In his time an extraordinarily successful composer and conductor, he played a major role in Viennese musical life in the first decades of the 19th century. He considered himself to be a German composer and used a German form of his name, Adalbert Gyrowetz, and it is listed as such both in foreign encyclopedias and on printed scores.

Vojtěch Jírovec came from České Budějovice, where his father was the choirmaster of the local cathedral. He received his elementary musical education in his home town and soon was performing in public as a violinist, later also assuming the function of church organist. That he would also like to compose music became clear from his first little compositions: serenades, church music and string quartets. After studies at the Piarist gymnasium in České Budějovice, Jírovec went off to study law in Prague. Although he abandoned the university for lack of finances, he had received a relatively good education, which along with his knowledge of several languages would later help him to move around in the highest social circles and allow him to hold the position of a secretary and later that of a an adviser in the diplomatic service.

During his service with Franz Fünfkirchen of Chlum u Třeboně, he was given the opportunity to compose for his orchestra works calling for larger forces, so that over time he produced the Six Early Symphonies. The success these met with in a public performance in Brno strengthened the confidence of the young composer and brought him recommendations from a patron of music in Brno, Count František Troyer, which served to provide him a favorable reception into Viennese society.

Possessed of talent and obviously not lacking in ambition, Vojtěch Jírovec gradually made his way around the most important music centers of his day, including Vienna, Naples, Paris and London. Everywhere he proved himself capable of quickly establishing contacts and quickly winning acclaim for the performance of his works. His first big success when Jírovec was only twenty-two years old was having one of his six early symphonies performed by Mozart in the cycle of concerts he gave with the theater orchestra in the hall of the "Mehlgrube" (1785). In spite of his brilliant reception by the Viennese public, the young composer decided to move on, becoming the secretary and music teacher of Prince Ruspoli in Rome. As they traveled together around Italy, Jírovec was introduced into the homes of the upper aristocracy, becoming in Bologna an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society. He met a number of prominent musicians and other kinds of artists, including Johann Wolfgang Goethe. This Roman period inspired the composition of Jírovec’s Six String Quartets (1786-87), which were performed to acclaim and published in Paris. During his two-year residence in Naples, Jírovec perfected his compositional skills under Giovanni Paisiello and Nicola Sala and frequently attended performances in the Neapolitan opera houses. Jírovec’s social prestige rose still higher after a performance of his symphonies led to an audience with the king of Naples. And yet this time too, he decided to leave: traveling through Milan, Genoa and Marseilles, he arrived in Paris during the revolution. Jean-Jérôme Imbault, the publisher of his string quartets, bought the symphonies he had completed as well as more string quartets and commissioned new works.

In October of 1789, Vojtěch Jírovec went off to London, where successful performances of his works had preceded him. He received a commission for more symphonies from Johann Peter Salomon, the organizer of the famous public concerts in the Hanover Square Rooms. He soon found favor with the English and was highly respected as a composer. Thanks to his artistic authority and his social contacts, he was even able to be of help to Joseph Haydn in establishing contacts in local society when he came to London (1791). The commission for the opera Semiramide which was to open the newly built Odeon theater failed to bring him the success he had hoped for when a fire destroyed the building down to its very foundations. Jírovec left London, returning via Brussels, Paris, Dresden, Prague and České Budějovice to Vienna after an absence of eight years. He soon revived his former contacts, receiving commissions for new works and enjoying acclaim and the favor of publishers.

Despite his success as a composer, Jírovec accepted an offer from army envoy Count von Sickingen to become his administrative assistant for military and diplomatic affairs. Soon after his transfer to Munich and Schwetzingen, however, he asked to be released and returned to Vienna, where he was offered the position of assistant Kapellmeister in the Court Theater (1804), being responsible for composing and performing a new opera and ballet every year. This position brought a fundamental change in the genres practiced by Jírovec the composer. Whereas up until that time he had for the most part written symphonies and chamber works, he concentrated in the subsequent period on works for the theater. His compositions met with success, and they were even performed in other European cities including the Grand Opéra of Paris. For La Scala he wrote an opera on the occasion of the arrival of Archduke Rainer – Il finto Stanislao.

In 1831 Jírovec went into retirement, and although he continued to write music, his fame as composer, which was mostly grounded in contemporary taste, gradually waned. Towards the end of his life, he wrote Biographie des Adalbert Gyrowetz (published in Vienna in 1848), which is of interest as a subjective account but also as a documentary on the musical events of that age.

Jírovec is a representative of the last wave of migration of Czech musicians active in Vienna. Despite his proclaimed Germanness, typical Czech elements are clearly to be found in a number of his works, especially those of the early period. One expression of his ties to Czech culture and his evident approval of the process of national revival were some songs with Czech texts written for the Věnec zpěvů vlasteneckých (Wreath of Patriotic Songs) published by František Škroup (1843). The quantity of works composed by Vojtěch Jírovec is quite extraordinary: 28 operas, 40 ballets, over 60 symphonies, concertos, 19 masses, dozens of string quartets, piano trios, piano sonatas and songs.

In his time he was extraordinarily successful and certainly knew how to take advantage of every occasion offered to him. His relatively conservative aesthetic opinions, however, closed off any more progressive possibilities for his composing. Albeit in his own way he certainly did contribute to the formation of the foundations from which Romantic music would grow – in particular in the area of opera and ballet – most of his works came gradually to be of only marginal interest. Jírovec was remarkably critical of himself and obviously aware of the limits to his own gifts, he himself admitting that his extraordinary but short-lived fame was partly due to favorable circumstances and good luck.
A thematic catalogue of Jírovec’s works has been compiled by American musicologist John A. Rice (1982).

Author: Dagmar Henžlíková