Quintetto Chigiano

Last updated

The Quintetto Chigiano or Chigi Quintet was an Italian musical ensemble comprising a string quartet with pianoforte, founded in 1939 and active until 1966, when it was reformed as the Chigiano String Sextet. Led by Riccardo Brengola, it was first assembled by Count Guido Chigi-Saracini out of his Accademia Musicale Chigiana at Siena in Tuscany, Italy, but developed a worldwide acclaim.

Contents

Personnel

The personnel of the Quintet were as follows:

Formation

The Quintetto Chigiano was founded in Siena, Italy, in 1939 and took its name from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, which was founded by Count Guido Chigi-Saracini. [3] It was one of the rare permanent quintets in the world. The Quintet, which was drawn by Chigi Saracini from among the very talented students of the Academy (who all taught as professors there), [4] had the use of the four best instruments from the Count's private collection, namely a Camillo Camilli and a Guadagnini violin, an Amati viola and a Stradivarius violoncello. [5]

The first violin, Riccardo Brengola, won the Geneva International Music Competition in 1946, [6] and in that year Count Chigi-Saracini appointed him principal of the Chamber Music courses at the Accademia Chigiana, a position which he held until 1997. By 1956, the Quintet had recently given more than a thousand concerts in countries including Italy, Germany, England, France, Holland, Belgium and Spain, had taken part in the major European festivals, and had newly completed a highly successful tour of Central and South America: its repertoire reflected Brengola's preoccupations both with early Italian chamber music and with the works of contemporary composers. [7]

At about this time, the 2nd violin, Mario Benvenuti (1915-1995), (who graduated in violin (1935) and viola (1936) at the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia, before proceeding to the Accademia Chigiana), left the Quintet to join the Collegium Musicum Italicum (later Virtuosi di Roma) chamber orchestra. In 1962 he became the creator and coordinator of the Città di Vittorio Veneto Violin Competition, and in 1966 re-joined the Chigiano ensemble at the first viola desk when the group was reformed as a string sextet. [2]

Benvenuti was replaced as second violin by Angelo Stefanato. In 1957 the Quintetto Chigiano completed an acclaimed tour of Southern Africa promoted by the musicologist Hans G. Adler. [8] The Chigiano made its Boston debut in 1961 for the Peabody Mason Concert series. [9] Alberto Ginastera dedicated his Piano Quintet op. 29 (1963) to the Chigiano, who gave the first performance at the Teatro La Fenice in that year. [10] In 1964 the Quintet as a body was teaching the course in chamber music at the Accademia Chigiana. [11]

Sergio Lorenzi, a distinguished pianist in his own right, can be heard accompanying the cellist Enrico Mainardi in "live" off-air performances broadcast from Reichssender Berlin in 1942. [12] During the 1960s he made several recordings of pianoforte works for four hands, including the sonatas of Muzio Clementi and works by Ferruccio Busoni, with Gino Gorini. [13] The International Chamber Music Competition "Concorso Sergio Lorenzi" at Trieste is named for him. [14] Giovanni Leone was a very highly esteemed viola player for many years: following a car accident he gave up performing in concerts but continued his work as a teacher.

In 1966, following the death of Count Chigi Saracini, the Quintet was reformed as a string sextet ensemble, the Sestetto Chigiano d'Archi. [3] In addition to Brengola, this consisted of Felice Cusano, later Giovanni Guglielmo (second violin), Mario Benvenuti and Tito Riccardi (violas), and Alain Meunier and Adriano Vendramelli (cellos). The Sextet began touring the United States and Germany in 1967, with the aim of making the public familiar with late 18th century chamber music. Its instruments included violins by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini and one of the Testore family, violas by Nicolò Amati and Pietro Guarneri, and cellos by David Techler and Lorenzo Storioni. [15]

Recordings

The Quintet made several recordings for Decca Records:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String quintet</span>

A string quintet is a musical composition for five string players. As an extension to the string quartet, a string quintet includes a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola or a second cello, or occasionally a double bass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luigi Boccherini</span> Italian composer and cellist

Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini was an Italian, later Spanish, composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and galante style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. He is best known for a minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5, and the Cello Concerto in B flat major. The latter work was long known in the heavily altered version by German cellist and prolific arranger Friedrich Grützmacher, but has recently been restored to its original version.

The Takács Quartet is a string quartet, founded in Budapest, Hungary, and now based in Boulder, Colorado, United States.

A piano sextet is a composition for piano and five other musical instruments, or a group of six musicians who perform such works. There is no standard grouping of instruments with that name, and compared to the string quartet or piano quintet literature, relatively few such compositions exist. The best-known piano sextet is probably the Sextet by Poulenc, one of the pinnacles of the wind and piano repertoire. Chausson's Concert is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of French strings and piano chamber music literature.

The Melos Quartet was a much-recorded, Stuttgart-based string quartet active from 1965 until 2005, when its first violin died. It also went by the name Melos Quartett Stuttgart, partly to distinguish itself from the equally prominent chamber group the Melos Ensemble of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Geringas</span> Lithuanian cellist and conductor

David Geringas is a Lithuanian cellist and conductor who studied under Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1970 he won the gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He also plays the baryton, a rare instrument associated with music of Joseph Haydn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accademia Musicale Chigiana</span> Italian music institute

The Accademia Musicale Chigiana is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi-Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Classes in the major musical instruments as well as singing, conducting and composition. During the summer months a series of concerts are held under the title of Estate Musicale Chigiana.

Steven Dann is a Canadian violist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riccardo Brengola</span> Italian violinist and music teacher

Riccardo Brengola was an Italian violinist and professor. He was associated with early Italian chamber music and with the performance of contemporary Italian classical music. For several decades, he was the Professor Emeritus of chamber music at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, and from 1939 to 1966, he was the leader of the only piano quintet ensemble, the Quintetto Chigiano. His influence as a teacher also spread beyond Siena, through courses or classes at other major Italian Conservatories and to Ireland, Argentina, Spain and Japan. He maintained his career as a concert violin soloist and as an orchestral conductor, and was awarded the status of Commendatore of the Italian Republic in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quartetto Italiano</span> String quartet

The Quartetto Italiano was a string quartet founded in Reggio Emilia in 1945. They made their debut in 1945 in Carpi when all four players were still in their early 20s. They were originally named Nuovo Quartetto Italiano before dropping the "Nuovo" tag in 1951. They are particularly noted for their recording of the complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets, made between 1967 and 1975. The quartet disbanded in 1980.

The Griller String Quartet was a British musical ensemble particularly active from 1931 to c.1961 or 1963, when it was disbanded. The quartet was in residence at the University of California at Berkeley from 1949 to 1961. It performed a wide repertory, including works written for it by Ernest Bloch, Darius Milhaud, and Arnold Bax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luigi Sagrati</span>

Luigi Sagrati was an Italian violist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boccherini Quintet</span> Musical artist

The Boccherini Quintet was a string quintet founded in Rome in 1949 when two of its original members, Arturo Bonucci (cello) and Pina Carmirelli (violin), discovered and bought, in Paris, a complete collection of the first edition of Luigi Boccherini's 141 string quintets, and set about to promote this long neglected music. Since then, they performed all over Italy and Europe and in many parts of the world, including thirteen tours of North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pina Carmirelli</span> Italian violinist (1914–1993)

Pina Carmirelli was an Italian violinist.

The Diapason d'Or is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of Diapason magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the British Gramophone magazine.

The String Sextet No. 1 in B♭ major, Op. 18, was composed in 1860 by Johannes Brahms and premiered 20 October that year in Hanover by an ensemble led by Joseph Joachim. It was published in 1862 by the firm of Fritz Simrock.

Samuel Carlton Cooley was an American violist and composer.

Ernest Bloch's Piano Quintet No. 1 is a quintet for piano, 2 violins, viola, and cello. It is regarded as one of Bloch's greatest achievements.

<i>Op. 120, No. 1</i> (Berio) Song composed by Luciano Berio

Op. 120, No. 1, also entitled Opus 120, No. 1 or in its German form, Opus 120, Nr. 1, is a 1986 arrangement for clarinet and orchestra of Johannes Brahms's Clarinet Sonata Op. 120, No. 1 by Italian composer Luciano Berio. As with the original Sonata, the soloist in this arrangement can either be a clarinet or a viola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guido Chigi Saracini</span>

Count Guido Chigi Saracini, full name Guido Chigi degli Useppi Saracini Lucherini, was an Italian patrician, a musical patron and composer, and a public administrator. Having inherited the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini in the centre of the city of Siena, Tuscany, he applied his musical instincts to his new opportunities, restored the Palazzo in 1923, and established a concert society and later (1932) a musical academy there. The Accademia Chigiana, which flourishes today, grew under his supervision into a famous institution for higher instruction, research and performance in chamber music, playing an important role in the revival of Italian baroque instrumental music, and in the advocacy and performance of contemporary Italian classical music.

References

  1. ↑ 'Biography of Riccardo Brengola', in Esta Quaderni, Official Review of ESTA Italia (European String Teachers Association), year XV, no. 21 (June 2005), pp. 20-22, and other articles about Brengola in that issue at pp. 7-20.
  2. 1 2 'Mario Benvenuti the founder of the competition', Concorso di Violino Città di Vittorio Veneto website (recovered 31 July 2022). See also Competition history.
  3. 1 2 Cesare Orselli, 'CHIGI SARACINI (Chigi degli Useppi Saracini Lucherini), Guido', in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 24 (Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana 1980), read online at Treccani. (In Italian)
  4. ↑ 'Chigi-Saracini, Guido', in A. Basso (general editor), Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti, series II: The Biographies, vol. 2: BUS-FOX, (UTET, Turin 1985), p. 216.
  5. ↑ Sleevenote to London Gramophone Corporation, New York, recording of the Dvořák Piano Quintet op. 81, as LLP 202 (1950), readable at flickr.
  6. ↑ 'Violin 1937: Riccardo Brengola', Profile at Queen Elisabeth Competition website.
  7. ↑ 'About the Quintetto Chigiano', Sleevenote, to Decca 9832 (Castelnuovo-Tedesco), issued 1956. (readable at flickr.com).
  8. ↑ Photo 1957, Quintetto Chigiano tours Southern Africa.
  9. ↑ Harold Rogers, "Quintetto Chigiano's Boston debut", Christian Science Monitor, 16-Dec-1961, Boston.
  10. ↑ D. Schwartz-Kates, Alberto Ginastera: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge, New York/Abingdon 2010), p. 1961 (Google).
  11. ↑ A.G. Langford, 'A Study of Selected Music Schools in Italy: A Report' (Columbia University, 1964), p. 131 (Google).
  12. ↑ "Enrico Mainardi. German Radio Recordings 1942 - 1949", available on CD under the melo classic label.
  13. ↑ For Harmonia Mundi, reissued by Arcophon.
  14. ↑ See, e.g., "The Vienna Schubert Trio" at Nimbus Records.
  15. ↑ (The Chigiano Sextet), in Sleevenote to Musical Heritage Society (New York), recording of Boccherini: Quintet in C major and Sextet in D major (MHS 3122).
  16. ↑ Layton, Robert: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) / Piano Quintet in F minor Op.34 musicweb-international.com, November 2005
  17. ↑ Layton, Robert: Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2 & Quintet Gramophone, July 1983

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.