Tomaso Albinoni 1671 – 1751
Tomaso, born in 1671, was the eldest child of a man by the name of Antonio Albinoni, a successful paper merchant who owned a number of shops and properties around Venice. He started studying the violin and singing at the age of nine. Although he received a thorough musical education during his youth, contrary to a great deal of other musicians in his era, he did not seek employment within a church. He enjoyed taking advantage of his personal freedom much to much to have wanted this. Many composers did not have the financial means to compose independently, yet Albinoni did have these resources available on account of the wealth generated by his father’s business and was able to compose for himself, making his music quite individual and ‘untouched’.
It was not until the age of 23 that he really started making a name for himself as a musician, having written the opera, Zenobia Regina de Palmireni, which was even brought to the stage. Shortly after this, he wrote 12 trio sonatas. These works remain representative of the two main musical focuses throughout his lifetime, which had been without a doubt secular vocal music and instrumental works. Seeing that very little of survives of his opera works, his reputation today is based mainly upon the instrumental music he composed.
In 1705, having made quite a name for himself on account of his opera works, Tomaso Albinoni married a soprano opera singer, Margeherita Rimondi, and had six children with her. Despite having to bring them up, she still miraculously managed to keep up her career as a performer, even though she ended up dying in her thirties in 1721. This was a hard blow for Tomaso. To add to his consternation, shortly after this, due to a dispute with one of his father’s creditors, he lost all of his family’s shops. Yet, all of this did not stop him from composing. His fortune took a turn when, only a year later, he was asked travel to Munich to stage one of his operas at Prince – Elector Karl Albert’s marriage celebrations, after having dedicated 12 concerti to Maximilian Emanuel II, Elector of Bavaria.
One of the pieces Albinoni was most known for, Adagio in G minor, was ironically not entirely his own. A fragmented manuscript written by Albinoni was taken by the twentieth-century Italian musicologist, Remo Giazotto, and arranged into the piece we know today. In fact, the piece, written for strings and organ, had been quite elaborated to the extent of it being romantic in character. Nevertheless, being quite a beautiful piece, it is still well worth listening to.
Along with being a prolific composer, one of the characteristics that sets this Albinoni apart from the rest of the composers of the period was the fact that his pieces were quite individual. He had, of course, been influenced by some of the greats, such as Corelli and Vivaldi, yet his pieces remained undiluted and pure inventions of his own.
To listen to Adagio in G-Minor by Albinoni (arr. Remo Giazotto) click here
