Pietro Nardini

Composer

Born in Livorno, Pietro Nardini (1722-1793), the most famous pupil of the composer and virtuoso violinist Giuseppe Tartini, joined the court chapel in Stuttgart, becoming conductor in 1762. However, he abandoned his duties there in 1765 to become Kapellmeister, in 1770, to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence.

As a friend of Leopold Mozart, he witnessed the arrival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on his first visit to Italy.

Nardini is mentioned in Hester Lynch Piozzi's "Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey Through France, Italy, and Germany" (1789).
Charles Burney in "The Present State of Music in France and Italy" 1773 wrote: Nardini [...] seems to know music well and to have a good deal of fancy in his compositions, with a tincture of not disagreeable madness.