Baroque Bohemia & Beyond: Linek, Koželuh, Brixi, Rejcha

Jiři Ignác Linek (1725-1791)
Sinfonia Pastoralis C Major

Leopold Koželuh (1747-1818)
Symphony in G minor

Frantisek Xaver Brixi (1732-71)
Symphony in D major

Antonín Rejcha (1770-1836)
Symphony in Eb major, Op. 41

Czech Chamber Philharmonic
Zdenek Adam, artistic director
Vojtech Spurný, conductor - harpsichord

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

"One of the Czech composers to progress from baroque style to that of preclassicism, Brixi is now credited with preparing Prague for the subsequent arrival of Mozart whose operas and symphonies were to be performed there with such success. Koželuh was invited to replace Mozart as court Organist in Salzburg and later published Mozart's famous G minor symphony… Rejcha befriended Beethoven in Vienna and later settled in Paris and taught Berlioz, Gounod, Franck and Liszt! … 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: Bárta, Koželuh, Vaňhal and the Vranickýs, but some, including the Benda family went to Berlin, others to Mannheim (eg Stamic and Richter)"
Peter Avis 2006