Rutini, Giovanni Marco [Giovanni Maria;

Giovanni Placido]
(b Florence, 25 April 1723; d Florence, 22 Dec 1797). Italian composer. In
April 1739 he was admitted to the Conservatorio della Piet dei Turchini in
Naples, where he studied composition with Leo, the harpsichord with F.N.
Fago and the violin with V.A. Pagliarulo. He probably finished his studies in
1744, but remained for a few years as maestrino before returning to Florence.
In 1748 he was at Prague, where he signed the dedication of his Sonate per
cembalo op.1 on 15 July. Together with the composer Francesco Zoppis, he
was engaged for the G.B. Locatelli company. His first and second operas,
Alessandro nell'Indie (1750) and Semiramide (1752), were performed by the
company at the Nuovo Teatro, Prague. Perhaps while travelling with the
company, he was in Dresden in 1754 and Berlin about 1756. According to a
letter to Padre Martini in 1772, at the time he lived in Prague he was under
the protection of Maria Antonia Walpurgis, Electress of Saxony, who wrote the
text of his cantata Lavinia e Turno (1756). In Prague he also composed the
sets of sonatas opp.2 and 3, the latter dedicated to his pupil the Countess of
Nostitz and Rhyeneck.
The Locatelli company failed financially in 1757, but Locatelli obtained a new
contract with Empress Elizabeth of Russia as impresario of the court theatre
in St Petersburg. Rutini moved there and composed Il retiro degli dei (1757),
and in the summer of 1758 the company mounted his first comic opera, Il
negligente. The sonatas opp.5 and 6 were produced in St Petersburg (but
published by Haffner in Nuremberg), as was his setting of Metastasios Grazie
a glinganni tuoi (1758). Rutini won appreciation in St Petersburg high society,
becoming harpsichord teacher to the Grand Duchess Fyodorovich (later
Catherine II) and living with Count Pyotr Borisovich Sheremet'yev, whose
private orchestra he conducted. In February 1761 Locatelli's second company
failed and was dispersed. Rutini returned to Florence and married on 2 April.
In 1762 he began a correspondence with Martini, which lasted until 1780
through more than 40 letters (in I-Bc), useful for biographical information and
documenting Rutinis desire to train himself in counterpoint. At Martini's
suggestion he began a translation of Marpurgs Abhandlung von der Fuge (as
Trait de la fugue, MS, I-Bc). In January 1762 his Il caff di campagna was
performed in Bologna and in March he was admitted to the Accademia
Filarmonica there.
The earliest recorded performance of an opera by Rutini in Florence is that of
Gli sposi in maschera previously produced in Cremona and Bologna at S
Maria on 3 October 1763. In May 1764 he was in Livorno for the premire
there of Ezio and in Genoa during the following summer for the investiture of
Francesco Maria della Rovere for which he wrote a cantata. In the next
decade he travelled throughout Italy to direct performances of his music, but
maintained his home and his principal activity in Florence. With his
intermezzo Le contese domestiche (1766), Rutini was recognized in the
Gazzetta toscana as the city's most internationally eminent composer. But a
position at the Tuscan court never materialized, despite the acclaimed
brilliance of his music for L'amor per rigiro (1773), which was mounted in the

grand duke's summer palace at Poggio a Caiano. However, performances in

Modena in 1769 of L'olandese in Italia and of the premire in the following
carnival season of la Nitteti won him the title of Maestro di cappella al
Principe ereditario di Modena. Rutini did not give up residence in Florence,
however, perhaps hoping to become maestro di cappella to the Grand Duke
Leopold (to whom he dedicated the harpsichord sonatas op.8 in 1774). The
climax of Rutini's Florentine productions came with Vologeso, re de' Parti,
which the Notizie del mondo praised extravagantly. His next Florentine
performance, Zulima (1777), a revision of Sicotencal (1776), was his last
operatic work save one revival of L'amor per rigiro in Pontremoli in 1779. He
continued to direct performances at the Intrepidi up to 1784, but composed
mainly oratorios and keyboard sonatas. From 1780 he also devoted himself to
sacred music (a Kyrie and a Gloria for four voices are in manuscript in Berlin),
and the Gazzetta toscana also gives the titles of some oratorios not
mentioned elsewhere.
The historical importance of Rutinis production for harpsichord is remarkable.
The Rutini sonata, typical of the age of the transition from the harpsichord to
the piano, has a variable number of movements, sometimes having two quick
ones together and often ending with a minuet. Its thematic incisiveness and
expressive chiaroscuro give it an important place in the development of the
Classical style. The interest that Mozart took in Rutini is demonstrated by a
letter from Leopold, who on 18 August 1771 asked his son to send him some
good sonatas by Rutini (Torrefranca thought they could be identified as nos.2
and 6 of op.6), but even more obvious is the stylistic inheritance that Rutini
left in the first of Haydns piano compositions. His sonatas can be divided into
two groups: the first, comprising opp.16, attracted the attention of
Torrefranca, who emphasized Rutinis position as a forerunner of Mozart and
even of Beethoven. Many of the dramatic contrasts that Torrefranca related to
Beethovens style (for example, in considering the first sonata of op.1) seem
to be derived from theatrical gestures; these may be serious in character, as
in the pathetic interruptions on arpeggios of the diminished 7th, or recitatives,
in the second sonata of op.1, or they may be comic or affettuoso, as in the
broken phrasing that recalls the languors and caprices of Pergolesis La serva
padrona and thus looks back to Rutinis Neapolitan training. Archaisms are
not entirely lacking, such as the toccata that opens the first sonata of op.3, but
pages given over entirely to insipid Alberti basses (as in op.3 no.2 and op.5
no.3) are rare.
Expressive tension is less frequent in the second group of sonatas, beginning
with op.7, which inaugurated a simple, linear style of writing (I have
attempted to avoid all complexity, wrote the author in the preface). These
new sonatas are introduced by a brief tuning-up prelude and often end with a
simple balletto, thus taking on the outward appearance of sonatinas,
forerunners of Clementis. The last sonata of op.8 ends with an arietta Clori
amabile, to be sung by the player. All these late works have been regarded
as the worn-out product of concessions to the hedonistic taste of the period,
in spite of the fact that it is in these sonatas (particularly in opp.79) that, by
renouncing abundant Rococo ornamentation, progress was made towards a
style better suited to the piano, and sometimes towards a supple
effectiveness that was more mature than the expressiveness of many earlier
works.

Rutini's operas await detailed study. As a teacher, he was one of the founders
of the Leopoldian school of Florentine composers, which included his son
Ferdinando, and fostered the flowering of late 18th-century Florentine opera
singers, among them the tenor Bernardo Mengozzi. Only Della Corte has
commented on his operas, citing the grace of the arias and the skill in
capturing a variety of moods found in his I matrimoni in maschera.
WORKS
operas
first performed in Florence unless otherwise stated

Alessandro nell'Indie (dramma per musica, 3, P. Metastasio), Prague, Nuovo, carn.

1750
Semiramide (dramma per musica, 3, Metastasio), Prague, Nuovo, 1752; rev.
version, Dresden, Hoftheater, 1780, D-Dlb
Il retiro degli dei (composizione dramatica, 1 scene, G.B. Locatelli), St Petersburg,
2/13 Dec 1757, ?RU-SPk (as Pastorale), according to Mooser
Il negligente (dg, 3, C. Goldoni), St Petersburg, sum. 1758
Il caff di campagna (dg, 3, P. Chiari), Bologna, Formiagliari, carn. 1762
I matrimoni in maschera (Gli sposi in maschera; Il tutore burlato) (dg, 3, F. Casorri),
Cremona, Nuovo, Jan 1763, D-Dlb, Dk-Kk, F-Pc, I-Fc, P-La (Acts 1 and 3)
Ezio (dramma per musica, 3, Metastasio), Pergola, 30 Jan 1763, I-Gl
L'olandese in Italia (dg, 3, N. Tassi), Cocomero, spr. 1765, Bc, Fc
L'amore industrioso (dg, 3, G. Casorri), Venice, S Cassiano, aut. 1765, P-La
Il contadino incivilito (dg, 3, O. Goretti), Cocomero, 31 March 1766
Le contese domestiche (Le contese deluse) (int, 2 pts), Cocomero, 26 Dec 1766, IFc
L'amor tra l'armi (Tassi), Siena, Erranti, 3 July 1768
Faloppa mercante (Gli sponsali di Faloppa) (farsa or int, 2 pts), S Maria, 26 Dec
1769, Fc
La Nitteti (dramma per musica, 3, Metastasio), Modena, Corte, carn. 1770, arias in
Fc and Rsc
L'amor per rigiro (farsa, 2 pts, Tassi), Poggio a Caiano, 5 Oct 1773, Fc
Vologeso re de'Parti (dramma per musica, 3, A. Zeno), Pergola, 22 Jan 1775, Nc, PLa

Sicotencal (dramma per musica, 3, C. Olivieri, after Voltaire), Turin, Regio, carn.
1776; rev. version, Pergola, 25 Jan 1777, as Zulima; La
Il finto amante (farsa, 2 pts), Pistoia, Risvegliati, sum. 1776
Gli stravaganti, Gb-Lbl (finale only)
other vocal
Orats (all lost): Giobbe, 1780; La liberazione dIsraele, 1782; Giuseppe venduto,
1783:
Cants.: No, non turbati o Nice (Metastasio), 1v, str, 1754 (Nuremberg, n.d.); Lavinia
e Turno (M.A. Walpurgis), 1v, str (Leipzig, 1756); Grazie a glinganni tuoi
(Metastasio), 1v, str (Leipzig, 1758); Genii gloria virt, 1764, Genoa, private
collection; Clori amabile ti desti, 1774, D-Ms
Others: KyGl, 4vv, insts, D-Bsb; Masses (frags.), 4vv, insts, CZ-Pnm; Innuebant
patri, ant, 4vv, 1762, I-Baf
keyboard
Concerto, hpd, vn, b, Rotterdam, private collection, photocopy, US-LOu
Hpd sonatas: 6, op.1 (n.p., 1748), 6, op.2 (Nuremberg, c17547), 6, op.3
(Nuremberg, c17568), 6, op.5 (Nuremberg, c17589), 6, op.6 (Nuremberg, c1759
60, rev. 2/1765), 6, op.6bis (Florence, ?1762), 6, op.7 (Nuremberg, 1770), 6, op.8
(Florence, 1774), 6, op.9 (Florence, 1774), 6, with vn ad lib, op.10 (Florence, 1776),
6, with vn, op.11 (Florence, 1778), 6, op.12 (Florence, 1780), 6, op.13 (Florence,
1782), 3, with vn, op.14 (Florence, 1786), 5 in Raccolta musicale daltretanti
celebri compositori italiani, iv (Nuremberg, 175665)
12 divertimenti facili e brevi, (hpd 4 hands)/(hp, hpd), op.18 (n.p., 1793); Rond, pf
solo/orch acc., op.19 (n.p., 1797)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ES (L.F. Tagliavini)
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SartoriL
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A. Della Corte: Lopera comica italiana del 700 (Bari, 1923)
F. Torrefranca: Le origini italiane del romanticismo musicale (Turin,
1930/R)
F. Torrefranca: Il primo maestro di W.A. Mozart (Giovanni Maria Rutini),
RMI, xl (1936), 23953
M. Pedemonte: Un soggiorno genovese di G.M. Rutini, Rassegna
dorica, ix (19378), 3
G. Balducci: La figura e lopera di G.M. Rutini (diss., U. of Florence,
1964)

F. Meinero: Le sonate di G.M. Rutini (diss., U. of Turin, 1975)

G. Pestelli: Mozart e Rutini, AnMc, no.18 (1978), 290307
A. Schnoebelen: Padre Martini's Collection of Letters in the Civico
Museo Bibliografico Musicale in Bologna (New York, 1979)
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M. de Angelis: Melodrama spettacolo e musica nella Firenze dei Lorena
(Florence, 1991), ii
R.L. Weaver and N.W. Weaver: Chronology of Music in the Florentine
Theatre, ii: 17511800 (Warren, MI, 1993)
D.E. Freeman: J.C. Bach and the Early Classical Italian Masters,
Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music, ed. R.L. Marshall (New York, 1994),
23069
GIORGIO PESTELLI, ROBERT LAMAR WEAVER