Johannes Wenceslaus Kalliwoda (1801-1866)
Der Sennin Heimweh (The Homesick Shepherdess)
Johannes Wenceslaus Kalliwoda (1801-1866) was a Bohemian violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher who studied composition with Dionys Weber and the violin with Friedrich Wilhelm Pixis. A member of the Prague Theatre Orchestra under Carl Maria von Weber for six years, he was in 1822 appointed Hofkapellmeister to Prince Karl Egon II of Fürstenburg at Donaueschingen, a post he held for over 30 years, staging operas by Cherubini, Rossini and Mozart and attracting such soloists as Robert and Clara Schumann, Thalberg and Liszt to perform in his symphony concerts.
Highly regarded as a composer in his lifetime, most of his major works were written before 1848, when revolution disrupted the town's musical life and the orchestra dispersed. The theatre burnt down in 1856, after which Kalliwoda retired to live with his son in Karlsruhe. He was invited to rebuild the Prince’s orchestra in 1857, but was unable to achieve the previous standards. He continued to compose, however, and Der Sennin Heimweh, a setting of an anonymous poem, was among the works written during this latter period, in 1862.
Originally in the key of G major and published for “voice with accompaniment of piano and violin or clarinet”, the present edition has been transposed up a semitone, so that the clarinet part lies well on the B flat instrument.
© Colin Bradbury