Announcing Gaetano Donizetti’s Largo for Cello and Piano

What follows is an extract from M° Fabrizio Capitanio’s notes at the beginning of this edition. Find the full edition here and watch the promo video here.

Editorial Notes

Donizetti and chamber music

Together with Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868), Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) was one of the greatest Italian opera composers of the first half of the XIX century to dedicate himself with assiduity and commitment to instrumental music, a production almost entirely relegated to his years of apprenticeship. Returning to Bergamo after his study at the Liceo Filarmonico di Bologna under the guidance of Father Stanislao Mattei between 1818 and 1821, he had not limited himself to seeking professional outlets in the composition of his first operas and farces. During the months spent unemployed between commissions, “Donizetti did not want to waste time, and decided to learn the Viola,” says violinist Marco Bonesi, his friend and fellow student, in a short 1861 biography published posthumously by Guido Zavadini¹. It is curious, for an aspiring opera composer, to manifest the intent to start studying the viola at the age of twenty, for the sole purpose of “not wasting time”. In truth, it was a matter of facing a new and stimulating creative experience, among the most noble and arduous ones: composing for string quartet.

In Bergamo, in the house of the wealthy merchant Alessandro Bertoli, an excellent amateur violinist, quartet meetings were held weekly. Johann Simon Mayr (1763–1845) also attended them regularly in the role of an exceptional violist, and so Donizetti became an unmissable guest. This did not turn out to be a simple pastime for him: always according to Bonesi, he was “never full of feeding on those classic compositions, to come to discover the mastery of composing in that way”. Donizetti would then be so enthusiastic about these meetings that he would eventually give his friends from Bergamo no less than sixteen quartets! He would then write three more later in life: one left undated, one dated 1825 and one even from 1836, probably written in Naples during the spring. The first tempo of this last quartet, conveniently adapted, will become—six years later—the Allegro in the opening symphony of Linda di Chamonix (Vienna, 1842).

When, around the same time, he learned of Bertoli’s death, Donizetti expressed himself in a letter addressed to his friend Antonio Dolci dated Vienna, May 15, 1842:

I’ve heard of the death of our Bertoli with infinite sorrow. I will never forget that, through him, I learned to know all the quartets of Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart, Reicha, Mayseder, etc…, which then brought me so much benefit helping me to spare my imagination and compose a piece with just a few ideas.

Concerning instrumental music, Donizetti didn’t focus exclusively on string quartet composition in that period. The voluminous group of autographs preserved at the Museo Donizettiano offers a large amount of two- and four-hand piano pieces, themes with variations, fantasies on opera themes, for violin, cello, or wind instruments accompanied by the piano. This was the necessary “business card” that a young and promising musician had to present to gain access to stately houses and to be able to join the hostess at the piano. Such was the case with the noblewoman Marianna Pezzoli-Grattaroli, who Donizetti frequented assiduously from 1819 until his departure for Rome in the autumn of 1821, and who was the dedicatee of numerous of his compositions for piano four-hands.

It is uncertain how much the young Donizetti knew about cello technique: an ancient biographer, Guglielmo Barblan, states that it seems he mastered the basics—as he did for the flute and the double bass—even if he does not reveal the source of this information². The fact remains, though, that the composer was always fascinated by the warm sound of the cello: this is evident from the beautiful solos, dedicated to this instrument, contained in his operas.

The Largo for Cello and Piano

The autograph manuscript of the present Largo for cello and piano, now preserved at the Museo Donizettiano³, was once part of the collection Piatti-Lochis of the Biblioteca Musicale Gaetano Donizetti in Bergamo. The owner was, in fact, the great cellist Carlo Alfredo Piatti (1822–1901), another crucial musician born in Bergamo in via Borgo Canale, not far from Donizetti’s birthplace.

The reason for the composition of this cello piece, like the name of its eventual recipient, remained unknown. It certainly belongs to the youth “chamber experiments” of the great aspiring opera composer, to be ascribed to the years in which he was still attending the Lezioni Caritatevoli with Johann Simon Mayr—so by October 1815—or after his return and stay in Bergamo between 1818 and 1821.

The document, in landscape orientation and 305 × 238 mm in size, consists of only three sheets—with original numbering by Donizetti—, each with ten staves. Only the last two cards are stitched: the first is linked to these by a thin light-blue twine. It does not bear any title, but it clearly contains the indications of tempo (Largo) and instrumentation (Violoncello, Piano), written in full on the first sheet in the first system’s preamble.

From a formal standpoint, this 112-bars-long Largo can be roughly assimilated to a sonata form, even if deeply modified: it is, in fact, characterised by the juxtaposition of two main themes, rather articulated as they are enriched by accessory elements, to which a third is added.

The first theme, in G minor, in double exposition (bb 1-16), is followed by a longer and more articulated second theme (bb 29-60), preceded by a second modulating element drawn from the first theme, with a transition function (bb 16-28). This second theme, in the relative key of B-flat major, consists of three elements, all in the same key, two of which have the character of a Coda.

Up to this point one could think of a classic sonata form, but this is proved wrong by the insertion of a third theme, almost totally entrusted to the piano and still in the key of B-flat, which takes the place of the Development (bb 61-74).

Thanks to an elegant modulatory combination, this episode also has the function of bringing the composition to the luminous key of G major, with which the composition will end. Instead of starting the recapitulation with the first theme in this new key—following the canons of the sonata form—Donizetti takes a shortcut directly to the second theme (bb 75-107), complete with his three elements already heard in the Exposition. Finally, a nimble Coda of just six bars happily brings the composition to the end.

Fabrizio Capitanio

Translation: Michele Galvagno

Proofreading: Janey Bennett

About this edition

Crafting this edition required careful comparison of the available sources, with the precise aim of creating the definitive edition of this unjustly ignored piece. A synoptic score was assembled to compare the sources and, from there, a separate score was extracted, containing only the cello and piano parts deduced from the autograph manuscript. Suggested changes and additions are marked within square brackets (notes, accidentals, dynamics) or added in dashed typeface (slur, ties).

The edition comes with a main volume containing these editorial notes, the full score, and the detailed critical notes, an unedited cello part, and an additional cello part with performance suggestions by Michele Galvagno.

1. Cenni biografici su Gaetano Donizetti di Marco Bonesi, su BERGOMUM, Vol. XX, n. 3, luglio-settembre 1946, pp. 81-89. ↩
2. Guglielmo Barblan e Guido Zanolini, Gaetano Donizetti. Vita e opere di un musicista romantico, Bergamo, Bolis, 1983, p. 24. ↩
3. Collocazione: Museo Donizettiano, MUSMU.MS.46 (collocazioni precedenti: I 1º C c 3, Piatti Lochis PREIS.J1.9690). L’autografo è da tempo consultabile online in Biblioteca Digitale Italiana, sul portale di Internet Culturale: http://id.sbn.it/bid/LO11064171 ↩