Carl Heinrich Graun
1703-1759
We are now going to have a couple of composers for whom Frederick the Great is going to figure prominently. The first, Carl Heinrich Graun was born in Uebigau-Wahrenbrück and his musical talents were evident from an early age.
By the time he was ten he was studying in Dresden, singing and composition and by the age of twenty was singing at the Braunschweig Opera House.
He started composing operas which were performed in the opera house but came to the notice of Crown Prince Frederick (later Frederick the Great) after he composed an opera in 1733 in honour of his marriage to Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern.
Frederick swept him up and moved his to his court at Rheinsberg appointing him as Kapellmeister. When Frederick became King and moved to Berlin, Graun came with him and retained his post as Kapellmeister.
And one strange fact about Carl Heinrich? His direct descendent was the author of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov!
His works had completely fallen from fashion by the end of the 19th century and are rarely heard today.
He composed 32 operas that we know of during his lifetime, a small selection of instrumental works plus an Easter Oratorio and the piece below:
Don't quite get this. Seems to start with Bach St Matthew Passion?
Anyway, like what Kit says, why was he forgotten?
Catching up after trip to Italy
I'm halfway through listening to this oratorio of the Passion. It's magnificent. And I don't understand why so many of these great 18th C works are being ignored today. Thank you again, Andrew.