Leopold Koželuch - Piano Concerto No.7 in D major

Felicja Blumenthal/ Prague New Chamber Orchestra/ Alberto Zedda
00:00 Allegro
12:54 Adagio
21:58 Andantino con Variazioni
Leopold Koželuch (1747-1818) was a Bohemian Composer. Leopold Koželuch studied in Prague with his cousin and František Xaver Dušek, the latter teaching him in the keyboard and composition. From 1771 to 1778 Koželuch wrote ballets and pantomimes which were performed in Prague. The success of these works led him to abandon plans to study law in favour of a musical career. In 1781 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart resigned his appointment as court organist in Salzburg following a quarrel with his employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg. The Archbishop offered the position to Koželuch, but Koželuch refused, later expressing concerns to a friend that he might too have fallen victim to what he saw as Mozart's ill-treatment.

By 1790, a time at which Mozart and Joseph Haydn were at the height of their careers, Koželuch's reputation was such as to move Ernst Ludwig Gerber to say the following of his status within Europe: "Leopold Kozeluch is without question with young and old the generally most loved among our living composers, and this with justification". Mozart's death later in the years afforded Koželuch another opportunity: Emperor Franz II offered him Mozart's positions in his court, Kammer Kapellmeister (music director) and Hofmusik Compositor (composer), and at double Mozart's salary.
Koželuch would remain in the positions until his death.
Koželuch's compositional output declined after the turn of the century as he focused on his court duties, teaching, and the lucrative work of arranging Scottish, Irish and Welsh folk songs for the publisher George Thomson. William Crotch reflected on Koželuch's reputation in a lecture in 1806, remarking that he had "sunk in unmerited neglect" while Mozart's reputation had enjoyed posthumous growth. In 1809, Ludwig van Beethoven, a frequent disparager of rival composers, would write to Thomson referring to Koželuch as "Miserabilis"

Koželuch left around 400 compositions. Among these there are about thirty symphonies, twenty-two piano concertos, including a concerto for piano four-hands, arguably one of the best examples of this rare genre, two clarinet concertos, twenty-four violin sonatas, sixty-three piano trios, six string quartets, two oratorios (one of which, Moisè in Egitto, has recently been produced and recorded), nine cantatas and various liturgical works. Among his music there are also operas and works for ballet, which—with the exception of one opera —have yet to be heard in recent years. Numerous arrangements by him of Scottish songs for the Edinburgh collector George Thomson were popular, and some of these have also been recorded. There is no copyright infringement intended. If you wish your recording to be removed, it can be done, please just leave me an email, which can be found at the channel's about section.