Autor: Franz Xaver Richter (1709-1789)
Obra: Te Deum (1781)
Intèrprets: Mаrkétа Böhmová & PаvIа Rаdostová (sopranos); Czеch Ensemble Baroque Orchestra & Choir; Romаn VáIеk (dirección)

Pintura: Louis Jean Desprez (c.1743-1804) - Gustav III bevistar julmässan i Peterskyrkan i Rom, 1783

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Franz Xaver Richter
(Holleschau [now Holešov], 1 December 1709 - Strasbourg, 12 September 1789)

German composer of Moravian descent. Holleschau in Moravia is traditionally regarded as his native town, but there is no entry in the Holleschau church records to confirm this. The archives do, however, show that his father Matthias served in this town as a soldier. Richter could therefore at least have spent his childhood there, and his name does appear with the attribute ‘Holleschoviensis’ (‘of Holleschau’) in the registers of the Jesuit seminary at Ungarisch Hradisch (now Uherské Hradiště), where he was a pupil (1722–7). In Richter’s death certificate the remark ‘ex Kratz’ (‘of Hradiště’) may therefore be the result of a confusion between the towns of his birth and his schooling, as is also the case in Marpurg’s description ‘aus Ungarn’ (‘from Hungary’). Between 1727 and 1736 Richter probably spent some time in Vienna: this is implied by his intensive study of Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum (1725) and his numerous arrangements of Caldara’s church music, though Richter himself confirms merely a period in Italy (Harmonische Belehrungen, p.35). In 1736 Richter was taken on as a bass singer in the Stuttgart Hofkapelle; in 1737, after a short period in Schlitz near Fulda, he moved to the Benedictine Ritterakademie in Ettal as director of music. In 1740 he entered the service of Prince-Abbot Anselm von Reichlin-Meldegg in Kempten, Allgäu, as vice-Kapellmeister, later becoming Kapellmeister; he was married there to Maria Anna Josepha Moz in 1743. In 1741–2 he composed his early Te Deum, one of the most distinguished Baroque settings, and 12 of his string symphonies were published in Paris in 1744.

In 1746 Richter joined the Hofkapelle of the Elector Palatine Carl Theodor in Mannheim as a bass. He appeared in operatic productions there in 1748 (C.P. Grua’s La clemenza di Tito) and 1749 (Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade), but thereafter apparently sang mainly church music. Marpurg mentions Richter as second voilinist in the court orchestra, but there are no other references to him as an instrumentalist. During the 1750s Richter travelled to France, England and the Netherlands, and in 1760 he spent some time in Bonn, where he applied for the post of Hofkapellmeister; he was denied promotion in Mannheim. Between 1760 and 1767 he wrote his treatise Harmonische Belehrungen. Dedicated to the Elector Carl Theodor, this is in fact a course in counterpoint on the models of Fux and Meinrad Spiess, but it refers to modern genres such as the solo concerto and the symphony. As a composer Richter was most prominent at Mannheim in the instrumental field. Notable among his chamber works are the String Quartets op.5, published in 1768 but perhaps originating as early as 1757; Kirkendale comments that the motivic work in these was not equalled before Haydn. Although composing church music was not among Richter’s duties as Musicien et compositeur de la chambre de S.A.S. electorale, some religious works date from his Mannheim years; his psalm setting Super flumina Babylonis, written in 1767–8 for the Concert Spirituel in Paris, received an excellent notice in the Mercure de France. On 24 April 1769 Richter became maître de chapelle at Strasbourg Cathedral. As a composer he now devoted himself to church music, though his duties included also the supervision of secular music at the prince-bishop’s court and the direction of the Strasbourg municipal orchestra. Ignace Pleyel was appointed his assistant in 1783 and succeeded him on his death in 1789.