Concertos for Jew´s Harp, Mandora and Orchestra

Abstract

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was born in 1736 in Klosterneuburg. From 1744 to 1748 he was a choirboy in the canonic foundation in Klosterneuburg, where he met Joseph and Michael Haydn for the first time, and from 1749 to 1753 he completed a study in the humanities in the monastery of Melk. Albrechtsberger was an organist - first in Raab (Hungary) From 1755 to 1757, then in Maria Taferl until 1759 and from 1760 to 1766 in Melk. From 1768 Albrechtsberger was active as an organist in Vienna. In 1772 he obtained the post of second court organist and in 1792 was promoted to first organist. As Mozart´s succesor Albrechtsberger was deputy Kapellmeister, and finally, from 1793 until his death in 1809, Kapellmeister at St. Stephen´s Cathedral in Vienna. In the Viennese musical life of these years he played an important part. He was acquainted with the court Kapellmeister J.A.G. Reutter and F1. L. Gassmann, and with Dittersdorf and Mozart, and was friendly with the Haydn brothers. Albrechtsberger, whose status in musical history rests on this theoretical writings as well as his knowledge in counter point was in essence self-taught.