Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798) - Concerto in re maggiore per due violini
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Composer: Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798)
Work: Concerto in re maggiore per due violini
Performers: Giacomo Agаzzini (violin); Umberto Fаntini (violin); EnsembIe d'archi "CoIIegium Thеatrum Sаbаudiaе"
Concerto in re maggiore per due violini
1. Allegro 0:00
2. Adagio 12:16
3. Allegro 18:38
Painting: Luca Carlevarijs (1663-1730) - Capriccio view of a Mediterranean Port
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/2mb7mc2
Painting: Italian (Piedmontese) School - Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798)
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/LUmLjW
Further info: https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Pugnani,_Gaetano
Listen free: https://soundcloud.com/associazione-baja/concerto_in_re_maggiore_gaetano_pugnani
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Gaetano Pugnani
(Turin, 27 November 1731 - Turin, 15 July 1798)
Italian violinist and composer. His principal teacher was G.B. Somis, a pupil of Corelli. At the age of ten he began his career as a second violinist in the orchestra at the Teatro Regio, Turin, though his official appointment was delayed until 19 April 1748. A royal stipend enabled him to study composition with Francesco Ciampi in Rome (1749-50). On his return to Turin he resumed his modest orchestra post, though with doubled salary. He became principal of the second violins in 1763. By that time he had acquired an international reputation. On 2 February 1754 he performed one of his own concertos at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, where his first published works appeared the same year. The Mercure de France wrote: ‘the connoisseurs insist that they have never heard a violinist superior to this virtuoso’. From 1767 to 1769 he served as conductor at the King’s Theatre in London, where his first opera, Nanetta e Lubino (1769), met with success. He also appeared in concerts with J.C. Bach and other prominent musicians. In 1770 he became first violinist of the king’s music in Turin, a post his teacher Somis had held and which included the leadership of the Teatro Regio orchestra. In 1776 he also became general director of instrumental music, and in 1786 was appointed supervisor of military bands. From 1780 to 1782 he toured northern Europe with his illustrious pupil Viotti. A commission for Naples in 1784 initiated a period of activity in which he wrote four operas in five years, as well as some ballet music. His last foreign journey took him to Vienna, where on 22 March 1796 he conducted his orchestral suite based on Goethe’s Werther. During his last years he saw the decline and ultimate dissolution of Turin’s musical establishment as a result of the war with France.
Pugnani was a vital link in the uninterrupted tradition from Corelli to Viotti. Gratefully, Viotti called himself ‘élève du célèbre Pugnani’ on his printed music; among Pugnani’s other pupils were Borghi, Bruni and Polledro. His playing was known for its power, eloquence and rich cantilena; his ‘arco magno’ (grand bowing) became proverbial. He probably played an important part in the development of the modern bow: he himself used a bow (called an ‘archetto alla Pugnani’) that was straighter, longer and equipped with a screw, and he may have exchanged views with the Parisian bowmaker Tourte père in 1754 and with the younger François Tourte in 1772–3, both of whom were engaged in bringing the bow into its present form. Pugnani also preferred to use thicker strings, perhaps because they were better able to withstand the greater pressure of his bowing. As a composer Pugnani reached far beyond the violin into the field of opera, symphony and chamber music, and must be considered an important representative of mid-century Italian Classicism. His symphonies exemplify the Italian theatrical style best known through its Mannheimer and Viennese proponents. He preferred a four-movement sequence with a minuet in third place. His chamber music stands midway between that of Sammartini and Boccherini, and often dispensed with a figured bass, though not always successfully. Several of his trios and quintets required an obbligato keyboard part and assorted instruments. His only known violin concerto follows the form established by Tartini but reflects the galant style of the 1760s.