(b Capua, 6 Jan 1856; d Naples, 1 June 1909). Italian composer, pianist and conductor. He studied at the Naples Conservatory. As a touring piano virtuoso, he won praise from Liszt and Anton Rubinstein in 1874, but from 1880-81 was professor of the piano (in 1902, director) at the Naples Conservatory. He was an enthusiastic conductor of the German (sometimes English and French) repertory in Naples and Bologna, where he was director of the Liceo Musicale (1886-1902). Besides piano music, he composed distinctive chamber works, often Schumannesque or Elgarian in their gentle lyricism and caprice (e.g.the popular Notturno op.70 no.1 and Novelletta op.82 no.2); his attractive Second Symphony has been called ‘the starting point of the renaissance of non-operatic Italian music’.
Genres: Concerto, Keyboard Music, Symphony, Vocal Music
Biography
Giuseppe Martucci was an influential teacher and leader of the group of Italian composers determined to break away from the dominance of opera in their country's musical life.
His father was a bandmaster who gave him his early music lessons. He made his debut playing piano at the age of eight; his sister Teresa, who was on the same program, was even younger. In 1867, he began studies at the Naples Conservatory, taking piano with Beniamino Cesi and composition with Paolo Serrao. However, his father, seeing the boy's talent at the keyboard blossom to an astonishing degree, decided to cash in and pulled him out of the Conservatory at the age of 15 to start a concert career in 1871. He was successful and was noted for the unusual seriousness and breadth of his performances. Rather than the popular Romantic knuckle-busters, he played the established great classics from Bach and Scarlatti to Liszt and frequently accompanied cellist Alfredo Carlo Piatti. But when he attained adulthood and independence from his father, he applied for a job teaching at Naples Conservatory, was appointed professor, and virtually quit concert touring. He took up the baton in 1881. He helped establish the new permanent symphony orchestra in Naples and did much to promote the important composers of Northern Europe, especially Wagner, whose work he led in concert and whose opera Tristan und Isolde he was the first to conduct in Italy (Bologna, June 2, 1888). He had moved to Bologna in 1886 to take the leadership of the Liceo Musicale Bolognese orchestra. His 16 years at its helm are still counted by many as a high point in the city's rich musical history.
It is not surprising that his career as a composer parallels his life as a performer. His first 44 opus numbers are practically all typical Romantic piano fluff. With his Piano Quintet, Op. 45, Martucci shows a sudden and drastic elevation of his aims and quality. His outstanding qualities are his lyrical gift and his sense of lighthearted fantasy. These are attributes that are more suited to short music and, indeed, his shorter works of the post opus 45 works are perhaps his best music. However, his larger scale works, including concertos, symphonies, and full-scale chamber music compositions, show a noble purpose with a similar sort of lyricism, but a sometimes self-conscious struggle to find the right form. His finest large orchestral work is his Symphony No. 2, which composer Gian Francesco Malipiero called "the starting point of the renaissance of non-operatic Italian music." ~ Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide
Giuseppe Martucci (6 January 1856 – 1 June 1909) was an Italiancomposer, conductor, pianist and teacher. As a composer and teacher he was influential in reviving Italian interest in non-operatic music. As a conductor he helped to introduce Richard Wagner's operas to Italy and also gave important early concerts of English music there.
He learned the basics of music from his father, Gaetano, who played the trumpet. He was a child prodigy, performing on the piano at the age of 8[1]. From the age of 11, he was a student at the Naples conservatory, on the recommendation of professor Beniamino Cesi[2], the latter being a former student of Sigismond Thalberg. Martucci became a student in composition with Paolo Serrao. Martucci subsequently (from 1880 onwards) held a professorship and became director in 1902. Among his students was Ottorino Respighi.
His son Paolo, born in Naples in 1883, also became a pianist of note, briefly teaching at the Cincinnati Conservatory.[1][2]
He died in Naples in 1909.
Pianist
Martucci's career as an international pianist commenced with a tour through Germany, France and England in 1875, at the age of 19[3]. He was appointed pianoforte professor at the Naples Conservatory in 1880[2], and moved to Bologna in 1886, replacing Luigi Mancinelli there; in 1902 he returned for the last time to Naples, as director of the Royal Conservatory of Music.[3][1]
Conductor
His career as conductor started in 1881. As a conductor he helped introduce Richard Wagner's operas to Italy, conducting the first Italian performance of Tristan und Isolde[4] in 1888 in Bologna. As well as performing Charles Villiers Stanford's 3rd ("Irish") Symphony in Bologna in 1898[5], he also conducted perhaps the only concert of all-British orchestral music on the European continent in the whole period 1851–1900[2], and included music by Brahms, Lalo, Goldmark and others in his programs.
Composer
Martucci began as a composer at the age of 16, with short piano works. He wrote no operas, making him rare among Italian composers of his generation, but instead concentrated on instrumental music and songs, producing also an oratorio, Samuel.[6]
His music is influenced primarily but not entirely by that of Brahms and Schumann.
Legacy
Martucci was championed by Arturo Toscanini during much of the latter's career. The NBC Symphony Orchestra performed a number of Martucci's orchestral works between 1938 and 1946; although the performances were preserved on transcription discs, none were approved for commercial release by Toscanini. Some of these performances have been released in recent years. Some Toscanini biographers such as Mortimer Frank and Harvey Sachs have questioned the merit of Martucci's music, suggesting that Toscanini performed the music out of a sense of duty.[7]
G.F. Malipiero said of Martucci's second symphony that it was "the beginning of the rebirth of non-operatic Italian music." Martucci was an instrumentalist pur sang, taking 'absolute music' as his highest goal.
In 2009, to mark the centennial of Martucci's death, Naxos Records released a series of CDs devoted to Martucci's orchestral music, featuring the Symphony Orchestra of Rome conducted by Francesco La Vecchia.[8]
