Johann Georg Pisendel
Johann Georg Pisendel (
December 26,
1687 -
November 25,
1755) was a
German Baroque musician,
violinist and
composer who for many years led the Court Orchestra in
Dresden, then the finest instrumental ensemble in Europe.
Pisendel was born in Cadolzburg, a small town near
Nuremberg, where his father Simon Pisendel was the
cantor and
organist. At the age of nine, Johann Georg became a choirboy at the court chapel of
Ansbach. The Music Director there was the virtuoso singer Francesco Antonio Pistocchi and the Concert Master was the celebrated
violinist and composer Giuseppi
Torelli. It is thought that Pisendel studied the violin with Torelli. After his voice broke, Pisendel went on to play the
violin in the Court
Orchestra but in
1709 he left Dresden for
Leipzig to further his musical studies.
On the way to Leipzig, he met
Johann Sebastian Bach at
Weimar and, once in Leipzig, was introduced to
Georg Philipp Telemann. Pisendel was an enthusiatic member of the student
Collegium musicum founded by Telemann and they became close friends. In
1711, after a performance at
Darmstadt, Pisendel was offered a place in the court orchestra there, but declined.
The following year he accepted a place in the
Dresden Court Orchestra. He remained with the Dresden orchestra for the rest of his life, though he accompanied his new master, the Crown Prince, on a tour of Europe, visiting
Antonio Vivaldi (some of whose solo violin works he had already performed) in
Venice.
In about
1718, Pisendel began studying
composition under
Johann David Heinichen, and in
1728 Pisendel became Concert Master of the Dresden Court Orchestra.
Pisendel's pupils included
Franz Benda and
Johann Gottlieb Graun, and he was also a close friend of
Jan Dismas Zelenka, some of whose works he helped publish posthumously.
Pisendel's compositions are few in number but high in quality. All of his surviving works are instrumental. They include 10 violin
concertos, 4 concertos for orchestra, 2
sonatas for violin, a
Sinfonia and
Trio.
However slight the number of his own compositions, the influence of Johann Georg Pisdendel on music was great. The likes of
Tomaso Albinoni, Antonio Vivaldi and Georg Philipp Telemann all dedicated violin concertos to him.
Pisendal was the foremost German violinist of his day and he was directly or indirectly responsible for the creation of much memorable music.
* J.G. Pisendel: Dresden Concertos. Concerti con varii strumenti (Concertos for various instruments). Performed by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra with Gottfried Von der Goltz and Petra Müllejans, solo violinists. Orchestra directed by Gottfried Von der Goltz. (Carus 83301)
* Per Monsieur Pisendel. Violin sonatas by Vivaldi, Albinoni, & Pisendel. Performed by La Serenissima directed by Adrian Chandler (Avie 0018) Six violin sonatas dedicated to or composed by Pisendel himself.
