Francesco Maria Veracini

Francesco Maria Veracini was an Italian composer and violinist, perhaps best known for his sets of violin sonatas. As a composer, according to Manfred Bukofzer, "His individual, if not subjective, style has no precedent in baroque music and clearly heralds the end of the entire era", while Luigi Torchi maintained that "he rescued the imperiled music of the eighteenth century", His contemporary, Charles Burney, held that "he had certainly a great share of whim and caprice, but he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an excellent contrapuntist". The asteroid 10875 Veracini was named after him.

Life

Francesco Maria Veracini was born on 1 February 1690 in the family house on the via Palazzuolo, parish of San Salvatore, Ognissanti, Florence. The second and only surviving son of Agostino Veracini, a pharmacist and undertaker, he was taught the violin by his uncle, Antonio Veracini, with whom he later often appeared in concert, as well as by Giovanni Maria Casini and his assistant Francesco Feroci. His grandfather, Francesco Veracini, had been one of the first violinists of Florence, and ran a music school in the house until ill health forced him to turn the business over to his eldest son, Antonio, in 1708. In addition, the family managed a painting studio and possessed a large collection of art works, including four Ghirlandaios, a Rubens, a Caracci and a dozen other paintings by the three members of the family from two generations, including Francesco's third son, Benedetto. The painter Niccolò Agostino Veracini was Francesco Maria's cousin. Veracini esteemed Carlo Ambrogio Lonati as a great violinist.
He is known to have been a soloist in Venice at the Christmas masses at San Marco, on 24 and 25 December 1711. On 1 February 1712 he performed a violin concerto of his own composition, accompanied by trumpets, oboes, and strings as part of the celebrations in honour of the Austrian ambassador to Venice of the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI. The celebration, held in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari included a vocal Te Deum and Mass, as well as motets and concertos performed under the direction of padre Ferdinando Antonio Lazari. The manuscript scores of all the works performed that day, including Veracini's concerto, were bound together in a handsome presentation volume now found in the National Library of Austria. An earlier, now superseded hypothesis, that this concerto was performed in Frankfurt at Charles VI's coronation on 22 December 1711, was offered before the discovery of documentation of Veracini's appearance as a soloist on Christmas Eve of that year, in Venice, two days later and some 800 kilometers to the south, and before the discovery of the payment record for Veracini's performance of this concerto in Venice on 1 February 1712.
In 1714, Veracini went to London and played instrumental pieces between the acts of operas at the Queen's Theatre. At the court of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine and Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici he performed his oratorio Mosè al Mar Rosso. There is a legend that, when Giuseppe Tartini heard Veracini playing the violin, he was so impressed by his bowing technique, and so dissatisfied with his own skill, that he retreated the next day to Ancona "in order to study the use of the bow in more tranquility, and with more convenience than at Venice, as he had a place assigned him in the opera orchestra of that city".
Veracini wrote a set of violin/recorder sonatas dedicated to Prince Friedrich August, who came to celebrate carnival. The Prince recruited not only singers, as he was told to do by his father, but also musicians for the court in Dresden. He hired an entire opera company under the direction of the Italian composer Antonio Lotti, the librettist Antonio Maria Lucchini, the castrati Senesino and Matteo Berselli, the brothers Mauro architects, two painters, and two carpenters. In 1717 the Prince also secured the services of the eccentric Francesco Maria Veracini.

Dresden

To justify his salary, Veracini had to compose chamber music for the court, transferring him to the official payroll as Kapellmeister in August 1717 and not as a violinist. In 1719 Veracini was sent to recruit more Italian singers for the new Dresden opera, "am Zwinger". Whilst in Venice he secured the services of Margherita Durastanti and Vittoria Tesi and in Bologna added Maria Antonia Laurenti. Veracini also took the opportunity to visit his home town where he married Chiara Tesi.
In 1721 Veracini wrote another set of violin sonatas dedicated to the Prince. Unfortunately, there was animosity among all these gifted musicians at the court in Dresden. In 1722, the arrogant Veracini was involved in a quarrel, staged according to one source by the composer and violinist Pisendel, which resulted in Veracini leaping out of an upper-story window and breaking his foot in two places and his hip. There are two conflicting accounts of this incident on 13 August, one involving humiliation of Veracini at the hands of the last-desk violinist in the orchestra, who was asked to play the same concerto, replacing Veracini. Pisendel had been rehearsing his composition intensively with this violinist. The braggart Veracini fell into such a rage over this that he did not come out of his room for several days, and out of shame and despair finally publicly threw himself out of a window onto the street in Dresden. According to Veracini the jealous German musicians allegedly plotted to murder him. He fled Dresden by jumping out a window and apparently broke a leg in the fall. After the incident Veracini walked with a limp for the rest of his life. It is a myth Senesino was involved in the quarrel as he was either dismissed by Heinichen or by the court which ran out of money. G.F. Handel offered the singer a contract for London two years before the alleged incident with Veracini.
These sensational and conflicting reports are further complicated by one more fact, which is actually documented. On 22 March 1723 Veracini's young daughter, Margaretha, died of measles at the composer's house, number 2 Scheffelgasse, in Dresden. The wording of the report seems to imply that Veracini was still in Dresden and employed at the court at that time.
It seems the Dresden musicians, fearing for their position, felt relieved Veracini had left the city. Back in his native Florence in 1723, Veracini played music in a church. During this time he suffered from his bad reputation and was said by Charles Burney to have been "usually qualified with the title of Capo pazzo" . He composed a Te Deum for the coronation of Pope Clement XII in 1730.
His uncle Antonio died in 1733, leaving the bulk of his estate to Francesco Maria. Amongst other things, this included no fewer than eight violins made by Jacob Stainer and three Amatis.

London

Back in London in 1733, Veracini appeared in many concerts. In 1735 he composed an opera for the Opera of the Nobility, Adriano in Siria. Francesca Cuzzoni, Antonio Montagnana, Farinelli and Senesino had a role. George Frederic Handel was present at the premiere in Haymarket Theatre. Charles Jennens liked the opera and ordered a score; Lord Hervey, not known for his musical perception, and Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth were bored. However, the work enjoyed a run of twenty performances over six months. Many of the arias were published separately by John Walsh. Veracini composed the fifth version, based on Pietro Metastasio's libretto, written for the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI. The score, which survived in the Newman Flower Collection of the Manchester Central Library was developed by German musicologist Holger Schmitt-Hallenberg along with Fabio Biondi, who composed the recitatives that have not been preserved. It was performed in Kraków December 2013 and in Vienna and Madrid in January 2014.
In 1736 he wrote some arias for the pasticcio Orfeo by Nicola Porpora. In 1737, he wrote La Clemenza di Tito, on a libretto by Angelo Maria Cori based on Metastasio. In 1738 Veracini wrote his third opera, Partenio, and returned to Florence where he stayed till 1741. Back in London he composed his last opera, Roselinda, based on Shakespeare's play As You Like It, a most unusual choice of material at that time. In that opera Veracini included the well-known Scots ballad tune The Lass of Paties Mill. It was staged in London in 1744, the same year his oratorio L'errore di Salomone was staged. Burney, scorned the music of Roselinda as "wild, awkward, and unpleasant; manifestly produced by a man unaccustomed to write for the voice, and one possessed of a capo pazzo", and ridiculed the inclusion of the ballad tune as an attempt "to flatter the English" that failed because "few of the North Britons, or admirers of this national and natural Music, frequent the opera, or mean to give half a guinea to hear a Scots tune, which perhaps their cook-maid Peggy can sing better than any foreigner", but confessed that "This opera, to my great astonishment when I examined the Music, ran twelve nights", whereas L'errore di Salomone was given only twice. Veracini left London a little more than a year later.
In 1745 or shortly after, he survived a shipwreck in which he lost two of his Stainer violins, "thought to have been the best in the world", and all of his effects. He returned to Florence, where he was appointed maestro di capella of the churches of San Pancrazio and San Gaetano, the latter one at which his uncle had worked, focusing on church music. Though he mostly conducted in his later years, he still sometimes appeared as a violinist. Veracini died in Florence.

Compositions

In his last will and testament of 14 October 1768, Veracini mentions a trunk full of his musical compositions. As his now-surviving works would not fill a quarter of such a large chest, a full assessment of Veracini's stature as composer is not possible. However, his known music has historical importance and artistic value.
The central works of Veracini's known repertoire are contained in three collections of twelve sonatas, each, for solo violin and basso continuo: the manuscript set dated Venice, 26 July 1716 ; the published Op. I sonatas ; and the lavishly printed Op. II Sonate accademiche. A few additional early sonatas are preserved individually in manuscript.
Veracini's 1716 sonatas incorporate important stylistic innovations. Given the composer's frequent performance of Arcangelo Corelli's solo sonatas, his occasional paraphrasing of Corelli's themes, his generally plain and unornamented melodic lines, and his late-life compositional revision of Corelli's Op. 5, we might look for a continuation of the Corelli tradition, but we do not find it. Instead, whereas Corelli's violin sonatas, both solo and trio, are divided between chamber sonatas composed of dance movements and church sonatas with fugal movements, Veracini's 1716 sonatas contain neither dances nor fugues. Whereas Corelli never recapitulates themes in his non-fugal movements, Veracini always includes some form of melodic recurrence, except in a few very short, transitional movements. Veracini's binary-form movements frequently include a tonic recapitulation, offen including transposed material which, in the first half, was introduced in the key of the dominant. Thus, Veracini's 1716 sonatas are among the earliest to employ what we now call rounded-binary form, sometimes thought of as embryonic sonata form. Further, whereas Corelli relies on melodic-harmonic sequences as his principal means of expansion, Veracini far more often employs repetition for the same purpose. And while Corelli confines repetition to the concluding phrases of movements, Veracini uses repetition in all parts of his: beginning, middle, and ending phrases. Thus, Veracini's repetitions help to create passages that are melodically and harmonically sable or even static, which tend to contribute to hierarchical, symmetrical phrase structures that stand in contrast to Corelli's discursive formal processes. While Corelli is known for his careful part-writing and dissonance treatment, Veracini often introduces unprepared dissonances, transferred resolutions, leaps by dissonant intervals, cross relations, and very unusual deceptive cadences. Thus, Charles Burney, who heard him play, reported that, although Veracini impressed London audiences in 1714 as a violinist, "His compositions, however, were too wild and flighty for the taste of the English at this time, when they regarded the sonatas of Corelli as the models of simplicity, grace, and elegance in melody, and of correctness and purity in harmony."
Burney, in another place, viewed Veracini's "wild and flighty" music as prophetic: "Veracini and Vivaldi had the honour of being thought mad for attempting in their works and performance what many a sober gentleman has since done uncensured; but both these musicians happening to be gifted with more fancy and more hand than their neighbours, were thought insane; as friar Bacon, for superior science, was thought a magician, and Galileo a heretic." And, comparing these early sonatas by Veracini with those of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Burney writes, "They are composed in a style that was worn out when Pergolesi began to write; at which time another was forming by Tartini, Veracini, and Martini of Milan, which has been since polished, refined, and enriched with new melodies, harmonies, and modulation, and effects."
Equally wild and flighty are the six overtures, i.e., orchestral suites for two oboes, bassoon, strings, and basso continuo that Veracini wrote in Venice at about the same time as his first set of twelve violin sonatas. Here we find the same bizarre treatment of dissonance and accidentals, the same incessant repetition, the same short, clearly articulated phrase groups, and similar use of melodic recurrence, although here more often taking the form of a rondo or da capo. The movements are longer, which may explain the more extensive use of sequence. And the first movements that take the format of the French overture include a fugal section.
Veracini dedicated his 1716 sonatas to Prince Friedrich August of Saxony, who was then on a nine-month tour of Italy, during which he and the leader of his chamber music, Johann Georg Pisendel, were recruiting musicians and collecting music thought to be the coming thing. Veracini was among those recruited and collected. Back in Dresden, Pisendel absorbed and digested this new musical style and passed it on to his students, including Franz Benda and Johann Gottlieb Graun. What he passed on to these students was subsequently codified by Joseph Riepel, in his Anfangsgründe zur Musikalischen Setzkunst and Grundregeln zur Tonordnung insgemein, texts which contributed to the musical education of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
After the sonatas of 1716, one would have expected Veracini to pursue a stylistic path similar to Giuseppe Tartini's. The road he chose instead is indicated by his published Opus 1 of 1721. In some ways these sonatas are more, not less, like Corelli's than were those of 1716. The set is divided into chamber and church sonatas, the latter including fugues with the kind of three-voice exposition familiar from Corelli's Opus 5. There is much imitative writing even in non-fugal movements. Phrase elision is slightly more prevalent. Although repetition is a little more common, there are no complete tonic recapitulations. There is, instead, great variety and experimentation in formal design of a sort not found in the sonatas of Locatelli or Tartini.
In the Opus 2 sonatas, texture and form are even more complicated and the whole style more original than in the earlier sonatas. The most original, complicated, and extended of the unusually long movements that form the Opus 2 sonatas are those entitled capriccio. Veracini defines this term in his treatise, Il trionfo della prattica musicale : "The CAPRICCIO has the same rules as the true fugue and the ricercar, but it supports within it the entry of various bizzarie grafted on by the imagination of the wise composer, because they are able to confabulate with the principal subjects of this type of composition." Veracini's capricci are essentially fugues with an unusually large number of independent motives. In some of his capricci, motives are developed by means of interval substitution, sequencing, inversion, and fragmentation. The capricci of Veracini's Opus 2 do not feature binary form but rather a highly original technique of pairing passages, the parallelism between which is usually modified by some small insertion, deletion, or reordering and by either transposition of the whole, contrapuntal inversion, motivic inversion, or exchange of tonic and dominant harmony in the manner of a fugal counter-exposition. Contrapuntal inversion, in particular, is found on nearly every page of the capricci.
Veracini's compositional revision of Corelli's Op. 5 sonatas, made after 1745, continues the trend toward contrapuntal thoroughness. These "Dissertazioni del sig. Francesco Veracini sopra l'Opera Quinta del Corelli" strive for more imitation and contrapuntal inversion, more intensive use of motives, greater unity and symmetry, and greater logic and consistency, even to the point of pedantry. Symmetrical pairs of passages, of the sort used in Veracini's Op. 2, are created in nine of Corelli's movements by adding contrapuntal inversion or by reshuffling, transposing, and revising phrases of the originals. The musical examples in Veracini's late treatise continue the same pattern.
Of Veracini's five surviving violin concertos, only the earliest, from 1712, hints at his technical prowess as a performer, and, even here, substantial portions of the solo part consist of blank staves bearing the instruction "capriccio del primo violino." Veracini's other four violin concertos make more moderate demands. Their style is somewhat like Vivaldi's with the significant difference that their solo episodes often incorporate thematic elements from the opening ritornellos: a trait often associated with Tartini's concertos and which give rise to the "double exposition" feature of later eighteenth-century keyboard concertos.
Of Veracini's four London operas, only Adriano in Siria survives. Some arias from his Partenio and Rosalinda were printed by Walsh during Veracini's stay in London. In Adriano the arias written for Farinelli are both virtuosic and strongly expressive.

Major works

12 Sonatas for recorder or violin solo and basso
Opus 1, 12 Sonatas for violin solo and basso
Opus 2, 12 Sonate Accademiche for violin solo and basso
Dissertazioni del Sigr. Francesco Veracini sopra l'opera quinta del Corelli
Opus 3, ''Il trionfo della pratica musicale, o sia Il maestro dell'arte scientifica dal quale imparasi non solo il contrapunto ma insegna ancora con nuovo e facile metodo l'ordine vero di comporre in musica''

Discography

Adriano in Siria. Sonia Prina, Adriano; Ann Hallenberg, Fernaspe; Roberta Invernizzi, Emirena; Romina Basso, Sabina; Lucia Cirillo, Idalma; Ugo Guaguardo, Osroa; Europa Galante led by Fabio Bionbi, violin. 3 CDs. Fra Bernado fb 1409491, Vienna, 2014., which is based on a manuscript in Manchester, Henry Watson Music Library, GB-Mp MS f520 VL61, a source that includes the overture, opening chorus, and arias, but no recitativi secchi. The recitatives in the 2014 edition and recording, according to reviewer David Vickers, were taken from or based upon those contained in the score by Giovanni Battista Ferrandini, as preserved in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden : Mus.3037-F-1. A digital scan of this score is preserved by IMSLP. A complete manuscript score of Veracini's opera Adriano in Siria, with recitatives, was identified by RISM researchers in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Mus.ms. 143, after the 2014 editioin and recording were made. This score is available from IMSLP on line.]The Art of Bel Canto. Richard Tucker, tenor; John Wustman, piano and harpsichord. LP. Columbia ML 6067 Also issued in stereo, MS 6667 : Columbia, 1965. The Art of Joseph Szigeti, vol. 1. Joseph Szigeti, violin; Kurt Ruhrseitz, piano. 2 CDs. London, England: Biddulph Recordings, 1989. LAB 005, LAB 006. An Arthur Grumiaux Recital. Arthur Grumiaux, violin; Riccardo Castagnone, piano. LP. Epic LC 3414 : Epic Records, 1957. Baroque Masters of Venice, Naples and Tuscany. Soloists of the Società cameristica di Lugano. LP. "A Cycnus recording, Paris." : Nonesuch Records, 1966. HC 3008. Concerti "per l'orchestra di Dresda". Musica Antiqua Köln; Reinhard Goebel, dir. CD. Archiv Produktion 447 644–2. Hamburg: Deutsche Grammophon, 1993. Flute Solos. James J Pellerite, flute; Wallace Hornibrook, piano. Coronet LPS 1505. Columbus, Ohio: Coronet, . French and Italian Flute Music. Barthold Kuijken, flute; Wieland Kuijken, viola da gamba; Robert Kohnen, harpsichord. 2 CDs. Accent ACC 30009. Heidelberg: Accent, 2007. Furiosi. I Furiosi ; with James Johnstone, harpsichord; Stephanie Martin, organ; Lucas Harris, theorbo and guitar. CD. Dorian DSL-90802. Winchester, VA: Dorian, 2007. Italian Baroque Songs. Dénes Gulyás, tenor; Dániel Benkö, lute, guitar, orpharion; László Czidra, recorder; Tibor Alpár, organ; Budapest Baroque Trio; Bakfark Consort. CD. Hungaroton HCD 31480. : Hungaroton, 1992.

Italian Baroque Violin Concerti. Carroll Glenn, violin; Austrian Tonkuenstler Orchestra, Vienna; Lee Schaenen, conductor. LP. Musical Heritage Society MHS 652 New York: Musical Heritage Society, 1966. The Italian Connection: Vivaldi, Corelli, Geminiani, Lonati, Veracini, Matteis. Bell'arte Antiqua. CD. London: ASV, 2000. CD GAU 199. Italian Music for Strings of the Baroque Period. Cambridge Society for Early Music; Erwin Bodky, director; Ruth Posselt, Richard Burgin, violins. LP. Kapp KCL 9024 An Italian Sojourn. Trio Settecento. CD. Chicago: Cedille, 2006. Italian Violin Sonatas. Europa Galante. Virgin Veritas 5 45588 2. : Virgin, 2002. Italienische Blockflötenmusik des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Eckhardt Haupt, recorder; Achim Beyer, violin; Christine Schornsheim, harpsichord; Siegfried Pank, tenor viola da gamba. CD. Capriccio 10 234. Königsdorf: Delta Music GmbH, 1988. Blockflötenwerke von 10 italienischen Meistern. Frans Brüggen, recorder; Anner Bylsma, violoncello; Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord and organ. 3LPs. Telefunken Das Alte Werk 6.35073. Hamburg: Telefunken, 1968–74. Reissued on CD as Italian Recorder Sonatas. Teldec 4509-93669-2. Hamburg: Teldec 1995. Masters of the Italian Baroque. Steven Staryk, violin. Kenneth Gilbert, harpsichord. LP. Baroque BUS 2874. Baroque Records, . Maurice André Plays Trumpet Concertos. Maurice André, trumpet; Pierre Pierlot, oboe; Orchestre de chambre Jean-François Paillard, Jean François Paillard, cond. New York, N.Y.: Musical Heritage Society, 1969. Six Italian Sonatas. Michel Piguet, baroque oboe and recorder; Walther Stiftner, baroque bassoon; Martha Gmünder, harpsichord. Musical Heritage Society MHS 1864. New York: Musical Heritage Society, 1974. Title from container./ "Recorded by Erato."
Tetrazzini. Luisa Tetrazzini, soprano; with unidentified orchestras. Recorded between 1909 and 1914, digitally re-recorded from the original 78 rpm discs. CD. Wyastone Leys, Monmouth: Nimbus Records, 1990.
Veracini, Francesco Maria. 5 ouvertures / Ouvertüren / Overtures. Musica Antiqua Köln; Reinhard Goebel, dir. CD. Archiv Produktion 439 937-2. Hamburg: Deutsche Grammophon, 1994.
Veracini, Francesco Maria: Complete Overtures and Concertos, vol. 1. Accademia i Filarmonici; Alberto Martini, conductor. CD. Naxos 8.553412. Munich: Naxos, 1995.
Veracini, Francesco Maria: Complete Overtures and Concertos, vol. 2 Accademia i Filarmonici; Alberto Martini, conductor. CD. Naxos 8.553413. : Naxos, 1999.
Veracini, Francesco Maria. The Complete Sonatas, op. 1. Hyman Bress, violin; Jean Schrick, viola da Gamba; Oliver Alain, harpsichord. 3 LPs. Lyrichord and LLST 7141 ; LLST 7138, LLST 7139, LLST 7140. Lyrichord;. New York: Lyrichord Records, 1965.
Veracini, Francesco Maria. Nine Sonatas for Violin and Basso Continuo. Piero Toso, violin; Gianni Chiampan, violoncello; Edoardo Farina, harpsichord. 2 LPs. Erato 71197. Reissued on Musical Heritage Society MHS 4293, MHS 4294. Tinton Falls, N.J.: Musical Heritage Society, 1978. "Licensed from."
Veracini, Francesco Maria. Six Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord. Giorgio Bernabò, flute; Alan Curtis, harpsichord. CD. Dynamic CDS 114. Genoa: Dynamic Srl, 1994.
Veracini, Francesco Maria. Sonatas. John Holloway, violin; Jaap ter Linden, cello; Lars Ulrik Mortensen, harpsichord. CD. ECM New Series Munich: ECM Records, 2003.
Veracini, Francesco Maria. Sonate accademiche. Fabio Biondi, violin; Maurizio Naddeo, violoncello; Rinaldo Alessandrini, harpsichord; Pascal Monteilhet, theorbo. CD. Paris, France: Opus 111, 1995. OPS 30–138.
Veracini, Francesco Maria: Sonate accademiche. The Locatelli Trio. 3 CDs. Hyperion CDA 66871/3. London: Hyperion Records Ltd., 1995. Reissued 2007, Hyperion CDS44241/3.The Virtuose Italienische Blockflötenmusik. Michael Schneider, recorder; Michael McCraw, bassoon; Gerhart Darmstadt, cello; Bradford Tracey, harpsichord. CD. FSM Adagio FCD 91 634 Münster: Fono Schallplattengesellschaft mbH, 1990. The Virtuoso Harmonica. Adalberto Borioli, harmonica; Mirna Miglioranzi-Borioli, harpsichord. LP. Everest SDBR 3172. Los Angeles, Calif.: Everest, 1967. The Virtuoso Recorder. Frans Brüggen, recorder; Janny van Wering, harpsichord. LP. Decca DL 710049. New York: Decca, 1962. The Virtuoso Violinist. David Nadien, violin; Boris Barere, piano. LP. Kapp KCL 9060. : Kapp Records, 1961