GEMINIANI, Francesco (1687-1762) - Concerto Grosso (1729)

Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) - Concerto Grosso (d minor) from 'CONCERTI GROSSI | Con due Violini, Viola e Violoncello | di Concertino Obligati, e due altri Violini | e Basso di Concerto Grosso

Opera Quinta' (1729), H.143

Performers: Concerto Copеnhagеn

Painting: Andrea Soldi (c.1703-1771) - Francesco Geminiani (c.1739)

Further info: Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) - Concerto Grossi

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Francesco (Saverio, Xaviero) Geminiani [Giminiani, Dzheminiani]

(Lucca, bap. 5 December 1687 - Dublin, 17 September 1762)

Italian composer, violinist and theorist. His father was a violinist at the Cappella Palatina in Lucca and probably taught his son. Francesco Geminiani played professional violin in Naples by December 1706 and then, on 27 August 1707, returned to Lucca to take his father’s position. During this period, he may have studied with Arcangelo Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti. He left Lucca in September 1709. He appears in London in 1714, where he began a career for himself as a violin teacher and, with occasional public performances, won considerable notice. Geminiani left London for Paris in 1732 and then, on 6 December 1733, arrived in Dublin to enter the service of Charles Moore, Baron of Tullamore. Apart from occasional trips to Paris to publish his works, and to London, he remained in this service until his death. His last public performance took place on 3 March 1760. In 1761, on one of his sojourns in Dublin, a servant robbed him of a musical manuscript on which he had bestowed much time and labour. His vexation at this loss is said to have hastened his death. As a composer, he published 48 violin sonatas, and of 47 published concerti grossi, 23 are original, and 24 are arrangements of Corelli trio and violin sonatas. As a theorist, his 'Art of Playing the Violin' (1751) as well as the 'Guida Harmonia' (1752) are seminal works demonstrating performance practice of this period. His contemporaries in England considered him the equal of Georg Friedrich Handel and Corelli. He was one of the greatest violinists of his time, an original if not a prolific composer and an important theorist.

Sig. Filippo (18th Century) - Sonata per il Clavi Cempallo

Sig. Filippo (18th Century) - Sonata (Fa maggiore) per il Clavi Cempallo

Performers: Milko Bizjak (harpsichord)

Painting: Pietro Longhi (1701-1785) - La consegna del pacco

Further info: Sonatas–F major

PALUSELLI, Stefan (1748-1805) - Diana et Ursus (1802)

Stefan Paluselli (1748-1805) - Diana et Ursus (1802)

Performers: Reingard Didusch (soprano); Hans Kiemer (bass); Das Innsbrucker Kammerorchester;

Othmar Costa (1928-2018, conductor)

Painting: James Ward (1769-1859) - Diana at the Bath (1830)

Further info: Der Singende Bär Und Die Göttin Der Jagd

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(Johann Anton) Stefan (Stephan) Paluselli [Paluschelli, Pallusello]

(Kurtatsch, 9 January 1748 - Stams, 27 February 1805)

Austrian monastic composer and teacher. In 1760 he was sent to Innsbruck for his education, studying at the St. Nikolaus school and functioning as a chorister at the university church. By 1768 he was a student at the University of Innsbruck in philosophy, and in 1770 his Singspiel Das alte deutsche Wörtlein tut was premiered. He entered the Cistercian abbey at Stams the same year, becoming ordained as a priest in 1774. He functioned as a teacher of violin at the abbey school, later being appointed as regens chori in 1791. Although his music adheres to the older stile antico, his instrumental works show awareness of the forms and structures found in the mainstream cities of Austria. His Singspiels, most in dialect, were particularly popular in the Tyrol; he composed 11 of these. He also composed several small occasional cantatas; six Masses; over 100 sacred works such as hymns, Psalms, motets, sacred Lieder, and antiphons; an oratorio; 10 divertimentos (partitas, cassations); a large serenade; a string quartet; a symphony; and a series of sogetti in 1790 as exercises for the voice. He was, undoubtedly, one of the most notable musical personalities of 18th-Century Tyrol.

CARR, Benjamin (1768-1831) - The federal overture (1794)

Benjamin Carr (1768-1831) - The federal overture (1794)

Performers: Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä; Patrick Gallois (conductor)

Drawing: Joseph Yeager (c.1792-1859) - Procession of Victuallers of Philadelphia, on the 15th of March 1821

Further info: The 18th Century American Overture

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Benjamin Carr

(London, 12 September 1768 - Philadelphia, 24 May 1831)

English composer, publisher, and performer. Son of Joseph Carr (1739-1819), he studied the organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold, and probably learnt engraving at his father's shop in London. After 1789 he assisted Arnold as harpsichordist and principal tenor for the Academy of Ancient Music, and his earliest known opera, Philander and Silvia, was performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in October 1792. In 1793 he immigrated to the United States where he worked as a singer and musician at the Chestnut Street Theatre, making his debut the following year. He also established a business selling musical instruments and, eventually, as a publisher. He was choir director at the St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, as well as a founding member of the Musical Fund Society. As a composer, his works include six stage pieces (operas, ballets), around 50 songs (his setting of Scott's Hymn to the Virgin [1810] is generally considered the finest early American song), a Federal Overture (his most famous orchestral work), 12 keyboard sonatas (as well as other keyboard works). He also regularly published music in journals and magazines for the public, including Carr’s Musical Miscellany. His brother Thomas Carr (1780-1849) was also a composer and organist, mainly active in Philadelphia.

PURCELL, Henry (1659-1695) - Overture in g

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) - Overture (Suite in g) from 'The Fairy Queen', ZimP 629

Performers: Concеrto Copеnhagen

Painting: Cornelis de Man (1621-1706) - Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz

Further info: Henry Purcell (1659-1695) - The Harpsichord Music

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Henry (Henri) Purcell [Purcel]

(Westminster, 10 September 1659 - Westminster, 21 November 1695)

English composer and organist. Son of Henry Purcell (?-1664), and brother of Daniel Purcell (c.1664-1717), he received music lessons as a chorister in the Chapel Royal, London, from the late 1660s until December 1673, when he was hired as keeper of the king’s instruments. He probably studied with John Blow and Christopher Gibbons, composers associated with the Chapel Royal. On 10 September 1677, he succeeded Matthew Locke as 'composer-in-ordinary' to the king and, in 1679, was appointed organist to Westminster Abbey when Blow stepped down, apparently to create an opening for Purcell, and then, on 14 July 1682, was appointed as organist to the Chapel Royal. He retained these positions for his whole life. In 1680, he married Frances Peters with whom he had three sons, among them, Edward Henry Purcell (1689-1765), organist at London. As a court composer, Henry Purcell was responsible for providing the required ceremonial music, including birthday odes, welcome songs, anthems, voluntaries, and other music for coronations. Under King Charles II, who ruled until 1685, and James II, until 1688, these duties kept Purcell busy and provided adequate income. Attempts to introduce Italian- and French-style opera into England early in the Restoration period had failed, but after the Glorious Revolution had exiled James and brought King William III and Queen Mary II to the throne in 1689, the musical establishment at court was reduced considerably, and this may have caused Purcell to seek more income outside from the stage. In 1689, Purcell worked with the future poet laureate of England, Nahum Tate, to produce his only true opera, 'Dido and Aeneas'. Henry Purcell is generally acknowledged as the finest setter of English text, sometimes called the greatest native English composer, his oeuvre may be divided into three generic areas. He composed the instrumental incidental music to over 40 plays between 1680 and 1695, as well as 14 fantasias, 3 overtures, 5 pavans, 24 sonatas, and much harpsichord music. His musical dramas were composed later, including one complete opera and five semi-operas, mostly after 1688. The third group, sacred music, was composed throughout his career: 56 masterly verse anthems, 18 full anthems (all before 1682), 4 Latin psalms, 34 other sacred songs, a morning and evening service, and a few works for organ. His music, especially the earlier instrumental music, often experimented with unorthodox chromaticism and dissonance but always shows a mastery of contrapuntal art. He was one of the most important 17th-century composers and one of the greatest of all English composers.