Stamitz: Three Violin Concertos / Symphony

Johann Stamitz is considered the father of the Mannheim School and thus the founder of modern classical orchestral music. At the beginning of our century, Hugo Riemann even described him as Haydn's long-sought predecessor, who was to fill the unseemly gaping hole between the so completely different styles of the Baroque and Classical periods with a certain exclusivity. In the compositional output of Johann's two famous sons Anton and Carl Stamitz, solo concertos and concertante symphonies occupy a large place. As virtuosos on their instruments, they created compositions not least for their own use. Surprisingly, however, only a few concertos by Johann Stamitz have survived, most of them violin concertos that are indebted to the model of the instrumental concerto developed by Antonio Vivaldi. The fast corner movements are in ritornello form, i.e. the succession of tutti ritornellos and violin solo episodes. Technically demanding are the double stops and chords combined with wide leaps in the first movement of the second concerto. Polyphonic, polyphonic, playing on the violin seems to have been an absolute specialty of the violinist Johann Stamitz.