George Pinto

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George Pinto (Lambeth, 25 September 1785 — Chelsea, 23 March 1806) was an English composer and keyboard virtuoso.

He was born George Frederick Sanders or Saunders, his mother Julia being the daughter of the English violinist Thomas Pinto, himself of Neapolitan descent. Initially a prodigy on the violin, he came at the age of eight under the aegis of the musical impresario Johann Peter Salomon, adopted his mother’s maiden name and appeared in London playing a concerto in 1796. For the rest of his brief career he played regularly at concerts in London and the English provinces, and made two brief concert tours to Paris.

Pinto seems to have taken up the piano whilst already a professional violinist, but it soon became his favourite instrument. He wrote a number of pieces for both instruments, some of which were incomplete at his death. Others, including a violin concerto, are lost. He died, allegedly ‘a martyr to dissipation’, (but probably in fact from tuberculosis), after giving a charity concert in Birmingham and sleeping in a damp room. Salomon wrote at this death 'If he had lived and been able to resist the allurements of society, England would have had the honour of producing a second Mozart'.

His piano sonatas have been recorded on CD by the English pianist Thomas Wakefield.

[edit] External links

• Review of CD of Pinto's piano music, played by Thomas Wakefield
• Grand Sonata Op.3-II for piano Score at the Werner Icking Music Archive