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★ Follow music ► Composer: Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809) Work: Sinfonia a piu stromenti No.3 Op.3 () Performers: Akadеmiе für Altе Musik Bеrlin Painting: Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) - A storm on a Mediterranean coast Image in high resolution: Painting: Circle of Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) - A mediterranean harbor scene with figures on the shore, and fishermen launching a boat Image in high resolution: Painting: Charles François Grenier de Lacroix () - Scène de péche dans une rade Image in high resolution: Painting: Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) - Le Naufrage Image in high resolution: Further info: :Beck,_Franz_Ignaz Listen free: No available --- Franz (François, Francesco) Ignaz Beck, (Mannheim, 20 February 1734 - Bordeaux, 31 December 1809) German composer, conductor, violinist and organist, active in France. He received violin lessons from his father Johann Aloys Beck (d 27 May 1742), an oboist and choir school Rektor at the Palatine court whose name is listed in the calendars of 1723 and 1734. He also learnt the double bass, among other instruments, and eventually came under the tutelage of Johann Stamitz, who arrived in Mannheim in 1741. The Palatine court, under Carl Theodor, recognized Beck’s talent and undertook responsibility for his education. Several sources maintain that Beck left the Palatinate at an early age to study composition with Galuppi in Venice. According to his pupil Blanchard (1845), however, Beck was the object of a jealous intrigue that involved him in a duel during which his opponent was supposedly killed (many years later Beck met his former opponent, who had only feigned death); Beck then presumably fled and travelled in Italy, giving concerts in principal cities. In any event, he spent several years in Venice before eloping to Naples with Anna Oniga, the daughter of his employer. After Beck’s stay in Italy (probably in the 1750s), he moved to Marseilles and became the leader of a theatre orchestra. It is not certain whether he arrived in France before about 1760, but in the late 1750s Parisian firms published more than 20 of Beck’s symphonies in fairly rapid succession. In 1757 a symphony by ‘Signor Beck’ was listed in two Concert Spirituel programmes. The title-pages of his op.1 (1758) and op.3 (1762) describe him as ‘chamber virtuoso to the Elector Palatine’ but add ‘and presently first violin of the Concert in Marseilles’. At least seven performances of his symphonies were given at Marseilles in 1760-61. Beck soon moved from Marseilles to Bordeaux, where he continued his interest in the theatre, subsequently becoming the conductor of the elegant Grand Théâtre. By 1764, when his first child was born, he was active as a teacher; his students included Pierre Gaveaux, Henri-Louis Blanchard, Jean-Baptiste Feyzeau and Bochsa. Beck was appointed organist at St Seurin, Bordeaux, on 24 October 1774 and his exceptional improvisatory skill drew considerable admiration from the congregation. Several sets of his keyboard pieces were printed in Paris and Dresden as well as Bordeaux. In 1783 he travelled to Paris for the first performance of his Stabat mater at Versailles and in 1789 the overture and incidental music to Pandore were performed in Paris at the Théâtre de Monsieur. He also directed concerts of the Société du Musée in Bordeaux. During the Revolution he composed patriotic music, including a Hymne à l’être suprême. In 1803 the new government honoured Beck by naming him correspondent of music composition for the Institut de France.
