95081
Cambini 6 FLUTE QUARTETS
Quartetto DuePi첫Due
There is very little undisputed information known about the life of Cambini. Fetis handed down that the supposed birthday might have been February 13th 1746 in Livorno, and he tells that Cambini studied with an unknown teacher called Polli, but he also shows a wrong name, calling Cambini “Giovanni Giuseppe” instead of “Giovanni Maria”. It is not true that Cambini played quartet with Manfredini, Nardini and Boccherini, and there are many doubts that he studied with Father Martini and he had contacts with Haydn. Cambini is better known for his kidnapping, during the sea travel from Naples to Livorno, when some pirates made him free after the payment of a ransom by a Venetian merchant. But also this hypothetical adventure, that contributed to create a legendary shadow over his life, and that is witnessed only in an anonymous chronicle of 1776, reported by F. M. Grimm in Correspondance littéraire and referred by Fétis (1873), seems to be doubtful. The first certain fact of Cambini’s life is that he arrived in Paris in 1770 and he had contacts with F.J. Gossec thanks to the recommendation of the Ambassador of Naples to the Prince of Conti. Thanks to Gossec, Cambini took the opportunity to perform some symphonies in May 1773 at the Concert Spirituel and in December of the same year the string quartets Op.1. He gained a moderate success leading to strong cooperation with the Concerts des Amateurs. The two oratorios Le sacrifice d’Isaac and Joad were favourably received by the Paris audiences, and made him famous as a good composer, so that, starting from 1800, around 600 instrumental works were published in Paris under his name. In the same period he wrote many operas for the Parisian theatres, that reveal a great ease in composition and a typically Italian elegance, characterized by a pleasant and fluid melodic structure inspired by Pergolesi which was not always appreciated by some Frensh critics, who blamed him superficially. Fallen into disfavour because of financial difficulties, he was helped for a short period by the rich merchant Armad Séguin; he had the office to direct the private concerts in the Parisian palace of the merchant, for which he wrote about 100 quartets. Having lost also this opportunity he took up teaching violin and 2
composition. He served the revolutionary government that granted him the amount of about 2000 livres for writing hymns and revolutionary popular songs. From 1795 Cambini’s works were performed less and less, and he worked mainly on writing of some treatises: in 1795 Gaveaux published the Nouvelle méthode théorique et pratique pour le violon, and in 1799 the Méthode pour la flûte traversière. In 1804 he wrote an article about the art of performing string quartet, published in the review Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. There are some doubts also about his death: Fetis tells that Cambini died in 1825 at the Hôpital Bicêtre, but also plausible is the version reported by Michaud, who told about the death of the composer in the Netherlands, before 1818. Cambini was a composer well-known for his instrumental music and important, in particular, for the production of concertante Symphonies and string quartets. He was the gallant Parisian composer par excellence. He wrote 82 concertante symphonies, 112 quintets with 2 cellos, 149 string quartets, 18 quartets for flute and strings, that were published by many publishers at his time. The structure of the symphonies and of the quartets is almost always in two movements (rarely in more movements) often both fast and often in the same key. The themes are pleasant and charming, with a language natural, simple, unsurprising and characterized by the writing of the parts that gives breath to all the instruments. There is a strong stylistic elegance, touching inspiration and romantic pre-feeling with hints of some Schubertian inspiration. The DuePiùDue quartet offers with this recording the edition of the quartets for flute and strings Op.24, last series of 6 quartets that, together with Op.9 and Op.23 represent the corpus of works written by Cambini for this ensemble. The research of the timbre and pronunciation required a deep study of the score, so that it could express as accurately as possible the original indications of phrasing and breath, that giving freshness, fantasy and intense characterization to the melody and to the accompaniments. © Alessandro Andriani
Translation Micol Vitali 3
Quartetto DuePi첫Due The Quartetto DuePi첫Due was founded in 2010, after a lucky meeting between two couples of brothers with international solo and chamber music careers. The ensemble is engaged in the revival of eighteenth- and nineteenth century works by unjustly forgotten composers such as Giuseppe Cambini, Saverio Mercadante, Giovanni Paisiello and Alessandro Rolla as well as in the popularisation of contemporary music (they have collaborated with Giorgio Colombo Taccani, one of the most interesting and original voices of new Italian music). The group, a very cohesive ensemble, has been enthusiastically received by audiences and critics, and praised for the clarity of their performances, their sound balance and control of a wide tonal palette. The ensemble has appeared in important festivals and concert halls. All its members are sought after pedagogues in music academies.
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