Adolfo Fumagalli

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Adolfo Fumagalli, lithograph by Marie-Alexandre Alophe

Adolfo Fumagalli (born October 19, 1828 in Inzago near Milan , † May 3, 1856 in Florence ) was an Italian pianist and composer of the 19th century.

Live and act

At a very young age, Adolfo Fumagalli began his musical studies with the organist in his hometown, Gaetano Medaglia; From November 23, 1837, he continued these studies at the Milan Conservatory , namely in piano with Antonio Angeleri , in counterpoint with Pietro Ray , and also in the subjects of harmony and composition. He made his first appearance as a pianist in 1840 in the conservatory hall with variations on the march from the opera L'assedio di Corinto by Gioachino Rossini. In the following academic years he could also be heard in the public academies of his school and in salons in Milan, where he often performed fantasies and variations on works by Sigismund Thalberg , Henri Herz and Friedrich Kalkbrenner , but also included his own works in the program.

After graduating on September 7, 1847, Adolfo Fumagalli began his career as a pianist with his debut in Varese , which was followed by stops in Milan, Paris and London . In the same year he toured northern Italy with his brother Disma . At the end of the 1840s he went to Paris, where he gained a reputation as a piano virtuoso and became known with well-known composers such as Giacomo Meyerbeer and Hector Berlioz . Some of his works have been published by the publisher Francesco Bonoldi; Fumagalli married his daughter Anna in Paris in 1852. From the beginning of the 1850s Fumagalli made guest appearances in major cities in Italy (Milan, Turin , Genoa , Venice ), France ( Nice , Paris, Lyon , Marseille ) and Belgium ( Mons , Liège , Brussels ). In Belgium he was called the “ Paganini of the piano” because of his technical mastery, especially of the left hand, and because of the brilliance and expressiveness of his tone ; Rossini also valued him because of his "cantabile style of play". In a letter from 1853, Franz Liszt wrote , "He bowed to him as a first-rate pianist". In 1854 Fumagalli returned to Italy and in the spring of 1856 settled with his family in Florence, where he gave two concerts in April 1856 at the Teatro del Cocomero . Just a month later, Adolfo Fumagalli died of tuberculosis in Florence and was buried in the Florentine cemetery of San Miniato .

His brothers Carlo , Polibio , Disma and Luca Fumagalli were also known as composers.

meaning

Adolfo Fumagalli wrote over 100 piano works, among which the paraphrases on parts of operas by other composers ( Verdi , Donizetti , Bellini , Meyerbeer) stand out in number, but also an album with chants with piano accompaniment and a teaching work for piano. Today his works appear, despite their peculiarity and their merit as study works, as rather formally indefinite and stylistically as mannered salon compositions.

Works (selection)

  • Vocal music
    • La lira d'Orfeo: album musicale for voice and piano, Milan 1847/48
  • Piano music
    • Opera paraphrase "Sonnambula" op. 14, Milan 1847 or 1848
    • Opera paraphrase "Lucia di Lammermoor" op. 26, Milan 1848/49
    • Opera paraphrase "Norma" op. 30, Milan 1848/49
    • Opera paraphrase "Le Prophète" op. 43, Milan 1849/50
    • Il genio della danza , scherzo brilliant op.13, Milan between 1848 and 1854
    • La Pendule , polka-mazurka op.33, Milan 1848/49
    • Le Postillon , galop de concert op.47, Milan 1849/50
    • Serenade napolitaine op.50 , Milan 1849/50
    • Danse des sylphes , rondo brilliant op.83 , Milan / Turin between 1854 and 1857
    • Transcription for the left hand Grande fantaisie sur Robert le Diable de Meyerbeer op.106, Milan 1855/56 (posthumous)
    • Transcription for the left hand Casa diva che inargenti, nell'opera Norma op. 61, Milan without year
    • Transcription for the left hand Coro O Signore, dal tetto natio, nell'opera I Lombardi op.18, Milan without year
    • numerous works for music lovers, including Decamerons: sopra le migliori Opere del Maestro Verdi , Milan without year
  • Textbook
    • L'École modern du pianiste op.100 , Milan between 1853 and 1855

Literature (selection)

  • F. Filippi: Della vita e delle opere di Adolfo Fumagalli , Milan 1857
  • F. Regli: Dizionario biografico dei più celebri poeti e artisti melodrammatici […] che fioriono in Italia dal 1800 al 1860 , Turin 1860, page 213 and following
  • C. Troisi: La vita e l'opera di Adolfo Fumagalli , Tesi di laurea, Rome 1990/91
  • BM Antolini: Pianisti italiani a metà Ottocento , in: Nuova rivista musicale italiana No. 25, 1991, pages 375-390
  • T. Edel: Piano Music for One Hand , Bloomington / Indiana 1994
  • Bianca Maria Antolini:  Fumagalli. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 50:  Francesco I Sforza-Gabbi. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1998.
  • E. Borri: La scuola pianistica milanese nell'Ottocento: the «École modern du pianiste op. 100» by Adolfo Fumagalli , in: La musica a Milano, in Lombardia e oltre, edited by S. Martinotti, Volume 2, Milan 2000 , Pages 311–385 (= La città e lo spettacolo No. 8).

Web links

Commons : Adolfo Fumagalli  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Francesca Bascialli:  Fumagalli, Adolfo. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 7 (Franco - Gretry). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2002, ISBN 3-7618-1117-9 , Sp. 267 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  2. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , edited by Stanley Sadie, 2nd Edition, Volume 9, McMillan Publishers, London 2001, ISBN 0-333-60800-3
personal data
SURNAME Fumagalli, Adolfo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Inzago
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1856
Place of death Florence