Parthia in F (2°335) for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 3 horns and bassoon
Alongside Antonio Rosetti and Josef Reicha, several other gifted but today largely overlooked musicians worked at the Wallerstein court of Prince Kraft Ernst of Oettingen-Wallerstein around 1780/90. One of them was Paul Wineberger, who was employed there as a cellist.
Wineberger was born in Mergentheim on 7 October 1758. In Mannheim he studied music theory and composition with Joseph "Abbé" Vogler and Ignaz Holzbauer. He first learned the violin but later switched to the cello, and in the Mannheim orchestra he served as a substitute for Franz Danzi.
In 1780 he moved to Wallerstein. In 1783 he declined an offer from Duke Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin to join the court at Ludwigslust (Rosetti went there in 1789). In 1785 Wineberger became Kapellmeister and "director of the princely hunting and table music". In 1798 he left the Wallerstein court and settled in Hamburg, where he is documented as a cellist at the French Theatre and the Theater am Gänsemarkt. He also worked as a teacher; his pupils included the pianist Johann Heinrich Clasing (1779–1829). Paul Wineberger died in Hamburg on 8 February 1821.
As a composer he covered the full range of music required at court at the time: symphonies, sacred music, solo concertos and wind parthias.
His wind parthias, especially those with three or four horns, are open-air music in the truest sense. Wineberger makes rich use of hunting themes and thereby illustrated the court hunt around 1786. With up to four horns, these parthias are unusually large in scoring even by the standards of their time.
Listen: 1st movement Andante – Allegro, 2nd movement Andante
