Classics from Bohemia

Description

Jan Antonin Losy, Count of Losinthal, also known under various names, “Logy” being the most used one, is an illustrious Czech lutanist. He is supposed to have been born between 1643 and 1647. His father was Secretary of State of Bohemia.
In 1700 French lutanist Jacques de Saint-Luc met Logy in Prague. Jacques de Saint-Luc stayed there for several years and together with Logy and other lutanists, he founded an Academy of Music.
All Logy’s compositions are available in manuscript form in several libraries in France, Bohemia, Austria and Germany. Only his courante extraordinaire was published in 1695 by Lesage de Richée in his collection Cabinet der Lauten. The A Minor Suite presented by Vladimir Mikulka was originally a partita for five-course guitar written in French tablature.

Johan Baptist Vanhall, like F.X. Dusek, is of peasant origin. He was born in Nové Nechanice in Bohemia on 12 May 1739. At the early age of eighteen, he was an organist in Opocno. The following year, he was a choirmaster in Hnevceves. Vanhall also wrote music and played the violin. Impressed with his talent, Countess Schaffgotsch sent him to Vienna to study with Dittersdorf. He soon became a well-known composer and teacher. Vanhall then travelled through Italy for two years. Upon his return to Vienna in 1771, he was in no condition to accept the position of Kapellmeister in Dresden on account of ailing mental health. He seems never to have recovered. The quantity of Vanhall’s work is so great that it is not yet known with any accuracy. More than 700 compositions were published and there are even more manuscript pieces including symphonies, quartets, concertos, sacred music and piano pieces.

Leopold Kozeluch was born on 26 June 1747 in Velvary where he started studying music. He subsequently went to Prague to study with his famous cousin Johan Antonin Kozeluch who was nine years his senior. He also studied with F.X. Dusek who taught writing for the piano and for the orchestra.
He was an extremely prolific composer, a talented pianist, a much sought after teacher and music publisher. On 12 June 1792, Leopold Kozeluch was appointed Kammer Kapellmeister and following Mozart, he was appointed Hofmusik Compositor in Prague. He occupied that position until he died in 1818.
The andantino and the pastorale on this recording come from La ritrovata figlia di Ottone II, a heroic ballet in five acts of which only is known a piano version. This piano version is kept at the library of the University of Prague.

Frantisek Xaver Dusek was born in Bohemia in Choteborsky where he was christened on 8 December 1731. He was a pupil of F. Habermann in Prague and of Ch. Wagenseil in Vienna where he stayed for many years. Dusek established himself in Prague in 1770 and soon became known as a pianist and music teacher. He became friendly with many musicians and his house became their favourite meeting place. In 1787, Mozart completed Don Giovanni in Dusek’s summer residence at Smichov.
His style combines the classical and the galant, sometimes even reminiscent of the baroque. Dusek’s sonatas, concertos and concertinos establish the transition from harpsichord towards piano composition. He wrote mostly for pupils.

Little is known about Ivan Jelinek (1683-1759) except that he spent all his life at the Benedictine Monastery of St Jean sous le Rocher where he was an organist.
The Suite in A Major recorded by Vladimir Mikulka comes from a manuscript for the lute, this is the only known manuscript of Jelinek.