Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni: 6 Quartetti per archi, Op. 3za — Set of Parts

Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni
(b Cuneo, 28 Jan 1757; d Cuneo, 6 Aug 1821). Italian violinist, composer and conductor, active in France. According to Fétis he studied the violin with Pugnani in Turin and composition with Speziani in Novara. He arrived in Paris in spring 1780, and on 15 May made his début as a violinist at the Concert Spirituel, performing one of his own concertos; the performance won considerable acclaim from the Mercure de France. In 1781 he joined the orchestra of the Comédie-Italienne. His first published work, a set of six violin duos, appeared in the following year and was soon followed by numerous other instrumental works, mostly for violin, and by the periodical collection Journal de violon (Baillon and Porro), on which Bruni collaborated. His first opera, Coradin, was performed at Fontainebleau in 1785 and in Paris the following year, and began a series of nearly 20 comic operas produced in Paris with considerable success over the next 15 years. In 1789 he was appointed by Viotti to the orchestra of the Théâtre de Monsieur as first solo violinist, and for a short time served as director of this orchestra, succeeding Mestrino, and of the orchestra of the Théâtre Montansier.