Delos Diary

While checking facts and figures in the notes accompanying Delos' new recording of Flute Concertos played by Italian virtuoso Raffaele Trevisani with Constantine Orbelian and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, I was struck by an interesting biographical phenomenon, revealed by the birth and death dates of the six Italian composers involved. Five of the six — Albinoni, Tartini, Vivaldi, Galuppi, and Boccherini — all lived lives comparable in length to what we consider normal today, ranging from 62 years to 79 years. Only Pergolesi died very young at 26.
In contrast, a comparable number of great composers who lived a little later in Germany and Austria all died much younger: Mozart at 35, Beethoven at 57, Schubert at 31, Schumann at 46, Mendelssohn at 38, and Weber at 40.
What conclusions, if any, can we draw from this melancholy data? Probably none, but we can conjecture. Perhaps the Italian diet helped. More pasta, wine, fruit, and vegetables plus a more salubrious climate.
Less angst than creative people encountered confronting the new Romantic era of the early nineteenth century could have contributed. While the Italians, Vivaldi, et al, ground out literally hundreds of concertos, cantatas, and operas, our Romantic-era Germanic composers produced a much leaner mass of music… still a lot from today's standards but not comparable, in quantity at least, to the mass of work the Italians wrote while feasting on abundant wine and pasta.
The new Delos CD Flute Concertos with Raffaele Trevisani (DE 3332) will delight you with six enchanting examples of music which kept these musicians alive and active for all those extra years. Listen to them often, they may add to your longevity.