One contemporary obituary remarked that Francesco Barsanti (1690-1775) deserved to be held ‘in the highest estimation by all true lovers of that science’ - the science in question being the practice of music to which Barsanti had dedicated himself so usefully within English cultural life for the previous five decades.
The Sonatas featured here were first published in 1728, with a title page suggesting their suitability for flute, though a later edition allowed for an oboe instead. The seven musicians of Ensemble ConSerto Musico have taken their cue from this flexibility and presented the sonatas with the top line played alternately by a violin, a flute and an oboe. Interleaved between the sonatas are arrangements made by Barsanti of Scots folktunes such as ‘O Dear Mother, What Shall I Do’ and ‘Corn Riggs Are Bonny’.
Thus the album presents an attractive varied musical sequence as well as a handsome illustration of Barsanti’s diverse talents. Born in the Puglian town of Lucca, he arrived in the English capital at some point in the early 1720s, and rapidly made himself useful as a jobbing musician, copyist and composer, without ever attaining the celebrity of a Handel or even a Geminiani. Hence his relative obscurity in our own age.
However, the sonatas demonstrate more than a fluent contrapuntal technique. The melodic lines are always gracefully turned, whether slow or quick, and while they have been carefully made not to demand virtuoso performance, Barsanti’s art conceals considerable sophistication in form and construction which makes the sonatas as pleasing to play as to listen to.
His profile was perhaps lower among his professional colleagues, but this seems to have been due more to his own unassertiveness than to any lack of respect.
The sonatas, as well as the rest of his considerable surviving output, pursue a goal of combining learned technique (in form and polyphony) with fashionable trends in taste which would sell his music and carry it to new audiences, and beyond Handel and Geminiani, no composer in 18th-century England fulfilled that aim beyond Barsanti himself.
- Francesco Barsanti (1690–1775) was an Italian composer and flutist. Born in Lucca, he moved to London around 1714, where he worked as a performer and composer. Barsanti became closely associated with the musical circles of the Scottish and English aristocracy, particularly through his arrangements of Scottish folk tunes. His works reflect a synthesis of Italian and British musical traditions, blending expressive melodies with intricate counterpoint.
- Among his most important compositions are the Sonatas Opus 2, a collection of twelve sonatas for a melody instrument and basso continuo, published in 1738. These works are characterized by elegant phrasing, contrasting movements, and refined ornamentation. The Opus 2 sonatas, likely intended for flute or violin, follow the typical Baroque structure, often with alternating slow and fast movements, emphasizing both expressive depth and virtuosic brilliance, fusing Italianate lyricism with the more structured and reserved English taste of the period.
- Played by a selection of the finest Early Music specialists of Italy: Francesco Padovani (flute), Andrea Mion (Baroque oboe), Federico Guglielmo (violin), Francesco Galligioni (Baroque cello) and Roberto Loreggian (harpsichord), together forming the Ensemble ConSerto Musico.
