Sinfonia in Bb

Franz Beck (1734-1809), the most talented of Johann Stamitz’s pupils, led a colourful and eventful life. Fleeing Mannheim after fighting a duel with a jealous rival, he moved to Venice. After eloping with his patron’s daughter, he finally ended up in France where he lived for nearly fifty years. Beck’s symphonies have long been admired by scholars for their technical resource, startling use of bold harmonies and dramatic intensity. In spite of their increased size and complexity Becks’s Op.4 symphonies, composed in the late 1750s and the last of his symphonies to be published as a set, share a strong kinship with his earlier symphonies while greatly expanding their musical horizons.