String Trio in B flat Major, (D581) Franz Schubert (1798 - 1828) Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music. Born: January 31, 1797, Himmelpfortgrund, Vienna, Austria Died: November 19, 1828 (age 31 years), Vienna, Austria Wikipedia Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello in G minor Georg Druschetzky (1745-1819) Jirí Družecký (German: Georg Druschetzky, also known as Giorgio Druschetzky, also Druzechi, Druzecky, Druschetzki, Držecky, Truschetzki; born in Jemníky near Kladno, April 7, 1745 - June 21, 1819) was a Czech composer, oboist, and timpanist. He studied oboe with the noted oboist and composer Antonio Besozzi in Dresden. He then joined the band of an infantry regiment in Eger, with which he was later stationed (sequentially) in Vienna, Enns, Linz, and Branau. In 1777 he was certified as a drummer. In 1783 he moved to Vienna, where he became a member of the Tonknstler-Sozietät. Three years later he was Kapellmeister for Anton Grassalkovic of Gyaraku and moved to Bratislava. It is believed he started writing music in the 1770s, most of it for his band. He also wrote chamber music and music for orchestra, including 27 Symphonies and Concertos for various instruments. A couple of his operas survive, but one suite of incidental music and a ballet are lost. Druschetzky is credited with one of the earliest uses of the BACH motif. Druschetzky died in Buda. Wikipedia String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111 Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) Johannes Brahms; (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow. Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, voice, and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms has been considered both a traditionalist and an innovator, by his contemporaries and by later writers. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. Embedded within those structures are deeply Romantic motifs. While some contemporaries found his music to be overly academic, his contribution and craftsmanship were admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The detailed construction of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. |