Giovanni Benedetto Platti: Antologia 1724-1754

Great support for the musical life of Würzburg was provided by three prince-bishops: Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn, Friedrich Carl von Schönborn, and Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim. For the three music loving prince-bishops, development of promising talents was very important. Preferred training locations were the court of Mannheim and Italy – more precisely Padua, Venetia and Rome. In Rome favoured vocal teachers were Giovanni Carestini and Giovanni B. Ferrandini both of whom had close ties with Munich the city that under the regency of the Bavarian electors, was an important centre of Baroque life. There were, of course, also musicians who travelled in the opposite direction, from Italy to Würzburg. In the spring of 1722, the new arrivals were Fortunato Chelleri, singer Girolamo Bassani and, among the other Italian virtuosi, the “oboista” Giovanni Benedetto Platti. These “magnificent musicians and consummate, say the least of it, virtuosi” were greeted with enthusiasm, as ment