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Folio. Full modern marbled boards with paper title label gilt to spine. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 11, [i] (blank), 12-20 pp. Engraved throughout. Occasional light foxing, staining, and soiling, mostly to margins and to title. In very good condition overall. First Edition. Rare. Smith p. 241, no. 1. RISM H1345 and HH1345. The three sonatas that open this collection, HWV 374-76, were believed by musicologist Friedrich Chrysander (1826-1901) to be early works of Handel; the sonatas thus became known as the "Hallenser Sonaten." The present 1730 edition is the sole contemporary source for the first two sonatas; the third exists in two scribal copies in the Gerald Coke Handel Collection at the Foundling Museum, London. The final three sonatas of the collection (IV, V, and VI) are by Brivio (fl. 1730), Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762), and Giovanni Battisa Somis (1686-1763) respectively. Brivio's identity is not well established, but it seems that he was an Italian composer, possibly an impresario, singing teacher, and violinist, born in Milan and the end of the 17th century and died there in ca. 1758. "18th-century sources (e.g. BurneyH; GerberL; GerberNL and La BordeE) blur the distinction between two or more musicians active in Milan by failing to give first names. Only the revised edition of Mancini (1777) supplies Giuseppe Ferdinando as the composer's first names and describes him as a prominent Milanese singing teacher without identifying him with the violinist, composer and impresario also active in Milan. In fact a family of Brivios could be involved, including an older singing teacher, Carlo Francesco Brivio, who appeared in Milanese operas of 1696, Teodolinda and L'Etna festante, the librettos for which call him 'musico di S.E. il Castellano' (the castle commander's musician)." Sven Hansell in Grove Music Online Geminiani was an Italian composer, violinist and theorist. "His contemporaries in England considered him the equal of Handel and Corelli, but except for the concerti grossi op. 3, a few sonatas and the violin treatise, little of his musical and theoretical output is known today. He was, nevertheless, one of the greatest violinists of his time, an original if not a prolific composer and an important theorist. . Perhaps because some of Brivio's arias were used in pasticcios at the King's Theatre or because Brivio's pupils Giulia Frasi (according to Burney) and Visconti sang in these pasticcios, Loewenberg and others have supposed that Brivio was in London about 1742-5; no document proving a visit has come to light, however. Even though certain arias were published by Walsh, the pasticcios Gianguir, Mandane (both 1742) and L'incostanza delusa (1745; with music from Brivio's earlier opera of that name) were not especially popular with London audiences." Enrico Careri in Grove Music Online Somis was a pupil of Corelli. He worked in Rome and Turin, and toured in France where he performed before the Concert Spirituel in 1733. His students included Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798) and Jean-Marie Leclair. Neither Brivio nor Somis is known to have visited England, although Brivio had some association with the London theatrical scene in the 1740s. The sole contemporary source for two sonatas of Handel, HWV 374-75. Seller Inventory # 39635
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