THE THIRD CONCERT OF THE PROJECT “I BORGHESE E LA MUSICA” ENTITLED: FRANCESCO GASPARINI. A MUSICIAN IN ROME BETWEEN CHURCH AND PALACE IS ONLINE
The project “I Borghese e la musica“, launched by the Galleria Borghese last December to explore the commissions of the Borghese family to musicians of the 17th and 18th centuries, presents a new chapter dedicated to Francesco Gasparini, a musician active in Rome until the 1720s.
On December 8th, the concert of this interesting and prolific composer will be broadcast at 7 pm on galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it on the HomePage and on the official social media channels of the museum, and on Saturday January 1st at 6:30 pm in the program “Dal Vivo” on Rai Radio 3 Classica. The concert, held in the Mariano Rossi Hall of the Gallery, consists of a “Messa a quattro voci concertata” and some secular Cantatas for alto and basso continuo.
The production of the concert availed itself of the valuable collaboration of the International Museum of Music in Bologna and the Department of Early Music of the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.
The manuscript of the Messa a quattro voci concertata (I-Rsm 117/43) was found and transcribed by the musicologist Luca Della Libera who edited the printed edition for A-R Edition, Inc. Middleton – Wisconsin USA within the volume “Masses by Alessandro Scarlatti and Francesco Gasparini – Music from the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome”.
The manuscripts of the Cantatas have been investigated and transcribed by Prof. Annarosa Vannoni and are preserved in the library of the former Liceo Musicale in Bologna, now deposited at the Museum of Music, and are part of a precious miscellany (DD. 48) containing ten cantatas including “Queste voci dolenti” by Gasparini. The opportunity of study allowed to select two Cantatas by Floriano Arresti, also a pupil of Pasquini and a musician in Rome at the end of 1600, which can be heard in their first performances in modern times.
Francesco Gasparini, was born in Camaiore in 1661 but completed his studies in Rome with Bernardo Pasquini and Arcangelo Corelli. In 1682, he was organist in the church of Madonna dei Monti and at the same time he began his collaboration with the oratory of SS. Crucifix of San Marcello for which he composed several oratorios.
In the first half of 1700 he had relationships with Prince Marcantonio Borghese and his consort Livia Spinola. In 1720, he appears with the title “virtuoso of Prince Borghese” and from 1725 to 1727 he was among the masters of the Cappella Paolina, established by Pope Paul V and Cardinal Scipione Borghese in the previous century, in Santa Maria Maggiore.
In his years of activity, he composed over sixty works, cantatas, oratorios, and instrumental and sacred music.