Peter von Winter (1754–1825)
Peter (von) Winter was born in Mannheim in August 1754. At the age of ten he was already playing violin in the court orchestra of his home town, and from 1773 he is also documented there as a double bass player. For his training as a composer he seems to have relied on self-study for a long time. Only after 1775 did Georg Joseph Vogler take him on as a pupil; later, however, Winter refused to be regarded as Vogler's student.
In 1787 Winter became vice-Kapellmeister (and thus head of the court music) in Munich. In 1796 his opera Das unterbrochene Opferfest (The Interrupted Sacrifice) brought him his breakthrough in Vienna and lasting general recognition. In 1798 he wrote Das Labyrinth (The Labyrinth) as a sequel to Mozart's The Magic Flute; the libretto is likewise by Emanuel Schikaneder.
In 1811 Winter founded a Musical Academy in Munich. The same year saw his meeting with Carl Maria von Weber, whom he treated partly with friendliness, partly with rudeness – in one of his letters Weber calls him “envious”. In 1814, on the occasion of his 50th service anniversary, Winter was awarded the Civil Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown, which carried personal nobility. Winter died in Munich on 17 October 1825.
Sextetto in E major for 2 Horns, 2 Violins, Viola & Basso
The two sextets published here for the first time survive as a manuscript copy from the collection of Franz Zwierzina in the Oettingen-Wallerstein library. Zwierzina must have valued the two works highly: when he acquired them, they were described as “2 Sextours by Kapellmeister Winter, of excellent composition”. They were written around 1795.
On 28 March 1803 the brothers Böck performed a double concerto by Winter in Leipzig. Since the design of the two sextets is comparable to that of a solo concerto, it is quite conceivable that this double concerto was in fact one of the sextets.
Listen: 3rd movement, Rondo