Antonio Bertali

Antonio Bertali

born in March 1605 in Verona, Veneto, Italy

died on 17/4/1669 in Wien, Austria

Antonio Bertali

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Antonio Bertali (probably March 1605 – 17 April 1669) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era.

He was born in Verona and received early music education there from Stefano Bernardi. Probably from 1624, he was employed as court musician in Vienna by Emperor Ferdinand II. In 1649 Bertali succeeded Giovanni Valentini as court Kapellmeister. He died in Vienna in 1669 and was succeeded in his post by Giovanni Felice Sances.

Bertali's compositions are in the manner of other northern Italian composers of the time and include operas, oratorios, a large number of liturgical works, and chamber music. Particularly his operas are notable for establishing the tradition of Italian opera seria in Vienna. Approximately half of his output is now lost; copies survive made by Bertali's contemporary, Pavel Josef Vejvanovský, some of the pieces are currently in possession of Vienna's Hofbibliothek, the library of the Kremsmünster Abbey and the Kromí archive. The most important source for Bertali's work is, however, the Viennese Distinta Specificatione catalogue, which lists several composers of the Habsburg court and provides titles and scoring for more than 2000 compositions.

The "Chaconne" or "Ciaccona" is perhaps his best-known work.

External links

This page was last modified 26.02.2014 06:18:41

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