Francesco Pasquale Ricci (1732-1817)
- Sinfonia Diss Dur a piu Instrumenti, Op.2 No.5 (c.1767)
Performers: Nеthеrlands Radio Chamber Orchestra; Jan Willеm de Vriеnd (conductor)
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Italian composer. Born of a middle-class family, he received a liberal
education, then concentrated on music with Vignate at Milan. He joined
the Franciscan Order of the Friars Minor and used the title Abbate.
Appointed maestro di cappella at Como Cathedral in 1759, he was
nevertheless able to travel extensively and was absent from his duties
during much or all of the time between early 1768 and December 1777. He
visited Paris, London, and, most importantly, The Hague, where he
appeared in concerts (1766-1780) and dedicated works to the prince and
others attached to the court. In the 1760s and 70s a number of works,
including symphonies, string trios, quartets and accompanied keyboard
sonatas, were published there or in Amsterdam. Many of these appeared
also in Paris and London, generally in the same edition with altered
title-page. Several symphonies from the sets were also issued singly in
periodical series. According to Brook, a work by Ricci (c.1767) was
probably the first to be published as a ‘symphonie concertante’.
However, despite this title, the piece was probably an ordinary
symphony, perhaps a reprint of a piece from the sets published in The
Hague (c.1765) and Amsterdam (op.2, c.1767). His fame was spread by the
impact of the first performance of his Dies irae, which was published
and widely distributed. According to Fayolle, the audience was struck
with a ‘saint effroi’ by the introduction at the ‘Tuba mirum’ of a
trumpet sounding from the cupola (the printed score calls for horns).
Ricci was not the first to attempt this effect, however. Ricci's name
appears with that of J.C. Bach in the Méthode … pour le forte-piano
(Paris, c1788), devised for one of the conservatories at Naples. The
nature of the collaboration is uncertain, but it is likely that the two
musicians had become acquainted at Milan through Count Litta, a patron
of both, and had continued their friendship in London. Ricci may merely
have arranged and edited the work in memory of his deceased friend; the
ascription to Bach may in any case be false.
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