Legrenzi, Giovanni 08/12/1626 - 05/27/1690

Giovanni Legrenzi (* baptized August 12, 1626 in Clusone near Bergamo; died 27 May 1690 in Venice, Italy) was an Italian composer. His first artistic training was given by his father, Giovanni Maria Legrenzi, a violinist and composer Giovanni Legrenzi. At the age of 19, Legrenzi 1645 was appointed as organist of the Church of San Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. When he had been ordained a priest in 1651, he was employed there as a pastor. He nurtured a close collaboration with the also active conductor Maurizio Cazzati. Their trio sonatas in church sonata style were performed during the masses.

His first instrumental works which show him in the area of the trio sonata as a predecessor of Arcangelo Corelli date from this period. [1]
In 1656 he was appointed chapel master at Accademia dello Spirito Sancto in Ferrara. Legrenzi held this office until 1665. He also began to compose operas under the influence of the librettist Hippolito Bentivoglio In Ferrara. In 1662 came his first opera "Nino il Giusto"[Nino the Just] as a performance. Legrenzi tried again and again to get better endowed positions. He ran unsuccessfully in Venice (1665), Milan (1669), Parma (1670) and Bologna (1671), he did not take the office of a court musician at the French court for health reasons. In 1665 he applied to no avail for a job at the Imperial Court in Vienna, possibly as successor to Antonio Bertali.

At the latest, around 1670 Legrenzi Venice establishe himself, where he joined the post of Maestro di Musica at the Ospedaletto as successor of Massimiliano Neri. In addition from 1671 to 1681 he held the management of the oratorio of the Congregatione dei Filipini, for which he composed several oratorios. In 1676 he moved from the Ospedaletto to the Ospedale dei Mendicanti, where he held also the post of Maestro di Musica until 1683. After several years not being active Legrenzi resumed the opera production starting in 1675. in 1683 San Salvatore in Venice was listed at the Teatro Giustino, his most successful opera.

After he was defeated by Natale Monferrato in a competition for the post of chapel master at St Mark's Basilica, he was appointed vice chapel master starting in 1681, and four years later, after Monferratos's death, he became conductor of the orchestra. Headed by Legrenzis the choir and orchestra increased significantly, in particular he set strings, which shifted the sound of the horns in favor of strings. Legrenzis' grandnephew Giovanni Varischino was included to his numerous pupils and he bequeathed his entire musical estate to him, and probably Antonio Lotti, Domenico Gabrielli, Francesco Gasparini, Antonio Caldara and perhaps the young Antonio Vivaldi. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Legrenzi