Despite its arcane Latin title, Supraphon's four-CD set Musica Antiqua Citolibensis delivers on a part of the literature that coheres: the music created by local kapellmeisters in the Czech city of Citoliby. Although located outside of the loop of Bohemia's main cultural centers such as Prague and Brno, Citoliby enjoyed a period of primacy in music in the late eighteenth century owing to the refined tastes of its rulers, the Pachtas; the city's coat of arms bears the image of an organ. There is a Citoliby School of ...
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Despite its arcane Latin title, Supraphon's four-CD set Musica Antiqua Citolibensis delivers on a part of the literature that coheres: the music created by local kapellmeisters in the Czech city of Citoliby. Although located outside of the loop of Bohemia's main cultural centers such as Prague and Brno, Citoliby enjoyed a period of primacy in music in the late eighteenth century owing to the refined tastes of its rulers, the Pachtas; the city's coat of arms bears the image of an organ. There is a Citoliby School of composers whose work is comparable to those of the contemporary Mannheim School, though quite different in style. The Citoliby School is dominated by a dynasty led by composer Václav Jan Kopriva, and one of his sons, Karel Blazej Kopriva, was its greatest exponent, and like Wolfgang Mozart, died young. Other composers featured on this set, such as Jan Adam Gallina, Jan Vent, and Jakub Lokaj, were quite satisfied to spend their whole careers living and working in Citoliby.What makes this...
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