Giovanni Punto
Quintet for Horn, Flute or Oboe, Violin, Viola and Basso
Giovanni Punto, born Jan Václav Stich, was born on 28 September 1746 in Žehušice near Čáslav, about 75 km southeast of Prague. He is regarded as one of the great horn virtuosos of the 18th century and belongs to the many Bohemian musicians who left their homeland. His parents were serfs of Count Thun, who had him trained on the horn. Stich first studied with Joseph Matiega in Prague (including vocal training), then with Haudek and Hampel in Dresden. In 1768 he escaped serfdom and adopted the name Giovanni Punto, both as a disguise and to market himself better as a musician.
After a brief engagement in Hechingen in the service of the Hohenzollerns (1768), Punto served the Elector of Mainz from 1769 to 1774 and was then employed in Würzburg until 1780. From 1781 he played in Paris in the orchestra of the Count of Artois, with a lifelong pension guarantee. During the French Revolution (1795–1797) he was music director of the Théâtre des Variétés; in 1799 he left Paris. From 1769 onwards he undertook numerous concert tours across Europe, which established his international fame. Mozart heard him during his stay in Paris and was enthusiastic. In 1800 Punto gave concerts with Beethoven in Vienna and Budapest (including Beethoven's Horn Sonata, Op. 17). In 1801 he returned to Prague in triumph, where he died on 16 February 1803 of "dropsy of the chest" (Brustwassersucht), an illness then very common among wind players.
Punto's compositions are a somewhat darker chapter: however good they may be, they often carry a whiff of plagiarism. The present quintet is based on a print by Sieber from around 1789. It contains three quintets for horn, flute or oboe, violin, viola and basso. The title page prominently states:
Trios Quintetti / / Compose par M. Punto
The first quintet appears to be by Punto himself and was probably written for this instrumentation. In the parts, however, the second quintet is noted in small print as being by Rosetti, and the third as being by Fiorillo. At least the original composer is still named. It therefore seemed appropriate to divide the quintets and publish them individually, so as to attribute each clearly to its true author. Punto is named as the arranger of the second and third quintets.
