Giovanni Francesco di Caspará

Giovanni Francesco di Caspará (also Johann Franz von Kasparau) was a minor composer of the Baroque and early Rococo periods. He was born in Milan in 1682, reportedly in mid-July. He studied in Bologna and Rome before going to work in Venice, where he met Antonio Vivaldi and possibly studied with him. From 1710 to 1726 he lived and worked in Florence, possibly at the Medici court. Caspará travelled to Spain in 1727 where he visited Barcelona and Seville. From there he went north to France, visiting the court of the young Louis XV. From there he went through Switzerland into Austria, visiting Salzburg and Vienna, arriving there in the late autumn of 1728. He spent the winter there before returning to Italy, where in 1729 he married his landlady, Maria Chiara (neé Amadelli), with whom he had six children, four of which who survived to adulthood.Caspará remained in Italy until 1741, when he removed to Vienna permanently, there Germanicizing his name to Johann Franz von Kasparau. He travelled through Germany in 1748, supposedly visiting J.S. Bach and G.P. Telemann. He returned to Vienna where he made a small but tidy living as a small-time composer, producing popular dance tunes and several Masses. Maria Chiara died in 1758, probably of smallpox. He saw the young W.A. Mozart and his sister Maria Anna Mozart in concert 1762. Caspará was blind in his later years, but his output was not much diminished, as his eldest son took dictation from him. He contracted smallpox and died in 1779.His music is exemplary of the Italianate styles of Vivaldi and Corelli, and though little of it is extant, it shows a talented, erudite knowledge of composition and a colorful use of texture and line. His works were never widely published. It is thanks to the churches of Vienna that his music has survived, as the works that they commissioned from him were preserved. His output includes five Masses, three sets of concerti grosso with three in each set, a Suite for harpsichord, an opera on the story of Orpheus, and several other concerti. His single opera shows the influence of the French Baroque style., whilst his third set of concerti grosso shows the influences of Bach and Telemann.Among his finest works is his concerto for two violas and strings. It is unusual not only in the fact that it is a concerto for two violas, but also in that it has a fully realized harpsichord part; typically, the harpsichord part was improvised from the figured bass.