Giuseppe Torelli - Concerto for 4 Violins in E Minor

Giuseppe Torelli (1658 - 1709). Biography: Giuseppe Torelli was an Italian violist and violinist, pedagogue and composer, who ranks with Arcangelo Corelli among the developers of the Baroque concerto and concerto grosso. Torelli is most remembered for his contributions to the development of the instrumental concerto (Newman 1972), especially concerti grossi and the solo concerto, for strings and continuo, as well as being the most prolific Baroque composer for trumpets (Tarr 1974). Torelli was born in Verona. It is not known with whom he studied violin though it has been speculated that he was a pupil of Leonardo Brugnoli or Bartolomeo Laurenti, but it is certain that he studied composition with Giacomo Antonio Perti (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). On June 27, 1684, at the age of 26, he became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica as suonatore di violino (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). By 1698 he was maestro di concerto at the court of Georg Friedrich II, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, where he conducted the orchestra for Le pazzie d'amore e dell'interesse, an idea drammatica composed by the maestro di cappella, the castrato Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, before leaving for Vienna in December 1699 (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). He returned to Bologna sometime before February (1701), when he is listed as a violinist in the newly re-formed cappella musicale at San Petronio, directed by his former composition teacher Perti (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). He died in Bologna in 1709, where his manuscripts are conserved in the San Petronio archives. Giuseppe's brother, Felice Torelli, was a Bolognese painter of modest reputation, who went on to be a founding member of the Accademia Clementina. The most notable amongst Giuseppe's many pupils was Francesco Manfredini. Concerto for 4 Violins in E Minor: 1. Largo 2. Allegro 3. Largo 4. Allegro Musica Antiqua Köln. Anton Steck (Violin I). Katharina Wolff (Violin II). Manfred Kramer (Violin III). Laura Johnson (Violin IV). Dir. Reinhard Goebel.