Francesco Barsanti (1690-1775)
- Concerto Grosso à 8, Opera III (1742)
Performers: Isrаеl Philarmonic Orchestra
Painting: Flemish painter - A crowd watching a troupe of quack-doctors on a stage outside an inn (c.1640)
Further info: Horn Music
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Italian composer. He studied scientific subjects at the University of
Padua, and then devoted himself to music. In 1714 he went to London with
Francesco Geminiani (also a native of Lucca); there he played the flute
and oboe in the orchestra at the Italian opera, and published three
sets of solo sonatas. According to Bonaccorsi, he was back in Lucca in
1735, taking part in festivities at Sancta Croce; but that seems
unlikely, as by the second half of 1735 he was resident in Edinburgh. He
spent eight years in Scotland, where he married a Scots woman, was much
patronized by the aristocracy and published his finest compositions,
ten concerti grossi (1742) and nine overtures (c.1743). He also brought
out arrangements of 30 Scots songs with continuo in Edinburgh in 1742
(not 1719, as stated by Bonaccorsi and Praetorius). In 1743 Barsanti
returned to London. By this time he had lost his place in London musical
society and was forced to take a job as an orchestral viola player. Six
Latin motets (c.1750) were rather wistfully dedicated to a member of
the Scottish aristocratic Wemyss family ‘in recompense for many
obligations’. His daughter Jenny, trained in singing by Charles Burney,
later achieved success as a London opera singer and actress. Barsanti's
compositions are accomplished and original. His op.1 recorder sonatas
are among the finest in the instrument's repertory. The op.3 concerti
grossi have a contrapuntal glitter not unlike those of J.S. Bach; the
main movements are constructed in semi-improvised forms, from themes
which are stated once and then broken down into smaller imitative units.
His Scots-tune arrangements are far more than a foreigner's temporary
flirtation with local music-making: Fiske noted Barsanti's sympathetic
understanding of Scots-tune structures, and his willingness to end a
setting on an ‘unfinished’ dominant chord if the tune demanded it.
Italian virtuosity and Scottish sympathy join forces in the op.4
overtures; the main movement of no.9 introduces the jig Babbity Bowster
as a fugal countersubject, while the finale of no.2 is a country-dance,
suggesting the ringing open strings of Scots fiddling. Much of
Barsanti's work still awaits revival.
