Giuseppe Martucci

Giuseppe Martucci (January 6 1856 – June 1 1909) was an Italian composer, conductor, pianist and teacher. As a conductor he helped to introduce Richard Wagner's operas to Italy, and also gave important early concerts of English music there.

Career

Martucci was born at Capua, in Campania.

He learned the basics of music from his father, Gaetano, who played the trumpet. He was a child prodigy, performing on the piano at the age of 8cite book|last=Greene|first=David Mason|location=Garden City, N.Y.|publisher=Doubleday|title=Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers|pages=830-1|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=m3S7PIxe0mwC&pg=PA831&lpg=PA831&dq=paolo+martucci+1883&source=web&ots=KSdQzQO9P9&sig=4Wa10guTP_eLytFiMZ-ALd_HMAM#PPA830,M1
accessdate=2007-12-29|date=1985|isbn=0-385-14278-1] . From the age of 11, he was a student at the Naples conservatory, on the recommendation of professor Beniamino Cesicite book|title=Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians|edition=Fifth Edition|last=Gatti|first=Guido M.|authorlink=Guido Gatti|editor=Blom, Eric|pages=V (L-M): 602-603|date=1954|publisher=St. Martin's Press Inc.|location=New York|oclc=6085892] , the latter being a former student of Sigismond Thalberg. Martucci became a student in composition with Paolo Serrao. Martucci subsequently (from 1880 onwards) held a professorship and became director in 1902. Among his students was Ottorino Respighi.

His son Paolo, born in Naples in 1883, also became a pianist of note, briefly teaching at the Cincinnati Conservatory.

He died in Naples in 1909.

Pianist

Martucci's career as an international pianist commenced with a tour through Germany, France and England in 1875, at the age of 19cite web|title=Martucci Biography|url=http://grandemusica.net/musical-biographies-m/martucci-giuseppe.html|accessdate=2007-12-29] . He was appointed pianoforte professor at the Naples Conservatory in 1880, and moved to Bologna in 1886, replacing Luigi Mancinelli there; in 1902 he returned for the last time to Naples, as director of the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Conductor

His career as conductor started in 1881. As a conductor he helped introduce Richard Wagner's operas to Italy, conducting the first Italian performance of "Tristan und Isolde" in 1888cite book|last=Ewen|first=David|title=Composers of yesterday : a biographical and critical guide to the most important composers of the past|origdate=1937|date=1977, more recent 2007 reprint available online|isbn=0-403-01551-0|publisher=Scholarly Press|location=St. Clair Shores, Mich.|pages=278
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=S2LMjmpappgC&pg=PA278&vq=martucci&dq=martucci+tristan&sig=4tHJSHxaR3y4jw0vavfYGtuxFRM
accessdate=2007-12-22] in 1888 in Bologna. As well as performing Charles Villiers Stanford's 3rd ("Irish") Symphony in Bologna in 1898 [cite book|last=Dibble|first=Jeremy|title=Charles Villiers Stanford: man and musician|pages=299|isbn=0-19-816383-5|location=London; New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2002|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VevXghb1SwoC&pg=PA299&dq=martucci+stanford&ei=QKRtR8v6DY7-iAGRubV3&sig=tkoxl31McpDT3XEmoEMlrYzzc9I
accessdate=2007-12-22] , he also conducted perhaps the only concert of all-British orchestral music on the European continent in the whole period 1851–1900, and included music by Brahms, Lalo, Goldmark and others in his programs.

Composer

Martucci began as a composer at the age of 16, with short piano works. He wrote no operas, making him rare among Italian composers of his generation, but instead concentrated on instrumental music and songs, producing also an oratorio, "Samuel".cite web|title=Preface to Score of Martucci First Symphony|last=Schlüren|first=Christoph|publisher=Musikproduktion Juergen Hoeflich|url=http://www.musikmph.de/musical_scores/prefaces/M-R/martucci_sym1.html|date=2003|accessdate=2007-12-22]

His music is influenced primarily but not entirely by that of Brahms and Schumann, and was championed by Arturo Toscanini during much of the latter's career. G.F. Malipiero said of Martucci's second symphony that it was "the beginning of the rebirth of non-operatic Italian music." Martucci was an instrumentalist pur sang, taking 'absolute music' as his highest goal.

Works

General

* Sonatas for organ op. posth. , violin, and violoncello
* Song-cycles including "La Canzone dei Ricordi" (with piano or orchestra; perhaps his major work)
* Many chamber works, most with piano (piano quintet, two piano trios, for example).
* Miniatures for piano solo or with other instruments, some of which have an independent concert life in orchestral arrangements.

By opus number

* Piano concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 40
* Piano quintet in C major, Op. 45
* Canzonetta for orchestra, Op. 55, No. 1
* Gavotta, for piano, Op. 55, No. 2
* Serenata for piano (or orchestra), Op. 57, No. 1
* Minuetto for orchestra, Op. 57, No. 2
* Momento musicale for orchestra, Op. 57, No. 3
* Prelude, Toccata and Gigue for small orchestra, Op. 61
* Piano concerto No. 2 in B-flat minor Op. 66
* Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75 (1888-95)
* Symphony No. 2 in F major, Op. 81

References

Further reading

*cite book|last=Perrino|first=Folco|title=Giuseppe Martucci|location=Novara|publisher=Centro studi martucciani|origyear=1992|date=1996|oclc=39797377|language=Italian

External links

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