Presents
Frantisek Adam Mica
String Quartet No.2 in C Major
František Adam Mica (1746-1811) was born in the Bohemian town of Jaromerice, then part of the Austrian Habsburg Empire. He came from a family of musicians several of whom bore similar names. His father, Karel, received an appointment to a minor position at the Imperial Court in Vienna around 1760 and František left went with him. He studied law in Vienna and after graduating in 1767, held several government positions in various provincial capitals of the Empire, including Graz, Bruck an der Mur, Krakow, and Lemberg (present day Lviv). After the invasion of Polish troops, he was imprisoned in Lublin for six months, after which he retired from government service and moved to Vienna in 1788 where he spent the rest of his life, much of it as a member of the Imperial Court Orchestra. Most likely he studied music with his uncle Frantisek Antonin Mica a prominent Bohemian composer and musician. Mica, despite his government service, was a prolific composer who produced numerous operas, symphonies, violin concertos, and eight string quartets. He got to know Mozart who was said to have appreciated Mica’s music some of which was performed publicly in Vienna. Much of his music remains neglected and in manuscript form in Austrian and Czech archives.
The String Quartet in C Major is the second of his eight quartets composed around 1786. It shows that Mica was au courant with musical developments made by Haydn. The C Major Quartet in is four movements which was standard for works in the Vienna Classical Style rather than in three movements as favored by composers of the Mannheim School. The work opens with a pleasant Allegro moderato non tanto and is followed by a gorgeous Andante, full of lovely melodies. Next comes a typical Haydnesque Menuetto. The finale is a graceful Rondo allegretto.
Besides being a pleasant work to play, hear and perform, this work is historically important as it is an example of what Haydn and Mozart's contemporaries, whose works we almost never get to hear, were doing. Our new edition is based a manuscript copy in the library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.
Parts: $24.95
