Johannes Matthias Sperger was born in Feldsberg, at the time, Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), today Valtice, Czech Republic and trained as a double bass player and composer in Vienna from 1767. In 1776 he married Maria Anna Barbara Firani from Linz. From 1777, he worked in the court chapel of the archbishop of Pressburg from 1777. From 1778, he was a member of the Vienna ''Tonkünstlersozietät'' in whose concerts he performed his own works and as a soloist. From 1783 to 1786 Sperger was a member of the court orchestra of Count Ludwig von Erdődy in Kohfidisch. From 1786 to 1789 he made concert tours and sought permanent employment, including at the Prussian court. In early April 1788, he played for Duke Friedrich Franz I in Ludwigslust. After a trip to Italy, Sperger found his employment decree in April 1789 and began his service as the first double bass player of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court orchestra in Ludwigslust in June 1789. In 1792, a concert tour took him to Lübeck, in 1793 to Berlin and in 1801 to Leipzig where he performed with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 1812 he died of typhus in Ludwigslust.
Johannes Sperger wrote more than 44 symphonies, instrumental concertos (concerto for viola, concerto for violoncello, 18 double bass concertos, concerto for flute, two concertos for trumpet, three concertos for horn, Sinfonie concertante), sonatas, rondos and dances, cantatas, choruses and arias. His harmony music for wind instruments, called "Feldpartien", mostly originates from his creative period in Pressburg.
