CARLO ZUCCARI da Casalmaggiore

CD CARLO ZUCCARI da Casalmaggiore
Sonate a Violino, è Basso, ò Cembalo

- Andrea Rognoni- Violin
- Marco Frezzato - Cello
- Leonardo Morini - Clavicembalo
- Diego Cantalupi - Tiorba

The compositions by Carlo Zuccari that have reached us are not very numerous; besides the previously mentioned Sonate a Violino, e Basso ò Cembalo, Opera Prima and the Sonate per due Violini e Basso, there exist manuscripts for four Concerti per Violino Concertato e strumenti and a Solo per Violino e Basso, a sonata per flauto solo e basso and some sonate per violoncello. One of these was for a long time attributed in error to none other than J.S.Bach (BWV Anh. 184). On the other hand his vocal and sacred music has all still to be discovered and examined in depth. However Zuccari was not only a violinist-composer but also a singular figure as a musician-scientist.

The testimonies of his pupils are extremely interesting. Already during his years in Milan, in line with the culture of enlightenment and other contemporaries such as Tartini, D'Alabert, Rosseau, our Zuccari, albeit on a lower level, was a keen pupil of the physical and mathematical principals of acoustic and harmonic science. For him, the laws of nature govern music in a wise and harmonious way; the study of this leads to perfection. Surely he wrote down the results of his studies, which on his death, were probably passed down to his pupils and were later lost. His pupil Pietro Verri on 11 March 1794 writes to a mutual friend " He possessed the music on principle. And through tiring and persistent study he rose to be not only a noted violin player but also a proficient composer and enlightened judge of counterpoint..." he then continues "...he had not neglected to instruct himself in the mechanical form of the violin and many times we reasoned both on the quality of the wood and on the dimensions and the most appropriate curve, and on all the mechanism capable of spreading the most sonorous and pleasing sound. The Amati and Steiner instruments were those which he appreciated more than any other..."