Hoffmann, Leone, Riggieri: Divertimenti per Camera

THE MANDOLIN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY · Gabriele Zanetti

From the second half of the eighteenth century, the mandolin became a popular instrument in France. The success of the Paris performance of Pergolesi’s La serva padrona at the Académie Royale de Musique in 1752 helped ignite the Querelle des bouffons, a dispute between defenders of the French operatic tradition associated with Jean-Baptiste Lully and advocates of Italian opera buffa, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau wrote Le devin du village to demonstrate that elements of the Italian style could also be employed in French. Neapolitan music exerted a considerable influence in France during the 1750s.

Carlo Sodi, from Rome, was among the first professional mandolinists to work in Paris. On 6 April 1750 he appeared at a Concert Spirituel. This public concert series, established in 1725 and continuing until 1790, provided entertainment during Lent and religious holidays, when venues such as the Paris Opéra, the Comédie-Française and the Comédie-Italienne were closed. Its programmes ranged from sacred choral music to virtuoso instrumental works. For many years the concerts took place in the Salle des Cent Suisses at the Tuileries Palace. They began at six in the evening and attracted prosperous members of the bourgeoisie, the lesser aristocracy and visitors from abroad. In 1784 the series moved to the Salle des Machines, the theatre within the Tuileries; in 1790, after the royal family had been brought to the palace, concerts were held at another Parisian theatre.

While Sodi was active in Paris, the Merchi brothers from Brescia also became known for their skill on the colascione, mandolin and guitar. The Colla brothers, likewise from Brescia, had already acquired a European reputation as players of plucked instruments. Giovanni Cifolelli published his first mandolin method in Paris in the early 1760s; his daughter was acclaimed as a singer at the Comédie-Italienne in 1785.

One of the leading mandolinists of this period was the Neapolitan Leone, whose first name and dates have been given variously as Pietro or Gabriele and approximately 1725–1790. He performed his sonatas at Pentecost, Corpus Christi and Christmas, and was maître de mandoline to the Duke of Chartres during the 1760s. Many of his works appeared in Paris, including six duets for mandolin or violin, thirty variations (1760) and the Méthode raisonnée pour passer du Violon à la Mandoline (1768). These publications circulated widely. The method, dedicated to the Duke of Chartres, has notable affinities with the treatises of Quantz and Leopold Mozart.

Leone also played the harpsichord, as Charles Burney recorded after meeting him in Lyon during his musical travels of 1772–73. A collection of trios for two mandolins and continuo may also have been published in Berlin. Leone worked in London, where he brought a lawsuit against Giardini, the violinist and conductor at the Haymarket Opera House, on the site of the theatre subsequently known as Her Majesty’s Theatre and now His Majesty’s Theatre.

Paris was one of Europe’s principal musical centres and an important setting for mandolin music. The instrument was especially popular among women, as the title of Gervasio’s Méthode très facile pour apprendre à jouer de la Mandoline à quatre Cordes, Instrument fait pour les Dames (Paris, 1767) attests. Two other prominent teachers were Pietro Denis and Giovanni Fouchetti. Denis’s principal publication was a method in three parts, explaining how violinists could transfer their technique to the mandolin and accompany the latest songs from the Comédie-Italienne.

Fouchetti, a pupil of Leone, arrived in Paris from Lyon in 1769 and published his method with Sieber in autumn 1771. It was reprinted in Leipzig and Vienna and included six serenades and six sonatas. The mandolin’s favourable reception in Lyon may have been encouraged by the city’s sustained commercial connections with Naples. In 1772 Michel Corrette published his mandolin method in Paris, Lyon and Dunkirk. He wrote about a dozen instrumental methods, covering violin, cello, guitar and flute, among other instruments.

Composers frequently wrote for a melodic instrument without restricting their music to a single instrument. Valentin Roeser’s six sonatas, Op. 3, for example, were advertised for two violins and bass but could also be played on mandolins. Mademoiselle de Villeneuve appeared at the Concert Spirituel in 1770, performing a mandolin concerto by Frizeri. The child prodigy Aldaye attracted attention for exceptional virtuosity in 1771; Nonnini followed in 1782.

Antonio Riggieri was also active in Paris as a mandolinist, composer and teacher, although little is known about his life. His publications include Six Duo à deux mandolines et Six Sonates à mandoline et Basse, Op. 1; Airs italiens et Sonates en Duo pour la Mandoline, Op. 2; Six Duo à deux mandolines, Op. 3; Menuets, allemandes et petits allegro à deux mandolines ou violons, avec six sonates à mandoline accord différent, Op. 4; and La Fustemberg, Variationi N° 10. These works are listed in Girard’s catalogue of 1781–83. On 23 December 1767, the Affiche de Lyon carried an announcement from the music dealer Castaud offering music for harpsichord, harp, guitar and mandolin by Bach, Toeschi, Pugnani, Meyer, Merchi, De Mignaux, Rigiesi, Gaëtan and others. If “Rigiesi” refers to Riggieri, this provides a possible earlier trace of his activity; the identification remains uncertain.

While the mandolin flourished in Paris during the second half of the eighteenth century, it enjoyed a more limited following in the Habsburg lands. After Vienna, Prague was the empire’s second major cultural centre, and an important setting for the creation of mandolin music. Mozart employed the instrument in Don Giovanni (1787), accompanying “Deh, vieni alla finestra”. The first performance featured the singer Luigi Bassi, with the mandolin part associated with Jan Křtitel Kuchař, also known as Johann Baptist Kucharz. Mozart wrote two further songs with mandolin accompaniment, Die Zufriedenheit and Komm, liebe Zither, komm. Kuchař prepared keyboard arrangements of several Mozart operas. Operatic precedents for the mandolin’s use include Grétry’s L’amant jaloux (Paris, 1778) and Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (St Petersburg, 1782), both of which predate Don Giovanni.

Beethoven wrote four pieces specifically for mandolin, probably in connection with his stay in Prague. In 1796 Prince Lichnowsky invited him to visit the city, where he met Count Clam-Gallas and Countess Josephine Clary, a pupil of Kuchař. The Sonatina in C major, the Variations and the Adagio are associated with the Countess. The Sonatina in C minor was probably intended for Beethoven’s Viennese friend Wenzel Krumpholz, a mandolinist and violinist.

The mandolinist Bartolomeo Bortolazzi, from Brescia, met Johann Nepomuk Hummel in Vienna in 1799; Hummel wrote his Concerto in G major for him. After 1815 and the end of the Napoleonic wars, the mandolin’s presence in concert life declined. Following Bortolazzi’s departure from Vienna, amateur players included André Oberleitner, who composed a small number of pieces, and Francesco Mora de Malfatti, the dedicatee of Hummel’s Grande Sonata for mandolin and piano and a physician associated with Beethoven.

Vienna saw the publication of substantial mandolin works by Melchior Chiesa, Georg Druschetsky, Dolphin, Giuseppe Blesber, Johann Conrad Schlick and Giovanni Francesco Giuliani. Pietro Vimercati, from a family of makers of plucked instruments, achieved particular success through his virtuosity. He toured Europe in 1823 and 1840, appearing in London, Paris and Vienna. Gioachino Rossini cited Fernando Sor and Pietro Vimercati as unsurpassed performers on the guitar and mandolin respectively.

Little is known about Giovanni Hoffmann’s life. He was active in Vienna around 1800; dates of approximately 1770–1814 are often given, but remain uncertain. He is sometimes called Johann, although the suggestion that Giovanni was an Italianised form of his first name is unproven. His highly idiomatic writing suggests that he was a mandolin virtuoso. The six-course mandolin was widespread in Viennese musical circles at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and Hoffmann was an important composer for the instrument.

His Concerto in D major for mandolin, two violins, viola, two oboes, two horns and bass displays a thorough understanding of musical form and a command of composition that draws on Haydn and the empfindsamer Stil of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Hoffmann’s Op. 1 consists of three duets for mandolin and violin, published by Träg in Vienna in 1799, by Artaria in 1801 and by Mollo in 1804. In 1804 Johann Träg and Son advertised another collection of three duets, possibly a reissue of Op. 1. Op. 2 is a further collection of three duets for mandolin and violin, also published by Träg. The same publisher issued a string trio with an additional mandolin part sold separately.

Other works by Hoffmann include two quartets for mandolin, violin, viola and cello; a cassation for mandolin and cello; four divertimenti for mandolin, violin and bass; three sonatas for mandolin and bass; two sonatas for two mandolins; and a serenade for mandolin and viola.

Album notes by Gabriele Zanetti. Original English translation by Camilla Finardi; language and factual corrections for this edition.

Recording credits

Duo Le Gentil Dame: Camilla Finardi, mandolin; Daniela Santamaura, cello. Mandolin: Raffaele Calace Jr., Naples, 2001. Cello: Jean Werro, Bern, 1900. Bow: Jean-Pierre Gasq.

Recorded on 1–2 August 2016 at the Chiesa della Natività di Maria, Persaga, Provaglio d’Iseo, Brescia, Italy. Sound engineer: Gabriele Zanetti. Editing, mixing and mastering: Camilla Finardi and Gabriele Zanetti. Cover photograph: Damiano Rosa. Inside photographs: Angelo Rinaldi and Hyena.

Thanks to Cisco Glisenti, Stella Franchi, the Marini and Messina families for logistical support, photographer Angelo Rinaldi, Gianni Parzani and Fernando Botticini.

℗ & © Da Vinci Classics. The reprint artwork specifies 2020, designed in Japan and printed in the EU.