Platti, G. B.: Ricercata 1-4


item number: 971641
in stock
Edition for violin and cello, 2 performance scores. Edited by Frohmut Dangel-Hofmann.

Giovanni Benedetto Platti was born during the last decade of the 17th century in the Veneto, the exact date and place of his birth could not yet be confirmed on the basis of archival sources. Having been admitted to the court-music ensemble of prince-bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schonborn as an oboe virtuoso in 1722, Platti spent the rest of his life in the services of the secular and religious rulers of the bishopric of Würzburg, later also as a violinist, a singer and voice teacher. There he died in 1763. Beside his job as an instrumentalist and singer, he also composed music, and quite a significant number of pieces, too. The catalogue of his works (both extant and lost) comprises 126 compositions at a least.
Ricercatas – the affinity between the term ricercata and older compositional techniques is perhaps suggested by the style of these duets, which is determined by its contrapuntal and thematic characteristics. The marked interplay between the two instruments (without the basso continuo) over and over again combines with cantabile passages with parallel voice leading. Apart from that, there are four-part sequences (with the exception of Ricercata 3): The opening slow movement is captioned »Adagio«, the second movement as well as the concluding fourth movement: »Allegro«. The slow movement in between appears as »Adagio«, »Siciliana« or »Largo«. Formally speaking, towards the end of each movement their respective beginning is restated like a reprise. In the two-part pieces (the parts of which are then to be repeated). the first section closes on a dominant (or major consecutives), the second section then resumes the preceding close and, after a few courses through other keys, is restored to the initial key. Only four Ricercatas (Nos. 1-3 and 6) have survived. The fourth and fifth compositions in this series are apparently lost.

Edition Walhall EW824.