Giacobbe Basevi Cervetto (1690-1783) - Solo (II) for Violoncello and Bass (c.1750)
Performers: Apollo Ensemble
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Italian cellist and composer. He was of Sephardi Jewish origin. Nothing
is known about his life in Italy, though Burney referred to him as a
Venetian. He arrived in England probably in early 1738, when he became a
member of the Royal Society of Musicians: he was an important member of
a group of London-based Italians who brought the solo cello into favour
in England. Although his playing was technically brilliant, his tone,
according to Burney, was ‘raw, crude and uninteresting’. The first
reliable record of his playing is of a concerto at Drury Lane (22
November 1742); he continued to play there regularly until about
1774-75. According to his son James's obituary, Cervetto ‘led the band’
there. He played in numerous subscription concerts at Hickford's Room,
the Great Room, the King's Theatre and the New Theatre in the Haymarket.
He also played in the orchestra at Vauxhall and took part in private
concerts, for example in the Burney household. At some point in the
early 1760s Cervetto seems to have relinquished his solo career in order
to make way for his son, also a cellist. Marsh recorded Cervetto's
presence at a concert at the Salisbury Festival in September 1781;
according to James Cervetto, his father was still playing his cello at
that time. Cervetto, known as ‘Nosey’ among his colleagues and
theatre-goers (owing to the size of his nose), was a popular and
colourful character and the subject of many anecdotes, including a
prologue by Garrick. His compositions, which represent an important
contribution to the cello repertory, belong to the period of transition
from the Baroque to the Classical style. The pieces range from binary
dances and fugues to early versions of sonata form. The op.2 solos are
arranged in ascending order of difficulty, the last including a
three-voice fugue with variations. Some of the music here, as well as in
op.4, is technically demanding, with fast, broken-chord figurations,
complex rhythms and large registral leaps. Cervetto employed a variety
of compositional techniques (e.g. rhythmic alteration in pitch
sequences) in order to maintain melodies and rhythmic interest. Many of
his solo sonatas include either implied or written-out cadenzas, an
unusual feature. His cello concerto is one of the few surviving
18th-century English works in this genre. It is a short and unremarkable
(though attractive) work scored for ripieno and concertino.
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