Tomaso Albinoni

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni ( born June 8, 1671 at Venice; † January 17, 1751 ) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque.

Life

Albinoni was born as the second child and eldest son of Stationery and playing card manufacturer Antonio Albinoni ( 1634-1709 to ) and his wife Lucretia born Fabris (around 1645-1687 ) Venetian parish of San Moise. Antonio Albinoni inherited in 1684 after the death of his employer whose entire company, making the family came to considerable prosperity; belonged to a country house with land on the mainland in Prata di Pordenone next to the house and the adjacent business office.

Tomaso Albinoni was trained for playing card manufacturer first in his father's company and took violin, singing and composition lessons next. His teachers are unknown; a frequently suspected apprenticeship with Giovanni Legrenzi has not yet been demonstrated. 1694 he first appeared as a composer to the public, both with an opera ( Zenobia, regina de Palmireni ) as well as a collection of instrumental works (12 Suonate a tre Op 1). Due to its artisanal main profession he was not initially rely on to make the music for a living, and therefore called himself a dilettante veneto.

Zenobia was the beginning of an extensive operatic career. From now on, Albinoni composed on average one to two operas per year, first for Venice, from 1703, increasingly, for other cities (Florence, Genoa, Bologna, Ferrara, Brescia, Rome, Treviso), where he led the premieres partly self. In addition, he published until 1735/36 eight more collections of instrumental works and a collection of solo cantatas.

On March 17, 1705 in Milan Albinoni married the singer Margherita Raimondi ( 1683/84-1721 ), which had its debut at the age of 15 years in Venice, and settled with her in Venetian parish San Trovaso. The marriage produced three sons and four daughters were born. Margherita Albinoni never occur, even after her marriage on the opera stage on, but with one exception (I rivali gene rosi, Brescia 1715 ) apparently in the works of her husband.

In January 1709, died Albinoni's father. At this time, Albinoni had already decided not to exercise the learned profession and devote himself entirely to music. The father's company therefore went over to his two younger brothers Domenico (1675-1726) and Giovanni (1679-1718); However Tomaso should be a third of the income is entitled. Since that time, he described himself on the title pages of his printed works only as Musico di violino. Become indebted - - family taken over by a creditor, so Albinoni now had to pay himself for his livelihood and moving to a less privileged parish of San Barnaba 1721 was. Following a presentation of the 19th century he ran a flourishing school of singing, however, is known about any details. On 22 August of the same year his wife died of an intestinal inflammation.

From the 1720s Albinoni's operas were often outside of Italy; the most popular were the comic interludes ( Vespetta e) Pimpinone ( 1708).

The highlight of his career reached Albinoni in 1722 after the publication of his hitherto most ambitious concert collection, the 12 Concerti a cinque, op 9, which were dedicated to the Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria, he received two commissions from Munich. For the wedding of Maximilian's son, Karl Albrecht, later Emperor Charles VII, Maria Amalia, daughter of the late Emperor Joseph I., Albinoni wrote the opera I veri amici and the smaller " componimento poetico " II trionfo d' Amore. The very successful premieres on 24 October and 4 November in Munich he conducted himself in a report on Johann Mattheson's Critica Musica in Particular emphasis is placed on the determination that had participated in the event " the right Albinoni ", because at that time in Germany and Sweden an impostor was on the way, the " for Tomaso Albinoni of Venice" claimed to be.

As the dedications of his print works document, Albinoni was also with other prominent personalities of his time in conjunction, including Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni ( dedicatee of Op 1), Duke Carlo IV Gonzaga (op. 2 ), Great Prince Ferdinando of Tuscany (op. 3 ), Cardinal Francesco Maria de ' Medici (op. 4), Marquis Carlos Felipe Spinola y Colonna (Op. 5), Count Christian Heinrich von Watzdorf (Op. 8) and Marquis Don Luca Fernando Patiño (op. 10). Albinoni also wrote the music for the name days of the Emperor Charles VI. ( Il nome glorioso in terra, santificato in cielo, 1724) and his wife Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel ( Il nascimento dell'Aurora, ca 1710). With his musical colleagues Albinoni, however, had apparently little contacts; the official Venetian musician associations (Arte de ' Sonadori, Società Santa Cecilia ), he was not a member. Although he wrote several stage works together with other composers, but these collaborations were probably mediated by the theater lines. Busy is a meeting with Johann Georg Pisendel, the Albinoni dedicated a violin sonata.

In the 1730s, Albinoni's work force gradually subsided; his last two operas he completed in 1734 ( Candalide ) and 1741 ( Artamene ). 1743 he applied - as 72 -year-old - to the well-paid position of maestro di coro at the Ospedale dei and singing teacher Derelitti ( Ospedaletto ); However, the choice fell on Nicola Porpora. The last ten years of his life were spent with three of his children in rather modest circumstances last two years tied to the bed by an illness (according obituary "Diabetes and catarrh ").

Work

Stage Works

How many stage works Albinoni has composed, can not say exactly. Completely preserved, only seven are:

Zenobia, regina de ' Palmireni ( 1694 )
Pimpinone ( 1708)
Engelberta ( 1709)
Il nascimento dell'Aurora (ca. 1711)
Il nome glorioso in terra, santificato in cielo ( 1724)
La Statira (1726)
Il concilio de ' pianeti ( 1729 )

From 17 individual operas arias are at least survived, for an additional 32, only the ( printed ) Libretto by a intermezzi series even just the title ( s Malsazio Fiammetta, 1726). In the libretto of Candalide (1734 ) Albinoni describes these opera as his eightieth; when such information is no exaggeration to another 23 theatrical works are considered to be completely lost.

Cantatas

Albinoni's cantatas amounts to 44 well-known works, including 12 in the printed Collection Cantate a voce sola da camera, op 4 (Venice 1702) and 18 in a handwritten collection in the Berlin State Library. All cantatas written for solo voice and basso continuo ( about three-quarters for soprano, a quarter for alto); more instruments are added only in the ( incompletely preserved ) cantata e dove, Amor, mi guidi.

Instrumental works

From 1694 to 1735/36 Albinoni was first with Roger and Le Cène in Amsterdam nine collections of instrumental works print at Sala in Venice, from about 1711. Four of them belong to the chamber music genre:

Sonata a tre, Op 1, Venice 1694
Balletti a tre, Op 3, Venice 1701
Trattenimenti armonici per camera, Op 6, Amsterdam about 1711
Balletti e sonate a tre, Op 8, Amsterdam 1722

The remaining five are concert collections in a larger ensemble:

Symphony in E Concerti a cinque, op 2, Venice 1700
Concerti a cinque Op 5, Venice 1707
Concerti a cinque, op 7, Amsterdam 1715
Concerti a cinque, op 9, Amsterdam 1722
Concerti a cinque, op 10, Amsterdam 1735/36

As a solo instrument usually occurs on the violin; eight concerts from op 7 and 9 are for oboe, eight for two oboes written.

In addition to the nine authorized printing plants appeared to Albinoni's lifetime three more collections of violin sonatas, which had been compiled by the publishers themselves, and contained partly not derived from Albinoni works:

Sonata da chiesa "op 4 "( also referred to as pseudo -op. 4), Amsterdam 1708
Sonate a violino solo e basso continuo, Amsterdam about 1717
Six sonates da camera "op post office ", Paris 1740

A collection of six sonatas a tre, Op 11 was probably about 1739 filed by Albinoni itself to the pressure, but has never been released ( the manuscripts are lost).

At handwritten instrumental works nine symphonies, five violin concertos and sonatas are 29 ( including three in the autograph ) survived.

At least 26 instrumental works that are attributed to Albinoni in one or more sources, must be regarded as doubtful due to stylistic criteria. These include, inter alia, the multi- recorded on vinyl Concerto in C major for trumpet, three oboes and two bassoons, the six symphony a quattro ( 1735 ) and the most popular with Albinoni placed in conjunction work at all, the Adagio in G minor for strings and organ. The latter was published by the Italian Albinoni biographer Remo Giazotto in 1958 and is based on fragments of an Albinoni trio sonata, whose authenticity but so far could not be detected.

Style

In contrast to the virtuoso, "romantic" style of his compatriot Vivaldi Albinoni's music is characterized by "classical" in the sense of balance Corelli. Characteristic features are a cheerful mood, long melodies, pulsating rhythms, and a tendency to repetition. The vocal line is often contrapuntal; many final movements of sonatas and concertos are decorated in shape joints. Albinoni's solo parts are less demanding than the Vivaldi and therefore handle even by amateurs; Oboe solos are often performed as vocals, chromaticism and unexpected modulations used sparingly.

Albinoni's primary strengths lie in its formal and thematic clarity and in his melodic inventiveness. He was not a great musical innovator and was hardly influenced by the currents of his time, but developed precisely by a distinct individual style that makes his works unique to this day.

Significance and reception

During his lifetime, Albinoni was one of the most famous composers of Italy and was put on a par with Corelli and Vivaldi. His operas were almost 50 years on the Venetian stage presence ( longer than that of most of his contemporaries ), printed his instrumental works were reprinted several times in Venice, Amsterdam and London and enjoyed - especially for amateurs - great popularity. Albinoni was the first composer who planned concerts consistently in three movements, and the first Italian composer who published Oboenkonzerte. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote four fugues for harpsichord on themes from Albinoni's Opus 1 ( BWV 946, 950, 951 and 951a ) and let his students expose Albinoni'sche General basses; Johann Gottfried Walther transcribed two of the concertos from Op 2 for Organ.

After his death came Albinoni's music first forgotten. It was not until the mid-20th century it was rediscovered, the musicologist Remo Giazotto played a significant role ( both by Albinoni his biography from 1945 as well as by Albinoni be attributed to Adagio in G minor ). Meanwhile, the majority of Albinoni's surviving works in modern printing is available ( a total output of instrumental music appears in the Edition Kunzelmann since 1974); lie on vinyl or CD, with the exception of Op 8 before all instrumental collections with opus numbers, a series of instrumental works without opus number, the cantatas op 4 and four of the seven extant works for the stage.

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