Anna Bon’s only known biographical information appears on the frontispiece contained within three surviving works, published by her between 1756 and 1759. It is believed that she was born to successful parents. Her mother, Rosa Ruvinetti, was an opera singer and her father Girolamo Bon an architect, artist, and stage designer. Both were linked to the court of Frederic the Great of Prussia.
All three were also employed at the court of the wonderfully named Prince Nikolaus von Esterhazy. We can see that Anna was the ‘virtuoso di musica da camera’ at the court of Potsdam in 1756 and that, at the time, she was sixteen years of age. In 1767 she was living in Hildburghausen in Turingia.
However, she all but disappears from history around 1767 when she married an Italian tenor, Mongeri. Rather typically for a female of the time she sadly abandoned her musical career as a composer to presumably raise a family.
Her work remained largely overlooked but is now the subject of this excellent release courtesy of Dr. Barbara Harbach’s commitment and, of course, her skill of performance. Each of the six sonatas within the work has three movements. The movements are relatively short ranging from 16 to 115 measures and have a variety of forms. The well researched and expertly written accompanying album notes explain this in far more detail.
The album would probably have never seen light of day without Dr. Harbach’s dedication to her chosen cause. In fact Anna Bon di Venezia was one of several child prodigies that she has successfully re-discovered. Another example is Elizabeth Weichsell Billington (1765-1818).
The second album I would like to draw to your attention is Toccatas, Flourishes, and Fugues, A Celebration of Hymns, Volume 3 (MSR 1254). Playing an Aeolian-Skinner Organ, 1965 – IV/70 - from the Christ Church Cathedral in St Louis, Missouri, Dr. Harbach performs twenty-four short ecclesiastical pieces inspired by a wide range of sources.
For this album she has drawn upon her studies and research into keyboard composers and again these works are available in written form via Vivace Press. The recordings offer, ‘a selection of new arrangements and interpretations of a wide assortment of hymn tunes’. These include the traditional, as well as several lesser known hymns.
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