Johann Baptist Wendling

Johann Baptist Wendling
(bap. Rappoltsweiler [now Ribeauvillé], 17 June 1723; d Munich, 27 Nov 1797).

Flautist and composer. His forebears originated from a region of Alsace with a strong musical tradition of fife playing and both his father and grandfather were musicians. From about 1745 to 1752 Wendling was the flute teacher of Duke Christian IV of Zweibrücken (ruled 1735–75), with whom he travelled to various European centres, achieving international fame; he performed successfully before King Frederick the Great in Berlin in 1749 and at the Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1751. On 9 January 1752 he married the soprano Dorothea Spurni (see (3) Dorothea Wendling (i)), and the couple performed together at the Concert Spirituel on 27 March. In the same year Wendling succeeded M.F. Cannabich as flute teacher to Elector Carl Theodor of the Palatinate; throughout his career at Mannheim he was one of the most highly paid members of the court orchestra, on a salary of 1000 florins by 1776. From April 1771 to May 1772 he was in London, not only performing as a soloist but also collaborating with J.C. Bach in chamber music concerts and in the presentation of Bach's serenata Endimione. He continued to visit Paris and also visited The Hague (1775), Vienna (1776, 1779), Italy and Prague. The extent of Wendling's influence in musical circles is revealed in the Mozart correspondence of 1777–8. He organized the commission from Ferdinand Dejean which resulted in Mozart's Mannheim flute works k285, k285a, k313–15/285c–e and possibly kAnh.171/285b and that from the Duke of Guines for the Concerto k299/297c, and in 1777 Mozart orchestrated one of his flute concertos k284e. According to Mozart, he was to have played in a performance of the lost Sinfonia concertante kAnh.9/297b. He became a founding member of the new Masonic lodge in Mannheim at the time of Mozart's visit (1778). Wendling accompanied the Mannheim court in its removal to Munich in 1778 and was first flautist at least until 1790. In his latter years he revisited Mannheim to perform at the Concerts de Mrs les Amateurs.