Personalities | Benedetto Marcello | Late Baroque | Classical

(Ba-na-dat’-to Mär-chel’-lo) 1686–1739
Italian composer and satirist

Marcello was a Venetian nobleman and younger brother of the composer Alessandro Marcello (1669–1750). Benedetto trained as a lawyer and held various public positions in Venice, including those of chamberlain and governor. He was not dependent upon music for a living and con­sequently styled himself dilettante. His compositions included concertos, sonatas, sinfonias and sacred vocal music. Fifty psalm paraphrases in the vernacular, published under the title Estro poetico-armonico (‘Theories on Poetic Harmony’, 1724–26), were admired by Telemann, Mattheson and others. His celebrated satire on Italian opera, Il teatro alla moda (‘The Theatre in Fashion’, 1720), ridiculed the operatic practices of Vivaldi on its title page and those of Venetian opera in general throughout.

Recommended Recording:
Estro poetico-armonico, soloists, Cantus Cölln (dir) Konrad Junghänel (Harmonia Mundi)

Introduction | Late Baroque | Classical
Personalities | Johann Mattheson | Late Baroque | Classical

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