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Composer: František Xaver Brixi (1732-1771)
Work: Missa Integra D-Dur
Performers: Evа Mіrgová (soprano); PаvIа Aunіcká (alto); Jаmеs Grіffеtt (tenor); Jіrí SuIzеnko (bass); Brno Academic Choir; Gіoіa deIIa musica Praha
Painting: José Camarón Bonanat (1731-1803) - San Francisco confortado por los ángeles (1788)
Image in high resolution: flic.kr/p/xvxvTM
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František Xaver Brixi
(Prague, 2 January 1732 - Prague, 14 October 1771)
Organist and composer, son of Šimon Brixi (1693-1735). He received his musical education at the Piarist Gymnasium, Kosmonosy (1744-49), where in 1748 he was classified ‘felicissimus ingenii’. In his last year at the Gymnasium his teacher was Václav Kalous (1715-1786), a composer who was also choirmaster at the monastery church. In 1749 Brixi left for Prague where he became organist first at St Havel, and later at the churches of St Martín, St Mikuláš and St Mary na Louži. He soon became one of the best-known composers in Prague, evidence of which can be seen in that from 1757 to his death he was consistently chosen to write the musica navalis for St John’s Eve. On 1 January 1759 he was appointed Kapellmeister of St Vít Cathedral, thus attaining at the age of 27 the highest musical position in the city. At the same time he is said to have become choirmaster of the Benedictine monastery of St Jiří at Hradčany in Prague. He died 12 years later of tuberculosis in the hospital of the Brothers of Charity. Brixi was one of the leading musical figures of mid-18th-century Bohemia. His tremendous output of about 500 works was rooted in the Neapolitan style, particularly that of Alessandro Scarlatti, Francesco Feo and Francesco Durante, and he was also influenced by the Viennese school of Mancini, Reuter and Bonno. Brixi’s style is distinguished from that of his contemporaries by its fresh melodic writing, vivacious rhythm and lively bass lines, and from that of his predecessors by its simple yet effective instrumentation. He often made use of folk music in his works. During his lifetime his music was widely disseminated in Bohemia and Moravia, as well as in other countries, especially Austria, Bavaria and Silesia. He had a profound effect on Bohemian musical taste, and Mozart’s favourable reception in Prague in the 1780s was at least partly due to Brixi’s lasting influence. The easy appeal of his musical style left an impression on Czech composers for the rest of the 18th century.