Dall’Abaco, EvaristO Felice

Dall’Abaco, EvaristO Felice , Italian cellist, violinist, and composer, father of Joseph-Marie-Clément Dall’Abaco; b. Verona, July 12, 1675; d. Munich, July 12, 1742. He received training in violin and cello in Verona. From 1696 to 1701 he was in the service of the Modena court of Duke Rinaldo d’Este. In 1704 he entered the service of the Bavarian court in Munich of the Elector Maximilian II Emanuel, where he was a cellist and chamber musician. The outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession that same year compelled the elector to flee, and Dall’Abaco followed his patron to the Low Countries and later to France. Upon the return of the elector to Munich in 1715, Dall’Abaco was made Konzertmeister of the Bavarian court orch. In 1717 he was also made electoral councillor. He remained in the service of the court when Karl Albert became elector in 1726, retiring in 1740. In his adept and imaginative concerto writing, Dall’Abaco moved from the Italian Baroque style to the stile misto of Italian and French elements to the galant style of early classicism.

Works

(all publ. in Amsterdam): XII sonate da camera for Violin and Cello or Harpsichord, op.l (c. 1708); (12) Concerti a quattro da chiesa, op.2 (1712); XII sonate da chiesa e da camera a ire, op.3 (1712); (12) Sonate da camera for Violin and Cello, op.4 (1716); (6) Concerti a pin istrumenti…libro primo, op.5 (c. 1719);(12) Concerti a più istrumenti, op.6 (1735).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire