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.