Carlo Ricciotti

Carlo Ricciotti (born July 11, 1675 in Frosinone , † July 1756 in The Hague ) was an Italian violinist , composer and opera director.

Life

Little is known about Ricciotti's life. His training centers were probably first in Naples and later in Rome. From 1702 he was a member of the French Opera Society in The Hague, where he took over the management in 1725. He also worked as a music teacher, among others from Count Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer . In the 1740s he made a name for himself through the concerts he organized in Wassenaer's palace, Schloss Kneuterdijk . On July 13, 1756, Riciotti's death was reported in The Hague.

Concerti Armonici

He was best known for the publication of the six "Concerti armonici" , as the possible composer of which he was considered for a long time. In 1750 the concerts dedicated to Willem Graf Bentinck were published in The Hague without naming their names. Ricciotti just signed the dedication. In the foreword of the first edition, a high-ranking person from Adel is mentioned as a composer, but names such as Johann Adam Birkenstock , Fortunato Chelleri , Giovanni Battista Pergolesi or even Georg Friedrich Handel were considered by musicologists as authors of the concerti in the past. A reprint that was published in 1775 by the John Walsh music publishing house in London identified Ricciotti as a composer.

In 1979 the music historian Albert Dunning was able to identify him as the author of the “Concerti armonici” after the autographs were discovered in Wassenaer's country seat at Schloss Twickel .

literature

• Albert Dunning: Count Unico Wilhelm Van Wassenaer: 1692-1766 (A Master Unmasked or The Pergolesi-Ricciotti Puzzle Solved). 1980, ISBN 9060273990 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Music in the past and present , 2nd edition, vol. 14, p. 12.