Christian Gottlob Neefe

Neefe was born in Chemnitz, Saxony. He received a musical education and started to compose at the age of 12. He studied law at Leipzig University, but subsequently returned to music to become a pupil of the composer Johann Adam Hiller under whose guidance he wrote his first comic operas. In 1776, Neefe joined the Seyler theatrical company of Abel Seyler (then) in Dresden, and inherited the position of musical director from his mentor, Hiller. He later became court organist in Bonn and was the principal piano teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven. He helped Beethoven produce some of his first works. His best known work was a Singspiel called Adelheit von Veltheim (1780). In Bonn, Neefe became prefect of the local chapter of the Illuminati, the Minervalkirche Stagira. He died in 1798 in Dessau, 8 days before his 50th birthday.

• Title — Genre — Sub­divisions — Libretto — Première date — Place, theatre • DorfbarbierDer Dorfbarbier (with Johann Adam Hiller) — komische Operette — 1 act — WeisseChristian Felix Weiße, after Michel-Jean Sedaine's Blaise le savetier — 18 April 1771 — Leipzig, Rannstädter Thore • ApothekeDie Apotheke — komische Oper — 2 acts — EngelJohann Jacob Engel — 13 December 1771 — Berlin, Theater in der Behrenstrasse • Amors Guckkasten — Operette — 1 act — MichaelisJohann Benjamin Michaelis — 10 May 1772 — Leipzig • EinsprücheDie Einsprüche — komische Oper — 1 act — MichaelisJohann Benjamin Michaelis — late 1772 — Leipzig, Rannstädter Thore • Zemire und Azor — komische Oper — 4 acts — ThümmelMoritz August von Thümmel, after Jean-François Marmontel — 5 March 1776 — Leipzig (Koberwein Company) • Heinrich und Lyda — Drama — 1 act — ArienBernhard Christian d'Arien — 26 March 1776 — Berlin, (Döbbelin Company) • Sophonisbe — musikaliches Drama — 1 act — MeissnerAugust Gottlieb Meissner — 12 October 1776 — Leipzig • ZigeunerDie Zigeuner — Lustspiel mit gesang — 5 acts — MöllerH F Möller, after Cervantes — November 1777 — Frankfurt • Adelheit von Veltheim — Schauspiel mit Gesang — 4 acts — GroßmannGustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann — 23 September 1780 — Frankfurt, Junghof • neueDer neue Gutsherr — 3 acts — DyckJohann Gottfried Dyck and Johann Friedrich Jünger, after Marivaux's Le paysan parvenu — unperformed

• Oden von Klopstock: Serenade for piano and voice. Flensburg 1776 • Variations on the Priestermarsch aus der Zauberflöte • Twelve piano sonatas • Rondo in C major

Christian Gottlob Neefe is recorded as composer, conductor, organist, musicologist and music arranger.