Cristoforo Babbi

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Cristoforo Babbi (born May 8, 1745 in Cesena , † November 19, 1814 in Dresden ) was an Italian violinist, concertmaster and composer .

Life

Pietro Giovanni Cristoforo Bartolomeo Gaspare Babbi was the son of the opera singer Gregorio Lorenzo Babbi (1708–1768) and the soprano Giovanna Guaetti. Cristoforo Babbi grew up in Naples, where his parents had an engagement at the Teatro San Carlo . In Faenza Babbi studied violin, counterpoint and composition from 1763 with Paolo Tommaso Alberghi , a student of Giuseppe Tartini . Babbi was mentioned several times between 1766 and 1772 as primo violino at the annual Festa dell'Immacolata Concezione in Faenza . In the 1773 opera season he was first violinist in Rimini , but in the same year he became a member of the Capella musicale at San Petronio in Bologna , a position that he held until 1781. In 1774 Babbi was accepted as a member of the Accademia Filarmonica . Parallel to his service to San Petronio, he was Kapellmeister at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna between 1775 and 1778.

On March 3, 1781, he was given the position of concert master at the Dresden court orchestra , which at that time was under the direction of Johann Gottlieb Naumann, for a year of probation . The probationary period was followed by permanent employment for nine years, with an annual salary of 1200 thalers. In Dresden Babbi acquired the reputation of the best concert master, which is particularly necessary and useful in the context of Hasse's music . The concert master's contract was extended indefinitely in 1789. Babbi's successor was Giovanni Battista Polledro .

Babbi's daughters Giovanna and Teresa were singers in the Dresden chapel and at the court theater, his son Gregorio Babbi (* around 1770; † after 1815) worked as a singer and violinist at the Dresden court orchestra and after 1807 as primo violino at Bolognese theaters.

Cristoforo Babbi composed several violin concertos, symphonies, quartets and duets, all of which have disappeared. Only the opening symphony to the cantata Augusta by Kreuzkantor Christian Ehregott Weinlig from 1786 has been preserved.

The musicologist Richard Engländer sees Babbi as the person who was of decisive importance for the upswing of the Dresden court orchestra in the period between 1780 and 1800.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ MGG : Volume 1, columns 1244-1245
  2. ↑ Gloria Eive: Family Babbi in Grove Music Online
  3. ↑ Entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 4 (1962)
  4. ^ Richard Engländer: Dresdner Musikleben and Dresdner Instrumentalpflege in the time between Hasse and Weber , (1931), p. 410-420
personal data
SURNAME Babbi, Cristoforo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian violinist, concertmaster and composer
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1745
PLACE OF BIRTH Cesena
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1814
Place of death Dresden