Piccinni (Piccini), Niccolò

Piccinni (Piccini), Niccolò – The Periodical Overture in 8 parts No. 23, Overture to The Death of Abel

Published by Robert Bremner at the Harp and Hautboy, opposite Somerset-House, in the Strand
Issued: between 27 February and 9 March 1768; price 2 shillings
Source: Henry Watson Music Library – Courtesy of Manchester Libraries,
Information and Archives, Manchester City Council: BR580Po35
Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, basso, 2 oboes, 2 horns [originally in F]
Editors: Barnaby Priest & Alyson McLamore

COMMENTARY
With Periodical Overture No. 23, Robert Bremner (c.1713–1789) issued the last of the four works by Niccolò Piccinni (Piccini) (1728–1800) that he included in the long-running Periodical Overture series. Until this issue, Bremner had never featured the same composer four times in a row. However, all four of the Piccinni overtures were published within “Opera Quarta,” Bremner’s only “all-Italian” set during the twenty years of his enterprise.

Piccinni’s first appearance within the series, Periodical Overture No. 20, was Bremner’s edition of the overture from La buona figliuola, the celebrated opera that had made Piccinni a household name across Europe. Bremner seems to have achieved a bit of a publishing “coup” by being the first to issue music from that very popular production, not just in England but also in Europe. It seems probable that his decision to continue with Piccinni for the next three releases was an effort to capitalize on the success of his first issue—especially since La buona figliuola was performed repeatedly in London during the six-month span that saw the four Periodical symphonies published. We do not know where the score for Periodical Overture No. 21 originated, but it is highly likely that it had also previously served as an opera sinfonia, given its structural similarities to the other Piccinni works in Bremner’s series. In the case of Periodical Overture No. 22, a surviving operatic manuscript allows us to verify that Bremner’s print was drawn from the overture to Le contadine bizzarre (1763)—although Bremner did not acknowledge that source, unlike his practice in Periodical Overture No. 20, which identified the operatic connection not only on the title page but in a footnote appended to each part as well. …

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