Cesare Pollini (pianist)

Cesare Pollini (born July 13, 1858 in Padua , † January 26, 1912 in Padua ) was an Italian pianist, composer, conductor, music teacher and concert organizer.

Pollini had piano lessons from his mother in his childhood. He studied law at the University of Padua and also acquired self-taught knowledge of harmony and composition. His first works caught the interest of Antonio Bazzini , who taught composition at the Milan Conservatory . At the opening of the Istituto musicale di Padova in 1879 he played music by Camille Saint-Saëns and his own minuetto for piano, violin and cello. In 1881 he went to Milan, where he studied counterpoint, fugue and composition with Bazzini until 1883.

At the beginning of the school year 1882–83 he became artistic director of the Padua Music Institute, where he taught with interruptions until the end of his life and which today bears his name. In a competition for the post of director at the end of 1884, however, he did not participate. From 1886 to 1891 he gave four to five Sunday concerts a year as part of the Mattinate musicale in the Palazzo Selvatico Estense , where he performed chamber music by German, Austrian, Russian and Italian composers. With the violinist Antonio Freschi he undertook a tour through Germany from 1886 to 1887, which took him to Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Berlin. It was here that he met Richard Strauss , with whom he had been a pen friend for many years.

With the musicologist Oscar Chilesotti , he organized a concert of early music in Rome in 1889, which received great acclaim from Giovanni Sgambati . Queen Margaret of Italy , who was also present , invited him to stay at her villa in Monza that autumn. These sojourns (first in Monza, later in Stupinigi) became an annual custom, and Pollini was given the title of Royal Court Pianist. Umberto I appointed him Cavaliere dei Ss in 1892 . Maurizio e Lazzaro . As a profound expert on the German language, he published translations of writings by the German composer, violinist and author Friedrich Wilhelm Langhans in the magazine l Teatro illustrato e la musica popolare .

From 1889 he again took over the management of the music institute in Padua, teaching piano, harmony and counterpoint there. His most famous students were Guido Alberto Fano and Reno Lorenzini . From 1890 onwards, Pollini organized several large commemorative concerts: 1890 on the seventh anniversary of Richard Wagner's death , and in 1892 on the 100th birthday of Gioacchino Rossini . Further concerts were Giuseppe Tartini (1892, 300th birthday), Anton Rubinstein (1895), Antonio Bazzini (1897), Johannes Brahms (1898 and 1901), Giuseppe Verdi (1901), Edward Grieg (1908) and Giuseppe Martucci (1910) dedicated. In 1900 he became a member of the Commissione permanente per l'arte musicale . Maria Pia of Savoy made him Knight of the Order of Santiago of Portugal in 1903. In 1908 he appointed him to the honorary committee of the Milan Conservatory to prepare for the 100th anniversary of Verdi's death.

Works

• 6 Fogli d'album for piano
• Melody per pianoforte
• 6 Frammenti per piano
• Fantasticheria for piano
• 3 Fogli d'album for piano
• Humoresque for piano
• Adagio for piano
• Marcia funebre for piano
• Overture in forma di Sonata piano suite
• Preludio for piano
• Romanza senza parole for piano
• Sonata for piano
• Romanza per violino e pianoforte
• Fuga a tre voci for piano
• 3 Egloghe for piano
• Trio suite for piano, violin and violoncello
• Scherzo for orchestra
• Notturno for orchestra
• Andante con moto in Fa diesis minore

swell

• Dizionario Biografico degli italiani - Pollini, Cesare
• Conservatorio Statale di Musica Cesar Pollini Padova - Cesare Pollini (1858–1912) - Note biografiche