Zavateri, Lorenzo Gaetano: Concerti da chiesa e da camera

Composer(s)

Lorenzo Gaetano Zavateri (b Bologna, 9 Aug 1690; d Bologna, Dec 1764). Italian violinist and composer. He studied the violin with Giuseppe Torelli and composition with L.A. Predieri. He achieved considerable fame as a violinist in Livorno, Venice and Ferrara (there is no evidence that, as is sometimes stated, he was a cellist). He became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna on 20 May 1717 and held various offices in that organization. His name appears in the records of S Petronio, Bologna, from 1713, when he was engaged to play the violin at several patronal feasts. He joined the regular cappella musicale as a viola player in December 1725 and, with brief interruptions, played the violin or viola there until his death. Among his pupils were N. Lenzi, G. Castoneri and G.F. Landini as well as some members of the nobility. He published two sets of instrumental pieces, of which his op.1, Concerti da chiesa e da camera (?Bologna, 1735), received praise from Padre Martini for ‘a well refined intelligence’. In the set of 12 concertos, only five call for an obbligato violin; the others use no solo instruments. No.9 is called ‘Concerto teatrale’, no.10 ‘Concerto a pastorale’ (in which the final movement is a pastorale in 12/8) and no.12 ‘Concerto a tempesta di mare’, with indications on the score depicting the progress of a storm. These works and the Divertimenti musicali per camera a violino e tasso op.2 (Pesaro, n.d.) show considerable virtuosity, imaginative writing and a keen understanding of the instrument. The dance pieces in the 1736 manuscript collection of Petronio Francesco Rampionesi (I-Bc), designed for the amateur, are much less impressive.