Johannes Matthias Sperger (1750-1812)
Symphonies in C, F and B flat major

Johannes Matthias Sperger was among the more prolific composers of his time. Nevertheless his contemporary reputation rested largely on his abilities as a player of the double bass, an instrument for which he wrote eighteen concertos, as a performer using a five-string bass with various tunings. Born in Feldsberg, the modern Valtice, he apparently studied first there with the organist Franz Anton Becker, before moving to Vienna, where he was a double bass pupil of Friedrich Pichlberger, for whom, with the bass Franz Gerl, the first Sarastro, Mozart wrote his concert aria Per questa bella mano. Pichlberger was a member of Emanuel Schikaneder's orchestra and also took part in the first performances of The Magic Flute. Sperger took composition lessons from Beethoven's later teacher, Albrechtsberger, and made his début in Vienna with his own compositi