F.X. Richter (1709-1789): Sonata No. 3 in A Major - Fugato - Ars rediviva - 1972 Supraphon Recording

Sonata No. 3 in A Major - Fugato · Franz Xaver Richter · Ars rediviva Richter: Trio Sonatas ℗ 1972 Supraphon a.s. Released 12-01-2016 Franz Xaver Richter (December 1, 1709 Holleschau, Moravia - September 12, 1789) Czech: František Xaver Richter. French: François Xavier Richter. Austrian-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician, highly regarded as a contrapuntist. Richter's career took him to Austria, and later to Mannheim and Strasbourg, where he was employed as music director of the cathedral. Franz Xaver Richter was the oldest and most conservative of the first-generation Mannheim school of composers. Indeed, he seems to have found the school’s most characteristic traits - the "Mannheim skyrocket", the "Mannheim crescendo" and so on - thoroughly distasteful. Few records remain of his early life. It is likely he lived in Vienna between 1727 and 1736 where he studied Johann Joseph Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum, perhaps even with Fux himself, and Richter extensively arranged Antonio Caldara’s church music. In 1736, Richter was accepted as a bass singer in the Stuttgart Hofkapelle. He moved to the Benedictine Ritterakademie in Ettal the following year to work as director of music. In 1740, Richter entered the service of Bishop Prince Anselm von Reichlin-Meldegg in Kempten, Allgäu, as Vizekapellmeister, and later became Kapellmeister. Richter continued to perform in various court positions throughout his life, and in 1744 he established himself as a composer after publishing the "Six grandes symphonies" for strings in Paris, which actually contained twelve symphonies in total.