New edition of the HERA MusMig Croatian project group

Giovanni Giornovichi / Ivan Jarnović: Thirteenth Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A major

Publisher: Croatian Musicological Society
Series: Gazophylacium Musicae Croaticae, No. 8
ISMN: 979-0-9005206-6-1
Editor-in-Chief & Revised by: Vjera Katalinić

Zagreb, 2015

Giornovichi’s Thirteenth Concerto was first issued by the Parisian publisher Jean-Georges Sieber, as were the majority of his other concerti. It may even have been his last piece to receive publication while he was still in the French capital on the eve of his departure for England in 1789. Already in the next year, it was published by the London editor Longman & Broderip as well as by Jean André in Offenbach. It seems that the London edition of this, as well as that of the Eleventh Concerto, overlaps with Giornovichi’s first concerts in that city, even though his compositions were undoubtedly performed there at least since 1788. In any case, it is one of the first publications (or even the first) of one of Giornovichi’s pieces at Longman & Broderip’s; evidence can be found in the catalogue of the publisher, attached to the concert, which shows no trace of his compositions on the list. In the announcement of Giornovichi’s (probably) second performance on 19 March, 1790, at the Hanover Square Rooms, the reporter of the London Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser presents this virtuoso as “celebrated all over Europe for his exquisite performance on the violin, and for the beauty of his compositions”. It is possible that it was precisely the Thirteenth Concerto which he presented to the London audience, although there are no reports on this fact. Three extant printed versions, as well as two manuscript copies (one in London and one in Germany), testify that this piece had been widely performed.