Maria Antonia Walpurgis; Ouverture zu Talestri, Regina delle Amazzoni (c. 1760): I. Allegro
Maddalena Sirmen (1745-1818): Duetto op 5 nr 1 in E Flat major
Regina Strinasacchi (1761-1839): Violin concerto B flat Major
Paul Wranitzky (1756-1808): Sinfonie C Major op.19 „the Emperors“, only Andante con moto and Finale: Presto
Pause
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Ouverture „La Clemenza di Tito“
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony no 5 c minor
The other Vienna
This program features a well-known, an exceptionally famous piece from Vienna of the year 1808, when Beethoven was already on the peak of his fame. The four notes of the entry theme of his Symphony no 5 is maybe the most well-known classical melody of the world. Beethoven was a star in his chosen hometown Vienna, and many more musicians passed through this cultural centre of the Western world.
One of them was the young female violinist Regina Strinasacchi. As female visibility has been a great issue in the arts of the past centuries, her legacy was preserved mainly by a coincidence: Leopold Mozart in 1785 heard her concert in Salzburg and wrote a letter to his son Wolfgang. In this letter he describes Regina as a very skilful 23 year old violinist who plays with outstanding sentiment, beauty and sense, as to prove that women are capable of playing with stronger expression than men. Strinasacchi commissioned Wolfgang to write a sonata for her, the famous sonata KV 454, which the two of them performed together in Vienna (again, we have knowledge of this concert only by a letter from Wolfgang to Leopold). Regina was also a star at her time, despite of the moral standards at that time, when women were not supposed to be on a stage. (The only exception of this standard were singers, whose fame was paid for with a dubious reputation.) She composed several works, one remaining in the British Library is the manuscript of her violin concerto in B major, which Midori Seiler has copied and put in a modern writing.
Vienna was frequently visited by artists from England and Italy, but hardly any French composer came to visit, even if French music was played. So we can only speculate why Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges, who travelled extensively through his life, never paid a visit to the metropole, if for traditional reasons or because of his origin, being the son of a former slave from Guadeloupe in 18th century society. There is strong evidence that Saint George had personal contact with Haydn and even commissioned Haydn’s Paris Symphonies (Nr 82-87), when Saint Georges was the conductor of „Loge Olympique“ in Paris. Both Mozart, when travelling to Paris in 1778 and Saint George were long term guests at the very same apartment of Baron Melchior Grimm and Louise d’Epinay- so there is a possibility, that although Saint George never travelled to Vienna, he met two of the most influential Viennese composers of his time.