Antonio Lolli: Concerto No. 7 in G major (1775)
Antonio Lolli
born around 1725 in Bergamo
died 1802 in Palermo
First performance
1775 by Giovanni Giornovichi (also Ivan Mane Jarnović) in Paris at the Concert Spirituel
CD recording
Luca Fanfoni 2006
A brief preliminary remark: for linguistic reasons, Antonio Lolli could easily be confused with Antonio Lotti, the Venetian composer almost two generations older and former Maestro di
Cappella of St Mark's Church. But this is about Antonio Lolli and the violin concertos of this exceptional violinist, who was famous throughout Europe in the 18th century, was born in Bergamo
around 1725 and died in Palermo in 1802.
Stations of his life were:
- 1758-74: solo violonist at the court of Stuttgart;
- 1774-83: chamber virtuoso at the court of Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg;
- In between and afterwards, extensive concert tours to London, Paris (at the Concert Spirituel he composed for the Chevalier de Saint Georges), Vienna (where he became friends with Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf), through Italy, where he also met Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart);
- In 1796 he moved to Naples, then to Palermo, where he died impoverished and probably in debt because of gambling addiction, despite his always considerable income.
Lolli's nine violin concertos were all published in Paris. All of them are unknown, because Lolli was remembered more as a violinist than as a composer. In his Geschichte des Concertwesens in
Wien (Vienna: Braumüller, 1869, p. 107), the famous music critic Eduard Hanslick called Lolli "the forerunner and model for Paganini and the spiritual father of all violin virtuosos". Even today,
Giuliano Carmignola recognises moments of genius in Lolli's violin technique: "Lolli plays with bold passages, he brings octave and decimal runs, ludicrous leaps and changes of register. Some of
it is reminiscent of Locatelli, and at the same time it points ahead to Paganini".
Contemporary criticism of Lolli's compositions (especially violin concertos and violin sonatas) was divided: The Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung stated that Lolli's exceptional technique,
well suited to the fast movements of the concertos, was not supported by sufficient musicality, which severely limited his expressiveness in the middle tempi (Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, 12
June 1799, 578-584). The slow movements were full of harmonic shocks and the fast ones overloaded with bravura passages. There was a lack of strict counterpoint, Lolli was a mechanic and often
left the completion of the orchestral parts to others.
More positively, the chronicles of his time describe him as a particularly elegant, refined, ironic, whimsical, art-loving and sometimes provocative man. The German poet and composer
Christian Schubart described Lolli as "perhaps the Shakespear [sic] among violinists" because of the strong, poetic and determined character of his performances.
More on Lolli's curriculum vitae: here!
The question arises, then, which of these nine unknown violin concertos should be singled out to commemorate this unknown pioneer of virtuosity and of a new violin technique?
Because all the concertos are similar in the virtuosity of the violin part, it doesn't really matter. I choose the seventh concerto in G major, which was performed in 1775 by one of Lolli's
pupils, the Italo-Croatian violinist Giornovichi / Jarnovicek in Paris at the Concert Spirituel and, according to - unfortunately unverified - sources, had the greatest success of all his
concertos. Listening to this concerto is definitely worthwhile for all violin fans.
Listen here!
Listening companion:
I. Allegro Spiritoso
Two motives characterise the first theme: twice a multi-octave leap and a syncopated answering vocal gesture, a witty, tense beginning, genuinely dialectical and "spiritoso". A succinct
continuation of the answering gesture leads to a second simpler swaying theme, charming and elegant. A Mannheim crescendo and a clear conclusion end this introductory old-style ritornello.
The solo violin follows, and one notices how aptly the ritornello themes are adapted to the violin. Large multi-octave leaps over the empty G side, then double stops heighten the effect of the
Spiritoso theme. The answering gesture floats away to a piquant height and then also closes in double stops. The violin also takes the swaying second theme to technically virtuoso heights. It
plays with it to the highest possible final note.
In the second tutti, the main ritornello theme appears again, now in the dominant D. The Mannheim crescendo can also be heard again. Then the solo violin also enters with the head motif in the
dominant D and varies the first theme in long triplet passages, which again lead to technically astonishing heights. In these high notes, the second theme is suddenly heard in a minor key, which
is then repeated in a sonorous, lower violin sound.
The third short ritornello tutti begins in the minor and leads back to the head motif in the major. Then the violin takes all the freedom it needs and invents variant motifs and new themes that
emerge from its wild passages and double stops. A lyrical passage in the violin - first in the high register, then in the low register - makes the listener sit up and take notice once more,
before the violin then rushes resolutely towards the final top notes in rapid eighth-note runs. The tutti concludes in a short, radiant G major.
II. Adagio cantabile
A dotted ascending E minor triad in the strings followed by a leisurely descending pendulum opens the tutti accompaniment for a lyrical solo entry by the violin. A simple melody beginning in a
dreamy minor only reaches its end through several unusual turns.
A descending dotted triad in the strings immediately invites the violin to continue following its melody, which now finds its way to melodic simplicity and to G major in a liberating high
register.
A brief interlude by the tutti leads to a kind of recapitulation of the initial E minor melody, which, however, also seems to lose its way dreamily after a while and only finds a conclusion in a
kind of cadenza, finally ended simply in E minor by the tutti.
III. Allegro
A rhythmically multi-layered G major allegro theme in the tutti dominates the agitated beginning of the last movement. A secondary theme of the opening ritornello recalls the melody of the middle
movement, another theme oscillates almost signal-like between D and E of the middle register.
The solo violin enters twice with the rhythmic allegro theme, but then quickly seizes the opportunity to seek out passages with virtuoso leaps and figurations in the highest registers and present
them to the audience. Is it not such ingratiating extremely high, sensational violin playing that the audience wanted to hear even then?
The main theme is also transformed almost unrecognisably into virtuoso playing: the violin delivers richly until the tutti plays the signal-like secondary theme, which the violin also takes over
immediately, as if it had forgotten it from all the violin technique. But this theme is also ingeniously transformed into virtuosity.
Finally, the tutti intones the second ritornello in the dominant D major in a lower, discrete register, but then allows the signal-like secondary theme to blossom brightly.
The solo violin also begins its second virtuoso solo in the dominant with the Allegro theme of the beginning. Again, it is fast semiquaver passages, ingratiating trebles, 32nd-note figurations
and double-stop playing that should astonish the audience.
After an intervening crescendo section of the tutti, the solo violin brings in a kind of march theme for a change (see illustration above), made up of elements of the ritornello themes. Even a
dolce theme caresses the audience once more, before astonishing virtuosity leads to a brilliant conclusion entirely focused on the solo violin. The violin - discovered as an instrument at the
beginning of the 18th century and technically perfected at the end of the century - was the focus of everything in this concert; an instrument was celebrated and became a sensation thanks to its
virtuosity.