Today (2 Apr 2025) is the 300th birthday of violinist, bon viveur, and one-time prison escapee Giacomo Casanova.

Tracing his travels across Europe, we will hear music contemporary to the cities through which this infamous Italian passed. While some may not have aligned exactly with his visits, we're showcasing the wide variety of music being written and performed across Europe throughout Casanova's eventful life.

We begin with Vivaldi, who was living and working in Venice at the time of Casanova's birth in 1725 – the same year when his (now world-famous) Op. 8 group of concertos, including The Four Seasons, appeared in print. Next, we visit Tartini in Padua, where Casanova attended university to study secular and ecclesiastical law. Soon after he started his career as a clerical lawyer, but scandals forced him to switch professions and his eventual self-imposed exile.

During his travels, Casanova visited many cities across Europe, including Paris, Cologne, Stuttgart, Zurich, London, Moscow, St Petersburg, and Madrid between 1756 and 1774. This playlist showcases musical figures who were working in or influenced these cities at the times of Casanova's visits.

After 18 years away from his homeland, Casanova secured a return to Venice in 1774, but his stingy criticism of the Venetian nobility saw him having to embark on his second and final exile in 1783. During this period, we know that Casanova encountered Benjamin Franklin in the Alps in late 1783, met Lorenzo Da Ponte in Prague in 1787, and probably also met Mozart and attended the premiere of Don Giovanni in the Bohemian capital. We include some highlights from this masterpiece.

Casanova died in 1798 at at the Castle of Dux, one of the estates of Count Waldstein, where he had been working as librarian for the last 13 years of his life, and writing his memoir, Histoire de ma vie. Beethoven wrote his Waldstein Sonata for this same count just six years later.

Listen below or on our Spotify Playlist - Music in Europe During Casanova's Time.

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto No. 1 in E, Op. 8, RV 269 Spring: II. Largo e pianissimo sempre

Kati Debretzeni, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315 Summer: III. Presto

Kati Debretzeni, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto No. 3 in F, Op. 8, RV 293 Autumn: I. Allegro

Kati Debretzeni, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297 Winter: III. Allegro

Kati Debretzeni, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Giuseppe Tartini - Violin Sonata in G minor Il trillo del diavolo: I. Andante

Adrian Chandler, La Serenissima

Giuseppe Tartini - Violin Sonata in G minor The Devil's Trill: II. Allegro

Adrian Chandler, La Serenissima

Jean-Philippe Rameau - Overture to Pigmalion

William Christie, Les Arts Florissants

Jean-Philippe Rameau - Pigmalion (Act I): Air gracieux

William Christie, Les Arts Florissants

Nicolò Jommelli - Overture to Il Vologeso

Ian Page, The Mozartists

Nicolò Jommelli - Il Vologeso (Act II): Cavatina

Ian Page, The Mozartists

George Frideric Handel - Jeptha (Act III): 'Waft her angels through the skies'

John Eliot Gardiner, The English Baroque Soloists, The Monteverdi Choir, Nigel Robson

Domenico Cimarosa - Cleopatra (Act I): Ballo

Fête Galante Baroque Orchestra, Simone Perugini

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Don Giovanni: 'Madamina, il catologo è questo'

René Jacobs, Freiburger Baroque Orchestra

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Don Giovanni: 'Là ci darem la mano'

René Jacobs, Freiburger Baroque Orchestra

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Don Giovanni: 'Deh vieni alla finestra'

René Jacobs, Freiburger Baroque Orchestra

Josef Starzer - Sonata for violin and piano in F-sharp minor: II. Romanza siciliana

Anton Ferdinand Titz, Russian Baroque Ensemble

Gaetano Brunetti - Symphony No. 9 in D, L298: I. Allegro con spirito

Gustavo Sánchez, Camerata Antonio Soler

Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 21 in C, Op. 53 Waldstein: I. Allegro con brio

Olga Pashchenko

Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 21 in C, Op. 53 Waldstein: II. Introduzione. Adagio molto

Olga Pashchenko