Composers from Algund, South Tyrol

Ignaz Anton Ladurner (1766-1839) - Josef Alois Ladurner (1769-1851)
The brothers Ignaz Anton and Josef Alois Ladurner are certainly the most important artist personalities that the parish of Algund near Meran can boast. Both inherited their extraordinary musical talents from their parents, who conscientiously fostered their development. Yet their lives took completely different courses. While Ignaz Anton went to Paris, settled there and became a musical institution in a cosmopolitan cultural center as a piano virtuoso, composer, and the first Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatory, his brother was destined for holy orders. Nevertheless, Josef Alois, too, had a great career. Thanks to winning the favor of the prince-bishop of Brixen, he soon rose in the church hierarchy and eventually became a counselor of the consistory in Brixen. His inclination towards music remained strong. Like his brother Ignaz Anton, he was an excellent pianist and also published a number of piano compositions, some with well-known music publishers, such as Schott in Mainz (his opus 1), and Falter in Munich. First recorded on this CD, his “Fantasy in G minor in the form of a sonata on a short theme from the overture to the opera Don Juan by Mozart” was played by Josef Alois Ladurner himself in Brixen in 1839 at a benefit concert to raise funds for the Mozart monument in Salzburg. This thoroughly committed work, which according to contemporary accounts was greeted at the Brixen performance with “lively enthusiasm and unanimous acclamation,” was presumably written especially for the occasion.
Ignaz Anton Ladurner’s Violin Sonata op. 7/2, composed in Paris about 1803, is one of his best compositions. He marked the second movement as Tyrolienne, although this original piece certainly comes nowhere near a nice little Tyrolean air in feeling. The piano trio op. 1/3 rounding off this CD is impressive for its brilliance and animated by the typical passionate spirit that often distinguishes first pieces. Its vivid impression is further enhanced by the historical instruments from the collection of the Tiroler Landesmuseum played here: the unique-sounding Hammerflügel by Conrad Graf (Vienna about 1838), the wonderful violin by Matthias Alban (Bozen 1706) that ennobles every single note of the violin sonata, and, finally, the magnificent violoncello dating from 1804 by the outstanding Viennese master Franz Geissenhof.

Track 5, 1:50
Sonate in e-minor
Tyrolienne
Ignaz Anton Ladurner (1766-1839)