Ignaz Fränzl

Ignaz Fränzl
(b Mannheim, bap. 4 June 1736; d Mannheim, 3 Sept 1811). Violinist and composer, son of (1) Ferdinand Rudolph Fränzl.

He grew up under the influence of Johann Stamitz and in 1754 became a violinist in the Palatinate orchestra. At the age of 23 he was one of the highest-paid musicians in the orchestra, receiving an annual salary of 500 florins. He was applauded at the Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1768, and won enthusiastic praise from the Mercure de France. Mozart also paid his violin playing a great compliment in a letter dated 22 November 1777. Fränzl and his orchestra partner Giovanni Battista Toeschi were promoted to the joint leadership of the orchestra in 1773. After the court moved to Munich in 1778 Fränzl became musical director of the newly founded Nationaltheater in Mannheim. That autumn he assembled the remaining members of the court orchestra, together with some amateurs, to form the Akademie-Konzerte (which remains the centre of musical life in Mannheim); for it Mozart began composing, though never completed, his Concerto for Piano and Violin kAnh.56/315f. Fränzl may therefore be credited with the reorganization of the town’s musical life on a civic basis. As musical director of the Nationaltheater during its most flourishing period, under Dalberg, he was obliged to suspend his activities as a soloist and composer. He was, according to Lipowsky, one of the finest violinists of his day and through his pupils, who included Friedrich Wilhelm Pixis (i), exerted an influence on the style and technique of Rode and Kreutzer.