Ferdinando Bertoni (1725 – 1813) was an Italian
composer and organist. He was born in Salò, and began
his music studies in Brescia, not far from his
birthplace. Around 1740 he went to Bologna, where he
studied until 1745 with the famous music theorist
Giovanni Battista Martini. The world of musicology
reserves a few lines for him for his work Orpheus
composed on a libretto by Calzabigi, the same already
placed in music by Gluck. Even the interpreter was the
same singer: the famous castrato Gu...(+)
Ferdinando Bertoni (1725 – 1813) was an Italian
composer and organist. He was born in Salò, and began
his music studies in Brescia, not far from his
birthplace. Around 1740 he went to Bologna, where he
studied until 1745 with the famous music theorist
Giovanni Battista Martini. The world of musicology
reserves a few lines for him for his work Orpheus
composed on a libretto by Calzabigi, the same already
placed in music by Gluck. Even the interpreter was the
same singer: the famous castrato Guadagni.
Bertoni belongs to that group of Italian composers of
the second half of the 18th century today ignored by
the public, underestimated by critics and relegated to
the limbo of "minors". The figures di Traetta,
Sacchini, Anfossi and others do not enjoy the
consideration they should be Bertoni, unfortunately,
belongs to this category of illustrious misunderstood.
Only the passion of research can fill the void of
knowledge; the curiosity of the researcher evaluates
the abandoned scores and reveals their forgotten
beauties, returning them to history and listening.
It is not up to us to say whether this Salve Regina by
Bertoni is a masterpiece. It always comes of
"professional" music, however the result of that
healthy and solid musical craftsmanship that it thrived
at the time in the shadow of churches. It is music that
can still be enjoyed with enjoyment today it is not
lost in the Olympic heights of virtuosity; indeed,
music that knows how to touch the strings of pietas of
the listener.
The manuscript source, not autographed, for tenor
voice, strings and b.c. it is kept at the Archive of
the Church of S. Maria della Fava in Venice (once the
seat of the Congregation and the Oratory of the
Filippini). It cannot be excluded that this score
originally had been written by Bertoni for the women's
choir of the Beggars Hospital in Venice, where it was
famous Master for a long time.
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