Johannes Matthias Sperger, also often Johann, (Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

: Jan Matyáš Sperger; March 23, 1750, Feldsberg

Valtice

The town of Valtice in the Czech Republic contains one of the most impressive Baroque residences of Central Europe. It was designed as the seat of the ruling princes of Liechtenstein by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in the early 18th century. Construction was supervised by Domenico...

  May 13, 1812, Schwerin

Schwerin

Schwerin is the capital and second-largest city of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The population, as of end of 2009, was 95,041.-History:...

) was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n contrabassist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Sperger trained from 1767 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 as a contrabassist and composer. He worked from 1777 in the Hofkapelle of the Archbishop

Archbishop

An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...

 of Pressburg. From 1778 he was also a member in the Wiener Tonkünstlersozietät, in whose concerts he appeared several times with his own works and as soloist. From 1783 to 1786, Sperger was a member of the Hofkapelle of count

Count

A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

 Ludwig von Erdödy in Kohfidisch

Kohfidisch

Kohfidisch is a town in the district of Oberwart in Burgenland in Austria....

. From 1789 he was employed as first contrabassist of the Mecklenburg Schwerin Hofkapelle

Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle

The Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle is a symphony orchestra based in Schwerin, Germany....

 in Ludwigslust

Ludwigslust

Ludwigslust is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, 40 km south of Schwerin. It was the capital of the former district of Ludwigslust, and is part of the district Ludwigslust-Parchim since September 2011.-History:...

. He was an extremely productive composer who wrote more than forty-four symphonies, numerous instrumental concertos, among them eighteen contrabass concertos, sonatas, rondos and dances, cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

s, choral works, and airs.