Research in Musicology

Italian composer and violinist. His fame rests above all on the composition of L’Arte del Violino, a set of twelve violin concertos issued together with 24 Capricci for solo violin (positioned in the first and last movements of each concerto). This collection made a large impact on the development of violin technique, above all in France, where from the early 19th century Locatelli’s particular brand of virtuosity strongly influenced the teaching of the instrument. Although he was undoubtedly one of the founding fathers of modern virtuosity, he also left a corpus of music that – at least from his Op. 2 onwards – reflects the most advanced stylistic developments of his age.
Born to Filippo and Lucia Crocchi (or Trotta), he undoubtedly had his early musical training in and around the organ-loft of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Bergamo. He was probably taught by either Ludovico Ferronati or Carlo Antonio Marino, two of the city’s most prominent musicians. By April 1710, when he was still 14, he was already a member of the instrumental ensemble active in the church. In January of the following year he was officially appointed third violin. In the same year (1711) he requested and obtained permission to go to Rome. It used to be thought that in Rome he became a pupil of Corelli – but this assumption is legitimate only if ‘school’ is defined in the broadest possible terms. It is likely that Locatelli’s violin skills were refined with the help of a distinguished virtuoso from the great Corelli’s former entourage. A possible candidate is Giuseppe Valentini, who played alongside the young Locatelli at performances promoted by the noble Caetani family at Sermoneta in 1714. It is equally likely, however, that he turned to one of the eminent virtuosi working in the Ottoboni circle, such as Antonio Montanari or Domenico Ghilarducci. Between 1717 and 1723 we find that Locatelli, in the company of the finest performers of the day, was regularly called upon to play for Cardinale Pietro Ottoboni at the church of San Lorenzo in Damaso. From 1716 he took part, with a certain frequency, at the Congregazioni generali dei musici di S. Cecilia; his collaboration with this Roman corporation is repeatedly mentioned until 1722. It is not known when exactly he came into contact with Monsignor Camillo Cybo, major-domo to the Pope and dedicatee of the XII Concerti Grossi Opera I (1721), but he must have found himself under the protection of this noble prelate at a fairly early stage, perhaps even from the start of his membership of the Congregazione dei musici di S. Cecilia (1716). After February 1723, the date of his last documented performance at the household of Cardinal Ottoboni, information relating to Locatelli’s biography becomes extremely sparse. Although he might possibly be identified as the otherwise unspecified ‘bergamasco’ who played at San Giacomo degli Spagnoli in Rome in July of the same year, one fact remains: he disappears from the Roman documents some time in 1723, at about the same time as the departure from the city of his protector, Monsignor Cybo.
The fact that Locatelli was appointed ‘virtuoso da camera’ in 1725 by Landgrave Philipp von Hessen-Darmstadt, the Habsburg governor of Mantua, is not in itself proof of an extended visit to his court, for not a trace of his passage has been found among the Mantuan documents. Nor, for that matter, do the Venetian archives make any mention of a visit to Venice, though the dedicatory letter to the patrician Girolamo Michiel Lini in his volume of concertos, the Arte del Violino (Op. 3), does imply that he stayed there for some time between 1723 and 1727. On 26 June 1727 he is to be found north of the Alps, in Munich, at the court of the prince-elector Karl Albert, where his playing earned him 12 gold florins. The next year we find him in Berlin, as is implied by a report made by the ambassador of Brunswick at the Prussian court that refers to a performance at the palace of Monbijou before Queen Sophia Dorothea. Tradition also has it that he arrived at the court of Frederick William I of Prussia from Dresden, in the retinue of Augustus the Strong (prince-elector of Saxony and king of Poland), and that two performances earned him a gesture of the king’s appreciation in the form of a ‘sehr schwere goldene Dose mit Ducaten’. The difficulty of verifying this story is compounded by the similar difficulty of tracing Locatelli’s association with Prince Augustus and the court of Dresden, for unfortunately all that survives to confirm the link is the survival of a few compositions in the archive of the city’s musical chapel. Locatelli next surfaces in 1728, when he signs a page – containing an Andante later published in his Sonata III for flute and continuo of his Op. 2 (1732) – in an album (Stammbuch) belonging to Hendrik van Uchelen, a merchant of Dutch origin who resided in Frankfurt am Main. In December of the same year he was in Kassel, where he was rewarded with 80 imperial thalers for ‘services rendered’ at the court of Landgrave Carl von Hessen-Kassel. It is also thanks to his contacts with the court of Kassel that his arrival in Amsterdam can be dated with reasonable precision, for in a letter of December 1729 to Prince Maximilian von Hessen, he reports that he had been in Amsterdam for at least four months and expresses his intention to remain there over the whole winter. Certainly, what attracted Locatelli to the Republic of the United Provinces – and, more specifically, to Amsterdam - was not so much the opportunity for performing activities as the strong Dutch tradition of music publishing, which could boast not only advanced technology but also an efficient network of distribution that guaranteed wide, international distribution. When he arrived in Amsterdam, Locatelli resumed an association (begun back in 1721 over his Op. 1) with the publishing house of Roger-Le Cène, with which he arranged to bring out his orchestral works. The collections of chamber music (Opp. 2, 5 and 8), on the other hand, were published at his own expense and sold at his house. The careful planning and shrewd management he displayed in all of his publishing ventures are confirmed by his application in 1731 to the States of Holland and Western Frisia for a ‘privilege’ to protect the printing of his works. The privilege was granted for 15 years and renewed in 1746. As is reflected in his own testimony, as well as that of his contemporaries, Locatelli eventually retired from public performance (‘and he never will play any where but with Gentlemen’). Instead, every Wednesday, he held a concert at his own house for the benefit of what was probably a select circle of wealthy amateurs. The possessions found at his house on his death clearly show that the life he led during the 35 years spent in Amsterdam was a prosperous one. His personal effects included not only a large collection of works of art but also a sizeable assortment of old books on various subjects and in various languages: of some there was more than one copy, suggesting that Locatelli possibly also engaged in the book trade – a plausible conjecture if we consider the number of affluent book-collectors in Holland at the time.

Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali
Dipartimento per i beni archivistici e librari
Direzione generale per i beni librari e gli istituti culturali

Il Ministro
VISTO l'art.2 della Legge 12 gennaio 1991, n.13, concernente gli atti amministrativi emanati in forma di decreto ministeriale;
VISTA la Legge 1° dicembre 1997, n.420 istitutiva della Consulta dei Comitati Nazionali ed Edizioni Nazionali;
VISTO il D.Lgs. 20 ottobre 1998, n.368 "Istituzione del Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali" e successive modifiche ed integrazioni;
VISTA la Legge 12 luglio 1999, n.237 concernente "modifiche alla normativa sui beni culturali ed interventi a favore delle attività culturali";
VISTA la Legge 23 febbraio 2001, n.29, art.5, comma 11, abrogativo del comma 4 art.2 e del comma 5 art.3 della legge 1° dicembre 1997, n.420;
VISTO il D.Lgs. 22 gennaio 2004, n.42 "Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio" ai sensi dell'art. 10 della L. 6 luglio 2002, n.137;
VISTO il D.Lgs. 8 gennaio 2004, n.3 "Riorganizzazione del Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, ai sensi dell'art.1, della L. 6 luglio 2002, n.137";
VISTO il D.P.R. 10 giugno 2004 n.173 "Regolamento di organizzazione del Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali";
VISTO il D.M. 24.09.2004 "Articolazione della struttura centrale e periferica dei dipartimenti e delle direzioni generali del Ministero";
VISTA la richiesta del 15 marzo 2005 presentata dal Prof. Albert Dunning, Segretario Generale della Fondazione Locatelli;
VISTO il verbale della riunione della Consulta per i Comitati nazionali, svoltasi in Roma l’11 luglio 2005;
VISTI i pareri delle competenti Commissioni parlamentari;
VISTO il D.M. 1. 2. 2006 concernente la ripartizione dello stanziamento per l'anno finanziario 2006 di cui al cap. 2054;
DECRETA
- Art . 1 -
È promossa l’Edizione Nazionale dell’Opera omnia di Luigi Boccherini
- Art . 2 -
La Commissione incaricata di curare I lavori della suddetta Edizione è così composta:
-Prof. Dr. Theophil Antonicek
-Prof. Sergio Durante
-Prof. Dr. Ludwig Finscher
-Dr. Roberto Illiano
-Dr.ssa Fulvia Morabito
-Prof. Rudolf Rasch
-Dr. Massimiliano Sala
-Dr. Andrea Schiavina
-Prof. Dr. Christian Speck
- Art . 3 -
Per i membri del Comitato Nazionale non è prevista l'attribuzione di gettoni di presenza.
- Art. 4 -
La Commissione elegge nel proprio seno il Presidente e il Segretario Tesoriere
- Art. 5 -
La Commissione può ricevere contributi dalle Amministrazioni statali, dalle Regioni, dagli Enti locali e da istituzioni e soggetti pubblici e privati.
- Art. 6 -
Il presente decreto sarà inviato agli organi di controllo, per la registrazione, e sarà pubblicato sul Bollettino Ufficiale del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali.
Roma, 27 aprile 2006
IL MINISTRO