Antonio Vandini

Antonio Vandini (* around 1690 in Bologna ; † 1778 there ) was an Italian cellist and composer of the late Baroque.

Live and act

Antonio Vandini possibly received his training in Bologna under Giuseppe Maria Jacchini ; he is first mentioned as a cellist at S. Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. In 1721 he moved to Padua, where, with short interruptions, he was the first cellist in the orchestra of the Basilica of S. Antonio for about 50 years . In the period from autumn 1720 to spring 1721 he was “maestro al violoncello” at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. Antonio Vivaldi may have composed some cello concertos for him there.

Between 1722 and 1726 he stayed in Prague, where he attended the coronation celebrations of Emperor Charles VI with Giuseppe Tartini , Antonio Caldara and Sylvius Leopold Weiss under Johann Joseph Fux . to the King of Bohemia participated. He then found a job with Tartini at the court of Count Franz Ferdinand Kinsky (1678–1741). Since then he has had a long friendship with Tartini. From the year Tartini's wife died, the two musicians shared an apartment and made numerous appearances together. Like many musicians of his time, Vandini maintained intensive written contacts with the important music theorist Padre Martini .

In 1750 he gave a concert with the violinist Carlo Tessarini in the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi. In 1770 he gave up his office in Padua, but stood up for his pupil Giuseppe Callegari (around 1750-1812) as his successor. He spent the last years of his life in his native city of Bologna.

Through a caricature by Pier Leone Ghezzi and Charles Burney, it is recorded that Vandini held the bow like a viol player from below. This is what Burney noted in his diary: Padua, August 2, 1770.

"I would have liked to hear the famous oboist, Matteo Bissioli and the great old Antonio [Vandini] on the violon bell, of whom the Italians say that his playing and his expression are a parallel, that is, he lets his instrument speak."

"It is strange that Antonio and all the local violon players hold the bow the old way, with your hand on your hair and your thumb on the wood, as happens with the viola player."

Works (selection)

Vandini's compositional style is influenced by the longstanding close contacts with Tartini. Tartini's two cello concertos were probably composed for Vandini.

• 6 sonatas for violoncello and B. c. (1717)
• Cello Concerto in D major

Web links

• Caricature Vandinis by Pier Leone Ghezzi
• Sheet music and audio files by Antonio Vandini in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MGG , 2nd edition, vol. 16, columns 1312 and 1313
2. ↑ Marc Vanscheeuwijck: In Search of the Eighteenth-Century “Violoncello”: Antonio Vandini and the Concertos for Viola by Tartini Claremont Graduate University, 2008 (in English)