Italian and Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and mentor of the famous L. van Beethoven, F. Schubert and F. Liszt, court bandmaster, author of more than 40 operas and instrumental compositions. The person with whom most Russians associate the death of V.A. Mozart, thanks to the little tragedy of A.S. Pushkin - Antonio Salieri.
Biography and career
Antonio Salieri was born in the small town of Legnago (Italy) on August 18, 1750, in a large family of a merchant of sausages and ham. Francesco's elder brother, who took violin lessons from Giuseppe Tartini, shared his skills with Antonio. The boy mastered playing the harpsichord with the organist of a small cathedral, Giuseppe Simoni. It was hard work, a beautiful voice and a refined hearing that made the famous musician out of a boy.
After the death of their parents, the 14-year-old Antonio was taken over by his father's friends - the rich aristocrats of Mocenigo. The boy moved to live in Venice. New guardians helped the boy get a proper musical education from the best musicians of that time: J. B. Peschetti, F. Pacini, F. L. Gassman. It was Florian Leopold Gassman, court composer Joseph II, who took the boy to Vienna in 1766. He improved Salieri's skills in playing the violin, bass, reading the score, hired French, German, Latin teachers for the boy and taught him secular manners. Thanks to the contribution of his mentor, Salieri, after years, will be called "the most educated Austrian musician."
Antonio's court career began in 1767, when he officially began working as an assistant to Gassman. In 1769, Salieri was offered the position of harpsichord accompanist of the court opera house. Gassman gradually introduced his most capable pupil into the narrow circle of courtiers with whom Joseph II played music.
Separately, Salieri's biography should highlight the acquaintance with the composer Christopher Gluck. It was his understanding of opera that became an example for Antonio, which he followed until the end of his life.
After the death of Gassman, in 1774, Antonio took up the post of court composer of chamber music and bandmaster of the Italian opera company. At that time Vienna was the opera capital, and it was the Italian opera that was most popular among the audience. In 1778, due to the military operations of Joseph II and the deserted treasury, Salieri was forced to switch to a less costly comedy genre - singspiel. Antonio closed the Italian opera, and after 6 years of working with comedy, due to the lack of public interest in it, he revived the opera again.
From 1777 to 1819, Salieri built a career as a conductor in the Vienna Musical Society (Tonkünstlersocietät), founded by Gassmann. It was here that in 1808 Salieri quarreled with Beethoven.
In 1788, Emperor Joseph II appointed Salieri to the post of court bandmaster, and in fact - manager of the entire musical life of Vienna. After the death of Joseph II (1790) and the rise to power, first of his brother Leopold, and then of his nephew Franz II (1792), Salieri was able to stay in office and continued to delight the court with his works and events for which he was responsible. Salieri was able to refuse his beloved work only in 1824, for health reasons.
The famous Antonio Salieri, by then, had been leading the Vienna Conservatory for 7 years. In addition, he was a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, an honorary member of the Milan Conservatory, a foreign member of the French Academy. In 1815, Salieri was awarded the Legion of Honor.
The last years of the composer's life were overshadowed by gossip about his involvement in the death of Mozart. It is this pressure, according to many critics, that provoked a nervous breakdown, and in some sources it is noted that a suicide attempt, after which Salieri ended up in a clinic for the mentally ill, where he died on May 7, 1825. The entire musical elite of Vienna gathered at the funeral of the musician.
Creation
Salieri first realized composing success already in 1770. It was then that Antonio composed the opera-buff "Educated Women". A little later - "Venice Fair", "Innkeepers", "Abducted Tub" and many others.
In 1771, Salieri wrote "Armida" - a real musical tragedy. She was the first work that other bandmasters later decided to put on, which was usually not accepted at court.
In 1778, Salieri received an order for the opera Recognized Europe, dedicated to the opening of the restored La Scala theater. In 1779, commissioned by the Venetian theater, Salieri wrote the buffalo opera School of the Jealous, which was very successful and was organized over 40 productions throughout Europe.
Antonio, as the author of a tragic opera, not a comedy, received full recognition by the European public after a stroke of Gluck, in 1784, when he managed to convey to the public the drama "Danaid" written by Salieri.
In 1787, the premiere of the opera Tarar took place in Paris. The success of the famous production was interrupted by the revolution of 1789.
In total, during his creative career, the musician has created at least 40 works known to the whole world. Salieri wrote his last opera Negroes in 1804.
