4 - The concerto in northern Europe to c.1770

Summary

The Italian concerto was brought north across the Alps by travelling virtuosos and touring princes; it was further disseminated by enterprising publishers and through the avid sharing of manuscript copies among musicians; and by the 1720s it was everywhere. The best northern composers, many of whom had never been to Italy, contributed prolifically to the genre and stamped it with their own creativity; indeed, the hundreds of concertos produced in northern Europe in the first half of the eighteenth century represent a vast, and largely unexplored, treasury.

The importance of the concerto to northern musical culture is perhaps best exemplified by the repertory produced and performed by members of the Saxon court orchestra in Dresden, arguably the best in Europe in the first half of the eighteenth century. From the Kapellmeister Johann David Heinichen (1683–1729), who had himself been to Venice, some two dozen wonderful concertos survive, works that were often performed for the Saxon elector and his entourage as they celebrated a successful day of hunting in the antler-bedecked dining hall of their country castle, the Moritzburg. The heroic horn calls and pressing ritornellos of Heinichen's allegros recall the excitement of the hunt, while their arcadian slow movements evoke the bucolic aspect of the surrounding countryside. The Dresden first violinist, Johann Georg Pisendel (1687–1755), had studied with Torelli in Germany and later with Vivaldi in Venice; only seven of his concertos survive, but this mere remnant demonstrates how well Pisendel had learned his lessons from the Italians, and how creatively he engaged with the genre.