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★ Follow music ► Composer: Antonio Bertali (1605-1669) Work: Missa Sancti Spiritus Performers: Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble; Arno Paduch Engraving: Paolo Ligozzi () - Verona Citta Celeberima (1620) Image in high resolution: Engraving: Alexis-Hubert Jaillot () - Vienne en Autriche (1669) Image in high resolution: Further info: Listen free: --- Antonio Bertali [Bertalli, Berthali, Bartali, Barthali, Bertaldi] (Verona, March 1605 - Vienna, 17 April 1669) Austrian composer and violinist of Italian birth. Musical literature from the late 17th century to the mid-20th contains much inconsistency and misinformation about his life, and the resulting confusion was eliminated only in the 1970s by Bartels and Olsen. A portrait of him painted in October 1664 is inscribed ‘aetatis suae 59 ann, et 7 Mens’ (in A-Wn, see Schaal, 1970). He received his early training in music from Stefano Bernardi, maestro di cappella of Verona Cathedral from 1611 to 1622. It seems reasonable to assume that it was Bernardi’s appointment in 1622 to the service of Archduke Carl Joseph, Bishop of Breslau and Bressanone and brother of the Emperor Ferdinand II, that led to Bertali’s employment at the imperial court in Vienna. He seems to have arrived there in 1624, since an imperial resolution of 1666 referred to his 42 years’ service at the court. The earliest recorded evidence in Viennese archives, however, is his marriage certificate (at the Stephansdom), which is dated 26 January 1631 and lists him as an instrumentalist in the imperial chapel. During his early years in Vienna, Bertali must have gained a solid reputation as a composer, for he was soon entrusted with the composition of music for special occasions at court, such as a cantata, Donna real, for the marriage of the future Emperor Ferdinand III to the Spanish Infanta Anna Maria in 1631, the Missa Ratisbonensis for the Imperial Diet at Regensburg in 1636, and the Requiem pro Ferdinando II in 1637. In Vienna and beyond he also enjoyed a reputation as an excellent violinist; the dedication of G.A. Bertoli’s Compositioni musicali (1645) calls him ‘valoroso nel violino’. It was not until 1 October 1649, however, that he was appointed Kapellmeister of the imperial court, in succession to Giovanni Valentini. One of his major achievements during his tenure of this position was the promotion and composition of operas, an activity that contributed in no small measure to the establishment of regular performances of Italian opera at court from the 1660s. His fame increased as he continued to contribute sacred works as well as festive instrumental music for important occasions at court and ably administered the affairs of the rapidly expanding imperial chapel. In his Tractatus compositionis augmentatus (1657) Christoph Bernhard mentioned his works, along with those of such composers as Monteverdi, Cavalli and Rovetta, as models of the luxuriant style. Bertali’s manuscript works, mostly lost, are listed in Distinta specificatione dell’archivio musicale per il servizio della cappella e camera cesarea, the catalogue of Leopold I’s private collection (in A-Wn). His immediate posthumous reputation rested largely on the two collections of instrumental music published in 1671 and 1672.
