Francesco Geminiani

Francesco Saverio Geminiani (baptised 5 December 1687– 17 September 1762) was an Italian violinist, composer, and music theorist.

Life

Born at Lucca, he received lessons in music from Alessandro Scarlatti, and studied the violin under Carlo Ambrogio Lonati in Milan and afterwards under Arcangelo Corelli. From 1707 he took the place of his father in the Cappella Palatina of Lucca. From 1711, he led the opera orchestra at Naples, as Leader of the Opera Orchestra and concertmaster, which gave him many opportunities for contact with Alessandro Scarlatti. After a brief return to Lucca, in 1714, he set off for London in the company of Francesco Barsanti, where he arrived with the reputation of a virtuoso violinist, and soon attracted attention and patrons, including William Capel, 3rd Earl of Essex, who remained a consistent patron. In 1715 Geminiani played his violin concerti for the court of George I, with Handel at the keyboard.

Geminiani made a living by teaching and writing music, and tried to keep pace with his passion for collecting by dealing in art, not always successfully. Many of his students went on to have successful careers, such as Charles Avison, Matthew Dubourg, Michael Christian Festing, Bernhard Joachim Hagen and Cecilia Young. See: List of music students by teacher: G to J#Francesco Geminiani.

Concerto grosso

The concerto grosso (pronounced [konˈtʃɛrto ˈɡrɔsso]; Italian for big concert(o), plural concerti grossi [konˈtʃɛrti ˈɡrɔssi]) is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the concertino) and full orchestra (the ripieno or concerto grosso). This is in contrast to the solo concerto which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by the orchestra.

The form developed in the late seventeenth century, although the name was not used at first. Alessandro Stradella seems to have written the first music in which two groups of different sizes are combined in the characteristic way. The name was first used by Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori in a set of 10 compositions published in Lucca in 1698.

The first major composer to use the term concerto grosso was Arcangelo Corelli. After Corelli's death, a collection of twelve of his concerti grossi was published; not long after, composers such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli and Giuseppe Torelli wrote concertos in the style of Corelli. He also had a strong influence on Antonio Vivaldi.

Chiara Banchini

Chiara Banchini is a Swiss violinist, involved in the historical performance practice movement. She specializes in the music of the Baroque.

Banchini was born in 1946 in Lugano, Switzerland. She graduated from the Geneva Conservatory; following this she studied under Sandor Vegh and then at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague under Sigiswald Kuijken for the Baroque violin. She taught at the Centre for Early Music in Geneva and began performing as a soloist.

In 1981, she moved from Geneva to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, where she formed Ensemble 415, a Baroque performance ensemble, which was dissolved in January 2012. The group took its name from a common Baroque pitch. The ensemble's recording of Arcangelo Corelli's Concerti Grossi for Harmonia Mundi was a commercial success in 1992, as was their 1996 recording of Antonio Vivaldi's Stabat Mater. She has also recorded with Erato, Virgin Records, Accent, Astreé, and Zig Zag Territories.

In 2014 she started a collaboration with Theresia Youth Baroque Orchestra of which she is permanent conductor together with Claudio Astronio and Alfredo Bernardini.

Adagio

Adagio [aˈdaːdʒo] (from Italian adagio 'slowly', coming from the expression ad agio, 'at ease') may refer to:

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Allegro

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