Arcangelo Corelli

He later claimed in his letter to Bentivoglio that Pope Innocent XIII had invited him to play the violin in a private apartment on two separate occasions, receiving him courteously both times.

He also enjoyed the generous patronage of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a fellow Venetian, and the last and most celebrated patron of Arcangelo Corelli, whose music collection, later housed in Manchester, still contains Vivaldi concertos of Roman provenance.

At the peak of his fame, around 1728, Vivaldi encountered Emperor Charles VI at a Habsburg event in the Italian territories.

A contemporary correspondent described the meeting in terms that would have delighted Vivaldi's vanity.

It is practically certain, however, that the Brandenburg Concertos were performed by the princely kapell at Köthen in Bach's presence, for the composer had been wise enough to make copies of his scores.

They are not concertos in the modern sense of the term, but continuations and developments of those concerti grossi of masters like Torelli, Vivaldi, and Corelli.

In various permutations and combinations, they contrast groups of solo instruments, the concertino, with the background of the tutti.

The concerti grossi of Händel furnish examples of the same principle of balance and diversity.

He engaged the engraver Thomas Cross, included his own portrait at the front, added a coat of arms, and wrote, or possibly commissioned from his publisher, John Playford.

a preface to the reader that declared his intention to make a just imitation of the most famous italian masters the collection was self-published meticulously produced and calculated for maximum artistic visibility he was to adapt the phrase to his own era building his brand The Italian masters Purcell claimed to imitate were not Corelli, as is often assumed, but an earlier generation of Roman composers.

Figures like Colista, Lunati, Cazzati, Vitale, and Bassani, who circulated in London primarily as handwritten manuscripts rather than printed editions.

Some of these manuscripts were mislabeled, so Purcell was actually studying pieces by the composer Lonati while believing them to be by Callista.

He adopts the trio sonata form, the Italian tempo markings.

So unfamiliar to English audiences that he or his publisher had to include a glossary explaining what Adagio and Vivace meant.

and the general aesthetic of the Corellian tradition.

But the music that results is not Italian.

Today we spend our time in the company of one man, a violinist, a composer, and one of the most important musical figures of the European Baroque period.

His name was Arcangelo Corelli.

He was born on the 17th of February, 1653, in a small agricultural village called Fusignano in the Po Valley of Italy, part of the Papal States.

He died on the 8th of January, 1713, in Rome.

His music continued to be reprinted, performed, and listened to for centuries after his death.

Today we follow his story from a fatherless childhood in a village farmhouse to a tomb beside Raphael in one of the most famous buildings on earth.

Chapter 1 Childhood and Youth To understand Arcangelo Corelli, you first have to understand that he was named after a dead man.

His father, also called Arcangelo Corelli, died on the 13th of January, 1653, five weeks before his son was born.

Here on Anytime Classical, stay tuned for more great music.

Music of the father of the modern violin, Arcangelo Corelli.

This is Concerto Grosso number 11 in B-flat major, performed by Capella Istropolitana under the direction of Jaroslav Krejcik.

¶¶ Thank you.

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two violins and two flutes which are placed just before him under his eye the solo singers are also near him on his left quite close to the clavecin the rest of the instrumentalists are behind him out of his sight thus his directions and his glances would control the concertino who would transmit in their turn the chief conductor's wishes to the concerto grosso and they in their turn to the ripianists in place of the quasi military discipline of modern orchestras controlled under the baton of a chief conductor the different bodies of the handelian orchestra governed one another with elasticity and it was the incisive rhythm of the little cembalo which put the whole mass into motion such a method avoided the mechanical stiffness of our performances the danger was rather a certain wobbling without the powerful and infectious will-power of a chief such as handel and without the close sympathy of thought which was established between him and his capable sub-conductors of the concertino and of the grosso it is this elasticity which should be aimed at in the instrumental works of handel when they are executed nowadays we will first take his concerti grossi none of his works are more celebrated and less understood handel attached to them a particular value for he published them himself by subscription a means which was usual in his day but which he himself never adopted except under exceptional circumstances one knows that the kind of concerti grossi which consists chiefly in a dialogue between a group of solo instrumentalists the concertino and the full body of instruments concerto grosso to which is added the cembalo was if not invented at least carried to its perfection and rendered classical by corelli The works of Corelli, aided by the efforts of his followers, had become widely known in Europe.

Geminiani introduced them into England.

and without doubt Handel did not hesitate to profit by the example of Geminiani, who is his friend.

But it is much more natural to think that he learnt the Concerto Grosso at its source at Rome, from Corelli himself during his sojourn there in 1708.

Several of his concertos in his Opus 3 date from 1710, 1716, 1722.

The same feature shows itself right up to the time of his apprenticeship at Hamburg, in any case he might have already known the corellian style thanks to the propaganda of george muffet who spread this style very early in germany after corelli locatelli and especially vivaldi have singularly transformed the concerto grosso by giving it the free character of program music and by turning it resolutely towards the form of the sonata in three parts but when the works of vivaldi were played in london in seventeen twenty three and the works which aroused such a general enthusiasm became thoroughly known to handel it was always to corelli that he gave the preference and he was very conservative in certain ways even about him the form of his concerto of which the principal movements varied from four to six oscillated between the suite and the sonata and even glanced towards the symphonic overture it is this for which the theorists blame him and it is this for which i praise him for he does not seek to impose a uniform cast on his thoughts but leaves it open to himself to fashion the form as he requires and the framework varies accordingly following his inclinations from day to day the spontaneity of his thoughts which has already been shown by the extreme rapidity with which the concerti were composed each in a single day at a single sitting and many each week constitutes the great charm of these works they are in the words of kretschmar grand impression pictures translated into a form at the same time precise and supple in which the least change of emotion can make itself easily felt truly they are not all of equal value their conception itself which depended in a way on mere momentary inspiration is the explanation of this extreme inequality one ought to acknowledge here that the seventh concerto for example the one in b flat major and the last three have but a moderate interest they are amongst those least played but to be quite just we must pay homage to these masterpieces and especially to the second concerto in f major which is like a beethovenian concerto for we find there some of the spirit of the bonn master for kretschmar the ensemble calls to mind a beautiful autumn day the morning where the rising sun pierces its way through the clouds the afternoon the joyful walk the rest in the forest and finally the happy and belated return it is difficult in fact not to have natural scenes brought before one's eyes in hearing these works the first andante larghetto which predicts at times the pastoral symphony of beethoven is a reverie on a beautiful summer's day the spirit lulls itself with nature's murmur becomes intoxicated with it and goes to rest

But the composer did not tarry in Florence, his first stop for long, and early in 1707 went to Rome.

from the operatic standpoint the eternal city had nothing to interest him pope innocent the third ten years previously deciding that the opera house was immoral had closed it then when things promised to improve a bit for musicians a devastating earthquake renewed the religious qualms of the people so that during the whole of handel's italian sojourn rome had not a single performance of opera however there was abundant church and chamber music which spurred him to emulation to the easter festivities of april seventeen o seven he contributed a dixit dominus and a few months later he wrote a la date pueri and other latin psalms but more important for his future were the excellent connections he made letters of recommendation from the medici prints opened the roman salons to him and in such aristocratic circles his virtuosity on the keyboard seems to have gained him more fame than even his compositions the famous saxon il sassone famoso as handel was called among the romans even as early as the summer of seventeen o seven was the wonder of musical soires and he was making inestimable artistic friendships when we note that among those with whom he was brought into contact at one time or another in rome included the scarlattis father and son arcangelo corelli bernardo paschini benedetto marcello to mention only a few we can judge to what grandly fertilizing inspirations handel was exposed we must mention in passing cardinals pamphili and ottoboni as well as the marquis ruspoli who yielded to nobody in his enthusiasm for handel's gifts all these men belonged to a coterie called the arcadians which united the nobility and the artists in a spiritual fraternity not only the most illustrious artists and aristocrats of italy but further included four popes and members of foreign royalty the arcadians held weekly meetings at the palace of cardinal ottoboni where poetic and musical improvisations were given it was for the concerts in the ottoboni home that handel composed his two roman oratorios the resurrection and the triumph of time and truth which approximate operas and the second of which was to undergo several transformations during his career in the otoboni palace later took place that celebrated contest between handel and the incomparable domenico scarlatti which was a judge to draw the heart-warming friendship between the two masters was to endure for years it is by no means out of the question that in the unoperatic atmosphere of rome handel nevertheless began to compose the first of his italian operas rodrigo which was heard for the first time only when he returned to florence in the autumn of seventeen o seven end of part one HENDEL WAS NOT TO LEAVE ITALY TILL SOME TIME DURING THE LATE SPRING OF 1710, YET THERE ARE NOT A FEW BLANKS IN HIS ITALIAN TRAVELS WHICH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FELL OUT.

he worked as industriously as ever composed played absorbed myriad impressions in florence rodrigo had a success which it was claimed by some had been achieved partly through the favor of the grand duke and the love of a prima donna vittoria possibly it was furthered by the latter but certainly not caused by it handel's life is conspicuously free from conventional love interest and perhaps the most celebrated story of his dealings with women is the one which tells of his raging threat to throw the soprano francesca cuzzoni out of a window if she did not sing exactly as he wanted what he had written for her certainly the middle-aged archini never attracted him physically encouraged by his florentine luck handel was moved to try his fortunes in venice where opera-houses had sprung up everywhere and at one time numbered fifteen seven were playing on one and the same evening during carnival time and there were musical diversions or solemnities of one sort or another in churches and in those women's conservatories called hospitals venice was then the musical capital of italy somewhat as milan was to become at a later date handel does not appear to have contributed to the operatic life of the city at this time but his chance was to come before long yet he did make one encounter in venice which was to have consequences he met ernest augustus prince of hanover and the duke of manchester english ambassador extraordinary he went back to rome where an unsuccessful attempt was made to convert him to catholicism yet he loved the city and regretfully tore himself away from it to make a jaunt to naples which contributed importantly to his artistic sensibilities as he had done elsewhere in italy he haunted the picture galleries and nourished his enthusiasm for paintings he assimilated the spanish and french musical styles which fought for honors in this city saw much of alessandro scarlatti interested himself in the folk music of the place noted down the melodies of the calabrian pifferari met the venetian cardinal composed for the neapolitan arcadians the serenata assis and galatea grimani whose family owned the theatre of san giovanni crisostomo in venice supplied him with the libretto of an opera agrippina which Händel probably began to compose on the spot.

Its performance in Venice was as good as assured, and from Naples he returned to Rome, making another useful friend in the bishop Agostino Stefani, who was charged with secret missions by different German princes and held at the same time the post of kapelmeister at the court of Hanover.

Thank you.

A violin sonata in C major by the father of the modern violin, Arcangelo Corelli.

They heard violinist Rachel Barton Pine and friends.

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