Giovanni Marco Rutini (25 April 1723 â 22 December 1797) was an Italian composer. He is most known for his sonatas which influenced Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn.
He was born in Florence and studied at the Naples Conservatorio della Pietàdei Turchini. At the conservatorio, he studiedàcompositionàunder the guidance ofàLeonardo Leo,àharpsichordàwithàNicola Fagoàandàviolinàwith Vito Antonio Pagliarulo. He graduated in 1744, but stayed to teach for several years. In 1748 he moved to Prague and joined the Locatelli ensemble. In the beginnings of his career he devoted himself mainly to the kapellmeister activities, and composed predominantly the cembalo sonatas. Rutini performed his first "Prague opera", Alessandro nellôIndie, in 1750. Another opera, Semiramide riconosciuta, was dedicated to the "nobility of the Czech Kingdom". Rutini later moved with Locatelli and his group to Russian St. Petersburg. He composed there the comic operas, mainly to the librettos of Carlo Goldoni. He was also the piano teacher of Catherine II, the future Russian empress. In the early 1760s he returned to Florence, and continued composing operas. He married in April 1761. He continued to conduct performances at theàTeatro degli Intrepidi in Florenceàuntil 1784, but at the same time he devoted himself only to composingàoratoriosàand keyboard sonatas; afterà1780,àhe composed mainlyàchurch music. He was a friend and correspondent of Padre Martini.
The manuscripts of his operas are stored in the Landesbibliothek in Dresden, in the library of the Florence conservatory, and also in Civico Museo Bibliographico in Bologna.
Rutini's harpsichord production had a certain historical importance. He was in fact one of the main composers of keyboard music of the time and, like his contemporaryÃÂ Mattia Vento, was highly appreciated by his contemporaries. His sonatas, belonging to the transitional age from theÃÂ harpsichordÃÂ to theÃÂ fortepiano, present a variable number of movements and often end with aÃÂ minuet. His non-incisive and expressive themes contributed greatly to the development of theÃÂ classical style, so much so that MozartÃÂ showed a certain interest in the sonatas of the Italian composer.
The other works of the Florentine composer, on the other hand, are almost totally unknown to current critics and await more detailed studies (the only one who commented on one of his works wasÃÂ Andrea Della Corte). In addition to his compositional activity, Rutini was also a teacher and founder of theÃÂ Leopoldian School of Florentine Composers, to which his sonÃÂ FerdinandoÃÂ belonged, among others.