Johannes Matthias Sperger (1750-1812) Symphonies in C, F and B flat major Johannes Matthias Sperger was among the more prolific composers of his time....
Johannes Matthias
Sperger (1750-1812)
Symphonies in C, F and
B flat major
Johannes Matthias Sperger was among the more prolific composers of his
time. Nevertheless his contemporary reputation rested largely on his abilities
as a player of the double bass, an instrument for which he wrote eighteen
concertos, as a performer using a five-string bass with various tunings. Born
in Feldsberg, the modern Valtice, he apparently studied first there with the
organist Franz Anton Becker, before moving to Vienna, where he was a double
bass pupil of Friedrich Pichlberger, for whom, with the bass Franz Gerl, the
first Sarastro, Mozart wrote his concert aria Per questa bella mano. Pichlberger
was a member of Emanuel Schikaneder's orchestra and also took part in the first
performances of The Magic Flute. Sperger took composition lessons from
Beethoven's later teacher, Albrechtsberger, and made his debut in Vienna with
his own compositions at the age of eighteen. There are records of a performance
of a symphony and a double bass concerto by Sperger in Vienna by the
Tonkünstler-Sozietat on 20th December 1778 and the following year he became a
member of the society. From 1777 until 1783 he served as a chamber musician in
the musical establishment of the Cardinal Primate of Hungary, Prince Joseph von
Batthyanyi in Pressburg, the modern Bratislava and, as Pozsony, the then
capital of the kingdom of Hungary, giving solo performances also at the
Stadttheater in Brünn (Brno). The Pressburg orchestra included fifteen
string-players, the oboists Johann and Philipp Teimer and the horn-players Karl
Franz and Anton Bock, and there were string-players able to double on
clarinets, bassoon and flute, as necessary. Trumpets and drums were also
available, as usual in establishments of this kind. Sperger entered the service
of Count Ladislav Erdody at Fidisch in 1783, continuing there until his
patron's death in 1786. In the following years he continued to appear as a
soloist, 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 to
the musical establishment of the Grand Duke Friedrich Franz I of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, with its band of 21 musicians, continuing in this
employment 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. The
symphonies have survived in various forms. The simplest version of the Symphony
in C major is found in the Slovak scores of the Jesuit and Piarist
establishment at Trenčin, amplified at Schwerin into a four-movement work
with the addition of oboes and French horns and, in a third version, of
trumpets and timpani. The Symphony in F major and the Symphony in B flat
major survive in an earlier version found at Pruske, and were also extended in
later versions. The second of these was sent by Sperger in 1782 to the Bishop
of Raabe and Prince Esterhazy and was listed under the year 1777 as Sinfonia
No.6 in the composer's later catalogue of his compositions. This
application was clearly in the course of a search for other employment, as
Batthyanyi's establishment and position were by then under threat from the
Emperor. It might be added that there is no documentary evidence of any other
connection between Sperger and the Esterhazy musical establishment directed by
Haydn. Among Sperger's symphonies is one that strangely mirrors Haydn's Farewell
Symphony, for his musicians anxious to leave the relatively remote palace
of Esterhaza to rejoin their families. While Haydn's players went out one by
one during the course of the work, Sperger's Grande Sinfonie in F of
1796 starts with only two violins, joined gradually by other members of the
orchestra until the full complement is present.
The three symphonies here included are all in three movements and
scored, in these versions, for strings and continuo. The first, the Symphony in
C major, offers an opening Allegro in the lucid style and form of the
period. This is followed by a slow movement, marked Andante, its generally brighter mood contrasted with an
excursion into the minor, a cloud that soon passes with the return of the
material of the opening. The symphony ends with a Presto. The unison
opening provokes an energetic reply, as the movement embarks on its rapid and
episodic course.
The Symphony in F
major has an imposing opening with a tripartite sonata-form movement
that brings the usual contrasts of theme and a relatively turbulent central
development section. The second movement is a Minuet, framing a Trio that
allows changes of texture. The symphony ends with an Allegro that brings
moments of excitement and variety in its well-crafted course, a challenge to
the achievements of Mannheim.
Sperger's Symphony in
B flat major follows what is now the established form in its first
movement, making good use of dynamic contrasts and moments of silence, with
turns of phrase that are instantly recognisable as part of the musical language
of the time. Sperger follows precedent in starting the central development with
a shift into a minor key, before the return of the first material in
recapitulation. The second movement is a Minuet, in the statelier form
that retains its association with the dance from which it takes its name. A
delicately pointed Trio provides the necessary element of contrast. The
last movement, marked Prestissimo, is one of some brilliance, an
appropriate conclusion to the whole work. The repeated exposition has its own
touches of drama and these are intensified in the central development. The work
ends with the expected eclat.
Keith Anderson