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J.B.Vanhal and his piano works
Whimsical behaviour or love for freedom?
In 1770s Vanhal became well known in Vienna for his whimsical behaviour and state of depression (?!) (still a disputed subject for scholars: why? what does it mean?).
      It is sure, in any case, that, thanks to his whimsical behaviour (which, in the 18th century context, seems rather a sort of love for freedom), Vanhal avoided to become the composer-servant of some major aristocratic family and managed to establish, instead, in Vienna, a solid and successful musical activity as a composer and as a music teacher.
      His compositions, his symphonies, his concertos and his works for piano etc. sold well through the publishers' system across Europe and he was among the first European composers to even reach, with his works, the East Coast of the New World, where he received public performances of his works in cities like Boston and Philadelphia.

Vanhal's important friends and pupils
      Friend and pupil of von Dittersdorf, friend of Haydn and Mozart, he used to play quartets with them during the soirées and he was among those few people (Mozart, Haydn, Dittersdorf, etc.) who were allowed to befriend the great Paisiello during his stay in Vienna in 1784.
      As a composer he exerted a great influence on Mozart, especially with his Sturm und Drang symphonies and his concertos (Mozart used to play Vanhal's violin concertos during his concerts) and with his ideas on the freelance activity for musicians and composers. Among his pupils, we remember Pleyel (whom then he sent to J.Haydn, to complete his studies) and Czerny (the friend of Beethoven and the famous piano teacher of the child prodigy Franz Liszt).

Vanhal's piano production
      His vast production for keyboard/piano (approximately 400 works) ranges from simple lesson-works to ambitious sonatas, fantasias, sets of variations, and capriccios designed for the public professional performance, works, which incredibly still enchant the audience with their peculiar energetic and even symphonic style. They are solo piano works, in fact, but feature a rich, dynamic and intense musical research, which reveals the true untamed spirit of one the of major masters of the Sturm und Drang style of his Era.
      Vanhal's solo piano Capriccios were, in reality, Capriccio Sonatas (or Caprice-Sonaten as Vanhal called them; for a comparison, in fact, see Mozart's K.395 Kleine Phantasie with its Capriccio and its peculiar structure), which required a skilled complete performance, full of sprezzatura, of the entire set of 3 Capriccios, without using pauses among them, but rather performing even improvisatorial bridges between each capriccio (in a few cases such improvisatorial bridges were personally written by Vanhal himself). The passionate expressive character of such piano works are even underlined by the internal titles sometimes used by Vanhal for each single capriccio: i.e. Clementis & Silentis, Amoroso, Dolente.
      Vanhal's pianism, ranging from the 1760s style to the 1790s style, was an important milestone in the evolution of the style of piano playing. Consider, in fact, that Mozart's sonatas K.279 and K.280, written in 1775, were considered among the most difficult works for solo piano of that period(see Letter of Leopold Mozart to his Wife and Son, 17 November 1777).
      Just as an evidence of the typical work and habit of the publishers of this period, consider that Vanhal's Op.15 was republished in London, as Op.36 and with the title The Beauties of Apollo by the Celebrated Vanhall of Vienna
                                    __________________
J.B. Vanhal, Capriccio-Sonatas Op. 31 & Op. 36:

SCORE
Capriccio-Sonatas Op. 31 Nos. 1-2-3 (http://imslp.org)
Capriccio-Sonatas Op. 36 Nos. 1-2-3 (= Op. 15) (http://imslp.org)

RECORDING (World Premiere Recording)

Michael Tsalka, Piano
www.naxos.com (Grand Piano - Naxos Records)
MozartCircle
S. & L.M. Jennarelli