Archivio per la categoria ‘Senza categoria’

Liszt’s sacred/liturgical work has unfailingly been overshadowed by his piano and orchestral output. But the image of a musician oriented almost totally towards instrumental music does not take into account the spiritual path that accompanied him throughout his whole life. This edition focuses on two works: Tu es petrus! and Dominus conservet eum, composed in 1880 and published in Rome, the following year, by Manganelli. Both works appear in a manuscript purchased by the Fondazione Istituto Liszt from the antiquarian Kotte in October 2008. Philippe Wolfrum, editor of the  Grossherzog Carl Alexander Ausgabe der Musikalischen Werke Franz Liszt, claims to have based his 1936 edition on that of Manganelli, believing that the original had been lost. This opinion was shared by Leslie Howard and Michael Short who, in the Catalogue of Liszt’s works (Rugginenti 2004) place a crux desperationis in the space reserved for the indication of the autograph.

The present study shows that the Tu es petrus!, despite being a Stichvorlage, can be considered almost completely an autograph due to the very numerous additions and variations inserted by Liszt, and that the Dominus conservet eum is an autograph in the strict sense because it is written entirely by the composer on the verso of the second folio, originally destined to remain empty, and signed at the bottom by Liszt himself.

Franz Liszt, Tu es petrus!
Franz Liszt, Dominus conservet eum

Edited by Ezio Spinoccia,
Rarità lisztiane / Liszt Rareties, vol. 6, Lim, Lucca, 2020

The Liszt Institute Foundation recently purchased a batch of letters, cards, and postcards by Giovanni Sgambati (Rome, 1841-1914), Liszt’s most important Italian students. Sgambati was very active as a pianist, conductor, teacher, composer, and concert organizer; these documents attest to his contacts with fellow musicians, students, and music lovers. Their transcription and annotation provide an opportunity to reconstruct the lives of some significant figures, such as Count Pio Resse and the Florence music environment revolving around the Istituto Musicale; Sofia Buonamici, daughter of the noted Florentine pianist, Giuseppe; another major pianist, Ernesto Consolo, one of Sgambati’s best students, to whom his former teacher asked for information about concerts and sent his own compositions with valuable performance notes; such younger pianists as Aldo Solito de Solis (who committed himself to perform Sgambati’s music in concert, especially his G-Minor Piano Concerto) and George Boskoff; the Polish diplomat, Karl Zaluski, a friend of Liszt’s from 1860 and then of Sgambati’s, who was also a pianist, composer, writer, translator, and music writer. Comparison with Sgambati’s correspondence in the Sgambati foundation at the Casanatense Library, Rome, provided useful feedback to the information commented here.

Bianca Maria Antolini, Giovanni Sgambati’s unpublished autographs

Elza Bogáthy was associated with Liszt’s circle in Rome probably between 1868 and 1870. Two unpublished letters attest to their contact. There are no extant documents related to her life prior to this period, and also information about her family is very scarce. As a pianist she appeared as a soloist and as an accompanist in several concerts and other performances before 1877. For the most part, she played music by Liszt and Chopin. Fancsali’s article is based on reviews of her concerts in Kassa, Székesfehérvár, Vienna, Kőszeg, Kolozsvár, Pest, Nagyszeben, and Nagyenyed.

In the present essay twelve letters by the Roman student of Liszt, Pietro Boccaccini, are quoted in their entirety. They were written between August 1875 and December 1877 and addressed to his friend and pianist, Maria Giuli in Rome. The corpus of letters herein transcribed is kept at the Post-Unity Historic Archive of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. The analysis of this unpublished correspondence has led to new starting points of investigation into the biography of the Roman musician, providing more details about his life and at the same time indirectly enlightening the figure of Maria Giuli, herself a pupil of Liszt’s in Rome.

These missives depict a specific moment of Boccacini’s life, precisely the years he spent in South Italy while perfecting his piano expertise under the guidance of Beniamino Cesi. The main topic of this correspondence is, in fact, Boccaccini’s frantic attempt to attain a solid piano technique.

A deeper between-the-lines reading of these letters also allows considerations on what the relationship might have been between the Master, Liszt, and the student Boccacini: it provides hints that unfortunately are not validated in the collection of letters by Liszt and yet it urges a more thorough research on a chapter of the life of Liszt, during his stay in Rome, very poorly investigated till now.