Pasquale Bini

Pasquale Bini, also known as Pasqualino, was an Italian violinist and composer born in Pesaro in 1716 and who died in that same city in April 1770. His name endures chiefly through his association with Giuseppe Tartini, whose esteem gave him a notoriety that his own written output never achieved.

His talent attracted patronage from an early age. At the age of fifteen, Cardinal Olivieri sent him to Padua to study with Tartini, where he remained for more than three years. He then travelled to Rome, where he played with such success that a rumour spread that his triumph had caused the violinist Montanari to die of shame, an event known only as a rumour. He soon returned to Padua to continue his training, having learned that Tartini had changed his style. Tartini returned Bini's admiration and, when recommending him to an English patron, went so far as to claim that he played better than Tartini himself.

Following the death of Cardinal Olivieri in 1738, Bini entered the service of Cardinal Acquaviva Troiano. When the latter died in 1747, Bini felt unhappy in Rome and returned to Pesaro. The precise causes of his discontent are not known with certainty, although Tartini alluded to serious emotional problems when recommending him to Algarotti and Prince Lobkowitz. Until 1754 he taught and performed at the Teatro del Sole in Pesaro; that year he entered the service of the Duke of Württemberg as director of concerts and chamber music, a post he held until around 1759. He then returned once more to Pesaro. A chronicle of the period mentions a 'brain ailment' that ended his life, though it offers no further detail.

According to some accounts, Bini was an excellent and much admired performer, but his lasting reputation depends almost entirely on Tartini's judgement. As a composer he enjoyed little fame and left few works, none of them published. His concertos show sound technique and elegant passages, although they are conventional in form and lacking in imagination; his duets are somewhat more modern. His legacy is therefore more documentary than artistic, yet it allows us to appreciate Tartini's influence on the Italian violin school of the eighteenth century.