瓦根塞爾（Georg Christoph Wagenseil，1715-1777），出生在維也納一個商人家庭，當他還在皇太后薇海米娜·阿米麗雅（神圣羅馬帝國皇帝約瑟夫一世的遺孀）禮拜堂唱詩班作 Boy Soprano 的時候，就已經(jīng)開始跟隨 Matteo Palotta 和 Gottlieb Muffat 學習鍵盤樂器演奏了。1736 年，他被招入宮廷，成為一名受皇家資助學習音樂的 Hofscholar，而他的老師，正是 Muffat 本人的老師 Fux！此后三年里，瓦根塞爾師從這位對位法大師學習作曲、提高自己的鍵盤技法，得到了大師毫無保留的欣賞和稱贊。此間他還被任命為宮廷作曲家，并接替 Muffat 擔任宮廷管風琴師以及年輕的瑪麗·特雷薩的鋼琴與羽管鍵琴教師。

　　1740年，約瑟夫一世的弟弟、神圣羅馬帝國皇帝查理六世駕崩，奧地利繼承權(quán)戰(zhàn)爭隨之爆發(fā)。想來女大公此時已不再有時間和心情繼續(xù)學習音樂，因為就在同一年，瓦根塞爾轉(zhuǎn)任她的女兒以及王儲的鋼琴教師。一年以后，他又被任命為皇太后伊麗莎白·克里斯汀的管風琴演奏師，譜寫了大量的宗教音樂。在瑪麗·特雷薩的允許下，瓦根塞爾游學意大利，回來后創(chuàng)作了一些意大利風格的歌劇作品，其中最有名的，是用薩爾維的腳本譜寫的 Ariodante (1745) 和用梅塔斯塔西奧的腳本譜寫的 Demetrio (1746)。

　　盡管瓦根塞爾深受皇室賞識，當瑪麗·特雷薩的丈夫、洛林的弗蘭茨·斯蒂芬于1745年加冕為神圣羅馬帝國皇帝的時候，他甚至蒙恩與皇室成員同赴法蘭克福參加加冕典禮，然而，他終生都沒能在哈布斯堡宮廷中謀得一個關鍵性的音樂職位，僅僅是一名普通的宮廷作曲家而已。即使是給瑪麗·特雷薩的女兒、五位女大公教課這個差使，也是有實無名了很多年，直到1749年戰(zhàn)爭結(jié)束，才獲得一個 Hofklaviermeister 的正式稱號。

　　有關瓦根塞爾的一則軼事是，1762年，年僅六歲的莫扎特來到宮中獻藝，他向皇帝問道："Ist Herr Wagenseil nicht hier? Der versteht."（“瓦根塞爾先生在不在？他會理解的�！保┊斖吒�塞爾來到他面前時，這位小神童又說："Ich spiele ein Concert von Ihnen, Sie müssen mir umwenden."（“我來演奏一首您作的協(xié)奏曲，請您為我翻譜好嗎？”）

　　瓦根塞爾一生創(chuàng)作了96部交響曲，103部協(xié)奏曲，88部鋼琴嬉游曲，93部室內(nèi)樂作品以及大量為羽管鍵琴、鋼琴和管風琴而作的樂曲。由于五十年代他獲權(quán)在巴黎出版他的器樂作品，由此和倫敦、萊比錫和阿姆斯特丹等城市的音樂出版商建立了聯(lián)系，他的音樂開始廣為傳播并大獲歡迎，成為當時歐洲音樂界備受推崇的作曲家之一。

　　瓦根塞爾的音樂風格和曲式結(jié)構(gòu)，兼?zhèn)渫砥诎吐蹇伺c早期古典主義的不同特點，同時具有法意的優(yōu)美和德奧的謹嚴，對早期古典主義風格的形成，特別是古典交響曲的發(fā)展，有著不容忽視的影響

Harp Concertos  Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715- 1777) Concerto in G Major for Harp, Two Violins and Cello  Iean-Baptiste Krumpholtz (1742- 1790) Concerto No.6 in F Major for Harp and Orchestra, Op. 9 Ian Ladislav Dussek (1760- 1812) Sonata No.2 for Harp in E Flat Major, Op. 34 Concerto in E Flat Major for Harp and Orchestra, Op. 15  Georg Christoph Wagenseil was born in Vienna in 1715 and studied composition with Johann Joseph Fux, the hnperial Court Kapel1meister, before, on his teacher’s recommendation, being appointed in 1735 as Court Composer. His first opera, Ariodante, was staged in Venice at S Giovanni Grisostomo in 1745 under his own direction and his many compositions found favour widely abroad, in Paris as elsewhere. He was an able keyboard-player and was employed as teacher to the daughters of the imperial family, as Hojklaviermeister, his own playing being much admired for its expressive power and inventiveness in improvisation. Towards the end of his life illness prevented his performance, but he continued to teach and to compose until his death in 1777.  fu style Wagenseil began with a mastery of current Baroque techniques, proceeding, as time went on, to the stile galant of the mid-century .Earlier in his career a number of sacred works, some ninety before 1755, were followed by operas, several to libretti by the Court Poet Metastasio, an admirer of his ability as a performer. He was prolific in keyboard music, contributed significantly to the development of the classical symphony and composed a number of concertos, primarily for harpsichord, although the alternative of organ or harp is suggested. These concertos alone number as many as 75, with others at least mentioned in other sources.  The present Harp Concerto in G major opens with a lightly orchestrated introduction of thematic material, before the solo entry, proceeding with all the clarity of the pre-classical style. The slow movement turns to the minor key, with the touch of poignancy that found its true master later with Mozart, who as a child had played one of Wagenseil’s concertos before the Empress Maria Theresia. The concerto ends with a cheerful finale, its mood at once established, and continued through a series of lightly contrasted episodes.  The Bohemian composer Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz was himself a harpist as well as an innovator in the form that instrument took towards the end of the eighteenth century. Born in Bohemia, the son of a bandmaster in the service of Count Kinsky, he was taught by his father, an oboist, to play the horn and to this end was despatched to Vienna to perfect his technique. This he failed to do, preferring to devote his attention to the harp, the instrument played by his mother. After a period in France and in Flanders, he returned to Prague, where he had encouragement from Wagenseil’s former pupil Frantisek Xaver Dusek, who recommended him to Haydn. After success in Vienna, he was engaged by the latter as harpist at Esterhaza, where he also had composition lessons from Haydn. His first appearance there had been at the end ofJuly1773, when he was well rewarded. His contract for two years was made on 1st August. fu 1776 he is recorded as having played the harp part in a performance at Esterhaza of Gluck’s Orjeo ed Euridice and in the same year he left to embark on a concert tour of Europe, making a particular impression with the improved form of instrument he developed. After the death of his first wife, daughter of a harp-maker in Paris, he married Anne-Marie steckler, his pupil and daughter of an instrument-makerin Metz with whom he himself had worked. She won an even higher reputation than her husband as a performer, appearing in London at the salomon concerts, but this after her elopement with Jan Ladislav Dussek. Krumpholtz himself committed suicide, drowning himself in the Seine in 1790, presumably as a result of his wife’s desertion.  The compositions of Krumpholtz for the harp are among the most important of the later eighteenth century. They include six concertos and two symphonies with solo harp, as well as a quantity of sonatas and shorter pieces. Classical in style, with all the expected clarity of texture, theConcerto No.6 in F major, written about 1785, opens with an orchestral introduction that offers a statement of the thematic material that is to be developed with the entry of the soloist. The novelty of his work for the instrument lies in part in his use of the possibilities of modulation provided by the pedal instrument, and perhaps by the form of swell-pedal he introduced, an eighth pedal that could control the volume of sound by opening and closing a shutter, the harpe ii renjorcements. The first movement of the concerto proceeds in the expected form, the solo instrument always in the forefront in a lightly orchestrated work. The slow movement begins with the solo instrument, offering the principal theme, now in the minor, to be taken up by the orchestra, material that dominates until the major central section, after which the principal theme returns. There is a final movement of great charm, with the necessary variety between episodes that contrast with a principal theme worthy of comic opera in the idiom of the time.  Anne-Marie Krumpholtz’s paramour, Ian Ladislav Dussek, was Bohemian by birth, the son a well known organist and composer, a friend of Haydn, and his wife, a harpist. Dussek’s early career as a pianist took him, largely as a teacher, to the Low Countries, where he taught the children of the Dutch Stadtholder. In the 1780she travelled further afield, meeting C.P.E. Bach in Hamburg, playing before Catherine II in St Petersburg and later entering the service of Prince Karl Radziwill, father of Chopin’s later patron. A tour of Germany, performing on the piano and on the glass harmonica, was followed by concerts in Paris, where he remained until the early signs of revolution in 1789. The next eleven years were spent in London, distinguishing himself as a performer and as a teacher. In the first capacity he played at the Salomon concerts and took part in Haydn’s concerts in the 1790s, eliciting from the latter praise both for his musicianship and his moral probity. Whatever his relationship with Anne-Marie Krumpholtz, in 1792 he married Sophia Corri, a singer, pianist and harpist, who also appeared in the Haydn concerts. With her father Dussek entered into a music publishing venture which, by 1799, had failed. Domenico Coni was imprisoned for debt, but Dussek took refuge from debt and from his wife and her family in Hamburg. The new century found him again in his native Bohemia, followed, from 1804 to 1806, by service as Kapellmeister to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia and then, after the latter’s death, to Prince Isenburg, before moving to Paris in the employment of Talleyrand. He died in France, possibly in Paris, in 1812. With a mother, a mistress and then a wife who were harpists, it was natural that Dussek should write music for the instrument. This included, notably in the 1790s, a number of sonatinas and sonatas, as well as a number of concertos, some offering the alternative of solo piano instead of solo harp. His chamber music also finds a place for the harp. His two-movement Sonata No. 2 in E flat major, Opus 34, written in 1797, is characteristic enough of his work, using figuration that is now a familiar element of harp technique. The attractive three- movement Concerto in E flat major, Opus 15, with its idiomatic writing for the instrument, starts its extended first movement with the expected orchestral exposition. It proceeds in the now usual pattern, with its dramatic cadenza, in due classical form and it is not difficult to detect similarities of style with a number of Dussek’s contemporaries. The slow movement provides attractive material, before a final movement with a particularly cheerful principal theme that has something of a contemporary popular song about it, a reminder that Dussek was to write at the turn of the century, a harp sonata on The Lass of Richmond Hill. His principal compositions for the instrument, however, come at the time of his liaison with Anne-Marie Krumpholtz and his subsequent marriage with Sophia Corri. The Concerto in E flat major, Opus 15, was written in London in 1789, intended for Mme Krumpholtz, who performed a number of works by Dussek in the salomon concerts that brought Haydn to London, appearing in the first of the concerts with a Concerto for pianoforte and pedal harp by Dussek, with the composer as the other soloist. Roberta Alessandrini Roberta Allessandrini graduated with distinction at the Venice Benedetto Marcello Conservatory and her competition awards include the first prize d’hanneur a l’unanimite in the Paris International Harp Competition of 1985 and in the 1984 Genoa Rjetman Competition. Her distinguished career has brought a busy series of concert engagements and broadcasts and the publication of a number of harp transcriptions, notably of earlier keyboard music. She is principal professor of the harp at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan.  Orchestra di Mantova The Orchestra of Mantua is made up of young musicians, for the most part of Italian origin and chosen for their understanding of Italian instrumental traditions. The orchestra is established in the splendid Teatro Accademico del Bibiena in Mantua and since its foundation has worked with soloists and conductors of the greatest distinction. Vittorio Parisi Born in Milan in 1957, Vittorio Parisi studied conducting at the Verdi Conservatory, serving, subsequently, as assistant to one of his teachers, Gianluigi Gelmetti, the start of a career that has brought engagements with the principal symphony and chamber orchestras of Italy as well as with opera-houses that include the San Carlo in Naples, La Fenicein Venice and Rome Opera, with a repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary. He has conducted in France, Holland, Switzerland, the former Czechoslovakia and Albania, with broadcasts in these countries as well as for Italian Radio. First performances have included works by Petrassi and Castiglioni, as well as collaboration with Luciano Berio and John Cage. From 1984 to 1988 he was conductor at the Teatro Angelicum and is at present director of the Oedalo Ensemble in Brescia.