this seems a matter of dispute.
> 
> After his death a substantial number of tracts on alchemy were found in his library. From this it was guessed that he dabbled in attempts of gold making. Stamitz gradually descended into poverty.
> 
> *Music*
> 
> Carl Stamitz wrote more than 50 symphonies; at least 38 symphonies concertantes; and more than 60 concertos for Violin, viola, viola d'amore, cello, clarinet, Basset horn, flute, bassoon, and other instruments.[3] He also wrote a good deal of chamber music for various combinations. Some of his clarinet and viola concertos are considered to be among the finest available.
> 
> During his Paris years (1770-1778) Stamitz began to cooperate with the Bohemian born clarinet virtuoso Joseph Beer (1744-1811) which proved fruitful for both Stamitz and Beer. At least one of Stamitz's clarinet concertos (concerto No. 6 in E-flat major) seems to have been jointly composed by Stamitz and Beer, as both names appear on the title page of the Viennese manuscript.
> 
> Stamitz's cello concertos were written for the cello-playing Prussian King Frederick William II, for whom both Mozart and Beethoven also wrote music.
> 
> *Style*
> 
> Stylistically Stamitz's music is not too far from the works of the young Mozart or Haydn's middle period.
> 
> Stamitz's works are characterized by regular periods and appealing melodies, with the voices quite often led in thirds, sixths and tenths. The writing for the solo instruments is idiomatic and virtuosic but not excessively so.
> 
> The opening movements of Stamitz's concertos and orchestral works are regularly constructed in the sonata form with an extensive double exposition. Their structure is additive in nature, however, and does not exhibit the thematic development typical of the Viennese classical style. The middle movements are expressive and lyrical, sometimes called "Romance" and usually constructed according to the Liedform (ABA, ABA' or AA'B). The final movement is often (in the concertos almost always) a French-style rondo.
> 
> Just as his teacher Franz Xaver Richter had done, Stamitz preferred minor keys as he generally used a variety of (sometimes remote) keys.


http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Stamitz


----------



## Lunasong

> Stamitz's cello concertos were written for the cello-playing Prussian King Frederick William II, for whom both Mozart and Beethoven also wrote music.


This is interesting.

My introduction to Carl Stamitz was through a horn concerto that my son was playing for HS contest; we couldn't find a recording of it anywhere! I found out much later that it was originally written for cello, specifically Concerto No 1 in G major, Mvt 1.

I have a recording of Cello Concertos Nos 1-3.


----------



## mmsbls

I don't think any of Stamitz's works rise to the level of greatness, but I have not heard any I don't like. I especially enjoy his Mannheim Symphonies. Two examples:

Symphony in G, "Mannheim"




Symphony in A, "Mannheim"





The Wiki article mentioned his Viola Concerto which is wonderful:


----------



## neoshredder

Really enjoying his Clarinet Concerto in F Major at the moment. Very Mozartian no doubt.


----------



## Art Rock

A worthwhile composer, I like his concertos (above all, the ones for cello). Wrote a bit about him 3 years ago in my blog (link).


----------



## Musicaterina

Here a recording of the Cello Concerto in A Major, played by Thomas Blees (violoncello) and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra, Heilbronn, conducted by Jörg Faerber


----------



## joen_cph

The clarinet concertos on Naxos, later partly on Brilliant, are worth a listen.


----------



## Joachim Raff

My tribute to Stamitz with a flight over a English Country Village.


----------



## Rogerx

All four wonderful discs .


----------

