About This Item
Antonio Duni and his better-known younger brother, Egidio, were sons of Francesco Duni, kapellmeister of the Matera Cathedral from the early 18th century. Antonio studied music in Naples as was the established practice at the time and as a composer and violinist himself became a kapellmeister. An extraordinary talent and restless genius, he left Naples in search of fortune, moving to Barcelona, then Vienna, then Madrid where in 1726 he became Master of the Royal Chapel; he then moved on to Paris, Trier and again Madrid, where in 1736 he befriended the famous singer and composer Carlo Broschi Farinelli, becoming director and choirmaster to the Duke of Osuna. By 1757 Antonio Duni could be found in Moscow, where he was commissioned by the rector of Moscow University to found the Moscow University Choir, a task that was to occupy him for more than eight years. This was followed by a short stay in Riga on the Baltic Sea and possibly a trip to China. From 1765 he moved with his wife and four children permanently to Schwerin in Germany, where in severe financial straits he died around 1766. The recent discovery of the 6 Sonatas is thanks to Thomas Suarez, a descendant of the Duni family on his mother's side, who, upon discovering a microfilm of the only printed edition in the Moscow State Library in 2019 produced the modern edition from which this recording was performed. The Sonatas were printed in Paris at the M. lle Vendome Publishing House (most active between the years 1737-1762), and the fact that the printed manuscript was found in Moscow suggests that Antonio Duni brought it with him on beginning his stay in the Russian capital (1757-65), suggesting the composition of the sonatas predates 1757. The six sonatas each feature four movements in the Corellian pattern, Lento-Veloce-Lento-Veloce. The melodic line presents cantabile themes that are never banal or Inchmannere
