Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
- Sonata 'La Folia' (in re minore) a violino e basso, Opera Quinta (1700)
Performers: Ulrich Grehling (1917-1977, violin); August Wenzinger (1905-1996, violoncello);
Fritz Neumeyer (1900-1983, cembalo)
Further info: Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) - Il Bolognese
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Italian composer. Corelli, the last of five children, was named for his
father, a prosperous landowner, who had died one month before he was
born, and was raised by his mother Santa Raffini Corelli. He is reported
to have studied with a priest in Faenza but received his principal
training in Bologna, beginning in 1666. There, he could learn from a
number of established players and composers associated with the great
church of San Petronio. In 1670, he entered the Accademia Filarmonica.
The next documented appearance of Corelli comes from Rome in 1675, when
he is listed as a member of an orchestra playing oratorios for Lent.
Similar engagements follow through 1679, when Corelli himself mentions
in a letter that he has entered the service of Queen Christina of
Sweden, who had taken up residence in Rome following her conversion to
Catholicism. She is the dedicatee of his first publication, the trio
sonatas Opus 1 of 1681. Its success was unparalleled at the time and
would see 39 reprints before the end of the 18th century. By this point,
Corelli was one of the leading musicians in Rome. In February 1687, he
is documented leading a tremendous ensemble of 150 string players and
100 singers for an accademia di musica of Bernardo Pasquini at Queen
Christina’s Palazzo Riario. On 9 July of that year, he was hired by
Cardinal Pamphili as maestro di musica and went to live in his palace.
In 1690, he transferred to the household of Cardinal Ottoboni, where
accademie di musica were regularly held on Monday evenings. Corelli
dedicated his Opus 4 to Ottoboni. He acquired wealth and honors. In
1684, he was admitted to the Congregazione di Santa Cecilia, along with
Alessandro Scarlatti, and on 26 April 1706, along with Scarlatti and
Pasquini, to the Arcadian Academy of Rome. In May 1707 and April 1708,
he worked with the young George Frideric Handel, performing two of his
early oratorios. By 1708, Corelli’s health was no longer good, and he
retired later that year, possibly to devote himself to composition. In
1712, he concluded an agreement with Estienne Roger of Amsterdam for the
publication of his concertos Opus 6. But he died before the publication
appeared, and he was buried in the church of Santa Maria della Rotonda
(Pantheon) in Rome. Aside from a few other instrumental compositions,
Corelli’s legacy comes down in his six publications, containing 48 trio
sonatas, 12 sonatas for solo violin, and 12 concerti grossi. Indeed, he
is one of the first composers who owe their international fame to the
medium of publication rather than manuscript. He became a legend
throughout Europe in his own lifetime through his violin playing and
pedagogy and his six publications of instrumental music for strings. The
set of violin sonatas Opus 5 and concerti grossi Opus 6, which contains
the famous Christmas Concerto, have been studied and played more or
less continuously since their first appearance, thus ranking as two of
the earliest classics in the Western tradition.
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