
The public perception of Johann Baptist Wanhal has changed little since his death
in 1813. The biographical articles in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
(1951) and The New Grove (1980), both written by the same author, were
based upon the identical early 19th-century authors. So too were all incidental
articles written subsequent to Wanhals death. They reflect the questionable comprehension
and biases of the original authors: Dr Charles Burney, whose single visit with
Wanhal occurred in 1772, Gottfried Johann Dlabacz, his Bohemian compatriot who
stayed with him in Vienna for some time in 1795, and an anonymous Viennese author
whose necrology seems to have been mostly based upon rumour and filtered through
the interpretations of authors such as Gerber and Rochlitz. The following presents
my own interpretation based upon rereading the sources in the light of recent
investigations of the Viennese musical scene. Detailed discussion, including my
reasons for spelling his name with a "W", may be found in my book, Johann Wanhal,
Viennese Symphonist, His Life and His Musical Environment, published by Pendragon
Press in 1997.
Wanhals life may be divided into five periods. The first lasted from his
birth as a bonded servant on 12 May 1739 in the Bohemian village of Nechanicz
until he moved to Vienna to begin his career in 1760 or 1761. During these
twenty years he received excellent training from fine teachers in several
Bohemian towns and villages so that he became an accomplished violinist and
organist, and a composer of both instrumental and church music. At the same time
he prepared himself for a move to Vienna by learning to speak German. His
attractive personal characteristics (happy, modest, honest, personal warmth,
good looks, personal deportment, deeply religious, etc.) together with his
pragmatic and independent spirit foretold his later success.
The second period of Wanhals life began when the Countess Schaffgotsch, to
whose family he was in bondage, offered to take him to Vienna. The exact date is
not ascertainable, but it was fortunate because he arrived at a crucial time in
the history of instrumental music. It was the beginning of an approximately
twenty-year period (1760s - early 1780s) when, supported by the exhilaration of
a booming economy, the nobility in Vienna were competing with each other and the
newly rich burgers for the prestige derived from having the most glamorous
musical soirees - with new music performed by their own orchestras. It also
coincided with the tempestuous rise of the printed-music industry in Paris that
reflected the massive upsurge of interest in music that was sweeping Europe.
Wanhal was quickly accepted into the centre of the activity as a violinist,
composer and teacher. Problems of authenticity and dating negate any attempt to
be absolutely accurate, but I estimate that during the first nine or so years he
composed more than thirty symphonies along with chamber music, and music for the
church. The competition between those who wanted to have their own orchestras
during the opulent decade of the 1760s dictated that Kapellmeister were needed
who could recruit and train musicians, provide music for them to play, care for
the practical aspects of an orchestra, such as managing the affairs of the
personnel, arrange performances, etc. That Wanhal possessed all the essential
musical and personal qualities was recognized by Baron Issac von Riesch of
Dresden, who wanted to establish his own Kapelle. He accordingly persuaded
Wanhal to accept his financial support and go to Italy - which was considered a
kind of finishing school - where he could spend a substantial period of time
rubbing elbows with the leading musicians, writers and intelligentsia - and thus
acquire the final polish necessary for the leader of a Kapelle.
May 1769 to September 1770 demark the third period of Wanhals life, which
was spent in various Italian cities (especially Florence). His association with
many famous persons included leading composers such as Gluck. He also met the
great social reformer, Emperor Joseph II, an encounter that I believe had
special significance since Wanhal had, in the previous decade in Vienna, been
able to buy his freedom from the bondage inherited from his birth in Bohemia.
During this same period he was also able to contemplate the heavy demands of the
position in Dresden for which he was being groomed - and be evermore aware of
his enormous debt to Baron Riesch.
At the outset of the third period in 1770, Wanhals return from Italy put him
in the awkward position of being obligated to accept a position that he did not
desire. Nonetheless, his utilitarian and independent nature caused him to refuse
the position. There are no accounts of what transpired, but the embarrassment
and notoriety must have been very unpleasant, and he was depressed for some
time. Furthermore, he found himself with only the support he could derive from
teaching and composing - his situation when Burney visited him in 1772.
During the following years he was several times (from 1773 to 1779) invited
by Count Ladislaus Erddy, one of the great patrons of musicians, to his estate
in Varazdin, Croatia. There are no records of when or how often these visits
occurred, other than a few dates found on several works composed for the nuns in
a convent in Varazdin. However, the music Wanhal produced in Vienna and
published in Paris in the 1770s bears witness to his constant activity on the
musical scene. The gradual increase in his published compositions shows that he
was successful in supporting himself, but there were changes in the genre of
music he wrote and published. As the robust economic conditions in Vienna
declined during the later 1770s so did the fad for orchestral soirees. Wanhals
last symphonies were published in Berlin ca. 1780, and soon thereafter a
reviewer in Hamburg expressed hope that Wanhal would continue to compose
symphonies. But the market for symphonies in Vienna was rapidly diminishing, and
the practical Wanhal composed no more of them.
The beginning of the fifth and final period of Wanhals life is less clearly
definable, but by 1785 he was ensconced on the Viennese scene. By this time the
Viennese publishers had seized the initiative from the French publishers who had
for many years provided them with prints, even of their own composers, including
Wanhal. Publishers such as Artaria, Hoffmeister, and Sauer were fiercely
competing in response to the demands of a new musical public whose tastes had
changed, away from symphonies to small groups, Harmoniemusik, solo and
instructional-pieces for keyboard, and programmatic pieces.
A few reports from 1784 and 1787 place Wanhal in Viennese society, but in
general he seems to have been gradually retreating from active public life. By
1795, however, when Dlabacz visited him in Vienna, Wanhal was prospering, as may
be seen in an oil painting in the possession of the Gesellschaft der
Musikfreunde in Vienna (See the frontispiece of my book). He apparently
lived in comfortable circumstances for the remainder of his life. His death
records show that he was living in an apartment close to St Stephans Cathedral
in Vienna, incidentally close to his most active publishers, and that his modest
possessions were willed to the wife (widow?) of a Viennese bookseller.
In retrospect, a special legacy from him also deserves recognition. Through
his strength of will and character he broke fee of his bondage and consciously
shunned the support of a patron. Thus, when he refused to accept Baron Rieschs
position in 1770 he became one of the first active participants in the new
social order. He created his own peaceful Viennese version of the French
Revolution.
Paul Bryan