Wassenaer - Concerto Armonici No. 4 in G Major
BackWILHELM VAN WASSENAER (1692-1766) Concerto "armonici" No. 4 for strings and basso continuo in G major 1. Largo 2. Da capella (non presto) 3. Largo affetuoso 4. Allegro Performed by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Directed by Ton Koopman *Unico Willem van Wassenaer, Count of the Empire, was a Dutch diplomat and composer. His most important surviving compositions are the Concerti Armonici, which until recently have been misattributed to the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736). Unico Willem Van Wassenaer was born into a distinguished family of wealth, power and accomplishment, the house of Wassenaer. He studied law and other courses in Leiden and in 1723 married Dodonea Lucia van Goslinga (the daughter of Sicco van Goslinga), who gave him three children. Van Wassenaer occupied high diplomatic, military and commercial posts. It is known that he was respected not only as a diplomat but also as a musician. Between 1725 and 1740 he wrote the Concerti Armonici, but being a nobleman he did not want to publish them in his own name (or because he doubted his ability as a composer). The concertos were published in 1740 by the Italian violin player Carlo Ricciotti (16811756), to whom the concertos were attributed at first. Van Wassenaer has therefore been called "the mystery composer." The Polish composer Franciszek Lessel (17801838) asserted incorrectly that the concertos were written by Pergolesi. Since the style of the concertos is Italian, laid out in typical Roman fashion with four parts for violin and consisting of four parts instead of the Venetian three, they are comparable to works by Pietro Locatelli. However, in 1979-80 a manuscript of the six concerti was found in the archives of Twickel Castle (the castle where Van Wassenaer was born), labelled 'Concerti Armonici'. Although the handwriting was not by Van Wassenaer, the manuscript did have an introduction in his hand, reading: "Partition de mes concerts gravez par le Sr. Ricciotti". Because of the research done by the Dutch musicologist Albert Dunning, there can be no doubt that the concerti were written by Van Wassenaer. Concerti Armonici were among the works that formed the basis for Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella, based on works considered at the time to be by Pergolesi. Apart from Concerti Armonici, three sonatas for recorder and continuo have been discovered in the early 1990s.
Category: Music
Uploaded: October 6th, 2008 @ 2:55 am
Author: HARMONICO101
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