Antonio Casimir Cartellieri | id

(b Danzig, 27 Sept 1772; d Liebshausen, Bohemia, 2 Sept 1807). Bohemian composer. He received a musical education at an early age from his parents: his father, an Italian tenor, Antonio Maria Gaetano, and his mother, from Riga, the singer Elisabeth Böhm, as she was known professionally at the Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin after her second marriage. His parents’ unhappy marriage and subsequent divorce led to Antonio’s leaving home at the age of 13. After several difficult years, he emerged in 1791 as music director and court composer to Count Oborsky. In 1792 he accompanied his employer to Berlin, where he achieved his first success as a dramatic composer. During his subsequent sojourn with the Count in Vienna, he studied counterpoint with Albrechtsberger, Seyfried and possibly Beethoven, and operatic composition with Salieri. Cartellieri’s first public appearance with Beethoven was in 1795 in a concert which saw both the première of his own oratorio Gioas re di Giuda and Beethoven’s first public performance as a pianist in Vienna. Prince Lobkowitz, who had noticed Cartellieri at Oborsky’s concerts, engaged him in 1796 as Kapellmeister, singing teacher and violinist. In addition to directing operas at the princely court, Cartellieri had to play in instrumental concerts, which sometimes included premières of works by Beethoven under the direction of the composer, for example, the Eroica Symphony and the Triple Concerto on 23 January 1805. In 1800 he married Franziska Kraft, whose father Anton gave Haydn’s well-known cello concerto its première. Unlike his parents, Cartellieri had a happy marriage which produced three sons, including Joseph who succeeded to his father’s post with Lobkowitz. Cartellieri died of a heart attack at the age of 35. His premature death prevented his music from becoming more widely known. Partly influenced by his great Viennese contemporaries and partly anticipating later features of Romanticism, Cartellieri’s style is nonetheless unlike any other. In terms of compass and originality his works merit revival. The popular canon ‘Oh come lieto in seno’ from his opera Il segreto was formerly misattributed to Mozart. .