Biography (read more)
Karl Kohaut was born in Vienna to Jakob Kohaut, musician to Prince Adam von Schwarzenberg. He was baptised on August 26, 1726. He entered civil service in 1756 or 1757. By 1778 he had become court secretary. He accompanied Joseph II to his coronation in Frankfurt in 1764. The same year, he also traveled to Paris with Count Kaunitz. He played the violin in Gottfried van Swieten’s Sunday concerts, in which Haydn’s and Mozart’s works were played. He died in Vienna on August 6, 1784, unmarried.
He is considered, along with Bernhard Joachim Hagen, to be “one of the last important composers of music for Baroque lute.” In 1761 he published a divertimento for lute, two violins and basso continuo in Leipzig. It is his only published work. Manuscripts of his first concerto and some trio sonatas passed to the musicologist François-Joseph Fétis. His lute divertimento and five lute concertos have been recorded by John Schneiderman.
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Repertoire
Lute Concerto in E Major: I. Allegro ma non molto— Evangelina Mascardi
Performed by Evangelina Mascardi
Concerto in F for Lute and Strings: Tempo di Minuetto— John Eliot Gardiner
Performed by Julian Bream
Trietto in A Major for Lute, Violin & Violoncello: I. Allegro moderato— Lutz Kirchhof
Performed by Lutz Kirchhof
Trietto in A Major for Lute, Violin & Violoncello: II. Menuetto— Lutz Kirchhof
Performed by Lutz Kirchhof
Trietto in A Major for Lute, Violin & Violoncello: III. Presto finale— Lutz Kirchhof
Performed by Lutz Kirchhof