Ferdinando Bertoni
Six String Quartets
ed. by Simone Laghi and Paola Visconti
(Musica Strumentale, 7)

Ferdinando Bertoni (1725-1813), pupil of G. B. Martini, spent most of his life in Venice, where he was choir master at the Pio Ospedale dei Mendicanti, then first organist and subsequently chapel master in San Marco. Particularly prolific as a composer of large sacred and prophane vocal compositions, his chamber music output is on the contrary quite scarce. Bertoni wrote about ten compositions for keyboard, the Six sonatas for the harpsichord or piano forte with an accompaniment for violin and the Six Quartetto's for two Violins, a Tenor and a Violoncello. The two main collections were published in London, where Bertoni lived during the staging of some of his operas. The six string quartets are dedicated to Sir William Beckford, philanthropist and patron, fond of Italy and great admirer of the Venetian composer. The circulation of this collection moved beyond the narrow circle of London salons: the first edition (Bremner, 1782, printed for the author) was promptly followed by an Italian reprint (Zatta, 1782), on the same plates which Bertoni presumably brought back with him to Venice. A later edition appeared in Paris (Venier, 1782/84), which bears some differences from the previous ones, but for which it is not possible to prove an involvement of the author.

Simone Laghi. After a diploma in violin and in viola, he specialized in early music at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam. With Quartetto Eleusi recorded Pietro Nardini's Six String Quartets. As Artistic Director of the Ensemble Symposium, recorded G. P. Telemann's Scherzi Melodichi and B. Campagnoli Six String Quartets. He is performing with several Baroque and Classical ensembles such as Europa Galante, l'Arte dell'Arco, Academia Montis Regalis and others. In 2013 he joined Cardiff University to work on a PhD in Performance about Italian chamber music composers in the UK in the end of 18th Century.

Paola Visconti. Pianist, graduated in Musicology at the University of Cremona under the guidance of Prof. F. Della Seta, with the thesis "Salve Regina for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra by Stefano Pavesi: a critical edition of two versions". Since March 2012 she is collaborating with Associazione Musicale "Ferdinando Bertoni", working on critical edition and performance of chamber music by this composer.