Albinoni - Opus18C

Tomaso Albinoni
(1671-1751)
mp3 and brief sketch by J.M. Schlitz

MP3: Albinoni: Concerto a cinque, Op. 7, No. 12, 1st Mvt.
for Oboe, strings, and basso continuo

Tomaso Albinoni, born June 8th in 1671, was the son of a wealthy paper merchant in Venice. Due to his family's wealth, he did not have to compose for a living; nonetheless upon his father's death in 1709 he left the family business in the hands of his younger brothers and began to pursue music full-time.

His notoriety as an opera composer took him to Naples, Florence, and Munich to conduct performances there. His most likely teacher was Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690). Albinoni stopped composing around 1740 and died in Venice on January 17th, 1751.

Albinoni firmly belongs to the mainstream of composers who flourished from 1690-1750, composing in the style of the High or Late Baroque (rather than the incipient Early Galant style). Today he is considered one of the greatest masters of the High Baroque; his works are typically high-spirited and animated, with walking bass lines and constant contrapuntal interplay between the various voices. His concertos for solo oboe are considered ground-breaking; previously in Italy the concerto had been reserved mainly for the violin. Albinoni's oboe concertos were not only the first to be published but also the first to be written in a true oboe idiom.

The so-called "Albinoni Adagio" is perhaps the most egregiously misattributed work in classical music: it is neither by Albinoni (save for part of the bass line) nor does it remotely resemble his style or even the style of the High Baroque. It is in fact a recent composition inspired by an Albinoni fragment, found by the Milanese musicologist Remo Giazotto (born 1910), who discovered the fragment in the Dresden State Library after World War Two. Giazotto completed what had survived of Albinoni's bass line and then added the rest, including the famed solo organ and violin parts.

The resulting work was erroneously called a "reconstruction" and thus became attributed to Albinoni. Giazotto's adagio or fantasia lies firmly within the Romantic tradition of composition and is ironically often the only "Albinoni" work one can find in most common record/CD stores.

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Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751)
~ WORKS ~
(diacritics have been omitted)
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~ ALBINONI'S 10 OPUS SETS (instrumental) ~

- Op. 1: 12 Sonate a tre (2 vn, vc, org; published 1694)
- Op. 2: 6 Sinfonie e (6) concerti a cinque (2 vn, va, vc, bc; published 1700)
- Op. 3: 12 Balletti a tre (2 vn, vc, hpd; published 1701)
- Op. 4: 6 Sonate da chiesa (vn, vc, bc)
- Op. 5: 12 Concerti a cinque (3 vn, 2 va, vc, hpd; published 1707)
- Op. 6: 12 Trattenimenti armonici percamera (vn, vc, hpd; published c1711)
- Op. 7: 12 Concerti a cinque (2 vn, va, vc, bc; published 1715)
- Nos. 3, 6 and 9 have an additional solo oboe part
- Nos. 2, 5, and 8 have 2 additional solo oboe parts
- Op. 8: 6 Balletti e (6) sonate a tre (2 vn, vc, org; published in 1722)
- Op. 9: 12 Concerti a cinque (each variously for 1-3 vns and/or 1-2 oboes, plus va, vc, and bc; published 1722)
- Op. 10: 12 Concerti a cinque (3 vn, va, vc, org; published c1735-1736)

~ OTHER INSTRUMENTAL WORKS ~

- 14 "sinfonias" for 2 violins, viola, and bc.
- 4 "concertos" for 3 violins, viola, and bc (one lost)
- 45 sonatas or "balletti" (five spurious); including Op. 4
(- 30 other various instrumental works, all of uncertain authorship)

~ STAGE WORKS ~

- Cleomene (performed 1718)
- Engelberta (performed 1709)
- Il piu fedel tra i vassalli (performed 1705)
- La statira (performed 1726)
- L'impresario delle Canarie (intermezzo, performed 1725)
- L'incostanza schemita (performed 1727, reconstructed in 1729 as
L'infedelta delusa)
- Vespetta e Pimpione (intermezzo, performed 1708, reconstructed in 1717 as "La serva astuta")
- 47 other stage works, all lost except for isolated arias

~ OTHER VOCAL ~

- Mass
- Magnificat in g minor (spurious)
- 2 oratorios
- 3 serenatas (one lost)
- 48 cantatas