TORELLI, Giuseppe
b Verona, 22 April 1658
d Bologna, 8 February 1709, aged fifty

His early musical training was in Verona, but he moved to Bologna between 1681 and 1684, being admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica there in 1684. He studied violin and viola there, playing regularly in the orchestra at S Petronio until 1695, the year before the orchestra was disbanded. He then travelled to Germany with his friend Pistocchi and became maestro di concerto for the Margrave of Brandenburg in Ansbach, remaining there till the end of 1699. In

1700 the two friends were in Vienna, grew tired of it and travelled until 1701, when he was again violinist in the reformed Petronio orchestra in Bologna.

He wrote a large quantity of chamber works, most of it still in manuscript, and is chiefly remarkable for his development of the instrumental concerto, both the concerto grosso and the solo concerto, the pattern taken up by subsequent composers.