Francesco Maria Veracini
Ouverture no. 6 in G minorVeracini was born into a family of violinists in Florence and studied with his uncle. He made a career for himself as a composer and a virtuoso violinist all over Europe: in Venice, Dresden and London, and from 1745 in Florence again. He is best remembered for his Violin Sonatas, but he also wrote violin concertos, recorder sonatas, orchestral suites, operas and oratorios.
Veracini wrote six orchestral suites, or Ouvertures, in Venice in 1716. He gave each of his six Ouvertures a distinctive overall form. Ouverture no. 6 in G minor has four movements and is a good example of Veracini’s intense and idiosyncratic expressive idiom. The woodwinds are used almost in concertante fashion. The work opens with a dramatic Allegro with scurrying triplet figures, followed by a steady Largo and a determined Allegro. The work concludes with a curious Minuet, where all instruments play the same melody in unison throughout the movement.
Shortened from Kimmo Korhonen's work presentation
Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi