Francesco Antonio Bonporti: Concerto a quattro, due Violini, alto Viola, e Basso, con Violino di Rinforzo op 11 No 5 (um 1715)
Francesco Antonio Bonporti:
born 11 June 1672 in Trento
died 19 December 1749 in Padua
Time of composition:
c. 1715
CD recordings:
Simon Standage 1992
Stanley Richie 1995
Alberto Martini 2001
A concerto too beautiful to be simply forgotten or lost in a body of work, this fifth violin concerto in F major from the collection Concerti a quattro, due Violini, alto Viola, e Basso, con
Violino di Rinforzo (Trento, c. 1715). It is a brilliantly beautiful piece of music from a collection of ten concertos. The concerto comes, it says on the original edition, "del SIG.D.Francesco
Antonio Bonporti, Dilettante di Musica, e familiare aulico di sua maestà caesarea, regia, e cattolica". This title was given to Signor Bonporti by Emperor Charles VI, because Bonporti was a
well-trained and widely recognised composer. This was helped by the fact that Bonporti had his compositions printed at his own expense and sent them far and wide.
Born in Trento, he was admitted to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome in 1691, where he studied theology. While in Rome he also trained in composition with Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, and possibly
in violin with Arcangelo Corelli, but this is not historically confirmed.
He was ordained a priest in 1695 and returned to Trento, working at Trento Cathedral for most of his life, though without occupying any significant professional or ecclesiastical position.
Because, to his disappointment, he was not appointed canon of Trento Cathedral, he left Trento and spent his last 8 years in Padua, where he was buried in 1749, a year before Bach's death. Bach
was impressed by his 10 Invenzioni [da Camera] a Violino solo [e Basso] (1712 and following) and copied them, so there was a mix-up and Invenzioni by Bonporti was included in the Bach catalogue
of works.
Like Vivaldi, he was a priest, but he did not travel or conduct operas. His surviving compositions are largely works for violin or sacred motets.
Too beautiful to be forgotten. In the meantime, there is a Bonporti edition on CDs, and now and then one of his concerti can be heard, for basically these concerti a quattro with an
amplifying violin are violin concertos in the Italian style. However, the emphasis is less on virtuosity than on the variety of sounds and movements that music can produce. The concerto presented
here in particular bears witness to Bonporti's very own internalised love of music. Bonporti, a dilettante di musica in fact.
To be heard here:
1st movement (Largeto)
2nd movement (Recitativo. Adagio assai)
3rd movement (Allegro)
Listening companion:
I. "Largeto"
The beginning like a question, a listening for what may come! Then a peaceful swinging out of the triplets like a sensitive answer. This is not followed, as is usual in Italian violin concertos, by a brilliant first movement; rather, it continues peacefully, like an attentive discourse, aiming at consensus without problematising, a dialogue back and forth in careful 3/8ths time. Now and then a brief pause, only to continue immediately. Time loses itself in this swaying progress, the impulses dissolve, mingle and everything in a conciliatory mood. Only a kind of reprise brings open questions again, as at the beginning, and again a kind of conciliatory answer, but not to stop, but to linger in this peaceful conversation. Now the solo violin also contributes its voice with strikingly rising melodic arches. Everything flows, again and again this swinging out of the triplets. Only slowly, a peaceful holding in. The questions are allowed to remain, no more answers.
II. Recitatio. Adagio assai
Immediately, the solo violin enters with a free recitative. One follows its narration eagerly. A long, breathtakingly beautiful melody, accompanied again and again by broken chords, expresses itself, brings in the most beautiful thing that violin playing can bring. A person pours out his heart, painfully, but not without consolation. Is it even gratitude, to be carried in everything and yet to be oneself and alone? Humble conclusion.
III. Allegro
Only now does lively concerto playing actually begin, as is typical of Italian violin concertos. An Allegro movement plays itself into enthusiasm in the back and forth of motifs. Rapid tempo and glittering figures, as befits a violin concerto. The music sweeps along without pushing and rushing. Charmingly, the concerto courts our attention, our tuning in, and our joy. Then it's already over, that's all it needs.