The Neapolitan Violin Concerto in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century

Although research on Neapolitan instrumental music of the 17th and 18th centuries has been undertaken for several decades, our knowledge on this subject is still fragmentary. As far as the history of the concerto in Naples is concerned, it is surprising that this centre is completely omitted from the most important syntheses on this genre. Even if Naples did not release a figure like Vivaldi, more composers wrote concertos there than in Venice, Bologna and Rome combined. From the beginning of the 18th century, the violin concerto became the most popular type of this genre. The 18^th-century lists of members of the Cappella Reale, Tesoro di San Gennaro, church and theatre orchestras, as well as professors employed at Neapolitan conservatories, give an enormous number of violinists active in these most important musical institutions of Naples. In the first half of the 18th century, such Neapolitan violinists as Nicola Matteis, Michele Mascitti, Giovanni Antonio Guido, Giovanni Antonio Piani and Angelo Ragazzi were known and respected in London, Paris and Vienna. Despite these apparently favorable conditions for the development of the violin concerto in Naples, only 17 such pieces from the first half of the 18th century have survived: the works of Francesco Barbella, Angelo Ragazzi, Nicola Fiorenza and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. In this article they are discussed in detail and confronted with the works of Roman and Northern Italian composers. In the light of the preserved sources, it seems that in the first half of the 18th century in Naples, the flute and cello concertos enjoyed greater interest than the violin concerto. Similarly, the flute, harpsichord or mandolin concertos were more numerous than the violin concertos in the second half of the 18th century.