English Translation by Warwick Lister, Turnhout, Brepols, 2018 (Studies on Italian Music History, 11), pp. xx+288, isbn 978-2-503-58017-3.
Published in collaboration with the Italian National Edition of the Complete Works by Pietro Antonio Locatelli and with the Assistance from Direzione Educazione, ricerca e istituti culturali (MIC)
Pietro Antonio Locatelli (Bergamo 1693 – Amsterdam 1764) was a composer and violin virtuoso. After his period of education in Rome he became an itinerant virtuoso; in 1729 he settled in Amsterdam where he dedicated himself to the publication of his nine Opus numbers — including the masterpiece L’Arte del violino Op. 3. He also pursued concert activity, the trading of books and prints, teaching, and collaborated with the publisher Le Cène.
This allowed Locatelli to pursue a life sheltered by the court environment that lay at the heart of the contemporary musical world. As an entrepreneur and an early incarnation of the nineteenth-century virtuoso, however, Locatelli also cuts a strikingly ‘modern’ figure. The study of Locatelli’s life and works opens up a panorama onto the musical world of the late-Baroque period.
The in-depth investigation of the reception of Locatelli’s works allows us to understand the artistic legacy of the musician, highlighting its influence on the French and Italian violin traditions: Paganini was among the most significant beneficiaries of the Locatelli tradition. The volume also includes an English translation of the inventory of the effects catalogued following Locatelli’s death — an exegetical instrument of fundamental importance, known thus far only through Dutch and Italian translations. The book also includes an iconographic section, printed in colour.
Fulvia Morabito is currently President of the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini and President of the scientific committee of the Italian National Edition of Luigi Boccherini’s Complete Works (Ut Orpheus Edizioni). Graduated in musicology from the University of Pavia, she received a M.Mus in piano from the Conservatory Luigi Boccherini, Lucca). In 1994 she joined the editorial staff of the Stichting-Fondazione Pietro Antonio Locatelli (Amsterdam-Cremona) as editor of the Locatelli Opera Omnia. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Francesco Geminiani’s Opera Omnia (Ut Orpheus Edizioni) and General Editor of the series Monumenta Musica Europea and Studies on Italian Music History (Brepols Publishers). She is also a founder of Ad Parnassum. A Journal of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Instrumental Music and an editor of the series Ad Parnassum Studies (Ut Orpheus Edizioni). She published 2 monographs on P.A. Locatelli (2009 and 2018) and another on La Romanza vocale da camera in Italia (1997), critical editions, edited volumes, articles, and dictionaries entries.
