(b Česke Budějovice, 20 Feb 1763; d Vienna, 19 March 1850). Bohemian composer and conductor. He studied in Prague and in 1785 went to Vienna, but soon left for Italy, Paris and then London, where he assisted Haydn and had some of his own works published. He returned to Bohemia and then Vienna, and from 1804 was conductor of the Court Theatre, writing German operas and ballets until he retired in 1831. He knew Beethoven and was a pallbearer at his funeral. His music, which includes c 40 symphonies and much chamber music (nearly 50 each of string quartets and piano trios), is in a style chiefly modelled on Haydn's though he also assimilated that of early Beethoven; some of his songs show Czech national features. His music is polished, but generally light; by the 1820s it was stylistically outmoded.
Vojtěch Matyáš Jírovec (Adalbert Gyrowetz) (20 February 1763 in České Budějovice (Budweis) – 19 March 1850 in Vienna) was a Bohemian composer.
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His father was the choirmaster in Budweis' cathedral, and Adalbert first studied with him. Adalbert then travelled to Prague, where he studied law but continued to learn music.
At around this time he was in the employment of Count Franz von Fünfkirchen in Brno, whose employees were all musicians. Here he started composing, among other things, symphonies, of which he was eventually to write over 60. In 1785 he moved to Vienna, where he met Mozart, who performed one of Jírovec's symphonies in the same year.[1] From 1786 to around 1793, he travelled throughout Europe. He spent some time in Paris, where he established that some symphonies that had been published as the work of Joseph Haydn were in fact his work.[2] He spent three years in Italy, meeting Goethe in Rome and studying with Nicola Sala in Naples. In 1791, he met Haydn, whom he idolized, in London. While in London, Johann Peter Salomon commissioned symphonies from Gyrowetz to be performed at his Hannover Square Room Concerts.
He was a prolific composer. His operas and singspiele numbered over 30. They include Semiramide (1791), Der Augenarzt (1811), and Robert, oder Die Prüfung.
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