One prominent Nazarene minister, when asked what he did for a living, was heard to say, "I sell fire insurance." Viennese composer Johann Adolf Hasse could have used some of that fire insurance in 1763 when his house in Dresden burned down during an attack by enemy forces, extinguishing a complete edition of his work before it went to press. Hasse wasn't just any composer, but a household name in Europe, and he was Frederick the Great's personal favorite composer and the most popular figure, particularly as it pertained to ...
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One prominent Nazarene minister, when asked what he did for a living, was heard to say, "I sell fire insurance." Viennese composer Johann Adolf Hasse could have used some of that fire insurance in 1763 when his house in Dresden burned down during an attack by enemy forces, extinguishing a complete edition of his work before it went to press. Hasse wasn't just any composer, but a household name in Europe, and he was Frederick the Great's personal favorite composer and the most popular figure, particularly as it pertained to opera, from the time of Bach until the rise of Mozart, whose ascent he lived to witness. Hasse's dominance in German-speaking lands came, to some extent, to the exclusion of other composers of worth, and conductor Reinhard Goebel, in his notes for Archiv's Hasse: Salve Regina, featuring his group Musica Antiqua Köln, he suggests that his current lack of renown may be a corrective of history, out of "a desire to see fair play." Nevertheless, Goebel attempts here to make the best case...
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