Alessandro Marcello

Bio

Alessandro Marcello (1669–1747) was an Italian nobleman, lawyer, and composer of the late Baroque period. Born into a prominent Venetian family, he pursued music as an accomplished amateur rather than a professional, composing concertos, cantatas, and chamber works that circulated widely in manuscript. His best-known composition is the Oboe Concerto in D minor, long misattributed to his brother Benedetto Marcello; the work’s poignant slow movement was later transcribed by Johann Sebastian Bach as the Harpsichord Concerto BWV 974. Marcello’s surviving output also includes several cantatas and instrumental sonatas that reflect the expressive style of the Venetian Baroque.