Pietro A. Locatelli - The Italian Music Master in Amsterdam
Pietro Antonio Locatelli was born in 1695 in the Italian city of Bergamo. He was still a young boy when his astonishing talent for playing the violin revealed itself. Joining the Bergamo Cathedral instrumental ensemble as a boy, he left it in 1711 at the age of sixteen to go to Rome. For a violinist on the threshold of his career, Rome was the place to be as it was there that Arcangelo Corelli lived. Although Locatelli did not actually study with Corelli, he certainly absorbed a good deal of his influence.
Until early in 1723 he remained in Rome, although little is known about the ensuing period of his life because we do not know where he was. In 1725 his name appears in Mantua, where Count Philipp von Hesse-Darmstadt appointed him virtuoso da camera (Mantua was ruled by the House of Habsburg). However, there are no indications that Locatelli actually was in Mantua; he could simply have been passing through, his short stay remaining undocumented. After 1725 his name turns up successively in Venice, Munich and Berlin. In 1728 he was in Frankfurt and Kassel. Wherever he travelled he gave concerts and received rapturous acclaim for his virtuosic playing.
He was unable to settle anywhere, however, and did not wish to spend the rest of his life as a court musician. In 1729 he therefore moved to Amsterdam, a city lacking a court but which did offer ample opportunities for him to publish his compositions. Amsterdam was known throughout Europe for this aspect of its musical scene and many Italian composers, including Vivaldi, published their music there even though they themselves never visited the city. Having had every composition since his Opus 1 (composed in 1721) published by Roger en Le Cène in Amsterdam, Locatelli lived and worked there as an 'Italian music master' from 1729 until his death in 1764.
Amsterdam offered him many advantages: he was able to work there as a free musician, unfettered to a church or court. He could compose whatever and whenever he wanted. For an eighteenth-century composer this was highly exceptional. He participated little in the city's music scene. He had no pupils and never played in public. On Wednesday evenings he did, however, give concerts in private houses, which were highly fashionable among the city's beau monde. Locatelli preferred not to have any professional musicians attend, a suspected reason for which is that he was afraid of their imitating him. For a musician who in terms of virtuosity left his contemporaries far in his wake - see L'Arte del Violino concertos opus 3 - such fear is remarkable. Thus the claim is occasionally made that Locatelli himself was not a virtuoso at all, rather he was merely afraid of making mistakes.
The States of Holland and West Friesland granted Locatelli permission to print his own music and to sell it from home. In addition to selling his compositions he also sold books he had acquired from all over Europe. They were about all sorts of subjects, in no way restricted to music alone but embracing theatre, literature and visual art. As a composer and merchant he was therefore able to support himself. Given his wealth when he died in 1764 (an enormous library was discovered in his house) and the extent to which his music circulated throughout Europe, he must have possessed a genuine Dutch commercial streak.
The works on this compact disc give a good overall idea of Locatelli's oeuvre which, consisting of instrumental music alone, is small and compact. His Concerti Grossi Opus 1, published in 1721, are entirely modelled along the lines of Corelli's Concerti Opus 6. Parallel to this work, Locatelli's eighth concerto is a Concerto fatto per la notte di Natale (i.e. a Christmas concerto) which ends with a pastorale in six-eight metre, evoking the feel of Christmas.
His Sonates Opus 2 (composed in 1732) give the impression of a totally different composer at work. This galant flute music far removed from Corelli's Baroque counterpoint. The Menuet from the tenth sonata, an organ version of which is played here, is a virtuoso series of variations on a simple theme. This compositional form is reminiscent of chamber music at the court of Frederic the Great. Johann Joachim Quantz, flautist to that court, was extremely complimentary about Locatelli in general, and about these flute sonatas in particular. Opus 4 (composed in1735), comprises six Introduzioni Teatrali and six Concerti Grossi. The Introduzioni are short, three-movement sinfonias in the style of works by Neapolitan Opera Buffa composers. These sinfonias, however, are not followed by an opera. How regrettable it is that Locatelli composed nothing for the voice is demonstrated by Concerto Grosso Opus 7 no. 6, Il Pianto d'Arianna, published in 1741: this concerto is in fact an instrumental cantata in which the role of Arianna is taken not by a voice but rather a solo violin. Locatelli hints at vocal music by using the kind of motives common to cantata recitatives. The work's continual mood changes give it the true character of a cantata, though one lacking a vocal part.
Since Locatelli was not tied to the tastes of clients, he was entirely free to compose in any style of his own choosing. An eclectic, a fact demonstrated by this disc, he borrowed and imitated every aspect of conventional styles, from Baroque concerti grossi to galant flute sonatas. With his virtuosic violin concerti Opus 3, he was actually far ahead of his time. As a person, however, Locatelli remains a shadowy figure. Why did he lead such a secluded life in Amsterdam? Why did he write every opus in a different style? We can only guess at the answers. Certain is the fact that Locatelli's modest oeuvre was popular throughout Europe right until the end of the eighteenth century. Recent decades have seen increasing interest in his output. In 1991 the Cremona-based Fondazione Locatelli was established. In 2002 it completed a critical edition of Locatelli's complete works, edited by Professor Albert Dunning.
Pietro Antonio Locatelli was born in 1695 in the Italian city of Bergamo. He was still a young boy when his astonishing talent for playing the violin revealed itself. Joining the Bergamo Cathedral instrumental ensemble as a boy, he left it in 1711 at the age of sixteen to go to Rome. For a violinist on the threshold of his career, Rome was the place to be as it was there that Arcangelo Corelli lived. Although Locatelli did not actually study with Corelli, he certainly absorbed a good deal of his influence.