Six Solos (Sonatas)
for Flute, Oboe or Violin with Continuo (ca. 1760)
Alessandro Besozzi, Italian oboist and composer, was a member of the band of the Irish Guard from 1714 to 1728, after which he became virtuoso oboe for the Duke of Farnese until 1731. For the remainder of his long life he served the King of Sardinia, Carlo Emanuelle III, as virtuoso oboe in the court chapel in Turin. In 1735 he and his brother, the bassoonist Paolo Girolamo, were favorably received in Paris for the Concerts Spirituel, but they soon returned to Turin, where Alessandro remained -- except for one brief trip to Parma -- until his death. In 1776 he was named Primo virtuoso di camera, direttore generale della musica istrumentale e suonatore di Hautbois.
Source: "Six Solos for the German Flute, Hautboy or Violin, With a Thorough Bass for the Harpsichord, Composed by Sig. Alessandro Bezozzi. London: Printed for and Sold by Edmund Chapman in Dukes Court, Bow Street, near Covent Garden, and at the Musick Shops. Price 6s."
The source contains a list of the 240 subscribers to Chapman's publication, showing the esteem with which Besozzi was regarded by his contemporaries. This group includes both professional musicians and members of the nobility, many of whom were enthusiastic amateurs, including: the Earl of Abingdon (flute), Samuel Baumgarten (bassoon), Charles Avison and John Stanley (organ), Thomas Augustine Arne and Dr. William Boyce (composers), John Hawkins (historian), Dr. Randall (Cambridge professor) and Thomas Rawlings (court musician).
Each work is published individually, with parts for solo instrument, bass instrument and continuo score with realization.
Sonata No. 1 in D Major fl/ob/vn, bass, continuo $10.00
Sonata No. 2 in G Major fl/ob/vn, bass, continuo $10.00
Sonata No. 3 in D Major fl/ob/vn, bass, continuo $10.00
Sonata No. 4 in G Major fl/ob/vn, bass, continuo $10.00
Sonata No. 5 in D Major fl/ob/vn, bass, continuo $10.00
Sonata No. 6 in C Major fl/ob/vn, bass, continuo $10.00
The set of six scores, with critical apparatus, solo & bass parts, $48.00
The set of six scores, with critical apparatus, without solo & bass parts, $32.00
Publication to follow:
Sonata for Oboe and Bassoon in F Major
Source: Manuscript two-line score found in the Conservatorio di Musica "Nicolo Paganini" in Genova, Italy, : "Sonata Per Oboe, e Fagotto Obbligati Del Sig:r Alessandro Besozzi". This is one of the large number of manuscripts which were copied by Federigo Taccoli in the last decade of the eighteenth century.