Johann B.Spech – Fortepiano Pieces & Songs- Music of Hungarian Parlours / Hungaroton Classic CD Audio 2007

UPC 5991813248923

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Johannes (or János) Spech (10 December 1767 – 24 November 1836) was a Hungarian classical era composer.

He was born in Bratislava. Musicologist Dezsö Legány theorized that Spech must have been inspired to study music by the rich musical life of the city, where the opera theater regularly programmed works by Haydn, Mozart, and other acknowledged masters of the time. Spech received primary music education, but also studied law, and in 1792 he became a law clerk in Buda. A few years later he left for Vienna to study with Haydn. Researcher Tia DeNora notes that a discrepancy exists in biographical materials related to the next decades of Spech's life. Sources chosen for the New Grove dictionary suggest that Spech subsequently left for Hungary and worked as a civil servant intermittently for a number of years, while also being a theater conductor and pursuing a composer's career. However, Spech's great-grandson, when interviewed by the legendary scholar H. C. Robbins Landon, claimed that Spech followed his studies with Haydn by an extensive four-year course in the Paris Conservatory, after which he returned to Hungary and concentrated entirely on his musical career. He died in Oberlimbach (now Grad) after having lived some time in Vienna and Paris.