Event programme

Gradus ad Parnassum

The concert programme takes us from Italy, where Giuseppe Tartini worked, to the area of the Habsburg Monarchy at the time, where we first meet Anna Bon, an Italian composer who worked at the Esterházy court at the end of her artistic career. Then we listen to the Slovenian composer working in Vienna, Janez Krstnik Dolar, and finally, we move to the Habsburg court, where Hofkapellmeisters Johann Joseph Fux and Antonio Caldara take us over with their music. The programme is designed as a journey through the Baroque era, as we keep returning to the past from the younger generation of composers. The title of the concert is Gradus ad Parnassum, which is also the title of an extensive work in the field of counterpoint written by Johann Joseph Fux.


Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
Sonata I
Allegro / Larghetto

Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
Sonata III
Adagio / Allegro assai

Anna Bon di Venezia (1738-?)
Divertimento III
Andantino / Allegro / Presto

Janez Krstnik Dolar (1620-1673)
Balletti a 4 in f
Intrada / Treza / Treza / Gigue / Retirada

*******

Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741)
Partita VII
Sinfonia: Adagio.Andante.Allegro / La joye des fidels sujets: Allegro / Aria Italiana – Arie francoise / Les enemis confus: Andante

Antonio Caldara (1670-1736)
Sonata V
Grave / Vivace / Vivace



The title of the concert, Gradus ad Parnassum (ascent to Parnassus) is used as a parable and represents the ascent of artists towards the artistic summit. In Greek mythology, Parnassus is the mountain where Apollo resides with the Muses, and in Greek mythology it is considered the home of all the arts. The concert programme, which leads us from Italy to Vienna, presents composers from different Baroque eras and different musical styles. Despite the differences in their compositional style, they are united by the desire to achieve perfection and the symbolic ascent to Parnassus. Since its founding in 2020, Ensemble Tacet has been experimenting and adapting works that are not originally recorded for its ensemble of flute, violin, and harpsichord. Flute and violin can replace each other in some compositions due to their relative position and technical capabilities of the instrument, which we will be able to listen to at the concert as well. In Sonatas no. I and III by Giuseppe Tartini, the flute takes over the role of second, then first violin, in Divertimento no. 3 by composer Anna Bon, the violin replaces the second flute. In Ballett a 4 by Janez Krstnik Dolar, Partita no. VII by Johann Joseph Fux and in Sonata no. In Antonio Caldara, however, the role of the first violin is taken over by the flute.

Giuseppe Tartini was born in Piran. He was educated at home and at the Collegio dei Padri delle Scuole Pie in Koper. In 1708 he began studying law at the University of Padua, but in 1710 he secretly married the niece of Cardinal Bishop Cornaro and was forced to leave Padua. He stayed in Assisi, Ancona, and Venice. He did not return to Padua until 1721, where he was appointed 1st violinist and leader of the concert players of the Basilica of St. Anton. In 1727/1728, he founded his own school for teaching the violin. His oeuvre mainly consists of music for the violin; among others, 131 concerts and at least 174 sonatas, in which he established the technical innovations of his violin playing. Despite his roots, he had no connection with musical life in Slovenia in the 18th century. One of his most famous works is the sonata for violin entitled The devil trill. He died in 1770 in Padua.

Anna Bon di Venezia, Italian composer, was born into an artistic family. She was educated in Venice, at the Ospedale della Pieta school. The school was intended for girls, and they were educated at a very high level; one of the teachers is said to be the composer Antonio Vivaldi. Anna left school when she was about 17 years old. She joined her parents and worked together with them first at the court of Count Friedrich III. and his wife Wilhelmina in Bayreuth, and then in Vienna and today's Bratislava. Her last post was at the court of the Esterházy family in Eisenstadt. After 1767, we find no more sources that talk about her. During her artistic career, she worked as a harpsichordist, singer, and composer. Her works include three collections of sonatas; Opus I comprise six sonatas for flute and basso continuo, Opus II six sonatas for harpsichord and Opus III six divertimentos or sonatas for two flutes and basso. She also wrote the aria Astra Coeli and is said to have participated in the creation of the opera Artaserse. Her works are stylistically moving away from the Baroque, they are classified as Rococo, most of them were created during her stay in Bayreuth.

Janez Krstnik Dolar is considered the main creator of the Middle Baroque period in Slovenia. For a long time, he was considered a Czech composer due to various names. Dr Dragotin Cvetko substantiated his Slovenian origin with evidence. He was educated at the Jesuit college in Ljubljana, and then studied philosophy and theology in Vienna, where he was later ordained a priest. Between 1645 and 1647, he also taught music at the Jesuit College in Ljubljana. He completed his master's degree in Steyr, and then worked in Vienna, Graz, Passau, Gyor and Judenburg. In the years 1660-1673, he worked as a music director in the Jesuit church in Vienna, where he also died. Some of his works were originally published in the collection Musica Antiqua Bohemica, and then they were published in their entirety in the collection Monumenta artis musicae Sloveniae. His opus includes three dance suites, two ensemble sonatas, masses, psalms, and an antiphon. They are kept in Kroměříž in Moravia. His musical style is characterized by lively, folk-music-like melodies and lively rhythms. His style was influenced by Italian and French composers of his time.

Johann Joseph Fux is an Austrian composer born near Graz. He was educated at the Jesuit high school, and then at the Ferdinandeum in Graz, where, as a child of poorer parents, he had to work as a musician in the Jesuit church. He later studied at the Jesuit University in Ingolstadt, where he worked as an organist. He left Ingolstadt around 1688 and returned to Vienna, where he married in 1696. During this time, he worked as one of the court composers of Emperor Leopold I. In 1711, he assumed the position of deputy Hofkapellmeister at the Viennese court, and at the same time he worked as the head of the chapel of the widow of Emperor Joseph I. In 1715, he assumed the position of Hofkapellmeister, his deputy but it was Antonio Caldara. He worked in Vienna until his death in 1741. His opus includes sacred (masses, oratorios, litanies, motets, graduals, litanies, and other works) and secular works (19 operas, 29 partitas, 50 sonatas da chiesa and other instrumental works.) His theoretical and pedagogical work Gradus ad Parnassum was written in 1725 and was published in Latin. It is considered one of the most important works on counterpoint of the time.

Antonio Caldara came from a musical family and sang in the boys' choir in the Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice. He learned to play the harpsichord, viola, and cello. Already in 1689, he was a well-known cellist and composer. During this time, he wrote operas, sonatas da chiesa and da camera and cantatas. From Venice, he first went to Mantua, where he worked as a chapel leader (in the church and in the theatre) at the court of Duke Charles IV. Unfortunately, we do not have preserved works from this period. After the Duke's death, Caldara moved first to Rome, and then travelled to Barcelona, where he composed for Charles III, who in 1711 became the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI. Only in 1716 did Caldara become the deputy Hofkapellmeister of Johann Joseph Fux at the Viennese court, where he remained until his death in 1736. His oeuvre includes more than 70 operas, 30 oratorios, motets and sonatas and other musical works.