Antonio Brunetti (1744 – December 26, 1786) was an Italian violinist. Born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Brunetti took

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's position in

Count Hieronymus von Colloredo Hieronymus Joseph Franz de Paula Graf Colloredo von Wallsee und Melz (Jérôme Joseph Franz de Paula, Count of Colloredo-Wallsee and Mels; ) was Prince-Bishop of Gurk from 1761 to 1772 and Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1772 until 1803, whe ...

's Salzburg court orchestra in 1776 after Mozart relinquished the place. Brunetti became the Salzburg

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...

in 1777. He was the son of composer Giovan Gualberto Brunetti; otherwise, little is known of his life, but he was friends with Mozart, who wrote pieces for him to play. However, he was also regarded in Mozart's letter of 9 July 1778 as a "thoroughly ill-bred fellow" and in a later one (11 April 1781) as "that coarse and dirty Brunetti who is a disgrace to his master, to himself and to the whole orchestra." In November 1778 he married Maria Josepha Judith Lipp, daughter of the organist Franz Ignaz Lipp and sister-in-law of

Michael Haydn Johann Michael Haydn (; 14 September 173710 August 1806) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn. Life Michael Haydn was born in 1737 in the Austrian village of Rohrau, near the Hungarian border. ...

, by whom he had a son earlier that year.Ruth Halliwell, ''The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context'', '' passim''. Brunetti died in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

References

1744 births 1786 deaths Italian classical violinists 18th-century Italian musicians 18th-century Italian male musicians 18th-century Neapolitan people Musicians from Naples Musicians from Salzburg Male classical violinists {{Italy-musician-stub