Antonín Kraft was an Czech

Czech people

Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...

 cellist

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. He was a close friend of Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

, Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, and Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

.

Kraft was born in the Bohemian

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

 town Rokycany

Rokycany

Rokycany , is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It lies to the East from the region capital of Pilsen on the confluence of the River Klabava and the Holoubkov Brook . Alternatively, the Holoubkovský potok is referred to as the Borecký potok and the section of the Klabava River down...

. He received early musical education on the cello from his father before going to university in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 to study law. He soon obtained a position in the Imperial Hofkapelle. In 1778 he was appointed cellist in Prince Nikolaus Esterházy

Nikolaus Esterházy

Nikolaus Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent"...

's orchestra, where he met and studied composition with Haydn. After Esterházy died in 1790, he went to Vienna and became a founding member of the Schuppanzigh

Ignaz Schuppanzigh

Ignaz Schuppanzigh November 20, 1776 – March 2, 1830, was a violinist, friend and teacher of Beethoven, and leader of Count Razumovsky's private string quartet. Schuppanzigh and his quartet premiered many of Beethoven's string quartets, and in particular, the late string quartets. The Razumovsky...

 quartet, where he helped establish the traditions of string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

 playing. He played in the Grassalkovich court and from 1796 was employed in Prince Lobkowicz

Lobkowicz

The Lobkowicz family is one of the oldest still existing Bohemian noble families dating back to the 14th century...

's orchestra. He died on 28 August 1820 in Vienna.

Kraft was considered one of the greatest cellists of his time and both Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 2 in D and the cello part in Beethoven's Triple Concerto

Triple Concerto (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C Major, Op. 56, more commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed in 1803 and later published in 1804 under Breitkopf & Hartel. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio and the...

 were written for him, though his son Nikolaus Kraft

Nikolaus Kraft

Nikolaus Kraft was a Czech cellist and composer . He was the son of Antonín Kraft, under whom he first studied. He then trained under Jean-Louis Duport...

 is also claimed to have played the premiere of the latter.

As a composer, he wrote cello sonata

Sonata

Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...

s (six for cello with bass published as Op.

Opus number

An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...

 1 and 2) and a cello concerto (Op. 4). He also wrote various duos: for violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 and cello (Op. 3), for cello and double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 and for two cellos (Op. 5 and 6).

Works

• Cello Concerto, Op.4, in C major
  Cello Concerto (Kraft)
  Cello Concerto in C Major Op.4 - Antonín Kraft was principal cellist under Joseph Haydn. Haydn, Beethoven and other composers dedicated their cello works to him. The cello parts to Haydn's D major Cello Concerto and Beethoven's Triple Concerto, Op.56 were written to fit his technique. Haydn's D...
  
  
• Cello Sonatas
  Cello sonata
  A cello sonata is usually a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. The most famous Romantic-era cellos sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven...
  
  
• Cello Duets
• Duets for Cello and Guitar

External links