ENSEMBLE WIENER CAMMERSTYL

Classical chamber music on original instruments

Ensemble Wiener Cammerstyl is dedicated to the period of the development of piano chamber music at the time of Viennese Classicism. The works of this epoch are performed true to style on historical instruments or their replicas.

European influences of the late baroque trio sonata from Italy and Germany as well as the early classical accompanied piano sonata from France lead to the emergence of the piano trio in the second half of the 18th century. In the cultural melting pot of Vienna, this new genre thrived and radiated back to Europe as a trend-setting role model.

Wiener Cammerstyl juxtaposes forgotten composers such as Anton Eberl und Franciszek Lessel and rarely performed authors such as Johann Nepomuk Hummel with the famous masters Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Supposedly familiar works appear in a completely new light against the background of their forgotten musical environment. Unlike conventional concert programmes, Cammerstyl does not present the works of Viennese Classicism as forerunners of later epochs. Rather, these works are considered to be the culminations of a self-contained development that stretches from the early Classic to the early 19th century.

In order to make the history and the musical environment more tangible, concerts in moderated form are offered as well.

Ensemble Wiener Cammerstyl

Maria Kubizek, Baroque Violin

Peter Hudler, Baroque Cello

Christoph Ulrich Meier, Pianoforte

PROGRAMS

"Not just Beethoven!"

Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio movement Hess. 48 Allegretto

Joseph Haydn: Trio in E flat major Hob XV:30 Allegro moderato - Andante con moto - Presto

Anton Eberl: Variations on a Russian Theme for cello and piano op. 17

Anton Eberl: Sonata (Trio) op. 10/1, A minor Allegro agitato - Andante cantabile - Rondo vivace assai

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Trio KV 502, B flat major Allegro - Larghetto - Allegretto

In an obituary in the morning paper for educated citizens of July 9, 1807 the classic Viennese triumvirate Haydn-Mozart-Beethoven is extended by a fourth name. The author Johann Ernst Wagner equates composers with writers: Haydn with Wieland, Mozart with Schiller and Beethoven with Jean Paul. Anton Eberl, who had just died at the age of 41, would have become Goethe if he had lived longer.

Anton Eberl originally belonged to the circle around Mozart. In the score of his early symphony in C major there are corrections by Mozart's hand. After his death he went on a concert tour with Mozart's widow Constanze and her sister Aloysia Lange. His Piano Sonata Op.1 was published several times under Mozart's name. In 1796 Eberl took up an engagement in St. Petersburg, where he performed the Variations sur un thème russe Op. 17 and the Grand Sonata Op.11/2.

In 1801 Haydn spoke positively about Eberl's opera "The Queen of the Black Islands", whereupon Eberl dedicated his Piano Sonata Op.12 to him. From 1803 Eberl worked continuously in Vienna, where he threatened to overtake Beethoven as a composer and pianist. In 1805, for example, the performance of Eberl's Symphony in E flat major received far better reviews than Beethoven's Eroica. His early death in 1807 ended this head-to-head race prematurely, otherwise Anton Eberl would probably be considered the fourth man in the circle of Viennese classics today.

"Duel in Vienna - Beethoven's Forgotten Rivals"

Anton Reicha: Piano Trio op. 47

Joseph Woelfl: Gran Duo for cello and piano op.31

Daniel Steibelt: Sonata for fortepiano and violin op. 74/3

Anton Eberl: Piano Trio op. 8/3

Ludwig van Beethoven was not as unchallenged in Vienna as is generally assumed today. As a composer and pianist he certainly had serious competitors who have unfortunately fallen into oblivion.

In 1798/99 there was a piano duel that ended in a draw, when Joseph Woelfl, a student of Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn, competed against Beethoven. His clear, delicate playing was compared by contemporary witnesses to Beethoven's "indistinct" delivery. Woelfl was only defeated when improvising – a fate he shared with the famous pianist Daniel Steibelt, who also failed in a competition in 1800 because of Beethoven's improvisational skills.

Anton Reicha, a very innovative and experimental composer, knew Beethoven from the Bonn years. In 1802 he came to Vienna, where the initial friendship broke up, mainly due to the increasing competitive situation.

Beethoven's most dangerous rival was certainly Anton Eberl. His symphony in E flat major was premiered in the same concert as the "Eroica" and received much better reviews. In the field of piano music, too, there was a kind of neck-and-neck race. In an obituary for Eberl's early death in 1807, Beethoven was equated with the writer Jean Paul, while Eberl was equated with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - clear evidence that Beethoven did not (yet) have the supremacy that was rumored later.

"Mozart's Heirs - Adepts and Antipodes"

W.A.Mozart/ Abbé Maximilian Stadler: Allegro for piano trio in D minor K. 442 (ca.1785)

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach: Sonata for piano and cello in A major (1789)

Leopold Kozeluch: Piano trio in g minor op. 27/3 (ca.1787)

Anton Eberl: Sonata for piano and violin in D minor op.14 (ca.1801)

Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Piano Trio in E flat major op.12 (1804)

Mozart is generally regarded as the musical descendant of two Bach sons. He is said to have said about Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: “He is the father; we are the boys. Those of us who can do something lawfully learned it from him.” Even more important was the influence of Johann Christian Bach, whom Mozart met as a child in London. Little is known, however, that Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, the 16th child of Johann Sebastian, came into contact with works by Mozart during a stay in London in 1778 at concerts given by his brother Johann Christian. The awakened interest and Mozart's influence are expressed, among other things, in the 1789 Sonata for Piano and Violoncello, one of the first classical sonatas in this instrumentation.

As a gifted child, Johann Nepomuk Hummel lived in Mozart's household in Vienna from 1786-1788, was taught by him free of charge and can therefore be considered a direct musical heir.

After Mozart's death, Abbé Maximilian Stadler took care of Constanze's musical estate and completed several fragments, including the Allegro in D minor for piano trio.

Anton Eberl belonged to the circle around Mozart and after his death went on a concert tour with Constanze and her sister Aloysia. Some of his works, including the Piano Sonata op.1, were published under Mozart's name.

As a composer and pianist, Leopold Kozeluch was a competitor of Mozart in Vienna and was at times preferred to him. In 1789 one can read in the Magazin der Musik about Kozeluch: “The works of this composer have been preserved and are accepted everywhere, whereas Mozart’s works were not always so appealing. In 1792 Kozeluch inherited the position of imperial court composer from the late Mozart – for twice the salary.

'Joseph Haydn - Mentor and Patron'

Ignaz Pleyel (1775-1831)                Klaviertrio f-moll  B.442 (1791)

Franciszek Lessel (1780-1838)     Klaviertrio E-Dur op.5 (1807)

Andreas Romberg (1776-1821)/      

Bernhard Romberg (1776-1841) Duo für Violine und Cello op.2/2 (1800)

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)  Klaviertrio Es-Dur op.12 (1804)

The two-edged nickname "Papa Haydn" is not entirely undeserved by Joseph Haydn, as he devoted himself selflessly and passionately to supporting and mentoring the next generation of composers.Haydn reunited with his former student Ignaz Pleyel during his first trip to England in 1791/92. Johann Peter Salomon, a concert promoter from Bonn, wanted to pit both celebrities against each other in London. However, the rivalry he had hoped for failed to materialize, as the two contenders got along far too well. In 1791, Pleyel had been dismissed from his position as cathedral music director in Strasbourg due to the upheavals caused by the French Revolution. His superior, Cardinal Rohan-Guémené, had fled Strasbourg in 1790. He was a key figure in the scandalous “Affair of the Diamond Necklace” at the court of Versailles, which severely damaged the reputation of Queen Marie Antoinette, who was of Austrian descent, and hastened the outbreak of the Revolution. As an Austrian and protégé of the nobility, Pleyel had become suspect in France and narrowly escaped a death sentence after his return in 1792.

On Salomon's recommendation, Haydn made a stopover in Bonn on his way to and from England, where he met the members of the prestigious Bonn court orchestra, including Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as the violinist Andreas Romberg and his cousin, the cellist Bernhard Romberg. Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792 to study with Haydn. When Bonn was repeatedly threatened by the revolutionary army from 1792/93 until the French occupation in 1794, Andreas and Bernhard Romberg also left the court orchestra and initially moved to Hamburg. After their tour of Italy in 1796, they visited Haydn in Vienna, where they performed together with Beethoven.

One of Haydn’s last students was Franciszek Lessel from Warsaw. He likely studied medicine in Vienna before turning to music under Haydn’s guidance. Lessel’s piano trio Op. 5 was accepted for publication by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1807 thanks to a recommendation letter from Haydn. When Haydn passed away in 1809 during Napoleon's second occupation of Vienna, Lessel returned to Poland, where he pursued a musical career before working as an estate manager and, following the Polish November Uprising of 1830/31, as a school inspector.

In 1804, Haydn recommended Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a former student of Mozart and Salieri, as his successor in the role of court music director for Prince Nikolaus II of Esterházy. The fact that he bypassed his own student Ludwig van Beethoven may have been due to Beethoven's idiosyncratic personality. When the prince eventually commissioned Beethoven in 1807 to compose the Mass in C Major Op. 86, he reportedly deemed the result "unbearably ridiculous and hideous." Haydn’s own experiences with Nikolaus II had clearly led him to make the right decision.

Video