Felice Giardini

Felice Giardini, 1745 representation, after Giovanni Battista Cipriani. Felice de Giardini (12 April 1716 – 8 June 1796) was an Italian composer and violinist.

Early life Felice Giardini was born in Turin. When it became clear that he was a child prodigy, his father sent him to Milan. There he studied singing, harpsichord and violin, but it was on the latter that he became a famous virtuoso. By the age of 12, he was already playing in theatre orchestras. In a famous incident about this time, Giardini, who was serving as assistant concertmaster (i.e., leader of the orchestra) during an opera, played a solo passage for violin which the composer Niccolò Jommelli had written. He decided to show off his skills and improvised several bravura variations that Jommelli had not written. Although the audience applauded loudly, Jommelli, who happened to be there, was not pleased and suddenly stood up and slapped the young man in the face. Giardini, years later, remarked: "It was the most instructive lesson I ever received from a great artist.

In London During the 1750s, Giardini toured Europe as a violinist, scoring successes in Paris, Berlin, and especially in England, where he eventually settled. For many years, he served as the orchestra leader and director of the Italian Opera in London and gave solo concerts under the auspices of J. C. Bach with whom he was a close friend. He directed the orchestra at the London Pantheon. and quartets for other instruments – a new and evolving form at the time – concentrated on writing trios, primarily those for violin, viola and cello, of which he wrote at least 18. It is the tune for "Glory to God on High", which is in the Latter-day Saint hymnal.

Family Giardini married Maria Caterina Violante Vistris, a minor Italian singer, in August 1753 in Bramham. Both parties listed their residence at the time as Bramham Park, near Leeds. Bramham was a seat of George Fox-Lane, later created Baron Bingley, whose wife Harriet was Giardini's most consistent patron.