Overture to 'Il filosofo innamorato'

Like many of Vienna’s most prominent musicians, Florian Leopold Gassmann (1729-1774) was a Bohemian by birth. Comparatively little is known about his early life and training although he was well enough established in Italy as a composer to secure a commission to compose his first opera, Merope, for the Teatro S Moisè, Venice, in the Carnival season of 1757. The work was a success and Gassmann composed a new opera annually for the next five years. His third opera, Gli uccelatori, was the first of his many settings of libretti by Carlo Goldoni. In 1763 he succeeded Gluck (as ballet composer) in Vienna and in 1772 succeeded Georg Reutter the Younger as Hofkapellmeister. His premature death in 1774 as a result of a fall from a carriage was regretted by many, including Joseph II who admired his music very much. Il filosofia innamorato (The Philosopher in Love) is a setting of Coltellini’s reworking of a Goldoni libretto which Gassmann had set earlier in his career as Filosofia ed amore. The new opera was given its premiere at the Burgtheater in 1771 and, unusually, the overture was advertised the following year in the Breitkopf Catalogue as one of three symphonies by Gassmann. Gassmann’s elegance and skill as a composer of theatrical music is evident at every turn in this sparkling overture.