I studied saxophone with the very beautiful and generous Nancy Ovenden. One day she put an Albinoni Oboe concerto in front of me. We played it together and in passing she suggested I should listen to this …
Albinoni was born in Venice in 1671 and died there in 1751 but the Adagio is the work of Remo Giazotto, a musicologist who traveled to Dresden to complete a catalogue of Albinoni’s music and his biography. Legend has it that whilst there he discovered six bars of melody and a brief passage of basso continuo that had survived the Allied bombing. From these he constructed the now famous Adagio which was published in 1958. For now it is Albinoni’s most famous piece. If he could hear it I’m sure he would like it as much as I do – but of course he would not recognise it as his own! On the other hand I do hope that Giazotto’s mum didn’t die ignorant of the fact that her son had written one of the most beautiful pieces of music of the twentieth century.
bobmcgee 