The Best of Albinoni | Classical Music (1)

The Best of Albinoni
Tracklist:

0:00:00 Sonata a tre in G Minor, Op. 6 II. Adagio
Budapest Scoring Symphonic Orchestra, Peter Pejtsik

0:07:40 Symphony No. 3, In G, For Strings, 1. Allegro
0:12:09 Symphony No. 3, In G, For Strings, 2. Minuetto
0:16:54 Symphony No. 3, In G, For Strings, 3. Allegro

0:21:06 Sonata Op.2, No. 3, In C Major For Strings And Harpsichord, Grave - Allegro
0:26:26 Sonata Op.2, No. 3, In C Major For Strings And Harpsichord, Adagio
0:29:10 Sonata Op.2, No. 3, In C Major For Strings And Harpsichord, Allegro

0:31:59 Sonata Op.6, No. 3, In G Minor For Strings And Harpsichord, Grave
0:35:10 Sonata Op.6, No. 3, In G Minor For Strings And Harpsichord, Larghetto
0:38:42 Sonata Op.6, No. 3, In G Minor For Strings And Harpsichord, Largo
0:41:16 Sonata Op.6, No. 3, In G Minor For Strings And Harpsichord, Presto

0:43:50 Symphony No. 5, In D, For Strings, 1. Allegro
0:48:10 Symphony No. 5, In D, For Strings, 2. Minuetto
0:52:09 Symphony No. 5, In D, For Strings, 3. Allegro

0:54:18 Concerto Op.5, In D Minor, For Strings And Harpsichord, 1. Allegro
0:57:00 Concerto Op.5, In D Minor, For Strings And Harpsichord, 2. Adagio
0:59:15 Concerto Op.5, In D Minor, For Strings And Harpsichord, 3. Allegro
Budapest Scoring Symphonic Orchestra, Peter Illenyi

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (8 June 1671 – 17 January 1751) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. His output includes operas, concertos, sonatas for one to six instruments, sinfonias, and solo cantatas. While famous in his day as an opera composer, he is known today for his instrumental music, especially his concertos. He is best remembered today for a work called "Adagio in G minor", attributed to him but largely written by Remo Giazotto, a 20th century musicologist and composer, who was a cataloger of the works of Albinoni.

Born in Venice, Republic of Venice, to Antonio Albinoni, a wealthy paper merchant, he studied violin and singing. Relatively little is known about his life, which is surprising, considering his contemporary stature as a composer and the comparatively well-documented period in which he lived. In 1694 he dedicated his Opus 1 to the fellow-Venetian, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (grand-nephew of Pope Alexander VIII). His first opera, Zenobia, regina de Palmireni, was produced in Venice in 1694. Albinoni was possibly employed in 1700 as a violinist to Charles IV, Duke of Mantua, to whom he dedicated his Opus 2 collection of instrumental pieces. In 1701 he wrote his hugely popular suites Opus 3, and dedicated that collection to Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany.

In 1705, he married Margherita Rimondi; Antonino Biffi, the maestro di cappella of San Marco was a witness, and evidently was a friend of Albinoni. Albinoni seems to have no other connection with that primary musical establishment in Venice, however, and achieved his early fame as an opera composer in many cities in Italy, including Venice, Genoa, Bologna, Mantua, Udine, Piacenza, and Naples. During this time, he was also composing instrumental music in abundance: prior to 1705, he mostly wrote trio sonatas and violin concertos, but between then and 1719 he wrote solo sonatas and concertos for oboe.

Unlike most contemporary composers, he appears never to have sought a post at either a church or noble court, but then he had independent means and could afford to compose music independently. In 1722, Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, to whom Albinoni had dedicated a set of twelve concertos, invited him to direct two of his operas in Munich.

Around 1740, a collection of Albinoni's violin sonatas was published in France as a posthumous work, and scholars long presumed that meant that Albinoni had died by that time. However, it appears he lived on in Venice in obscurity; a record from the parish of San Barnaba indicates Tomaso Albinoni died in Venice in 1751.