Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-1762) was one of the notable musicians of the Berlin court orchestra alongside Quantz, C. Ph. E. Bach and the two Grauns. Trained as a musician in his native Silesia and, after studying law in Frankfurt an der Oder, initially as secretary to a Prussian minister, he joined the small orchestra that the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich initially maintained in Ruppin and then in Rheinsberg in 1736. After Frederick II came to power in 1740, he was taken on as a contraviolonist in the royal court music. In Berlin, Janitsch developed a lively activity as a composer and as the organiser of his so-called "Friday Academies", semi-public house concerts that had already been founded in Rheinsberg and were to play an important role in the emerging bourgeois concert scene in the Prussian metropolis.
While music historians have never completely forgotten Janitsch, he remained virtually unknown in musical practice for a long time. He was only rediscovered on a broader scale in the 1970s. In the process, it became increasingly clear how much Janitsch's partly scattered oeuvre was in need of sifting and organisation.
The Janitsch catalogue of works (JWV) provides the first complete overview of the works known today. In addition to individual contributions to organ and piano music, a small number of concertos and some vocal works, it includes around 90 trio and quartet sonatas as well as 30 symphonies and orchestral overtures. The JWV provides each composition with a work number, gives the beginnings of the movements in notes and lists sources and new editions.
