Giovanni Bononcini

Giovanni Bononcini (or Buononcini) In 1685, at the age of 15, he published three collections of instrumental works (in two of which he gave his age as 13). Final years After leaving London in 1733, Bononcini travelled to France in the company of an adventurer, Count Ughi, who swindled him out of most of his property. In Paris, Bononcini gave concerts of his religious music at the Concert Spirituel and then moved on to Lisbon to become the cello teacher to the Portuguese king. In 1736 he returned to Vienna, where his opera Alessandro in Sidone and his oratorio Ezechia were performed in 1737. In dire financial straits by 1742, he petitioned Maria Theresa of Austria for help. In October of that year, she granted him a pension of 50 florins a month in recognition of his past service to the court. Bononcini died on 9 July 1747, allegedly in Vienna, impoverished and largely forgotten. After his death, his last major composition, a Te Deum which he had composed in 1741 for Francis I, was performed in celebration of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Compositions His earliest works for the cello are two Sinfonie included in a manuscript in the abbey of Montecassino. His other works include a n