Berlin Friday Academy

Janitsch: Church Sonatas Berlin Friday Academy

Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-1763) was born in Schweidnitz, Silesia (today Poland). His special inclination towards music led him to undertake a brief period of study in Breslau (today Wroclaw) with the court musicians who were under the employment of the Archbishop of Breslau. In 1733 Janitsch moved to Berlin where the then Crown Prince, Frederick offered him a position as a double bass player. With the permission of the Crown Prince, he founded the circle "Freitagsakademien" (Friday academies), in which music was performed by professional and amateur musicians alike. From 1740, when Frederick ascended to the Prussian throne, Janitsch's position as double bass player was transferred to the newly founded Berlin Court Orchestra. The Friday academies continued in Berlin in his home in the form of weekly concerts open to the public. Janitsch's compositional style is typical of the galant and the empfindsamer Stil of the first half of the 18th century, combining attractive melodic writing with disciplined compositional craft. The Church Sonatas, written for 2 violins or violin and oboe plus basso continuo, mingle echoes of Corelli's Baroque style with the galant or pre-Classical manner of Janitsch's age. The Berlin Friday Academy is a Berlin-based ensemble made up of young players from around the world - a group of passionate, historically-inspired musicians striving to bring about beauty through the performance, recording, and scholarly discussion of eighteenth-century music.