Salvatore Lanzetti

A student of the Conservatory in Naples, Lanzetti devoted himself to the cello and composition. He was in service to the court chapel in Lucca and to Vittorio Amedeo II in Turin. The post at Turin was maintained by Lanzetti even though he made extensive tours in Europe. He was in London in the 1730s and may have lived there until 1754. While in London Lanzetti was able to increase the popularity of his instrument. By 1760 he was once again in Turin and a member of the chapel until his death. Before Boccherini, Lanzetti began to establish the cello as a solo instrument. In his compositions the cello was not merely relegated to the bass line and required the touch of a virtuoso particularly in the bowing demands. From the fruit of his labors the cello sonata took root. Lanzetti almost brought the level of cello music to that of the violin concerto. His works were arranged in three movements with an intense slow secondary movement and well-developed ideas in the primary an tertiary movements.
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