Alessandro Marcello

From Wind Repertory Project
Alessandro Marcello

Biography

Alessandro Ignazio Marcello (1 February 1673, Venice, Italy – 19 June 1747, Padua, Italy) was an Italian nobleman and composer.

Marcello was the son of a senator. As such, he enjoyed a comfortable life that gave him the scope to pursue his interest in music. He was a contemporary of Tomaso Albinoni. He held concerts in his hometown and also composed and published several sets of concertos, including six concertos under the title of La Cetra (The Lyre), as well as cantatas, arias, canzonets, and violin sonatas. Marcello, being a slightly older contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi, often composed under the pseudonym Eterio Stinfalico, his name as a member of the celebrated Arcadian Academy (Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi). He died in Padua in 1747.

Although most of his works are infrequently performed today, Marcello is regarded as a very competent composer. His La Cetra concertos are "unusual for their wind solo parts, concision and use of counterpoint within a broadly Vivaldian style," according to Grove, "placing them as a last outpost of the classic Venetian Baroque concerto."

The Concerto for Oboe and Strings in D Minor is perhaps his best-known work. Its worth was affirmed by Johann Sebastian Bach who transcribed it for harpsichord (BWV 974).


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