Biography
Hailing from Italy, Giovanni Benedetto Platti worked as both composer and performer during the shift from Baroque to Classical idioms. In his own era he gained recognition chiefly for his skills as an instrumentalist and for his sacred vocal output, although he also produced concertos along with pieces for solo instruments and chamber groups. Born sometime in the 1690s in either Padua or Venice, he left almost no trace in surviving records for the initial three decades of his life. His father Carlo, an orchestral musician at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, almost certainly provided his earliest training, while the younger Platti could additionally draw on instruction from leading local figures such as Albinoni and Vivaldi. By 1722 he had developed into a capable singer and had earned a reputation as a virtuoso on the oboe, the harpsichord, and at least three further instruments. He performed with Fortunato Chelleri’s ensemble until 1723, when he received an oboe appointment at the Würzburg court of Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn, Prince-Archbishop. That same year he wed court singer Maria Theresia Lambrucker; the couple eventually raised eight children and remained in Würzburg permanently. Following the Prince’s death in 1724, the court dismissed many musicians and curtailed its musical program. Platti’s position brightened in 1729 when his close associate Count Rudolf Franz Erwein von Schönborn assumed the archbishopric, revived the court’s musical life, and named Platti second violinist as well as tenor vocalist. Both Platti and his wife enjoyed high regard from the Prince and their colleagues, allowing them to lead secure and contented lives. In his compositions Platti retained Baroque devices such as sequences and fortspinnung while adopting newer procedures including sonata form and cadenzas; the dynamic markings found in several of his keyboard pieces suggest he knew the fortepiano and its expressive range. A single surviving portrait of him appears in a fresco at the Würzburg Residenz painted in the early 1750s. He died in Würzburg in 1763. Beginning in the 2000s, ensembles and soloists such as Abel Selaocoe, Radio Antiqua, and Alexa Raine-Wright have issued recordings of his music.