Tune in every day at 1PM when host Chris Wolf will feature a complete recorded work by the German composer and cellist who's Symphony in C major--known as the Jena Symphony--- was once attributed to Ludwig van Beethoven.

Born November 8th 1770--- the same year as Beethoven--- Friedrich Witt was a German composer of considerable stature in his time. He was born in the Württemberg village of Niederstetten, the son of a cantor and court clerk. Witt became a cellist (some accounts say a violinist) in the court orchestra of Oettingen-Wallerstein when he was nineteen. While there, he took composition lessons with Antonio Rosetti- that is, the Bohemian-born Anton Rosler.

Witt undertook concert tours in 1793 and 1794 in Thuringia and to the courts at Ludwigslust and Potsdam with the clarinettist Franz Joseph Beer, and in 1796 they went to Vienna, where Beer played a clarinet concerto written for him by Witt and one of the latter’s symphonies was played at the Augarten.

Witt was most famous in his lifetime for his oratorio Der leidende Heiland- in English, The Suffering Saviour, securing an appointment as Kapellmeister for the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, and later for the Würzburg theater. He left Würzburg in 1824 and during his later years served for a time as a court composer of Prince Carl Friedrich zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg.

Witt wrote two operas: Palma (1804) and Das Fischerweib (1806). His other compositions include concertos, church music, chamber music and symphonies.

 

 

His best known work, a symphony in C major known as the Jena, is largely based on the Symphony No. 97 by Joseph Haydn.

 

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Witt

 http://www.naxos.com/person/Friedrich_Witt/17476.htm