Carl Stamitz

Along with his younger brother, Anton, Carl Philipp Stamitz followed in his father’s footsteps as a violinist and composer at Mannheim, where he imbibed the repertoire and technical brilliance of the court’s famous orchestra. Born in 1745, he studied with the Mannheim composers Cannabich, Holzbauer and Richter. In 1770, he embarked upon the life of a touring musician, with prominent posts in Paris, London and Hamburg. During the 1790s he settled with his family in Thuringia and scratched a living as a freelance composer. Determining the precise authorship of music by the Stamitz family is difficult, as copies often only included the surname, and Carl’s manuscript legacy disappeared soon after his death in 1801. Nevertheless, his reputation rests on a prolific output of symphonies and concertos, along with a range of chamber music, boasting a lyricism derived from his experiences in France and England that adds an individual voice to the busy virtuosity and attention-grabbing orchestral effects of the Mannheim style.