Not much is known about the life of Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1808), but what we do know is quite picturesque (and unreliable). Beck, a student of Stamitz, worked in the Palatinate, but left the area in 1750 after shooting someone in a duel - although the person in question turned out to have simulated his death. Fleeing the law - duels were strictly forbidden - he went to Italy, where he was reportedly
… taught by Galuppi for some time. After this he appears to have worked for some time in Marseille, before working in Bordeaux for the rest of his life. What has been preserved of Beck's music are mainly the works that appeared in print in the period 1758-1766. According to the symphonies included here, Beck wrote in a style related to Haydn, and he was hardly inferior to his famous contemporary when it came to thematic invention and development. In eccentric Bordeaux, however, Beck remained unknown to a wider European audience; wrongly, as proven by this melodious CD. (JvG)more
