Background
He was born in Bavaria and died in Mannheim, where in his later years he served as the Kapellmeister of the court orchestra. Wilderer was born in Bavaria.
He was born in Bavaria and died in Mannheim, where in his later years he served as the Kapellmeister of the court orchestra. Wilderer was born in Bavaria.
He studied with Giovanni Legrenzi in Venice.
His compositions include eleven operas, two oratorios, cantatas, and sacred works. Probably in 1687 he was employed at the Palatine court in Düsseldorf as an organist. A document dated 1 October 1692 indicates that he was organist at the church Saint Andreas, the court church at the time.
He held the office until 1697.
On the occasion of his first opera Giocasta, first performed for the opening of the opera house at the Mühlenstraße in 1696, he was appointed Vice-Kapellmeister (vice musical director). In 1703 he received the title Hofkapellmeister (court musical director).
In 1699 he had also received the appointment of Hofkammerrat (treasury official). He was knighted by Elector Johann Wilhelm in 1704 or 1705.
Wilderer probably met George Frideric Handel when Handel visited the court in Düsseldorf in 1710 and 1711.
Agostino Steffani was also resident at the court during Wilderer"s tenure as Kapellmeister. A high point in Wilderer"s career was the coronation of emperor Charles VI at Frankfurt am Main in 1711, where he conducted the entire orchestra of 53 members. The Düsseldorf court orchestra was dissolved, but in 1718, many of its musicians were reinstated in the Innsbruck court orchestra headed by Jakob Greber.
Wilderer died in Mannheim and was buried there on 7 June 1724.
The couple had nine children. At a time when European music was dominated by French and Italian artists, Wilderer gained a reputation as a German musician.
His first opera Giocasta was revived in Düsseldorf in 2008. His sacred drama Esther, originally performed as an oratorio in Heidelberg in 1723, was performed in Mannheim as an opera on 17 March 1724, three months before his death.
Johann Sebastian Bach copied and performed Wilder"s Missa brevis in G minor in around 1730, and for a while the work was believed to have been composed by Bach himself.
Christoph Wolff noted similarities between a theme from Wilderer"s Missa and the theme of the Kyrie I from Bach"s Mass in B minor as well as some similarities in the structure of both works.