Josef Myslivecek

A few brush strokes have come to define the otherwise obscure 18th-century composer later known as 'Il Divino Boemo', or the Divine Bohemian: Josef Myslivecek. He was a close friend of Mozart and a musical influence on him. He was one of the most celebrated opera composers in Italy in the 1770s.

Myslivecek (1737-1781) was a Bohemian contemporary of Haydn. Some radio broadcasters have latched onto his music, and in fact it's ideal for radio, light, melodious, entertaining, and undemanding. Haydn's octet, although the work of a better composer, aims at the same entertainment level and, of course, reaches it unerringly. This ensemble is an expanded version of the Albert Schweitzer Quintet, which put us forever in its debt with its complete recordings for this label of Reicha's Wind Quintets. This music isn't as valuable, but the ensemble's playing is just as good. A lovely disc for a lazy day.

“Full of fire, spirit and life.” is how Mozart described this work of his contemporary, presented here for the first time on this new 2CD set. Mozart’s positive verdict on Josef Myslivecek (1737-1781) was intended to make the listener aware, for the fact that the extremely critical Salzburg composer expresses himself positively about a colleague is an absolute exception. His oratorio Adamo & Eva, performed in Florence in 1771, was composed at precisely the time when contact with the Mozart family seemed to have been particularly close.

Mysliveček, il divino Boemo (the title seems to have been a fictional exaggeration) was particularly associated with opera. But his instrumental works outnumber the operatic by some margin and some of his best-known works, to us at least, are his concertos. The years of his greatest triumphs were between about 1767 and 1777, a decade that saw foreign successes, meetings with Mozart and considerable operatic esteem. His Six Symphonies of 1772 are indebted to the Italianate three-movement form, which they have absorbed with considerable vivacity, and they show individual touches – modulations, wind solos and the like – that give them an individual stamp.

Matthias Bamert and the LMP have dusted off some treats in their 'Contemporaries of Mozart' series for Chandos. This latest release, featuring premiere recordings of six symphonies by the Bohemian-born Josef Myslivecek, is one of the best. None of these works, dating back to the 1770s is much more than 10 minutes long, yet each is delightfully imaginative, and benefitting from the LMP's sprightly playing.

Interesting that the librettist of this oratorio, none other than Pietro Metastasio, avoids biblical passages completely. In doing so, this lets in an emotive realism that allows a quasi-operatic treatment by Prague-born Myslivecek. The composer's penchant for Metastasio in his thirty-odd operas obviously extended to oratorio. The apostle Peter becomes a major figure in the drama. Absent from the crucifixion itself, he has to make urgent enquiry into the state of play. Enter Mary Magdalene - a Biblical character under much re-evaluation in current spirituality - who accompanied Jesus to the cross. Other characters include John (here of course Giovanni), the second eyewitness, Joseph of Arimathea (Giuseppe).

When this opera's oratorio was rediscovered in 1928, it was first believed to be composed by Mozart. But in fact it was a piece of the last opera of the Prague composer Josef Myslivecek (1731-1781), with whom Mozart had friendly relations and who indeed was inspired by Myslivecek’s work. This world premiere recording of the opera “Medonte” by the ensemble l’arte del mondo shows imposingly the exceptional skills of this wrongly neglected composer. Recorded live at the Bayer Kulturhaus, Leverkusen.

Bohemian composer, remarkable violinist, Josef Mysliveček (1737-1781) was born close to Prague. Son of a miller, destined to follow the destiny of his father, it is nevertheless towards music that he turns, trained in his native town and encouraged by the enthusiastic reception of his first symphonies. He obtained a scholarship to Venice and migrated to Italy where his fame grew (he was nicknamed Il divino Boemo - The divine Czech), notably thanks to the success of his first opera, Semiramide, in 1766.

Mozart and Gluck may make natural bedfellows for a program of arias, but Josef Myslivecek is not a name that would jump to most minds to join them. Czech mezzo Magdalena Kozená may be about to change that. In his time (1737-1781), the Czech composer was up there with the greats after his studies in Italy. He couldn't have a more persuasive champion than Kozená, who sets out to show why Myslivecek was counted among the country's 10 most successful composers. The young Kozená's mantelpiece is already crowded with competition trophies, including a 2001 Gramophone Award for her CD of eastern European love songs with Graham Johnson.

The Thirty Years War (1618–48) had resulted in the Hapsburgs taking over the kingdom of Bohemia, but it was impossible to suppress the Czech love for music, a fact exploited by the Austrian nobles who filled their new Bohemian estates with musical talent. Once government had been transferred to Vienna, many Czech musicians moved away from their homeland to find work. As one Czech historian put it, ‘[A] lmost all the musical sources which welled up from the soil of Bohemia sped by the shortest course to join the main stream of the world’s music.’ … Some went to Vienna itself: Bárta, Fiala, Vent, Koželuh, Vanhal and the Vranickýs, but some went to Berlin, others to Mannheim, while Mysliveček made his home in Italy.