Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari

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Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1906)

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (born January 12, 1876 in Venice , † January 21, 1948 there ) was a German-Italian composer .

Life

Closing scene from the opera Die Vier Grobiane by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, performed in the Theater des Westens in Berlin, 1906. Photo by Zander & Labisch .

Wolf-Ferrari was born as Hermann Friedrich Wolf and was the son of the painter August Wolf from Weinheim an der Bergstrasse and the Venetian Emilia Ferrari, whose maiden name he added to his surname from 1895. Although he took piano lessons at an early age, he seemed to be following in his father's footsteps and studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome from 1891–92 . Then he moved to the Academy of Music in Munich and became a student of Joseph Rheinberger . In 1895 he returned to Venice without a degree, from 1896 he directed a German choir in Milan , where he met Arrigo Boito and Giulio Ricordi , who, however, refused to publish his first compositions.

In 1897 Wolf-Ferrari married the singer Clara Kilian and moved back to Munich in 1900 after the failure of his first performed opera Cenerentola . His early instrumental works such as the Sinfonia da camera op. 8 (1901) and the cantata La vita nuova op. 9 (1901) based on Dante were committed to the German romantic tradition of Mendelssohn , Schumann and Brahms . In Germany , however, he also had his greatest successes when he turned to a revival of the opera buffa , with which his name is primarily associated. After Le donne curiose ( Die curious women, 1903) after Goldoni , the operas I quattro rusteghi ( The Four Ruffians, 1906), also after Goldoni, and Il segreto di Susanna ( Susanne's secret, 1909) were his greatest successes. They were all premiered in Munich, although Wolf-Ferrari was director of the Liceo Musicale in Venice from 1903 to 1909. He then lived in Munich, Riemerling (since 1915), Zurich and Zollikon (since 1916), Riemerling (since 1921), Ottobrunn (since 1926), Krailling (since 1931), Munich- Bogenhausen (since 1942), Altaussee and Venice ( since 1947).

Wolf-Ferrari's grave on San Michele

The opera I gioielli della Madonna ( The Madonna's Jewelry ) premiered in 1911 can be seen as an excursion into a lurid verismo , but Wolf-Ferrari turned to L'amore medico ( The Lover as a Doctor, 1913) after Molière's comedy L'amour médecin back to comic opera. However, the atrocities of the First World War plunged the German-Italian into a severe, almost ten-year creative crisis, which was exacerbated by marital problems. He fled to Zurich during the war years and married his second wife Wilhelmine Christine Funck in 1921. Among his late operas, Sly (1927) was best known after Shakespeare , but none of them matched pre-war successes. Finally, Wolf-Ferrari turned back to instrumental music , for example with the Idillio Concertino op.15 (1933) and the Violin Concerto op.26 (1946). These compositions were written in a melodic post-romantic tonal language without reference to the contemporary trends of modernism .

In 1939 Wolf-Ferrari became a composition professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg . He suffered mentally from National Socialism in Germany, from fascism in Italy and from the war that began again and in which his house was destroyed. He fled again to Switzerland and after the war returned to his native Venice, where he died in Palazzo Malipiero in 1948. His grave is on the cemetery island of San Michele north of Venice .

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (bust in the Wolf-Ferrari-House, Ottobrunn )

Works

Operas

  • Irene (1895-96)
  • La Camargo (around 1897, unfinished)
  • Cenerentola (1900)
  • Le donne curiose (German: The curious women ; 1903)
  • I quattro rusteghi (German: Die vier Grobiane ; 1906)
  • Il segreto di Susanna (German: Susannens Secret ; 1909). intermezzo
  • I gioielli della Madonna (German: The jewelry of the Madonna ; 1911)
  • L'amore medico (WP German: The lover as a doctor ; 1913)
  • Gli amanti sposi (German: The Marchesa's love bond ; 1904–1916; premiere 1925)
  • The Heavenly Dress (Italian: La veste di cielo ; 1917–1925; WP 1927)
  • Sly ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato (German: Sly or The Legend of the Reanimated Sleeper ; 1927)
  • La vedova scaltra (German: The clever widow ; 1931)
  • Il campiello (German: Das Cookie ; 1936)
  • La dama boba (German: The stupid girl ; 1939)
  • Gli dei a Tebe (German: The Cuckoo in Theben ; Premiere June 5, 1943 in Hanover)

Orchestral works

  • Serenade for strings in E flat major (1893)
  • Idillio-concertino in A major op.15 for oboe, 2 horns and strings (1933)
  • Suite-concertino in F major op.16 for bassoon, 2 horns and strings (1933)
  • Suite veneziano op.18 (1936)
  • Triptych in E major op.19 (1936)
  • Divertimento in D major op.20 (1937)
  • Arabesques in E minor op.22 (1940)
  • Violin Concerto in D major op. 26 (1944), dedicated and premiered in Munich to Guila Bustabo
  • Sinfonia brevis in E flat major op.28 (1947)
  • Cello Concerto ( Invocazione ) in C major op.31 ( WP 1954)
  • Concertino in A flat major op.34 for English horn, 2 horns and strings (1947)
  • Chiese di Venezia (1948, orchestration unfinished)

Chamber music

  • String Quintet (1894)
  • Violin Sonata in G minor, Op. 1 (1895)
  • Piano trio in D major op.5 (before 1898)
  • Piano quintet in D flat major op.6 (1900)
  • Piano trio in F sharp major op.7 (1900)
  • Sinfonia da camera in B flat major op.8 (1901)
  • Violin Sonata in A minor op.10 (1901)
  • String Quartet op.23 (1940)
  • String Quintet op.24 (1942)
  • Sonata in F major for 2 violins and piano op.25 (1943)
  • Violin Sonata in E major op.27 (around 1943)
  • Cello Sonata in G major op. 30 (1945)
  • String Trio in A minor op.32 (1945)
  • Duo in G minor op.33 for viola d'amore and violin or violoncello (1946)
  • Introduzione e balletto op.35 for violin and violoncello (1946)

Piano works

  • 6 pezzi facili (1898)
  • 3 Impromptus op.13 (1904)
  • 3 piano pieces op.14 (1905)

Choral works

  • 8 choirs (around 1898)
  • La sulamite . Canto biblico for solo voices, choir and orchestra op.2 (1898)
  • Talitha Kumi (The Daughter of Jairus) . Oratorio for tenor, 2 baritones, choir and orchestra op.3 (1900)
  • La vita nuova . Cantata for soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra op.9 (1901)
  • La passione for choir op.21 (1939; also for solo voice and piano)

Songs

  • 4 Rispetti op.11 (1902)
  • 4 Rispetti op.12 (1902)
  • Il canzoniere. 44 rispetti, stornelli ed altri canti op.17 (1936)

literature

  • Werner Bollert: Master of cheerfulness? Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari in memory. In: Musica , Bärenreiter-Verlag , Kassel, 11th year, issue 1, 1948, pages 31–35
  • Hugo Tomicich: Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, † in Venice on January 21, 1948. In: Theaterdienst , vol. 3, no. 11 of March 15, 1948, p. 16f.

Web links

Commons : Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Palazzo Malipiero. classical-composers.org
personal data
SURNAME Wolf-Ferrari, Ermanno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Italian composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1948
Place of death Venice