Henricus Albicastro (1661-1730)
- Concerti (VII) à quatro, opera settima (1704)
Performers: Accademia Monteverdiana; Denis Stevens (1922-2004, conductor)
Further info: Enrico Albicastro - William Boyce: Concerti Grossi
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German composer and violinist. The name Henricus Albicastro is a
Latin-Italian translation of his true name, Johann Heinrich von
Weissenburg. The designation ‘del Biswang’ on the title-pages of some of
his works presumably refers to Bieswangen as his place of birth (there
is, moreover, a town called Weissenburg nearby). There is nothing to
corroborate Walther's statement that he was Swiss, but many details
about his life are still unclear. His compositions adhere closely to the
Italian style in string music with continuo, but there is no way of
telling whether this results from study with an Italian composer in
Italy or elsewhere, or from the study of Italian music available north
of the Alps. Albicastro was registered as ‘musicus academiae’ at the
University of Leiden in 1686, meaning that he became head of the modest
musical establishment there, a position he may have held until 1691 when
someone else was appointed. (Confusingly, he was registered as
‘Viennensis’.) His op.1 sonatas (1701) are dedicated to the Leiden
burgomaster Coenraad Ruysch, confirming the Leiden connection. After his
days there he may have gone to the Southern Netherlands where he was
involved in a publication project set up by François Barbry, a musical
amateur who had obtained a privilege for publishing ‘Italian music’,
though not all the composers mentioned are Italian. As well as
Albicastro, Sebastian Scherer is named; he was from Ulm, not far from
Bieswangen, and may have been a relation of Albicastro, perhaps even his
teacher. It is not known how much of the project was realized. Only one
work by Albicastro has survived, an op.3 part i; nothing is known about
any corresponding opp.1-2.
During the years 1701-06 Estienne Roger of Amsterdam issued nine volumes
of music by Albicastro, each containing 12 works: the trio sonatas
opp.1, 4 and 8, solo sonatas opp.2, 3, 5, 6 and 9 and concertos op.7.
(No exemplars of opp.2, 6 and 9 are known). Their publication in rapid
succession may indicate that they were largely composed beforehand. The
title-pages of the Bruges op.3 and the Amsterdam op.1 call him expressly
‘amatore’, meaning that he did not earn his living as a musician; this
designation was dropped later. In 1708 he was appointed captain in the
Dutch cavalry; he thus served during the later years of the War of the
Spanish Succession, and may have been in the army before that date. The
title-pages of his opp.3 and 4 (both 1702) call him ‘cavaliero’. His
name is listed in the army administration up to 1730. Apart from a
single motet in manuscript (possibly emanating from his Southern
Netherlands period) all his music is for one or more string instruments
with basso continuo, sometimes with an independent string bass part.
Everything he wrote is thoroughly italianate in style – a close copy, in
fact, of Albinoni and Corelli, but sometimes (perhaps because of his
German background) less predictable, less schematic and less polished
than his Italian models. Although his status as a musician cannot yet be
fully understood, his compositions show nothing of the amateur but
conform to the professional norms one would use in assessing the quality
and the character of the music. The fact that none of his works was
ever reissued or reprinted is probably due to the subtly germanophone
and conservative dialect of his Corellian idiom. His tribute to the
German way of treating the violin is reflected in the remark Quantz made
in his autobiography (1755), that in his youth he diligently studied
Albicastro's music along with that of Biber and J.J. Walther, the two
leading figures in 17th-century German violin playing.
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