Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra performs Adagio in G Minor for violin, strings, and organ continuo, a neo-Baroque composition popularly attributed to the 18th-century Venetian master Tomaso Albinoni (8 June 1671 – 17 January 1751), but actually composed by 20th-century musicologist and Albinoni biographer Remo Giazotto (September 4, 1910, Rome – August 26, 1998, Pisa). 1st violin and conductor: Rolla János. Recorded at the Basilica of the Pannonhalma Archabbey, Hungary.
Remo Giazotto served as a music critic (from 1932) and editor (1945-1949) of the Rivista Musicale Italiana and was appointed co-editor of the Nuova rivista musicale italiana in 1967. He was a professor of the history of music at the University of Florence (1957–69).
In 1949, Giazotto became the director of the chamber music programs for RAI (Radio Audizioni Italiane), and in 1966 its director of the international programs organized through the European Broadcasting Union. He was also the president of RAI’s auditioning committee and editor of its series of biographies on composers.
Giazotto is famous for his publication of a work called Adagio in G minor, which he claimed to have transcribed from a manuscript fragment of an Albinoni sonata that he had received from the Saxon State Library. He stated that he had arranged the work but not composed it. He subsequently revised this story, claiming it as his own original composition. The fragment has never appeared in public; Giazotto stated that it contained only the bass line, and the work was copyrighted by Giazotto.
The Adagio is a very famous musical piece and is used in a number of movies, television series, and even in pop music songs.
Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra
The Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Liszt Ferenc Kamarazenekar) was founded in 1963 by former students at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest. The first artistic director of the ensemble was Frigyes Sándor, a renowned professor of the Academy. After his death, one of Hungary’s leading violinists, Rolla János (b. 1944) has been concertmaster of the orchestra.
The orchestra have built up an international reputation which has been underlined by concerts in more than 50 countries, including the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Sydney Opera House, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Their repertoire consists of baroque, classical, romantic and modern pieces as well. They have made more than 200 discs, and played with soloists like Sviatoslav Richter, Yehudi Menuhin, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Vadim Repin and Zoltán Kocsis to name a few. The orchestra consists of 16 strings, occasionally accompanied by a harpsichord soloist, winds or other instruments.
Related: Albinoni – Adagio [Lviv Virtuosos]
Sources
- Remo Giazotto on wikipedia
- Adagio in G minor on wikipedia
- Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra on wikipedia
- Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra home page
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This is truly beautiful stuff. I hope to hear more of this in the future, It really brightened my day.
Thanks for watching, Michael!