Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692-1766)
- Concertino (G-Dur) a Quatro Violini oblige
Performers: Ensemble Benedetto Marcello
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Dutch composer and statesman. He was born into one of the oldest and
most influential families of the Dutch nobility and spent his childhood
in his parents' house in The Hague and at Twickel Castle in Delden. He
probably studied music with the organist, harpsichordist, composer and
theorist Quirinus van Blankenburg in The Hague. From October 1707 until
April 1709 he possibly accompanied his father on a mission to the
Palatine Elector Johann Wilhelm in Düsseldorf. In September 1710 he
matriculated in the University of Leiden and after completing his
studies embarked on a grand tour which took him to England, Germany,
France and probably Italy between 1714 and 1718. Between 1713 and 1715
he had contacts in The Hague with Duke Friedrich Ludwig von Württemberg,
to whom he dedicated three sonatas for recorder and continuo. He was a
close friend of Count Willem Bentinck, who also had a keen interest in
music, and with him organized concerts which took place alternately in
their homes in The Hague. At these concerts, held for a small circle of
nobles, Carlo Ricciotti, known as Bacciccia, played first violin. It was
for these gatherings, between 1725 and 1740, that van Wassenaer wrote
his Concerti armonici, published in 1740 in The Hague by Carlo Ricciotti
without the composer's name and with a dedication to Willem Bentinck.
The Concerti armonici were reprinted in England with Ricciotti named as
the composer. A manuscript score at Twickel Castle contains annotations
in van Wassenaer's hand. In a manuscript dating from the beginning of
the 19th century (in US-Wc, formerly owned by the composer Franciszek
Lessel) the concertos are attributed to Handel, whose name was later
covered by a label with the name of Pergolesi in the same handwriting.
An early 20th-century manuscript (in F-Pc), also with an attribution to
Pergolesi, was probably copied from the Washington source. The Concerti
armonici acquired considerable popularity under Pergolesi's name, and
have proved no less popular under the name of the real composer. The
three sonatas for recorder and continuo follow the Corelli model, while
the Concerti armonici reveal a strong personal stamp. As ambassador
extraordinary of the General States, van Wassenaer made diplomatic
missions to France (in 1744 and 1746) and Cologne. Louis XV's court
heard the music he wrote in France, and during his stay there he also
composed a motet, Nunc dimittis. The French praised him as a ‘grand
compositeur: il accompagne fort bien’ and considered his music ‘presque
aussi bonne que celle de Corelli’.
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