Court chapel

From 1765 the Russian court was successful in attracting several famous Italian composers to Saint Petersburg, among them Baldassare Galuppi, Giovanni Paisiello, Vicente Martín y Soler and Domenico Cimarosa.

Russian composers involved with the Imperial Chapel in the 19th century included Mikhail Glinka, Mily Balakirev and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

In the late 1880s the house and concert hall at the Moika River Embankement were rebuilt and enlarged to what in the 20th century became known as the Leningrad Academic Glinka Capella.

[2][3] The first noble or royal court orchestras in German language regions, most of which were founded in the sixteenth century, were called Hofkapelle.

When the noble and royal courts dissipated the name was often replaced by Staatskapelle ("State Chapel"), usually indicating an orchestra with a prior tradition as Hofkapelle.

The Munich court chapel was arguably the most splendid one of the second half of the 16th century, and played an important role in the European music life of its day.

In the early 19th century musicians like Conradin Kreutzer, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Carl Maria von Weber were employed at the Hofkapelle.

After 1926, to consolidate the financial position of the Vienna Boys Choir, the Royal Court Chapel organised a wide range of singing engagements outside their own programme.