FRANCESCO MARIA VERACINI (1690 - 1768) NEUE DÜSSELDORFER HOFMUSIK Artistic director and solo violin/directora artística y violín solista: OUVERTURE NEL PARTENIO (1738) Mary Utiger (anon. Italian instrument, ca. 1720/anónimo italiano, ca. 1720) [1] (Without indication/sin indicación) 1:15 First violins/violines primeros: [2] Allegro assai 2:23 Veronika Schepping (David Rubio, 1988 after/según Stradivarius) [3] Contadina 2:09 Annette Wehnert (anon. German instrument, end. 18th c./anónimo alemán, finales del s. XVIII) Erik Dorset (Enrico Marchetti, Torino, 19th c./Turín, siglo XIX) CONCERTO A CINQUE [STROMENTI] A MAJOR/LA MAYOR (ca. 1730) Amelia Roosevelt (Richard Duke, London/Londres, 1733) [4] Allegro 3:15 Second violins/violines segundos: [5] Adagio 3:30 Anke Vogelsänger (Landolfi, 1708) / Julia Huber (anon./anónimo, Mantua, ca 1730) [6] Allegro 3:42 llsebil Hünteler (anon. Italian instrument, ca. 1740/anónimo italiano, ca. 1740) Helmut Hausberg (Januarius Gagliano, Naples/Nápoles, 1737) Violas: Bettina lhrig (Ute Wegerhoff, 1990 after/según Stradivarius) CONCERTO A OTTO STROMENTI (1712) Hajo Bäß (anon. German instrument, end. 18th c./anónimo alemán, finales del s. XVIII) [7] (Without indication/sin indicación) 8:35 Christine Moran (Georgius Klotz, Mittenwald, 1725) [8] Largo 4:05 Helmut Hausberg [13-18] (Jo. Battista Cerutti, Cremona, 1789) [9] (Without indication/sin indicación) 7:22 Cellos: Juris Teichmanis (Andreas Ferdinand Mayr, Salzburg/Salzburgo, ca. 1740) Nicholas Selo (English instrument, end. 18th c./instrumento inglés, finales del s. XVIII) CONCERTO A CINQUE [STROMENTI] B FLAT MAJOR/SI B MAYOR (ca. 1736) Bass/contrabajo: Michael Neuhaus (anon. Vienna, mid-18th c./anónimo, Viena, mediados del siglo XVIII) [10] Allegro 3:59 Theorbo/tiorba: Stephan Rath (Joseph Rath, 1985, after/según Martin Hofmann) [11] Largo 3:28 Harpsichord/clave: Christoph Lehmann (Dietrich Hein, 1999, after/según Carl Conrad Fleischer) [12] Allegro 4:00 Oboes: Hans-Peter Westermann (H. P. Westermann, 1998, after/según Anciuti) Alessandro Piqué (Oliver Cottet, 1990, after/según Thomas Stanesby) OUVERTURE No. 2 F MAJOR/FA MAYOR (ca. 1715) Bassoon/fagot: Christian Beuse (G. Wolf, Kronach, 1995. after/según H.K.I.C.W., end 17th. c./final del s. XVII) [13] Largo - Allegro - Largo - Allegro 3:38 Trumpets/trompetas: Hans-Martin Kothe & Almut Rux (R. Egger, after/según Ehe) [14] Gavotte (Allegro) 4:32 Timpani/timbales: Egmund Krauss (anon./anónimos, Bohemia, ca 1720) [15] Sarabande, Lento 2:37 [16] Menuett 3:58 Recorded at/grabado en DLR Köln, Sendesaal, October/octubre 1999 [17] Gigue 2:37 Recording supervision/productor musical Martin Frobeen [18] Menuett 1:02 Engineering/sonido Bodo Heinemann Design and booklet editor/diseño y coordinación editorial José Carlos Cabello Cover/cubierta Pompeo Batoni: Grand Tour (1778) - Museo del Prado (Madrid) Total time: 66:37 Exclusively lincensed to/Licenciado en exclusiva para Cantus Records ©2021 2 3 Francesco Maria Veracini. Ouvertures and Concertos Dogaressa Pisana Mocenigo (see here illustration of her portrait by “ONE GOD, ONE VERACINI.” A BIOGRAPHY Rosalba Carriera) , put on to honor his Highness. There was "... as friar Bacon, for superior science, was thought a magician, and Galileo a heretic, Veracini, gifted with Veracini, the famous Professor di more fancy and more hand than his neighbours, was thought to be insane." Violino, native of Florence, who Charles Burney Tartini heard playing. [Tartini], recognizing that Veracini’s man - On February 1, 1690, in the family house on Via Palazzuolo, in the parish of San Salvatore in Ognissanti, ner of playing was completely Florence, a truly unique musician was born: Francesco Maria Veracini. His father, Agostino, was one of new to him, was mortified in such the few members of his family who was not trained in music. His grandfather had been one of the first a way that, the next day, he fled violinists in Florence, and it would be his uncle, Antonio Veracini, a violinist and capable composer, who Venice together with his wife, provided Francesco’s early musical training and put him in front of an audience for the first time. whom he left with his brother in Francesco also received instruction from Giovanni Maria Casini, organist and highly individual composer Pirano, and continued on despera - of sacred music at Florence cathedral. He emphasized counterpoint, and his belief that music was umana tely to Ancona where he went espressione surely left its mark on the young Veracini. Casini also left us a valuable description of the per- expressly to study the better use formances offered by the Veracinis: of the bow and thus bring himself up to an equal level with the abo - "... and there they were, together, playing their violins: the one old and satiated with honors, the other vementioned Veracini." young and desirous of demonstrating the facility with which he overcame, with aplomb, every difficult obs - tacle of notes. It was marvelous for all to hear them, because the heart, rather than cleverness, guided and Antonio Vandini, who wrote this accompanied the fingers and bows of these virtuosi." account, dates this meeting "in 1718 or thereabouts", but this is Veracini left Florence in 1711. At Christmas of that year he was a soloist at the masses held in St. Mark’s, in obviously incorrect, as the main Venice. Veracini performed one of his first compositions, recorded here, a violin concerto accompanied by protagonists were not in Venice trumpets, oboes and strings, in February 1712 as part of the celebrations in honor of the Holy Roman ambas- at that time; March 10, 1712 sador (C o n c e rto a ot to st ro m e n t i, [ 7 - 9 ] (see page 20). He then returned to Florence to supervise a perf o r- seems to have been more likely. mance of his first oratorio, Il trionfo della innocenza and soon after this, not surprisingly, returned to Ve n i c e Veracini spent most of 1714 in and was again soloist at the Christmas masses at St. Mark’s. It is possible that also during this stay in Ve n i c e London, appearing in a series of the first of many legendary events concerning Veracini took place, his meeting with the violinist Ta r t i n i : benefit concerts and as soloist between the acts of operas. An "Giuseppe Tartini came to Venice, then to Padova, and returned together with his wife to Venice. The announcement in the Daily Elector of Saxony was there, and Tartini was called to an Accademia in the house of Her Excellency the Courant read as follows: 4 5 "At the Queens Theatre in the Haymarket this present aim of binding himself to the court for a longer period of time. It is not clear as to whether Ve r a c i n i Saturday, being the 23rd of January, will be presented appeared at court as one of the virtuosos passing through (whereby the duration of his stay and family an Opera call'd Dorind. With Symphonies play'd by c i rcum stances speak against this) or whether he wanted to apply for the permanent position of court the famous Signor Veracini, lately arriv'd from Italy." music director. There are plausible arguments for both possibilities. There is proof, however, that Veracini appeared at the court as a virtuoso, for example, with performances of the violin sonatas of Veracini performed in several concerts in February Antonio Bonporti (amongst them being the composition La Pace, op. 10 which was dedicated to the and March before he had his own benefit concert, electoral prince Johann Wilhelm). But Veracini also recommended himself as a composer: his oratorio on April 22nd, as advertised in the Daily Courant: Mosé al mar’ ro s s o, presumed to have been composed in 1715, was dedicated to Johann Wi l h e l m ( u n f o r t u n a t e l y, the score has been lost). "At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. For the Benefit of Signor Veracini. At Mr Hickfords great Additionally, recent research shows that Veracini's year in Düsseldorf was also of importance with regard Dancing-Room in James street near the Hay-Market, to his private life. After all, he did marry Clara Theising (known as Chiara Tesi in Italian, she died in on Thursday next, being the 22nd of April, will be per - Florence in 1735), a seemingly wealthy woman from Düsseldorf, on October 19, 1715, at the Church of form'd an Extraordinary Consort of Musick, Vocal and St. Lambertus. Another indication of just how close Veracini's relations with the city and the court were Instrumental, of his own Composing, viz Several Solo's is illustrated by his being the godfather of the son of the court poet Rapparini (in May 1716). Although for the violin, never yet performed before." Veracini gave concerts in the same year in Venice he still remained closely linked to Düsseldorf -through at least one apartment- and it is documented that his wife became the godmother of a further child of It is clear that Veracini made a deep impact on the afore-mentioned Rapparini in November 1717. London audiences, and he was soon considered among the greatest, and most eccentric composers By 1716, he was back in Venice, where he dedicated a set of 12 Sonate a Violino o Flauto solo e Basso to and soloists of his time. After a triumphant first stay Prince Elector Friedrich Augustus of Saxony, who was then completing his Grand Tour (see portrait, page in that city, Veracini left London in late 1714 and 25). He had also been instructed by his father to recruit singers for the Dresden opera and church, but moved to Dusseldorf to serve in 1715.