Franz Christoph Neubauer: Symphony in B flat major, Op 8 No 6, Petr Chromčák (conductor)

Franz Christoph (František Kryštof) Neubauer - Symphony in B flat major, Op.8 No.6, Czech Chamber Philharmonic, Petr Chromčák (conductor) I. Adagio – Allegro – 00:00 II. Cantabile – 08:03 III. Allegretto – 14:21 Franz Christoph Neubauer (born around 1760 possibly in Hořín near Mělník; d. October 11, 1795 in Bückeburg) was a German composer and violinist of Bohemian origin. Neubauer apparently studied in Prague and subsequently became an itinerant violinist in Bavaria. There is also documentary evidence that he visited a number of monasteries and was given food and lodging for his services as performer and composer. Abbot Georg Joseph Vogler, who was not so easily satisfied, heard some of his works and could not deny his admiration. In 1781 he stayed for a few weeks in the Benedictine Abbey of Andechs, where, as contemporaries report, he wrote a stabat mater within a week. In early 1786, he briefly visited Zurich where he played for the members of the Zurich ‘Musikgesellschaft zur mehreren Stadt’ and before leaving he sold one of his masses to the Society for 15 gulden. Neubauer then moved on to nearby Winterthur where he apparently composed his cantata ‘Hymne auf die Natur’. In 1790 he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Prince of Nassau-Weilburg and was there until the dissolution of the Weilburg orchestra four years later. He is believed to have been in Hanover in 1794, the year in which he joined the court of Princess von Schaumburg-Lippe in Buckeburg where the current Kapellmeister was J.C.F. Bach (a younger son of Johann Sebastian). After J.C.F. Bach’s death in January 1795, Neubauer succeeded him, but he died only nine months later on 11th October, 1795. Even during his lifetime, Neubauer had the reputation of being a brilliant libertine. Contemporaries said that they often found him composing in hallways and tobacco shops, and in the latter mostly in a drunk state. His death is also linked to excessive alcohol consumption. On the other hand, he obviously knew how to captivate his audience, as the Bückeburg consistorial councilor and court preacher Karl Gottlieb Horstig wrote in his obituary for Franz Neubauer:"An ingenious fire permeated the orchestra when Neubauer conducted, and his symphonies, when his spirit inspired them, produced an indescribable effect on his listeners ...". (from Chris Walton: ‘Pocahontas in the Alps: Masonic traces in the stage works of Franz Christoph Neubauer’ in ‘The Musical Times’, Autumn 2005, and de.wikipedia).