ALC 0103 Felice Giardini Six Sonatas for harpsichord and flute Op. 3

Felice (de) Giardini (Degiardino, Desjardins or Dujardin) is one of those virtuosi who, although well-known and celebrated in their time, fell during the 19^th century in the rank of minor composers. And yet he played a leading role in the process of musical innovation: his galant style is highly inventive and shows a creative use of modulation. He was born in Turin in 1716, three years after the death of Arcangelo Corelli, the baroque star, and died in Moscow in 1796, one year before the birth of Franz Schubert, on the threshold of Romantic era; musical transformation, old and new elements, tradition and renewal coexist during his life. A cosmopolitan musician, Felice Giardini showed since his childhood an enterprising personality. His father, a descendant of a French family, recognised his precocious talent; aiming to get him a steady academic formation, he sent his son to Milan as a cathedral chorister, and to study singing, composition and harpsichord playing. Felice returned to Turin to study with Giovanni Battista Simis, renowned violinist and composer, with actually good results: in 1736, only twenty years old, he joined the Teatro Regio orchestra as a violinist. The young Giardini devoted himself to violin: he joined the opera theatres orchestra in Rome and the new San Carlo in Naples, where he played as a first violin substitute.