1856–1909
Giuseppe Martucci (1856–1909) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher from Capua. He wrote no operas, devoting himself to instrumental music and songs. He taught in Naples and Bologna and later became head of the Naples conservatoire. The site offers his piece Studio No. 11, Op. 47, graded Intermediate+.
Martucci was born on 6 January 1856 in Capua, in the region of Campania. His first music lessons came at home: his father, Gaetano, played the trumpet and became his son's first teacher.
The boy showed his gift at the piano early: at the age of eight he gave a public concert. He is called a child prodigy.
From 1867 to 1871 Martucci studied at the San Pietro conservatoire in Naples. Beniamino Cesi taught him the piano and Paolo Serrao taught him composition. Cesi recommended that he enter the conservatoire, at the age of eleven.
Cesi himself had been a pupil of Sigismond Thalberg. From Serrao, Martucci gained his first training in composition.
In 1875 Martucci set out on a solo tour of Germany, France and England, which began his international career as a pianist. He began composing at sixteen, with short piano pieces.
From 1880 he taught the piano at the San Pietro conservatoire. Among his Naples pupils was Louis De Francesco, a composer of film scores.
Martucci first stepped onto the podium in 1881. He was one of the first Italian musicians to hold Wagner in high regard, and he brought some of Wagner's music to Italian audiences. In 1888 in Bologna he conducted the Italian premiere of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde.
His interest in foreign music did not stop there: his programmes included Schumann and Brahms, as well as Lalo and Goldmark. In 1898 in Bologna he performed Charles Villiers Stanford's Third, the Irish, Symphony. In the late nineteenth century he also led one of the few concerts of exclusively British orchestral music given in continental Europe.
In 1886 Martucci moved to Bologna and took the piano post of Luigi Mancinelli. In Bologna, Ottorino Respighi studied composition with him.
In 1902 he returned to Naples as director of the conservatoire. Mario Barbieri was among his many pupils.
Martucci died in Naples on 1 June 1909. His son Paolo was born in Naples in 1883; he too became a notable pianist and for a short time taught at the Cincinnati Conservatory.
Arturo Toscanini championed Martucci's music during much of his own career. The NBC Symphony Orchestra performed his orchestral works in 1938, 1940, 1941, 1946 and 1953. The recordings of those concerts survive and have been released unofficially in recent years.
In 1989 Francesco d'Avalos recorded four CDs of Martucci's major works in an attempt to revive interest in his music. For the centenary of his death, in 2009, Naxos released a series of CDs of his orchestral music.
Among Italian composers of his day Martucci stood out for writing no operas and devoting himself to instrumental music and songs. His works include an oratorio, Samuel. He regarded absolute music as his supreme aim, and as a composer and teacher he helped to revive Italian interest in non-operatic music.
For orchestra he wrote two symphonies: No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75, and No. 2 in F major, Op. 81. For piano and orchestra there are two concertos: No. 1 in D minor, Op. 40 (1878), and No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 66 (1885). His chamber music includes a cello sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 52, and two piano trios, Op. 59 and Op. 62.
His piano works include the Sonata facile in B-flat major, Op. 41 (1878), the Tema con variazioni, Op. 58 (1882), and the album of six pieces Foglie sparse, Op. 60 (1883). There is also a nocturne, Souvenir de Milan, Op. 25 (1875). Among his vocal works is the song cycle La canzone dei ricordi (1887).
The site currently offers the piece Studio No. 11, Op. 47. Its difficulty level on the site is Intermediate+.