Gary Smith

             Paul Wranitzky [or Pavel Vranicky, or Wraniczky, or Wranizky; translation from the Czech language vary depending on who does them!] was born in Nova Rise in Moravia, 30 Dec 1756 and died in Vienna, 26 Sept 1808. He was the second son of land-owning innkeepers who also operated the local postal system.

Czech composer, conductor and violinist active in Vienna, brother of Anton Wranitzky. He studied singing and the organ, violin and viola at the Premonstratensian monastery grammar school in Nova Rise, and later at Jihlava (1770-71). At Olomouc he studied theology and became an excellent violinist. In the manner of many (if not most) of his Czech musical contemporaries, he and his brother Anton gravitated to Vienna to seek out opportunities and employment within the music sphere of the Austrian Empire. At 20 he went to Vienna, where he entered a theological seminary and served as its choirmaster, Germanizing his name to Paul Wranitzky as well. He continued his musical studies with Joseph Martin Kraus (the Kapellmeister to the Swedish court, who visited Vienna in about 1783). Suggestions that he was also a pupil of Joseph Haydn remain unsubstantiated, although it is known that his brother was one.

He served as music director for Count Johann Baptist Esterhazy in the spring of 1784 and was appointed director of the newly created Karntnertrotheater orchestra in October 1785, a position he held until 1787, when he moved down the road and joined the Burgtheater orchestra. He was named its director in either 1792 or 1793. He maintained his association with both of these theaters until his death in 1808 when his brother Anton took the vacant posts. In about 1786 he started composing symphonies; he was asked to write one for the coronation of Franz II in 1792. He also composed several works for the private use of Franz's second wife, Marie Therese (1772-1807). Wranitzky conducted a gala performance of his Singspiel Oberon during the coronation festivities of Leopold II at Frankfurt on 15 October 1790 (these were the festivities Mozart was NOT officially invited to, yet went to anyway, paying out of his own pocket to do so.) During the next 15 years Wranizkty composed at least another 20 works for the stage in Vienna, which were well received at the time, but nearly all had faded away by the early 1820’s.

Wranitzky played a prominent role in the musical life of Vienna. Both Haydn and Beethoven preferred him as a conductor of their works: Haydn for one insisted on his direction of the Viennese performances of The Creation (1799, 1800), and at Beethoven's request he conducted the premiere of that composer's First Symphony (2 April 1 1800), which featured a Mozart symphony as the opening work. From 1805 he alternated with Adalbert Gyrowetz as head of the Adelige Liebhaber- oder Cavalier-Konzerte of Vienna. Wranitzkv was a member of the same Freemasons' lodge as Mozart: 'Zur gekronten Hoffnung' and after Mozart's death served as a legal mediator for Constanze in her various negotiations with the publisher Andre. As secretary of the Viennese Tonkunstler-Societat he succeeded in settling Haydn's lengthy quarrel with the society by December 1797. His friendly relations with Haydn are documented by Wranitzky's letter to John Bland (12 December 1790) and by Haydn's letter to Wranitzky (September 1800). Beethoven's personal relationship with both Paul and Anton Wranitzky is documented in Carl Czerny's memoirs. Carl Maria von Weber visited Paul Wranitzky in Vienna in 1803.

Wranitzky composed an apparent total of 51 symphonies, most of which have four movements In the standard Classical order, frequently with a slow introduction. The public performance of his Grande sinfonie caracteristique pour la paix avec la Republique francoise op.31 was forbidden by an imperial resolution (20 December 1797) as the title of the work was felt to be too provocative. It is a program symphony laid out as a musical portrait of the French revolution and the subsequent war with Austria that developed. Interestingly, he scored this work for a string orchestra, omitting all winds. Like Beethoven's Eroica, this symphony contains a funeral march as the slow second movement, which is given the subtitle 'The Fate and Death of Louis XVI'. While nowhere near as long or dramatic as Beethoven’s, it was a novel idea and as such Beethoven may have seized on the concept and expanded it for his own work.

Wranitzky also had published 56 string quartets, the majority of which are set in the three-movement format of the Parisian quatour concertant. In these works he explored the emerging Romantic style with (for the time)daring harmonic progressions, theatrical gestures, and virtuoso display. Wranitzky's music quickly fell out of favor after his death, as noted by Fetis: 'The music of Wranitzky was in fashion when it was new because of his natural melodies and brilliant style. He treats the orchestra well, especially in symphonies. I recall that, in my youth, his works held up very well in comparison with those of Haydn. Their premature abandonment of today has been for me a source of astonishment'.

Wranitzky's best-known stage work and also one of his longest-surviving compositions was his first Singspiel Oberon. The enthusiastic reception of this work by audiences in Vienna helped prompted Schikaneder to conceive a ‘magic’ opera entitled Die Zauberflöte K.620 for Mozart, whose musical setting show some resemblances to Wranitzky's earlier work. The poet Goethe considered Wranitzky the most appropriate composer to set his Zauberflöte zweiter Teil ( projected sequel to The Magic Flute), and sought his help (letter, 1796). Oberon was eclipsed in popularity only finally in 1826 by Weber's opera of the same name. Even more popular in their day were his ballets, particularly Das Waldmadchen (though the 'theme russe' from this work, on which Beethoven composed his 12 piano variations WoO71, is by Giornovichi and not Wranitzky).

Sources:
Sadie, Stanley (Ed.) The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd Edition Groves Dictionaries, New York 2000

Liner notes for "Contemporaries of Mozart" CD series by Chandos 9916

Landon, H. C. Robbins Mozart: The Golden Years Schirmer Books, New York 1989

For music, the above Chandos CD is about your best bet. Three symphonies are on it: one in D that gets very good comments when we play it at musicales, the "Grand Characteristic Symphony," which is unique for Wranitzky as he uses a string orchestra with no winds, and a Symphony in c that's good but not as good as the first one mentioned.

Return to Who's Who