From the mid-1790s to the early 1820s Johann Simon Mayr wrote just under 70 operas, a good number of which went on to triumph across Europe. Set in the Spanish city of Zamora, and described as a comico-heroic melodrama, Amor non ha ritegno ('Love Knows No Bounds') was admired for it's exquisite music, exemplifying the early Romantic style that was evolving circa 1800. This is an opera filled with bizarre happenings and a range of seria and buffa characters, from the sublimely inconsolable heroine, Donna Luigia, to her ridiculous suitors, proving as hugely entertaining today as it did over two centuries ago.

One of the most important composers of opera and sacred music between Mozart and Rossini, and Donizetti' teacher, Johann Simon Mayr also composed several major oratorios, including David and the Marriage of Tobias. Like Haydn' more famous Il Rito.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Bavarian-born composer Simon Mayr spent his compositional life in Italy, spreading the influence of Viennese classicism whilst himself being influenced by prevailing Italian models. His cantata Arianna in Nasso (Ariadne on Naxos) was written for the leading soprano Isabella Colbran, who was later to marry Rossini. Her virtuosity inspired Mayr, and his cantata is a stirring example of vivid nature writing, refined pathos, and joyous celebration. Franz Hauk and the Simon Mayr Chorus and Ensemble are the world's leading Mayr exponents and their recordings have received the highest critical acclaim.

Johann Simon Mayr became one of the most popular opera composers in Europe in the period preceding Rossini, but his younger career in the last decades of the 18th century was largely as a church musician, dividing his time between his native Bergamo and Venice. Often taking the form of small-scale religious operas, his Venetian solo motets were tailor-made for the singers of the day, with notable results, as can be heard in the soaring expressiveness of 'Exsurge, anima,' the cavatina-style melodies of 'O Deus, quot me circumdant,' and the contrasting atmospheres of fear, dread and serenity in 'Qual colpa eterno Dio.' Franz Hauk is the world's leading expert and exponent of the music of Johann Simon Mayr, and his numerous new editions and recordings of operatic and other vocal works by this composer is internationally recognized as highly significant: "Naxos's project of recording the major works of Simon Mayr is an extremely important event, introducing to most of us a composer of genuine individuality and importance." (Fanfare on the cantata Arianna in Nasso) All of the soloists here have a close association with Franz Hauk's Simon Mayr project, and each have successful performing and recording careers.

The current renaissance in conjunction with the works of Giovanni Simone Mayr is not surprising, but is certainly necessary. With Demetrio, he left to posterity a masterpiece that belongs on the great stages of the world. Mayr's late work is a mixture of romantic anticipation, stylistic reminiscences of Mozart and Haydn, bel canto elements and a touch of Rossini, all worked into a unique form. Of particular note is Mayr's melodic inventiveness. Here OehmsClassics presents a live performace of Demetrio recorded at the Moutier Festival (Switzerland) in June 2011.

OehmsClassics presents the Jubilee Concert “250th Anniversary of the Birth of Simon Mayr”, made in June 2013 in Ingolstadt (Bavaria), Germany. + The performance was of Mayr’s opera Ginevra di Scozia, a Scotland saga that marked an important step in the transition towards romantic Italian opera. + The singers, together with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, perform under the musical direction of George Petrou. + This is the fifth Mayr opera recording to grace the OehmsClassics catalog.

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Classical Music

Following on from the highly expressive psalm settings, we now present the glorious antiphons of the master from Scharding am Inn: exquisite church music which Emperor Leopold I himself proclaimed as being definitive for the Catholic lands. Originally, the antiphon denoted a Gregorian chant that was sung by two parties opposite each other. Often a single performer was answered by a group of singers. The antiphon would later disengage from the psalm on which it was commenting. The antiphons set by Mayr represent a special form of the genre, so-called Marian antiphons, almost all of which are addressed to the Mother of God. Only In terras descendam is intended for Christmas. The antiphonal practice is still apparent in all antiphons in the alternation between singers and instrumentalists.

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Based, like Beethoven' opera Fidelio, on the original French libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, Mayr' opera L'amor coniugale won considerable success at it's first performance in Padua in 1805.