František Vincenc Kramář

František Vincenc Kramář lived both in the time when Czech musicians’ and composers’ renown resounded across all Europe, and in the era of the cultural decline of the Czech lands that was caused by insensitive political interventions.

F. V. Kramář was born on 27th November 1759 in Staro Radní Kamenice as a son of Jiří Kramář, an innkeeper, who later became the mayor of Kamenice. František Vincenc was 14 years old when he moved to his uncle Antonín, a choirmaster in Tuřany near Brno, to study music. Here he became an organist in 1777.

Already at the age of 26 he left his home territories for good and set off for Vienna. After an almost two-year stay in Vienna he was employed in Hungary in Count Styrum from Szimonthurn’s chapel, whose music director he became after two years of service. From there he went to Pécs (Five Churches in English), were he acquired the position of the Cathedral Kapellmeister. After the year 1793 he was appointed Kapellmeister and composer in the service of Count Károlyi.

In 1795 he returned back to Vienna where he worked as a violinist, Kapellmeister, composer and pedagogue. Around the year 1810 he became chamberlain to Emperor Franz I. In 1818 he was appointed the director of chamber music and court composer as the successor of Leopold Koželuh. He was the last bearer of this revered title and he remained in this position until his death in 1831.

Kramář belongs among the most successful Czech composers who lived and worked in Vienna at the turn of the 18th and 19th century. His work comprises more than 300 compositions, the first of which were published after 1790. These were closely and in an incredibly quick succession followed by other pieces. Their reeditions in Germany, Denmark, France, England, Italy and America bear evidence to the author’s international renown.

Titles for sale:
Quintetto pour une Flute, Violon, deux Violes, et Violoncelle, Oeuv. 58