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★ Follow music ► Composer: Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695-1764) Work: Concerto grosso 'Il pianto d'Arianna' (1741) Performers: Enricο Onοfri (violin); Il Giardino Armonico Painting: Filippo Napoletano (1589-1629) - Picnic on the Grass Image in high resolution: Engraving: Cornelis Troost (1696-1750) - Portret van Pietro Antonio Locatelli Image in high resolution: Further info: Listen free: No available --- Pietro Antonio Locatelli (Bergamo, 3 September 1695 - Amsterdam, 30 March 1764) Italian composer and violinist. His importance lies particularly in his L'arte del violino: 12 violin concertos, with altogether 24 caprices for solo violin in the first and last movements of each concerto. This collection had an immense influence on the development of violin technique, especially in France, where violin teaching continued to bear signs of his style of virtuosity until the beginning of the 19th century. Locatelli must be considered the founding-father of modern instrumental virtuosity, and he also left a body of work whose idiom, from his op.2 onwards, reflects aspects of the most advanced style of his day. His parents were Filippo Locatelli and Lucia Crocchi (or Trotta). A document in the Locatelli archive indicates that Pietro Antonio was the first of seven sons. He would have learnt the rudiments of music in the choir of S Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, possibly under Ludovico Ferronati or Carlo Antonio Marino, two of the city's leading musicians. In April 1710 the 14-year-old violinist appeared as a member of the basilica's instrumental ensemble, and the following January he acquired the official position of third violin. In the same year, 1711, the young Locatelli was granted permission to go to Rome. The tradition that he was one of Corelli's pupils is true only in the broad sense that he belonged to the Corelli ‘school’. From 1717 to 1723, he played often at San Lorenzo in Damaso for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and for the Congregazione dei Musici di Santa Cecilia. From 1723 to 1729, Locatelli seems to have become an itinerant virtuoso whose movements are not well documented. He may have played at the courts of Mantua in 1725, in Venice, and was certainly in Munich (June 1727), Berlin (1728), Frankfurt (1728), arriving in Kassel by December of 1728. He went to Amsterdam by August 1729 at the latest and never left. Locatelli did not settle in Amsterdam because of its vibrant musical society but rather to enter the business of publishing his works, perhaps trading also in rare books and art. He allowed the famous firm of Roger and Le Cène to handle his orchestral music, but Locatelli published at his own expense his own chamber music. Evidently, he was successful, for at his death, he left a considerable store of books and artworks. He held a regular series of concerts on Wednesdays in his own home, where he played only for and with a small circle of wealthy admirers. Locatelli did not like the limelight. Besides L’Arte del Violino, Locatelli published 12 concerti grossi, 18 sonatas for violin, 12 sonatas for flute, 10 sonatas for two violins, 6 trio sonatas, 6 concertos for four violins, and 6 “theatrical introductions.”
