Franz Joseph Clement (November 17 or 18?, 1780 – November 3, 1842), was an Austrian violinist, pianist, composer, conductor of Vienna's

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, and a friend of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

Life and career

A talented violinist from a young age, he was known for his extraordinary ability to play complex pieces from memory after only briefly viewing them. He would alternate his virtuoso performances with lighthearted showmanship, with such intermission antics as playing a sonata on one string with the violin upside-down.Bathia Churgin, ''Transcendent Mastery: Studies in the Music of Beethoven'', 3. A critic in 1805 described his unique style as follows: "His is not the marked, bold, strong playing, the moving, forceful

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, the powerful bow and tone which characterise the

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Viotti Giovanni Battista Viotti (12 May 1755 – 3 March 1824) was an Italian violinist whose virtuosity was famed and whose work as a composer featured a prominent violin and an appealing lyrical tunefulness. He was also a director of French and Italia ...

School; rather, his playing is indescribably delicate, neat and elegant; it has an extremely delightful tenderness and cleanness that undoubtedly secures him a place among the most perfect violinists. At the same time, he has a wholly individual lightness, which makes it seem as if he merely toys with the most incredible difficulties, and a sureness that never deserts him for a moment, even in the most daring passages." Beethoven became acquainted with Clement in 1794 when he attended a performance in Vienna by the prodigy, then just 14. It was at the

's benefit concert of April 7, 1805 that Beethoven first publicly conducted his Eroica symphony. At the same performance, Clement premiered his own violin concerto in D Major, one of Clement's six known violin concertos. Clement went on to commission Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major from his friend for the next benefit concert, given on December 23, 1806. It is said that Beethoven worked on it up until shortly before the performance, and that Clement played the piece without rehearsing. His works include, besides a number of compositions for violin and piano or orchestra, an offertorium "Ave, o rosa mistica" published in 1848.Se
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Publication was by Diabelli- the "Ebend" in the line linked to means "same as the line above".

Recordings

* Violin Concerto in D major by Franz Clement. Paired with the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Rachel Barton Pine Rachel Barton Pine (born Rachel Elizabeth Barton, October 11, 1974) is an American violinist. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony at age 10, and was the first American and youngest ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Ba ...

(violin),

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(conductor), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Cedille Records Cedille Records () is the independent record label of the Chicago Classical Recording Foundation. History In 1989, James Ginsburg, the son of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, founded Cedille Records as a for-profit c ...

: CDR 90000 106
info
*Violin Concertos Nos. 1 – 2. Mirijam Contzen (Violin), WDR Symfonieorchester, Reinhard Goebel (conductor). Sony Masterworks, 2019.

References

Sources

* (See final page.)

External links

* 1780 births 1842 deaths Austrian conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Austrian classical pianists Male classical pianists Austrian classical violinists Austrian Romantic composers 19th-century classical composers 19th-century conductors (music) 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century classical violinists Male classical violinists 19th-century German musicians {{Austria-composer-stub