Johann Baptist Vaňhal

(1739–1813)

Symphonies

In his colourful Reminiscences, published in London in 1826, the Irish tenor Michael Kelly (the first Basilio and Don Curzio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro when it was produced in 1786) described a string quartet party given in the summer of 1784 by the English composer Stephen Storace, in his rooms in Vienna:

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 Dittersdorf; The Violoncello, Vanhall; The Tenor [Viola], Mozart. The poet Casti and Paesiello [sic] formed part of the audience. I was there, and a greater treat or a more remarkable one cannot be imagined.

As well as being a composer Vanhal was a violinist of some stature (Mozart played one of his violin concertos in Augsburg in October 1777) but this is the only known reference to him as a cellist.

Jan Křitel / Johann Baptist Vanhal was born at Nové Nechanice in eastern Bohemia on 12 May 1739, and died in Vienna on 20 August 1813. The son of a bonded peasant, he had his first music lessons with Kozak, the organist at Maršov, and from about 1752 studied the organ with Anton Erban, the cantor at Nové Nechanice. In 1757 he was appointed organist at Opočno and in 1759 choirmaster at Hněvčeves. In 1760 Countess Schaffgotsch, whose estate included Hněvčeves, summoned him to Vienna, where he had lessons with Dittersdorf, established himself as a teacher (his pupils included Ignace Pleyel) and was able to redeem himself from bondage. In May 1769 Baron Riesch made it financially possible for Vanhal to go to Italy. He spent a year in Venice and then visited Bologna, Florence, Rome (where two of his operas were produced) and other cities. On his return to Vienna in 1771 Riesch offered him the position of Kapellmeister in Dresden, but he declined it because of ‘mental disturbance’. This was ascribed, in some quarters, to religious mania, but it seems to have been at least partially cured by September 1772, when Dr Charles Burney sought him out in his garret in a Viennese suburb:

A little perturbation of the faculties, is a promising circumstance in a young musician, and [Vanhal] began his career very auspiciously, by being somewhat flighty. Enthusiasm seems absolutely necessary in all the arts, but particularly in music, which depends so much upon fancy and imagination... Insanity in an artist is sometimes nothing more than an ebullition of genius... [Vanhal] is now so far recovered, and possesses a mind so calm and tranquil, that his last pieces appear to me rather insipid and common, and his former agreeable extravagance seems changed into too great an oeconomy [sic] of thought.

During his convalescence Vanhal probably stayed in Hungary and Croatia, where he visited the estates of Count Johann Nepomuk Erdödy. He spent the last forty or so years of his life in comparative obscurity as a freelance musician in Vienna, teaching, and composing religious works, piano pieces and music for small chamber ensembles. His heyday as a composer of symphonies, as we know from the painstaking researches of Paul Bryan, published in The Symphonies of Johann Vanhal (Michigan, 1955) and The Symphony 1720–1840, Series B, Volume X (Garland, 1981) was between about 1765 and 1785. Of the many symphonies attributed to Vanhal seventy-six are listed in Dr Bryan’s Thematic Index of 1981, and they have been dated so far as this is possible, mainly from the thematic catalogues issued by the Leipzig publishing house of Breitkopf between 1762 and 1787, but also from contemporary manuscript and printed parts.

Symphony in G minor (Bryan g2)

1. Allegro moderato
2. Adagio
3. Menuetto. Moderato - Trio
4. Finale: Allegro

The first of the three ‘spirited, natural and unaffected symphonies of Vanhal’, as Burney described them in his General History of Music (1776–89), recorded here, is the Symphony in G minor (g2 in Bryan’s Index, which lists them numerically, not chronologically, under key, major or minor).

The key of G minor produced a handful of remarkable symphonies in the second half of the eighteenth century, at least partly under the influence of the pre-Romantic Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement in German literature: by Haydn (No. 39, c. 1766–67) , Johann Christian Bach (Op. 6 No. 6, 1770) and Mozart (No. 25, 1773 and No. 40, 1788). Vanhal wrote two, one around 1771 and this one which cannot be dated accurately: it is modestly scored for strings and pairs of oboes and horns, but a worthy companion for Haydn, Bach and Mozart. The first movement (again marked Allegro moderato and again in 3/4) begins with a theme whose restless character is emphasized by its shifting chromatic bass, and this sense of insecurity is carried over to the more positive second theme in B flat major (but in G minor after the recapitulation); the modulating development is based mainly on the second subject. A complete contrast is offered by the Adagio in E flat major, another captivating solo for oboe, accompanied by strings only (mostly pizzicato). Next comes a rather serious Minuet, with a Trio in B flat major, again for solo oboe and strings. Once again the mood of the first movement is recaptured in the nervous finale, even if its material is more motivic than truly melodic.

Symphony in D major (Bryan D4)

1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante
3. Allegro
4. Menuetto and Trio

The Symphony in D major (D4) is thought to date from 1779 or earlier, and is scored for strings, two oboes, (bassoon), two horns, two trumpets and timpani. It begins with a festive sonata-form Allegro moderato with two well-contrasted thematic groups, both of which are brought into play in the remarkable and substantial development section (which has a false recapitulation in F two-thirds of the way through). The second movement is a gently assertive Andante in A for five-part strings (the violins muted). The third, a sonata-form Allegro which echoes the ceremonial spirit of the first, if with less thematic variety, leads, surprisingly, into a concluding Minuet, which encloses a ravishing Trio (in G) for solo oboe and strings, and ends with a Coda.

Symphony in C minor (Bryan c2)

1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante
3. Menuetto. Moderato - Trio
4. Finale: Allegro

The second of Vanhal’s three symphonies in C minor, the Symphony in C minor (c2), dates from 1770 or earlier, and is scored for strings, flute (in the Trio only), and pairs of oboes, horns, trumpets and timpani. The tense first movement, in 3/4, has two contrasting subjects (they can hardly be called themes), the second of them cast in the relative major key of E flat, and a widely modulating development. Next come a noble, elegiac Andante in F minor for strings only, and a stern Minuet that encloses a gentle Trio in F minor for strings, with a flute doubling the first violins (which in this recording are silent in the repeats). The finale echoes closely the style and pattern of the first movement, with the feeling of agitation generated by formulae rather than melodies, and with modulation providing drama in the development section.

Robin Golding (1998)