Josef Mysliveček (1737-1781) - Violin Concerto in D (1770)

★ Follow music ► Composer: Josef Mysliveček (1737-1781) Work: Violin Concerto in D (1770) Performers: Ernö Sеbеstyеn (violin); Radio-Symphonie-Orchester BеrIin Drawing: Samuel William Fores (1761-1838) - The April fool or the follies of a night (1786) Image in high resolution: Further info: Listen free: No available --- Josef Mysliveček [Mysliweczek, Misliweczek, Misliveček] (Praha, 9 March 1737 - Roma, 4 February 1781) Czech composer. The elder of identical twin brothers, he grew up in Prague in the households of his father and stepfather, both prosperous millers. Although it is believed that Mysliveček’s father arranged musical instruction for his sons before his death in 1749, there is no evidence to confirm speculation that they were taught by Felix Benda, a near neighbour. Reports that the twins attended the Dominican Normalschule at the Church of St Giles (Jiljí) and the Jesuit Gymnasium in the Clementinum are conjectural, but their enrolment in the philosophy faculty at Charles-Ferdinand University (now Charles University) is confirmed in surviving matriculation records. Owing to a lack of academic success, Mysliveček withdrew from the university in March 1753 without graduating. The following May, the twins became apprentice millers; they were admitted into the Prague millers’ guild as journeymen in 1758 and became master millers in 1761. In the early 1760s, Mysliveček abandoned the family business to devote himself to music. Probably he began studies in composition with Franz Habermann, but soon transferred to Josef Seger, organist at the Týn Church in Prague. According to Pelcl, Mysliveček completed six symphonies named after the first six months of the year within six months of study with Seger (no symphonies with evocative titles survive to confirm the legend, however). It seems that he established an excellent reputation as a violinist; nonetheless, there is no evidence to support reports that he was employed as a church violinist. In November 1763, Mysliveček left for Venice to study operatic composition, funded at least partly by his twin brother Jáchym and his long-standing patron Count Vincenz von Waldstein. His studies there with G.B. Pescetti brought quick (and impressive) results in the form of a first opera, Semiramide, performed in Bergamo in 1765 and Alessandria in 1766. The librettos confirm that he was by then referred to as ‘Il Boemo’ by Italians, who had difficulty pronouncing his name. Mysliveček achieved his first great operatic success in 1767 with ’Il Bellerofonte’ at the Teatro S Carlo in Naples. The cast included Caterina Gabrielli, a singer with whom Mysliveček’s name has been linked romantically even though there is no evidence of a love affair either with her or with Lucrezia Aguiari earlier at Parma. From this time onwards Mysliveček lived mainly in Italy, where he travelled continually in order to fulfil operatic commissions, almost always at major houses with excellent casts. In 1771 he was admitted into the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna after befriending Padre Martini. Mysliveček made at least three trips to northern Europe after establishing himself in Italy. The first, a triumphant return to Prague in 1768, was probably occasioned by his mother’s death in 1767 and the settlement of his father’s estate. His second trip, in 1772, may have been intended to establish his reputation in Vienna. If so, the effort clearly failed, but he did meet Charles Burney in September. Mysliveček ventured north for the last time at the invitation of Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, in 1777-78 (reports of an earlier trip to Munich in 1773 cannot be verified). While in Munich, he witnessed successful productions of his opera Ezio and his oratorio Isacco and sought surgical treatment for what is believed to have been venereal disease, with the result that his nose was burnt off. On his return to Italy in 1778, Mysliveček enjoyed operatic successes in Naples and Venice, but his final decline was signalled by the failure of both of the operas that he prepared for Carnival 1780 (’Armida’ for Milan and ’Medonte’ for Rome). He died in Rome, in abject poverty; his funeral at the church of S Lorenzo in Lucina was paid for by a mysterious Englishman named Barry, a former pupil.