Francesco Xaverio Geminiani’s statue in Piazza Guidiccioni, unveiled yesterday by Mayor Alessandro Tambellini, brings the number of statues dedicated to Lucca’s heritage of great composers to four. There’s Puccini’s in Piazza della Cittadella, inaugurated in 1994, Alfredo Catalani’s at Baluardo San Paolino, dating from 1954, and Boccherini’s cello-playing one in front of the music school named after him and placed there in 2008.

Geminiani (1687 – 1762) perfected his studies in Rome. A gifted violinist, he was much influenced by Arcangelo Corelli. In 1714 Francesco moved to London where he scored a great success with his concerti grossi and violin teaching. (His ‘Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin playing’ is a key text for anyone playing late baroque music). The composer died in Dublin but his remains were later reburied in Lucca’s San Francesco church where there is a memorial plaque.

Geminiani’s statue is placed at one end of the Piazza and is the only one of the four memorials which is of marble. Showing him with his violin at rest it’s a little larger than life-size and is the work of Nicola Domenici from Viareggio.

The unveiling ceremony was accompanied by the inevitable speeches and by an excellent performance of one of Geminiani’s often fiendishly difficult solo sonatas. It’s no wonder that he was nicknamed ‘il furibondo’ (the madcap) by his contemporaries.

Any new statue is bound to arouse differing opinions. I leave it to you to form your own.

Plans for further Luccan composer statues?  Why not one for Francesco Barsanti who accompanied Geminiani to the UK and spent much of his career in Edinburgh?