Giovanni Benedetto Platti

Giovanni Benedetto Platti was born possibly 9 July 1697 (according to other sources 1690, 1692, 1700) in Padua, then belonging to Venice. He was an Italian Baroque composer and oboist. He died 11 January 1763 in Würzburg. Life Platti studied music in Italy (mostly singing, the oboe and the violin). While in Italy, where he stayed until 1722, he probably saw the recently invented fortepiano; a few of his keyboard solo sonatas and concertos might have been composed for it instead of the harpsichord, but this point is debatable. In his chamber works (duets and trios), the harpsichord is clearly the instrument required. No “piano” or “forte” indications are on Platti’s keyboard parts in his concertos for harpsichord and strings, though. Also, the extension of at least one of these concertos asks for a D that is beyond Cristofori’s instrument’s compass (4 octaves CC to c4). In 1722, he was called to Würzburg to work for the prince-bishop of Bamberg and Würzburg, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn. There he married Theresia Langprückner, a soprano singer with whom he had at least two children. Platti spent the rest of his life in the town, working as a singer, instrument virtuoso, compos