String Quartet G major - Jan Pavel Veselý (ed. Monika Jägerová)
The violinist and composer Jan Pavel Veselý (1762–1810), or Johann Wessely in German, was born on 27th June 1762 in the town of Hluboká on Vltava (Frauenberg at the time). His name, completely forgotten in the present, was not as unknown as it is today, as transpires from several period sources: he was a well-known and skilled violinist. Belonging to the many composing musicians, his music served the purpose of the author’s own concert repertoire, and owed much – if not all – to the period models (Pleyel, Haydn).
Judging by Jan Pavel Veselý ‘s catalogue, he wrote 5 opus numbers of quartets (op. 2, 4, 8, 9, and 10). All of them were published in Vienna, at the following publishing houses: Artaria (op. 2, 1788), Hoffmeister (op. 4, 1790), Offenbach (op. 8, 1792), and Ebend (op. 9 and 10, 1798).
The source for the publication of the String Quartet G major by Jan Pavel Veselý was the period Hoffmeister, Vienne print from 1790. It is a collection of three of Veselý’s quartets: B flat major, G major, and C major; the G major quartet is labelled Quartetto II. The score does not contain an opus number; the composition was given the opus number 4 only in Jan Pavel Veselý’s catalogue.
The print is stored at the Moravian Library in Brno and coming originally from Dr. Antonín Němec’s archive from the collections at Kačina and Český Krumlov chateaux.
Other compositions by Jan Pavel Veselý published in Czech Radio:
String Quartet C major