Lodovico Giustini

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Title page of Lodovico Giustini's " Sonate da cimbalo di piano e forte detta volgarmente di martelletti ", Florence 1732

Lodovico Maria Giustini (born December 12, 1685 in Pistoia , † February 7, 1743 ibid) was an Italian composer and organist .

Live and act

Little is known about the life and work of Lodovico Giustini. He came from a family of musicians and worked as an organist in several churches in his hometown (from 1734 also in the cathedral). During an extended absence from Pistoia in the summer of 1732, in the nearby capital of Tuscany , Florence , the Sonata da cimbalo di piano e forte detta volgarmente di martelletti , Op. 1, was commissioned by the Brazilian clergyman and diplomat João de Seixas da Fonseca Borges originated. In this Sonata collection is the first surviving compositions that explicitly for by Bartolomeo Cristofori developed in the late 17th century fortepiano were written (fortepiano) and were devoted to the younger brother of the Portuguese King John V, Don Antonio de Bragança, . The sonatas of this collection with piano music, his only ones, are suite-like cycles of the church sonata type with four to five movements , in which, despite the traditional sequence of movements, the new possibilities of the fortepiano can only be determined by pressing a key - in contrast to the contemporary compositions for harpsichord come into their own. If interpreted appropriately, Giustini's compositions open the door to a new epoch in music history, in which the affects are primarily conveyed through the differentiation of volume and make tone sequences previously perceived as expressionless socially acceptable. So these are not piano sonatas of the type of the late 18th century or a Domenico Scarlatti , even if the "Essercizi per gravicembalo" by Domenico Scarlatti (published 1738/1739) is not unaffected by the new possibilities of tonal language in Giustini's compositions at the Portuguese court stayed. Nothing is known about the reception of the sonatas at the Portuguese court, which João de Seixas da Fonseca Borges gave as a gift.

Work editions

A facsimile edition of the first edition was published by the Editions Minkoff publishing house in Geneva , which was liquidated in 2010 . A three-volume edition has also been published in a modern print format with corrections of the errors contained in the original by Dominique Ferran (Drake Mabry Publishing, San Diego California). The obvious flaws in the 1732 printing plates make it doubtful that the print was actually reviewed by Giustini before it was released.

Recordings

Sound recordings of the piano sonatas by Lodovico Giustini are so far rare, but in March 2010 a complete recording of all twelve sonatas on the Cristofori replica by Kerstin Schwarz by Andrea Coen (Brilliant Classics 5028421940218) was released and sonatas I, II, VII have been available since June 2010 , VIII, X and XI with Wolfgang Brunner on the Thiemann replica of a Cristofori fortepiano (cpo 2458301). The 1st movement of the Sonata in G minor from Brunner's recording can be viewed as a video on YouTube together with a representation of the Cristofori mechanics. Edwin Good published 5 sonatas in 2008 on a replica of the 1720 instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori (www.arpicimbalo.com) and in 1996 by Cremilde Rosado Fernandes on an Antunes Fortepiano (Numerica NUM 1047). A live recording of Sonatas I and X with Wolfgang Brunner from the "Days of Early Music" in Herne in 1996 on a collective recording of the event by the City of Herne's Department of Culture ("... flow right towards the Danube") is now out of print. A recording of the 5th Sonata by Luca Guglielmi can be found on a CD from 2002 dedicated to Bartolomeo Cristofori (Stradivarius STR 33608). A recording made by Mieczysław Horszowski on a fortepiano in 1980 is out of print . It contains the sonatas I, IV, VII, X and has been released on the Titanic Records label under the order number Ti-78 on two LPs.

literature

A compilation of the few facts about Lodovico Giustini, his piano sonatas and the patron, João de Seixas da Fonseca Borges (1691–1758) can be found in Pedro Persone: The Earliest Piano Music: Lodovico Giustini's (1685–1743) Sonate da cimbalo di piano, e forte detto volgarmente di martelletti, Firenze, 1732 published by Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller ( ISBN 363906464X , ISBN 978-3639064643 ) in 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deletion from the Geneva Commercial Register
  2. ^ ISBN 2-8266-0551-8 ; Geneva 1986
personal data
SURNAME Giustini, Lodovico
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Giustini, Lodovico Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer and organist
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1685
PLACE OF BIRTH Pistoia
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1743
Place of death Pistoia