Raupach, Hermann Friedrich
Raupach, Hermann Friedrich
Raupach, Hermann Friedrich , German harpsichordist, conductor, and composer; b. Stralsund, Dec. 21, 1728; d. St. Petersburg, Dec. 1778. In 1755 he went to St. Petersburg as deputy harpsichordist in the Court Orch., and subsequently served as Kapellmeister and court composer (1758–62); then was active mainly in Hamburg and Paris until 1768. In Paris he met Mozart, who used several movements of his violin sonatas in his own early keyboard concertos (K.37, 39, and 41). Upon his return to St. Petersburg in 1768, Raupach again became deputy harpsichordist in the Court Orch.; in 1770 he was once more named Kapellmeister. His opera Alcesta (St. Petersburg, 1758) was one of the first operas on a Russian text. He also wrote the operas The New Monastery (1759), Siroe (St. Petersburg, 1760), and The Good Soldiers (St. Petersburg, Feb. 29, 1780), ballet scenes in operas by Traetta, 6 Sonates for Violin, op.l (Paris, c. 1762), 4 Sonates for Violin, op.2 (Paris, c. 1765), and 4 Sonates for 2 Violins and Bass, op.3 (Paris, 1770).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire