Lutenist and composer. In service of Polish prince Alexander Sobieski, with whom he went to Rome around 1708. Later at the courts of Hesse-Kassel, Düsseldorf and from 1718 in Dresden, where he worked with Lotti, Hasse, Porpora, Hebenstreit, Pisendel and others. He was sent to Vienna with a visiting Saxon orchestra that year. In 1723 he played in Prague with Quantz and H. Graun in Fux’s coronation opera Costanza e Fortezza.

Recent evidence has prompted a revision of S.L. Weiss’s birthdate to 1687 instead of 1686. His place of birth is also now known to be Grottkau, and not Breslau. The liner notes to the latest Naxos Weiss CD say the following:

"Frank Legl was the first to recognise the significance of a short posthumous notice published about the famous lutenist ... This reveals that Weiss was in fact born in 1687, a year later than was previously thought, in the small town of Grottkau ..."

(Contribution by <mjr55@cam.ac.uk>)