Burney's article in "Cyclopædia"
VANHALL, John, in Biography, an instrumental composer of great and original genius, was born at Vienna in 1740. We know not what he had published previous to his symphonies, which were composed in 1767, and soon circulated in MS. all over Europe. The duke of Dorset, we believe, first brought them to England about the year 1771. Several excellent symphonies of the Manheim school had been previously published by Bremmer, which introduced us agreeably to the new style of German symphony founded by the elder Stamitz; but till we were acquainted with the symphonies of Haydn, the spirited, natural, and unaffected style of Vanhall excited more attention at our concerts at our concerts than any foreign music which we had imported for a long time. They were admirably played at the Pantheon concerts, when led by La Motte, Giardini, and the elder Cramer. He composed too much perhaps, and for too great a variety of instruments; but his symphonies, quartets, and other productions for violins, certainly deserve a place among the first productions, in which unity of melody, pleasing harmony, and a free and manly style are preserved.
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