Concert

Orchestral works and a concert aria by Josef Netzer

Josef Netzer came from a family of musicians: his grandfather Blasius and his father Christian were both highly regarded composers in the region. Josef was born in Zams and showed extraordinary musical talent at an early age. After his training at the Innsbruck Musikverein with Father Martin Goller, Netzer went to Vienna, where he first studied with his fellow countryman Johann Baptist Gänsbacher and later with the famous Simon Sechter. After completing his training, Netzer worked as a bandmaster at various Austrian and German theatres before accepting a call to Graz in 1853, where he worked as a bandmaster at the theatre and at the Styrian Music Society.

Netzer’s masterful Fourth Symphony was composed in Leipzig around 1849 and shows the influence of Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann. Five years later, Netzer composed the Adagio and Rondo for clarinet and orchestra, a brilliantly orchestrated virtuoso piece. Netzer wrote the colourful concert aria “Vorüber sind die Stürme” for Marie von Marra (actually von Hack), an important singer and pupil of Gaetano Donizetti.

Stefanie Steger (soprano)
Max Ziehesberger (clarinet)
Orchestra of the St. Blasius Academy, Karlheinz Siessl (conductor)