“Richter, Stamic and Vaňhal in particular influenced and even inspired Haydn & Mozart who played Vaňhal’s music and who both played with him in a quartet alongside Dittersdorf… The Thirty Years War (1618-48) resulted in the Hapsburgs taking over the kingdom of Bohemia, but it was impossible to suppress the Czech love for music, a fact then 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 around Europe. As one Czech historian put it: ‘almost 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, Koželuh, Vaňhal and the Vranickýs, but some, including the Benda family went to Berlin, others to Mannheim (eg Stamic and Richter), while Rejcha settled in Paris and Mysliveček in Italy.” (Peter Avis 2006)

One of a series of 3 discs focusing on this musical phenomenon.

Tracklisting:

[1]-[3] Jiří Antonín Benda (1722-95): Sinfonia No. 4 in F
[4]-[6] Josef Bárta (1744-87): Sinfonia in C minor
[7]-[9] František Xaver Richter (1709-89): Concerto in E-minor pro Cembalo (Harpsichord)
[10]-[13] Jan Václav Stamic (1714-57) Sinfonia Pastorale D major, op. 4/2
[14]-[17] Jan Křitetel Vaňhal (1739-1813): Sinfonia in E minor