HOFFMEISTER, FRANZ ANTON (1754–1812)

Biliana Tzinlikova was born in Sofia in 1974. After piano studies at the Sofia State Music Academy (Marina Kapazinskaja) she moved to the Salzburg Mozarteum to work with Andor Losonczy and Christoph Lieske, completing her studies with distinction in 2001. She has appeared as a soloist and chamber-music player in important festivals and events in Europe and the United States. From 2003 to 2005 she was a member of the Munich Philharmonic trio and in 2004 made her début at the Vienna Konzerthaus, continuing to collaborate with leading musicians. She is interested in the work of living composers and in piano rarities from the past and has taught at the Mozarteum since 2001.

Franz Anton was born into a respected family of middle-class town-dwellers. His ancestors included mayors of Rottenburg. He was sent to Vienna to study law when he was still only 14, but music in general, and playing the organ in particular, increasingly took over. It was in the Imperial capital that he achieved his first successes with highly imaginative compositions. Founding his first publishing house was a pioneering move, but not one blessed with any lasting commercial success. It wasn’t until he and Ambrosius Kühnel set up the “Bureau de musique”—now C.F. Peters—in Leipzig in 1800 that he succeeded in establishing a publisher with a global reach. However, Hoffmeister seems to have seen himself first and foremost as a composer and organist, for having established the Bureau, he made the firm over to its employees as early as 1805 (not without a measure of conflict) and returned to his adopted home, Vienna, where he was well respected until his death in 1812.