Record of the day: Verdi/Puccini, “Musica per quartet…”

Giuseppe Verdi/Giacomo Puccini Music for string quartet (Cd BIS 1006)

Puccini’s instrumental production is numerically scarce and in Verdi’s case it consists solely of this work dedicated to the classically supreme medium of the string quartet, even if a clear qualitative distinction must be made between Verdi’s masterpiece of maturity and what are essentially youthful (or student) curiosities in the case of the author of “Bohème”.

After an entire life dedicated to the theatre, Verdi tried his hand at the string quartet at the age of sixty, partly to pass the time while waiting for some performances of “Aida” in Naples which were postponed due to the protagonist’s indisposition, but also to give a strong signal regarding the diffusion in Italy of instrumental music coming from Germany, officially seen by Verdi as a source of negative influence for the young authors of our country, but probably in his heart loved quite a bit (just think at the beginning of “Simon Boccanegra”, with its Schubertian progression). Beethoven and Schumann were also very well known to Verdi as demonstrated by the Italian master’s absolute mastery of classical forms and quartet writing, who perhaps wanted to demonstrate that he could fight Germanic influence with his own weapons. In any case, it is one of Verdi’s most important works, with splendid themes masterfully developed (the second theme of the first movement is one of his most beautiful things) through instrumental writing of great difficulty which makes this quartet a goal achievable only by groups of excellent quality, such as the David Quartet which presents it magnificently in this CD.

Puccini’s pages, apart from the elegy “Chrysanthemums” (1890), have never entered the repertoire and almost all date back to the artist’s first compositional period, who never wanted to encourage the diffusion of these works given that he had reused some of these themes in the opera “Manon Lescaut” and did not want too much to be known about it. Pleasant is the “Quartet Time” where Puccini compares himself with the models of Mozart and Haydn, adding an almost Rossinian humor and a taste for melody that seems to announce the works of the years to come.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.