Pina Carmirelli - violinist

Virtuoso trusted with 17th century masterpiece

Pina Carmirelli quickly established herself as
one of Italy's most talented violinists

Pina Carmirelli, who became one of Italy’s most gifted violinists of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1914 in Varzi, a town in the province of Pavia in Lombardy about 90km (45 miles) south of Milan.

Carmirelli enjoyed a brilliant career as a soloist and as a member of various chamber groups, the most notable of which was the Boccherini Quintet, which she co-founded with her husband, cellist Arturo Bonucci, in order to revive interest in the music of the 18th century cellist, Luigi Boccherini.

She was held in such high regard that the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where she taught for many years, allowed her use of one of the prized possessions of their Museum, a 1690 violin that was one of a set of five instruments the great luthier Antonio Stradivari built for Ferdinando de’ Medici, the Grand Prince of Tuscany.

Carmirelli played the precious instrument, known as the 'Tuscan, Medici' in numerous recitals and concert performances between 1962 and 1977, as well as in some recordings, notably those with the Boccherini Quintet.

As a child, Pina Carmirelli is thought to have been inspired to follow a career in music by her grandfather, the conductor and composer Carlo Podesta. She began studying music and performing as a concert pianist at a very young age. 

She also had a music-loving uncle in Cremona, which - thanks to the Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri families and others - is steeped in the traditions of violin-making. Carmirelli visited the historic city throughout her childhood and it became something of a spiritual home. 

Later, as a student of Teresina Tua and Michelangelo Abbado, she graduated from the Conservatorio di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan in violin in 1930, and in composition five years later.

Carmirelli with the Boccherini Quintet soon after it
was formed. Arturo Bonucci is on the right, seated

She was awarded the Stradivari Prize in 1937 and the Paganini Prize in 1940, which cemented her status as one of the most gifted young violinists in Italy. 

Carmirelli’s distinguished career was notable for her deep affinity for Classical and early Romantic music. Along with her husband, who was 20 years her senior, she formed the Boccherini Quintet in 1950, followed by the Carmirelli Quartet in 1954, also featuring Bonucci.

She also became first violin of I Musici, the chamber orchestra from Rome, formed in 1952, which became well known for their interpretations of Baroque and other works, particularly those of Antonio Vivaldi and Tomaso Albinoni.

The orchestra consisted of 12 musicians, most of whom were students of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. They were so successful that their recordings of Vivaldi’s most famous work, his collection of violin concerti known as The Four Seasons, sold more than 25 million copies.

Bonucci, who she met in 1938 and soon married, was a decorated pilot as well as a musician, but also a committed opponent of the Fascist regime, a stance shared by Carmirelli. 

In later years, Carmirelli played often at
the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont

They collaborated in the revival of Luigi Boccherini’s music after Carmirelli, on tour in Paris, discovered by chance in the library of the Paris Conservatory a complete collection of Boccherini’s works for strings, which had been long forgotten. Carmirelli persuaded the Italian consulate to buy them on her behalf before she and Arturo painstakingly worked through 147 string quintets for two cellos and over 84 string quartets, forming their Boccherini Quintet in order to do them justice in front of an audience.

While Carmirelli’s career was rooted in Italy, she also performed extensively abroad, including in the United States. Her American engagements included chamber tours, guest appearances with orchestras, and collaborations that helped introduce European chamber traditions to US audiences.

For example, she became a regular at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, which she visited for the first time in 1964, not long after the death of Arturo, for whom she was still in mourning. She admitted that the sense of community at the festival allowed her to set aside some of her sadness and feel part of a family again, sharing her knowledge and experience with countless musicians in the years that followed.

Carmirelli, who had by then enjoyed a 50-year association with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, died in 1993 in a town today known as Capena, in northern Lazio, some 35km (21 miles) north of Rome. She had reached the age of 79.

Varzi, the Lombardy village that was Pina Carmirelli's
birthplace, has a well-preserved medieval centre

Travel tip:

Varzi, where Pina Carmirelli was born, designated by the Associazione I Borghi più belli d’Italia as one of Italy’s most beautiful villages, is the gateway to the Upper Oltrepò region, an unspoiled area of the Apennines located at the southern tip of Lombardy, close to the borders with Piedmont to the west, Emilia-Romagna to the east and Liguria to the south. It is characterised by medieval architecture largely unchanged for centuries. Historical attractions include the 13th century Malaspina Castle and Witches’ Tower, the 18th century Palazzo Tamburelli, the 16th century Chiesa di San Germano and the Oratories of the Bianchi and the Rossi, built in the 17th century in different architectural styles, one late Renaissance, the other Baroque. Remnants of the medieval walls are visible in the towers of Porta Soprana and Porta Sottana. Varzi is famed for its Salame di Varzi DOP, which supposedly owes its flavour to being cured by the breezes from the Ligurian Sea. A crucial stop along the Via del Sale trade route, which connects the Po Valley with the Ligurian coast, Varzi enjoyed great prosperity from the 13th century onwards under the Malaspina family, who built many of the buildings that distinguish the village today.

Stay near Varzi with Hotels.com

The inner courtyard of the Conservatorio di Santa
Cecilia, where Carmirelli taught for many years

Travel tip:

The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, was established in 1565. It was founded in Rome by Pope Sixtus V at the Church of Santa Maria ad Martires, better known as the Pantheon. Over the centuries, many famous composers and musicians have been members, among them in recent times the opera singers Beniamino Gigli and Cecilia Bartoli. Since 2005 the Academy’s headquarters have been at the Parco della Musica in Rome, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, in Viale Pietro de Coubertin in the Flaminio district, close to the location of the 1960 Summer Olympic Games. Previously, the Accademia was based at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, which dates back to 1875. Entrances can still be seen in Via dei Greci and Via Vittoria, not far from the Spanish Steps in central Rome.  The museum housing the 1690 Tuscan, Medici violin and the other instruments that comprised the Medici Quintet is located in the Parco della Musica complex. In the exhibition gallery some 130 instruments are on display and about 50 luthiery tools in an open-air laboratory where the museum luthiers work.

Find Rome hotels with Expedia

More reading:

Why Luigi Boccherini spent his last years in Madrid

Niccolò Paganini, the violinist whose extraordinary talent aroused bizarre suspicions

The 17th century luthier whose instruments are still seen as the best in the world

Also on this day:

1752: The death of composer and pianist Muzio Clemente

1881: The birth of heiress and muse Luisa Casati

1921: The birth of sculptor and trophy-maker Silvio Gazzaniga

1928: The birth of controversial politician Salvatore Lima

1980: The death of car designer Giovanni Michelotti

Home

Francesco Gemianini - composer and violinist

Tuscan played alongside Handel in court of George I

Francesco Geminiani moved to London in
1714 and settled there

The violinist, composer and music theorist Francesco Saverio Geminiani, who worked alongside George Frideric Handel in the English royal court in the early 18^th century and became closely associated with the music of the Italian Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli, was baptised on this day in 1687 in Lucca, Tuscany.

Although he composed many works and at his peak was renowned as a virtuoso violinist, he is regarded as a significant figure in the history of music more for his writings, in particular his 1751 treatise Art of Playing on the Violin, which explained the 18th-century Italian method of violin playing and is still acknowledged as an invaluable source for the study of performance practice in the late Baroque period.

Geminiani himself was taught to play the violin by his father, and after showing considerable talent at an early age he went to study the violin under Carlo Ambrogio Lonati in Milan, later moving to Rome to be tutored by the aforementioned Corelli.

Returning to Lucca, he played the violin in the orchestra at the Cappella Palatina for three years, after which he moved to Naples to take up a position as Leader of the Opera Orchestra and concertmaster.

He was by that time recognised as a brilliant violin virtuoso, although his tendency to improvise off the cuff posed problems at times for the orchestra, who had difficulty in following him.  He acquired the nickname Il Furibondo – the Madman. Some of his violin sonatas were so challenging that only a few of his contemporary violinists dared to play them in public.

The cover from a French edition of Gemianini's
treatise on how to play the violin

By the time Geminiani was in his mid-20s, London had become a major centre for music, not least because Handel, the German-born Baroque maestro, had chosen to base himself there.

Handel, like Geminiani, had studied under Corelli and had introduced London to Italian musical style and. In 1714 Geminiani decided he would try his luck there too.

His accomplished performances soon attracted patronage, including that of William Capel, the third Earl of Essex, who would become a regular sponsor and whom he taught to play. Capel at one time had to rescue Geminiani from prison, the consequence of debts run up through art dealing and collecting.  

It was through the Earl of Essex that Geminiani was invited to play his violin concerti in front of George I, with Handel accompanying him on harpsichord.

He established himself in London as the leading master of violin-playing, making a good living through his concerts, his published compositions and his theoretical treatises.  He also taught music and many of his students went on to have successful careers.

Gemianini is best known for his concerti grossi – a form of Baroque music that involves an orchestra and a small group of soloists, as opposed to the single soloist of a solo concerto – of which there were 42. He also reworked some of Corelli’s pieces as concerti grossi.

Geminiani spent time in Paris and Dublin but preferred to make his permanent home in London rather than return to Italy. It was  during a visit to Dublin that he died in 1762 at the age of 74.  He was buried in the Irish capital but his remains were later reburied in the church of San Francesco in Lucca.  

Lucca's oval Piazza dell'Amfiteatro

Travel tip:

Lucca is situated in western Tuscany, just 30km (19 miles) inland from Viareggio on the coast and barely 20km (12 miles) from Pisa, with its international airport.  It is often overlooked by travellers to the area in favour of the Leaning Tower and the art treasures of Florence, 80km (50 miles) to the east, yet has much to recommend within its majestic walls, where visitors can stroll along narrow cobbled streets into a number of beautiful squares, with lots of cafes and restaurants for those content to soak up the ambiance but also a wealth of churches, museums and galleries for those seeking a fix of history and culture.   The Renaissance walls, still intact, are an attraction in their own right, providing a complete 4.2km (2.6 miles) circuit of the city popular with walkers and cyclists.

A bronze statue of Giacomo Puccini sits
outside his birthplace museum

Travel tip:

Lucca has a rich musical tradition of which Francesco Geminiani is just part. The city’s main claim to musical fame is as the home of the great opera composer Giacomo Puccini, who was born there in 1858. Visitors can look around the house where the composer was born in Corte San Lorenzo, off Via di Poggio in the city centre, which is now a museum, or his villa on the shores of nearby Lago di Massaciuccoli, on the way to Viareggio, while there are daily Puccini concerts throughout the summer in Lucca at the church of Santi Giovanni e Raparata in Piazza San Giovanni. The composers Alfredo Catalani and Luigi Boccherini were also from Lucca.

Home

Luigi Boccherini – musician

Composer gave the cello prominence in his charming quintets

Boccherini playing the cello, thought to
have been painted between 1764 and
1767 by Pompeo Batoni

Cellist and composer Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini was born on this day in 1743 in Lucca in Tuscany.

Boccherini is particularly known for a minuet from his String Quintet in E, which became popular after its use by characters posing as musicians in the 1955 film, The Ladykillers, which starred Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers.

Though his works became neglected after his death in 1805 they enjoyed a revival after the Boccherini Quintet was formed in Rome, who started performing them in the 1950s.

Boccherini’s father was himself a cellist and double bass player and sent the young Luigi to study in Rome.

In 1757 they went to Vienna together where the court employed them both as musicians in the Imperial Theatre orchestra.

Listen to Boccherini's String Quintet in E, which featured in The Ladykillers

In 1764 Luigi obtained a permanent position back in Lucca, playing in both the church and theatre orchestras.

But after the death of his father he moved to Paris where some of his early compositions were published.

Boccherini later moved to Spain, where for a time he enjoyed the patronage of the Royal family. But one day King Charles III of Spain ordered him to change a passage of his music. Boccherini doubled the passage instead and was immediately dismissed from the King’s service.

Movie poster from The Ladykillers

He went to live in a small town in the mountains in Spain, where he wrote many of his most famous works.

He still enjoyed patronage from the King of Spain’s younger brother, the Infante, from the French ambassador to Spain, Lucien Bonaparte, and from King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia.

Towards the end of Boccherini’s life it is believed he fell on hard times. He had lost both his first and second wives and four of his daughters.

He died in Madrid in 1805 and was survived by two sons. He was buried in Madrid but his remains were brought back to Italy a century later and he was reburied in the Church of San Francesco in Lucca.

Boccherini was a brilliant cellist who received much praise for his performances and he brought the cello to prominence with the music he composed, rather than just using it for accompaniment.

His Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid  became popular after it was used in the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World in 2003.

The Boccherini Quintet was founded after two of its members discovered a complete collection of Luigi Boccherini string quintets in Paris. They performed the long-neglected music all over the world and made many recordings.

Boccherini's home town of Lucca in Tuscany
is famous for its Renaissance walls

Travel tip:

Lucca, where Boccherini was born, is famous for its Renaissance walls, which have remained intact over the centuries. A promenade now runs along the top of the walls, providing a popular place to walk round the city enjoying the views. The Luigi Boccherini Musical Institute in Piazza del Suffragio in Lucca was founded in 1842 to provide a musical education up to the standard adopted by the famous 
Conservatories of Milan and Paris.

The Church of San Francesco in Lucca, where
Boccherini was reburied

Travel tip:

Luigi Boccherini was reburied in the Church of San Francesco in Lucca in the 1920s after his remains were brought back from Spain.  The Gothic church and monastery in Piazza San Francesco in the historic centre of the city was built out of gravel in the 14th century, not far from Lucca’s historic Piazza dell’Anfiteatro.


More reading:

The cellist who found 'accidental' fame in Yugoslavia

The composer credited with the 'revival' that shot Vivaldi to 20th century popularity

How soprano Cecilia Bartoli put spotlight on 'forgotten' composers

Also on this day:

1953: The birth of comic actor and writer Massimo Troisi

1977: The birth of operatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo

(Picture credits: Lucca walls by Notafly; Church of San Francesco by Sailko; via Wikimedia Commons)


Home