Michele Esposito

Michele Esposito (29 September 1855 – 19 November 1929) was an Italian-born musical composer and pianist who lived most of his professional life in Dublin, Ireland.

Training

Esposito was born at Castellamare di Stabia, near Sorrento. As a boy he entered a Music Conservatory at Naples as a pianoforte pupil of Beniamino Cesi (1845-1907, himself a favourite pupil of Thalberg), and studied composition there for 8 years under Paolo Serrao (1830-1907, teacher of Francesco Cilea and others). He was a near-contemporary of Giuseppe Martucci, and a few years the senior of Alessandro Longo, both taught by these teachers. In 1878 he went to Paris for several years.^[1]

In 1879 he married Natalia Klebnikoff (1857-1944), who hailed from St Petersburg. They had four children, including the noted scholar Mario Esposito.^[2]

Teacher, pianist and conductor

Esposito became chief pianoforte professor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 1882, and remained there for more than forty years, devoting himself to the encouragement of classical music in Dublin. He took control of the Royal Dublin Society chamber-music recitals from their inception, with great success, and gave piano recitals for the Society every year. He established the Dublin Orchestral Society in 1899 and was its conductor until its disbandment in 1914, and he was also the conductor of the Sunday Orchestral Concerts until they were discontinued in 1914. He conducted concerts of the London Symphony Orchestra at Woodbrook in 1913 and 1914, and also performed his piano concerto with them under the baton of Hamilton Harty. He founded the 'C. and E. Edition' of music publishing with Sir Stanley Cochrane. He died in Florence, Italy.^[1]

Esposito conducted the Moscow premiere of Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina with the Russian Private Opera at the Solodovnikov Theatre on 12 November 1897. He also conducted the world premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera-bylina Sadko on 7 January 1898 (O.S. 26 December 1897), presented by the Russian Private Opera at the same venue.

Composer

Esposito received awards from the Feis Ceoil for his cantata Deirdre, his Irish Symphony and his string quartet in D. His cello sonata won a prize from the London Incorporated Society of Musicians in 1899. His violin sonata in E minor gained a prize offered by La Société Nouvelle, Paris, in 1907, and his string quartet in C minor won another offered by the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna.

Works

• Deirdre (text by T. Rolleston), cantata for soli, chorus and orch. (Breitkopf)
• The Tinker and the Fairy (text by Douglas Hyde), 1-act opera. (C & E)
• The Post Bag (text by A. P. Graves), 1-act opera. (Boosey)
• Irish Symphony, op. 50 (1902).
• Poem for orchestra, op 44 (1899).
• Irish suite for orchestra, op 55. (C & E)
• Neapolitan suite for orchestra. (C & E)
• String quartet in D op 33. (Breitkopf)
• String quartet in C minor op 60. (C & E)
• Sonata in G (violin and piano), op 32. (Schott)
• Sonata in E minor (violin and piano), op 46. (Astruc, Paris 1907)
• Sonata for violin and piano op 67. (Astruc, Paris)
• Sonata in D (cell and piano), op 43. (Breitkopf)
• Numerous pianoforte solo works.

Sources

• A. Eaglefield-Hull, Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924).
• Jeremy Dibble, Michele Esposito (Dublin, Field Day Publications 2010).

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Obituary, Irish Times, Dublin, 25 November 1929, p. 5
2. ^ Esposito, Mario (1988). Latin Learning in Medieval Ireland. London: Ashgate. pp. 300–01. ISBN 0869789667. http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=84z6EDQrw6kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=%22Esposito:+br%C3%A8ve+%C3%A9vocation+de+sa+vie+et+de+son+oeuvre%22&ots=HoyWpG9kKv&sig=EVF-eN2bE3EIoiw5Ic-RMZR-DH8#v=onepage&q=natalia&f=false. 

Recordings

• Three ballades (piano), recorded by Una Hunt in Fallen Leaves from an Irish Album, RTÉ (Radio Éirann) lyric fm CD 109.
• 'Anema e core', song, by Ferruccio Tagliavini (tenor) (1951), in NAXOS CD Italian Popular Song 1, Naxos 8.110768.
• Works for piano, recorded by Míċeál O'Rourke. Chandos CHAN 9675 (1998)

External links

• Free scores by Michele Esposito at the International Music Score Library Project

Persondata
Name	Esposito, Michele
Alternative names
Short description	Italian-born musical composer and pianist
Date of birth	29 September 1855
Place of birth	Castellamare di Stabia, near Sorrento
Date of death	1929
Place of death	Florence, Italy