Lajos Lencsés, a Hungarian oboist and a prize winner at the Geneva International Music Competition, was the principal oboist of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and is considered an international oboist elite.
Compositional Technique
The quintets on this album, arranged from Gassmann's operas, were likely commissioned by Emperor Joseph II, who was a student of Gassmann in counterpoint and an accomplished violist and cellist.
Composition History
Gassmann founded the Wiener Tonkünstler-Societät, a pension society for widows and orphans of Austrian musicians, in 1771.
Composer Biography
Florian Leopold Gassmann, born in 1729 in Brüx, Bohemia, left home at a young age to pursue music, escaping his family's wish for him to become a businessman.
Compositional Technique
Gassmann's chamber music for oboe, two violas, and cello features an unusual instrumentation and a dense musical texture, with all four instruments acting as equals.
Composer Biography
Gassmann succeeded Christoph Willibald von Gluck as court composer to Emperor Josef II in Vienna, and his student Antonio Salieri later inherited this position.
Composer Biography
Gassmann studied with the renowned teacher Padre Martini in Bologna and later became music director of a monastery, establishing himself in Italy before moving to Vienna.
