Joseph Martin Kraus

Joseph Martin Kraus (20 June 1756 – 15 December 1792), was a composer, sometimes referred to as "the Swedish Mozart".

At the Swedish Court

In 1778 Kraus moved to Stockholm, Sweden, on the suggestion of his friend Carl Stridsberg. His financial situation there was bad at first. His opera Azire was rejected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, but the Academy decided to give him a second chance. King Gustav III of Sweden himself drafted the opera libretto Proserpina and Johan Kellgren versified it. Kraus's music to this libretto was successfully premiered at Ulriksdal Palace. In 1781 Kraus was appointed a conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera and director of the Royal Academy of Music.

Related Topics:
Stockholm - Sweden - Carl Stridsberg - Royal Swedish Academy of Music - Gustav III of Sweden - Johan Kellgren - Ulriksdal Palace - Royal Swedish Opera

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Gustavus III sent Kraus on a 5-year Grand Tour of Europe to learn all he could about music abroad. On this trip, Kraus met Christoph Willibald Gluck and Joseph Haydn, for whom he wrote a Symphony in D major, VB 143 for Haydn to play at Esterhaza, and it was first published under Haydn's name. Kraus's Symphony in E minor, VB 141 was first published in Paris in 1787, under the name of Giuseppe Cambini, a very popular composer at the time. During this time, Kraus became a member of the same masonic lodge as Mozart.

Related Topics:
Christoph Willibald Gluck - Joseph Haydn - Paris - Giuseppe Cambini - Masonic lodge - Mozart

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A lot of Kraus's symphonies have been lost, or attributed to other composers. Only about a dozen remain of which scholars are certain of Kraus's authorship. Most of Kraus's extant symphonies are in three movements, without a Minuet. Most are scored for two horns and strings, many include two flutes and two oboes, while the later ones also include two bassoons, and two additional horns. The musicologist Bertil van Boer identifies Kraus's Symphony in C# minor as "one of only two symphonies in this key written during the eighteenth century." It was later reworked in a more 'manageable' key as Symphony in C minor, VB 142.

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When Kraus returned from his Grand Tour, he was appointed conductor (Kapellmästare) in Gustavus III's court, and became involved in the Palmstedt writer's group. For the convening of the Riksdag of the Estates in 1789, Gustavus III wanted to convince the parliament to go along with his plans of going to war with Russia, where he was opposed by the noble estate but supported by the burghers and the peasantry. The king had Kraus write Riksdagsmusiken for this occasion, consisting of a march based on the March of the Priests from Mozart's Idomeneo, and a symphony. The legislature approved the king's measures. That year Kraus also gave the Swedish premiere of a Mozart symphony.

Related Topics:
Riksdag of the Estates - War with Russia - Noble estate - Riksdagsmusiken

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