Johann Gottfried Schwanberger

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Johann Gottfried Schwanberger (born December 28, 1737 in Wolfenbüttel , † March 29, 1804 in Braunschweig ; also: Schwanberg, Schwanenberger) was a German composer and piano virtuoso.

Life

Schwanberger was the son of the Wolfenbüttel court musician Georg Ludwig Schwanberger and a Braunschweig organist's daughter. He received his first music lessons in Wolfenbüttel from Georg Caspar Schürmann and Ignazio Fiorillo . In 1756, Duke Karl I of Braunschweig-Lüneburg made it possible for him to spend six years training in Venice. Here he received lessons from Johann Adolph Hasse , Gaetano Latilla and Giacomo Giuseppe Saratelli .

Immediately after his return to the Duchy of Braunschweig in 1762, Schwanberger was appointed court conductor at the opera house on Hagenmarkt , a position he held until his death in 1804. Schwanberger's most important creative phase fell in the years between his assumption of office and the dissolution of the court orchestra in 1768. After the death of his court conductor Johann Friedrich Agricola in 1774, Friedrich the Great appointed him to succeed him, but Schwanberger refused to stay with his prince. Schwanberger was the teacher of Gottlob Wiedebein , who led the court orchestra in Braunschweig from 1816 or 1817.

His operas and piano works were highly valued by the contemporary music historian Charles Burney , and his translator Christoph Daniel Ebeling also regretted that so few of his works appeared in print. Justus Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae wrote a poem of praise about Schwanberger in which he regretted that his works were hardly known outside of Braunschweig.

Works

Schwanberger enjoyed a high reputation as a composer of Italian opera series and as a piano virtuoso. In his operas he took up influences from the newer Italian opera, based on Hasse. His piano music shows features of the gallant style .

Stage works

  • Adriano in Siria , dramma per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio ; Premiere : Braunschweig 1762
  • Il Temistocle , dramma per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; WP: Braunschweig, August 1762; lost
  • Solimano , dramma per musica; Libretto: Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca ; Premiere: Braunschweig, November 4th, 1762
  • La Galatea , Favola pastorale per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; Premiere: Braunschweig, February 1763
  • Ezio , dramma per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; WP: Braunschweig 1763; Score burned
  • La buona figliuola maritata , dramma giocoso per musica; Libretto: Carlo Goldoni ?; WP: Braunschweig, February 1764; lost
  • Talestri , dramma per musica; Libretto: Maria Antonia Walpurgis (at times incorrectly attributed to Gaetano Roccaforte); WP: Braunschweig 1764; Score burned
  • La Didone abbandonata , dramma per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; Premiere: Braunschweig, August 1765
  • La Zenobia , dramma per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; Premiere: Braunschweig, August 1765
  • L'Issipile , dramma per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; Premiere: Braunschweig 1766, revised on February 10, 1767 with three new ballets
  • Antigono , dramma per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; Premiere: Braunschweig, February 2nd, 1768
  • Romeo e Giulia , dramma per musica; Libretto: Giulio Roberto Sanseverino , exposé by Johann Joachim Eschenburg based on William Shakespeare ; Premiere: Braunschweig 1773, several other performances in other cities
  • Le isole fortunate , festa teatrale; Libretto: Domenico Gattinara ; WP: probably Braunschweig 1778 (score as Die Bethlehemischen Gefilde with German text underneath); Score burned
  • L'olimpiade , dramma per musica; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; Premiere: Braunschweig in the summer of 1782; Score lost
  • Il trionfo della Costanza , opera tragicomico; Libretto: Domenico Poggi ; Premiere: Braunschweig, March 13th 1790; Score lost
  • Recitatives to Il Creso ; 1760
  • Two arias that cannot be classified

Other vocal works

  • Il Parnaso accusato e difeso , cantata; Libretto: Pietro Metastasio; WP: Braunschweig 1768; probably only the overtures, recitatives and choirs come from Schwanberger
  • La Sentenza d'Apollo , dramatic prologue for the birthday of Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig-Lüneburg ; German version The court of Apollos on the birthday of Prince Friedrich August
  • Raise your devotional choirs , church cantatas
  • The profit of life is death , mourning cantata for Duchess Antonia Amalia von Braunschweig; Premiere: Braunschweig, March 21, 1762
  • Curasti anima mea , motet
  • Dominus regit me , psalm
  • Four duets for two sopranos and harpsichord

Instrumental works

  • 23 symphonies, mostly only preserved as piano reduction
  • Four harpsichord concerts in C major, C major, E flat major and G major
  • 25 sonatas and one sonatina for harpsichord
  • A sonata for two violins and violoncello; Brunswick 1767

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of birth according to Ernst Ludwig Gerber , cannot be verified by church book entries.
  2. ^ A b Hans Otto Hiekel: Schwanenberger, Johann Gottfried . In: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart , p. 68319 (cf. MGG vol. 12, p. 342 ff.) Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986 ( digital library volume 60).
  3. ^ Heinrich Sievers:  Schwanenberger [Schwanberg, Schwanberger], Johann Gottfried. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  4. ↑ Christine Fischer: Instrumented Visions of Female Power. Maria Antonia Walpurgis' works as a stage for political self-staging (= Swiss contributions to music research. Volume 7). Bärenreiter, Kassel 2007, ISBN 978-3-7618-1829-9 , p. 422.
personal data
SURNAME Schwanberger, Johann Gottfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwanberg, Giovanni; Schwanberg, Johann; Schwanberger, Johann Gottfried; Schwanenberger, Johann Gottfried; Schwaneberger, Johann Gottfried; Schwaneberg, Johann Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and piano virtuoso
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1737
PLACE OF BIRTH Wolfenbüttel
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 1804
Place of death Braunschweig