Josef Mysliveček

Josef Mysliveček may be best remembered as a friend of the Mozarts—he is mentioned often in the family letters—but this underestimates the significance of his influence not only upon Mozart himself but on the development of the high Classical style. His prodigious output of operas, symphonies, and sweetly melodic violin concertos provided valuable models for the teenage Mozart, who incorporated their Italianate style into his own music and even borrowed certain melodies and ideas wholesale. Born in Prague in 1737, Mysliveček spent his career in Italy, where he became known as Il Boemo for the land of his birth. He met the Mozarts in Bologna in 1770 and impressed them with his dynamic personality. They finally fell out in 1778 when Mysliveček failed to come up with a promised opera commission for Mozart in Naples; he died three years later in Rome. Mysliveček’s concertos remain his most popular works, but his versatility is confirmed by recordings of a handful of his oratorios and opera overtures.