Carl Stamitz

The eldest son of the man who had shaped the Mannheim court orchestra, Carl Stamitz grew up inside it: after Johann Stamitz's death he continued with Christian Cannabich and others and joined the band as a string player. In 1770 he left for an international life — Paris, the Concert Spirituel, then constant travel as violinist, violist and composer. His music sold widely in print: symphonies, sinfonias concertantes, chamber works, and concertos for violin, viola, clarinet, flute and bassoon. His last years, spent in Jena, were financially hard. He lived for spells in Strasbourg and London and played in Hamburg, Lübeck, Braunschweig, Magdeburg and Leipzig, took part in a Berlin performance of Handel's Messiah under Johann Adam Hiller in 1786, and directed amateur concerts in Kassel in 1789 and 1790, without securing the court appointment he sought in Schwerin. The output runs to more than fifty symphonies, thirty-eight sinfonias concertantes and over sixty concertos; among the papers left at his death in 1801 were writings on alchemy. From 1771 to 1773 he served as court composer to the Duke of Noailles in Paris.