Italian, with its pure simple vowels and expressive cadences, is the natural language at least for European music ~ and used, as such, traditionally, to express verbal instructions on pace (tempo!) and dynamics for performers. Of course, there have been many famous Italian composers and musicians...
See how you get on with these brain-teasers!
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Vittorio Emanuele, Re De Italia was the key phrase of the age
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Andante simply means 'at a walking pace': so andantino is a diminutive of this, and carries a meaning barely distinct from it: possibly a fraction slower than 'whatever speed you first thought of', but hardly dithering. Comodo simply means 'to suit'; so overall the marking is almost superfluous, and maybe Allegretto ben grazioso might have been more evocative
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This was Rossini (of William Tell and Barber of Seville fame), also known in church-musical circles for his Petite Messe Solennelle (scored for operatic chorus, soloists, two grand pianos and harmonium) which really is neither petite nor particularly solemn
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Gabrieli was a Venetian composer; the other three, along with Stradivari, were classic makers of violins and other instruments of the bowed string family
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This is the famous, loping Adagio in G minor that is probably best heard in versions for organ and string orchestra. Albinoni was by no means a 'one-piece composer' however: there is, for instance, a delightful Oboe Concerto and a great deal else to discover
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Vivaldi was probably the greatest of all Italian composers during the zenith period of music in Venice. The string concerti mentioned in the Question are, of course, his Four Seasons set
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Puccini is generally held to be Italy's most illustrious opera composer after Verdi (both chronologically, and in terms of his 'bankable' popularity)
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Mendelssohn, for example, incorporates such a dance into his Italian Symphony, as does Berlioz within his Harold in Italy
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This was undoubtedly Toscanini, whose influence at La Scala (Milan) and elsewhere was almost incalculably great during that turbulent transition period for the performing arts
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The Night Visitors turn out to be the Three Kings (Magi). There is a kindredship of artistic spirit here, with Benjamin Britten, who also worked fruitfully with children and on material with a similar overall cultural 'feel' to it (cf. Answers 1 & 3, and Britten's dramatic cantata The Golden Vanity)
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