He was a musicologist, critic, editor and professor born in Rome, Italy, who from 1932 worked as a music critic for the Rivista musicale italiana moving on to become the editor in 1945 and retaining the position for 4 years until 1949. That year he was taken on by Radio Audizioni Italiene and appointed the Director of Chamber Music Programs. He also edited a series on biographies of composers and was made the President of the auditioning committee.
In 1966 he became the Director of International Programs for the RAI, working on programs that were arranged by the European Broadcasting Union. In 1967 he returned to Rivista musiale italiana but this time as the co-editor of the Nuova rivista musicale italiana.
In the field of education he held the position of Professor of History of Music at the University of Florence from 1957 to 1969 and in between those years received a nomination for the Acedemia Nazionale di S. Cecilia in 1962.
In 1958 it is claimed that he managed to acquire a very small section of just a bass line of a compositional work by the composer Tomaso Albinoni from the Saxon State Library in Dresden. Arranging it into a piece that could be performed he created “Adagio in Sol Minore” popularly known as “Adagio in G Minor” for strings and organ. This piece has now become of the most popular classical pieces to be performed from Italy and it is often attributed to Remo Giazotto as the true composer. It has even been suggested by some that this may actually even have been his composition and not an original work by Albinoni at all, but just a clever way to get the piece distributed.
Throughout the time from the 1940s until his death he wrote several books, biographies and catalogues of composers works including Tomaso Albinoni, ‘musico violino dilettante veneto (1671-1750), Busoni: la vita nell opera, Harmonia concenti in aere veneto, Annali mozartiani, Giovan Battista Viotti and Vivaldi.
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (ASMF) recordings
EMI Classics 5 66400 (CD: Baroque for Dummies)
Conductor – Neville Marriner
Violin – Iona Brown
Seraphim 5 73289 2 (CD: Classical Favorites)
Conductor – Neville Marriner
Violin – Iona Brown
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra recordings
Deutsche Grammophon DG 419 046-2 (CD: Albinoni/Pachelbel/Corelli & Manfredini/Vivaldi)
Conductor – Herbert Von Karajan
Organ – Wolfgang Meyer
Deutsche Grammophon DG. 445 282-2 (CD: Adagio – Karajan)
Conductor – Herbert von Karajan
Organ – David Bell
Violin – Leon Spierer
Deutsche Grammophon DG. 449 724-2 (CD: Respighi: Fontane Di Roma. Pina Di Roma etc.)
Conductor – Herbert von Karajan
Organ – Wolfgang Meyer
Cologne Chamber Orchestra recordings
Naxos 8.557124 (CD: Best of Baroque Music)
Conductor – Helmut Muller-Bruhl
Harpsichord – Harald Hoeren
Violin – Lisa Stewart
Violin – Christine Pichlmeir
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra
Laserlight 15 688 (CD: Meditation – Classical Relaxation, Vol. 3)
Conductor – Herbert Kegel
English Chamber Orchestra recordings
London 425 201 (CD: Joy: Timeless Classics from the Guitar of Michael Conn)
Conductor – Leslie Williams
Guitar – Michael Conn
English String Orchestra recordings
Nimbus NI 7019 (CD: Orchestral Favourites Vol. 1: Pachelbel’s Canon)
Conductor – William Boughton
The Eroica Trio recordings
EMI 57906 (CD: The Best of the Eroica Trio)
Hokan Hardenberger and Simon Preston recordings
Philips 434 074-2 (CD: Trumpet and Organ Spectacular)
Trumpet – Hokan Hardenberger
Organ – Simon Preston
I Solisti Veneti recordings
Erato ECD 15681 (CD: Albinoni’s Adagios)
Conductor – Claudio Scimone
Lucerne Festival Strings recordings
Deutsche Grammophon DG 413 248 2 (CD: Adagio)
Conductor – Rudolf Baumgartner
Violin – Zino Francescatti
Violin – Regis Pasquier
Violin – Walter Prystawksi
Organ – Eduard Kaufman
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recording
Deutsche Grammophon 429 390-2 GH (CD: Albinoni: Adagio, Pachelbel: Canon)
Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra recordings
Erato 2292 45200 2 (CD: Pachelbel Canon; Albinoni: Adagio)
Sara Sant’Ambrogio recordings
Sebastian Records 8 24611 02002 (CD: Dreaming)
Cello – Sara Sant’Ambrogio
Piano – Anyssa Neuman
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra recordings
Decca 475 8073 (CD: Ultimate Baroque)
Conductor –Karl Munchinger
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remo_Giazotto
- http://www.internationalmusicco.com/bios/Giazotto.htm
- http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Remo_Giazotto/18514.htm
- http://www.superdupermusic.com/sax/1100112.htm
- http://www.answers.com/topic/adagio-for-violin-strings-organ-in-g-minor-t-mi-26-composed-by-remo-giazotto-not-by-albinoni?cat=entertainment&nr=1
- http://www.carlfischer.com/Fischer/pdf/YAS61sc.pdf