Franz Xaver Pokorny

Franz [František] Xaver Pokorny (Thomas) was born in Mies, now Stříbro, in what is today the Czech Republic, on 20 December 1729, and died in Regensburg on 2 July 1794. A composer of Bohemian origin, he left a very large body of work that occupies a place in the transition between Baroque practice and the Central European Classical style. It has been suggested that he may have been related to other Czech musicians named Pokorny, although this cannot be confirmed with certainty.

His training began in Regensburg with Riepel. In 1753 he joined the court orchestra of Oettingen-Wallerstein and, the following year, studied in Mannheim with Johann Stamitz, Holzbauer and Richter. On his return to Wallerstein he was promised the post of choir director, but the appointment was never confirmed. A symphony of his was performed in Dischingen, the summer residence of the Prince of Thurn und Taxis, on 13 July 1766. On 22 March 1770 he left the service of Count Philipp Karl of Oettingen-Wallerstein and eventually joined the court orchestra of Thurn und Taxis in Regensburg, where, according to payment records, he had already been playing the violin since 1766. His gravestone describes him as a musician of the princely Taxis chamber.

Around 140 symphonies survive, most in autograph score, although 104 of them were later attributed to other authors. These attributions were apparently deliberate: in 1796 Theodor von Schacht, director of the Thurn und Taxis orchestra, erased the composer's name from the title pages and replaced it with other names. So far, none of these 104 symphonies has been shown to be the work of another author, which suggests that Pokorny wrote them all. Most have four movements; those from the Oettingen-Wallerstein period use strings, flutes and horns, with horn parts of notable virtuosity, while those composed in Regensburg employ a more varied scoring and a more carefully considered formal design. His style is marked by melodies with a folk-like air.

His output also includes concertos for harpsichord, flute, oboe, horn and clarinet, serenades, marches, dances and chamber music. His children were of some note: Bonifaz, born in Wallerstein in 1757, became a distinguished musician at the monastery of Scheyern, although none of his compositions survives; little is known with certainty about Joseph Franz, since his presence at the Thurn und Taxis court appears in bibliographical sources that are not confirmed by the orchestra's records. The horn player Beate Pokorny, who triumphed at the Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1780, was not a daughter but a sister of Franz Xaver.

Pokorny is today remembered above all for the volume of his symphonic output and for the episode of the false attributions, which for a long time hindered the study of his work. His music shows the vitality of the Central European symphonic school of the mid-eighteenth century and allows one to follow the development of the court orchestra in Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate.