Carl Stamitz (Karel Stamic) - Cello Concerto No. 1 in G Major, Klaus-Peter Hahn (cello), Kurpfalz Chamber Orchestra
I. Allegro con spirit - 0:00
II. Romance (Andantino) - 10:03
III. Rondo. Allegro - 14:58
Carl Philipp Stamitz (Czech: Karel Stamic; baptized 8 May 1745 - 9 November 1801) was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry. He is the best-known representative of the second generation of composers who were active at the court of the Elector Palatine in Mannheim during the middle decades of the Eighteenth Century.
He received his earliest musical training from his father, Johann Stamitz, Director of Instrumental Music and leader of the incomparable Mannheim court orchestra, and in the years following his father's early death, from the court musicians Christian Cannabich, Ignaz Holzbauer and Franz Xaver Richter.
Extant orchestral registers for the period 1762-1770 list Carl Stamitz as a second violinist in the court orchestra, a position which enabled him to forge a brilliant performing technique as well as study the contemporary Mannheim repertoire.
Stamitz left Mannheim in 1770, travelling to Paris where, the following year, he was appointed court composer to Duke Louis of Noailles. In Paris he made contact with many leading musicians including Gossec, Leduc, Beer and Sieber, who published a number of his newest compositions, and, together with his brother Anton, was a regular performer at the Concert Spirituel.
Stamitz's departure from Paris has not been accurately documented although the music historian Carl Ferdinand Pohl claimed that he was in London from 1777 until at least 1779. After his departure, however, he never again held an important permanent position even during the years of his greatest international fame.
In 1794, he gave up travelling and moved with his family to Jena in central Germany, but his circumstances deteriorated and he descended into debt and poverty. His wife of ten years, Maria Josepha (nee Pilz) died in January 1801 and Stamitz himself died in November the same year.
In spite of his early fame, his obvious gifts as a performer and composer and his sporadic experiments in alchemy, Carl Stamitz died so heavily in debt that his possessions had to auctioned to help pay his creditors. A printed catalogue of his music collection was printed for a separate auction in 1810 but the collection has long since disappeared. Papers on alchemy were found after his death.