>> We started out with a Mozart overture and one of the Haydn symphonies,
>> and then Margaret and I migrated to the front of the orchestra and we
>> played the Vanhal double concerto.
>Was that a double bassoon concerto? The composer Vanhal seems to have
>cropped up a lot! Did he write a lot for wind ensembles/bands, or for
>orchestra (or small orch) as a whole? When did he (or she) live?
>
>David D
The Vanhal double concerto is indeed for two bassoons. Vanhal has cropped up a lot this week because Margaret and I spent some time preparing his double concerto for the Thursday morning "Classical Orchestra" session at Marlowe Music Week.
Vanhal was a contemporary of Mozart and the sleeve notes accompanying my CD of the double concerto (plus a couple of Sinfonias also written by Vanhal) start as follow:
"In almost all the biographical literature on Jan Kritel Vanhal one comes across a quotation from a journal kept by the Irish tenor Kichael Kelly. He describes a gathering at the home of the composer Stephen Storace in 1784, a gathering which developed into an evening of quartet playing. The players were tolerable, not one of them excelled on the instrument he played; but there was a little science among them, which I dare say will be acknowledged when I name them: The First Violin ... Haydn, The Second Violin ... Baron von Dittersdorf, The Violoncello ... Vanhal, The Tenor ... Mozart."
Vanhal wrote about 100 symphonies and string quartets and more than 90 religious works. He also wrote solo concertos for various instruments. I have the piano reduction of his bassoon concerto, and I also have a number of bassoon duets written by Vanhal.
My CD of the double concerto is a Swedish recording, and it would appear that they have translated Vanhal's given names into their Swedish equivalents, as the biographical details in my copy of his Concerto in C major give his names as Johann Baptist Vanhal.
Vanhal was born on May 12th 1739 in Nechanicz, and was the son of a Czech peasant. He went to Vienna in 1760, where he studied with Schlegel and Dittersdorf. He appears to have suffered from mental illness and spent 8 years between 1772 and 1780 on the Hungarian estate of Count J. Erdody, after which he returned to Vienna. He died on 26th August 1813 in Vienna, and apparently was insane at the time of his death.
Helen
Last Revised: 9th August, 2002.