Search - Nicola Francesco Haym, Martino Bitti, Ensemble Respighi :: Martino Bitti, Nicola Francesco Haim: Sonate per Violino e Basso

Martino Bitti (1656-1743), a fine violinist and composer among the ranks of those succeeding Corelli, is nearly forgotten today. Most of his career was spent in the court of Florence, where he was one of the originators of the oratorio form. His surviving works, including several violin sonatas, were not exhumed until the 1950s, when the Italian musicologist pronounced his music "of admirable taste and extreme naturalness," with a "spontaneous and rich vein of melodic invention." Little remains of the music of Nicola Francesco Haim (1678-1729), an Italian composer of German parents, who is better remembered today for writing a number of librettos for Handel?s operas.