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Quartetto Italiano | |
|---|---|
 Quartetto Italiano (1955) | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Reggio Emilia, Italy |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation | String Quartet |
| Years active | 1945–1980 |
| Labels | Decca, Philips, Deutsche Grammophon |
| Past members | Paolo Borciani, 1st violin (founder & leader) Elisa Pegreffi, 2nd violin Piero Farulli, viola (1947-1977) Franco Rossi, cello Lionello Forzanti, viola (1945-1947) Dino Asciolla, viola (1977-1980) |
TheQuartetto Italiano (English:Italian Quartet) was astring quartet founded inReggio Emilia in 1945. They made their debut in 1945 inCarpi when all four players were still in their early 20s. They were originally namedNuovo Quartetto Italiano (to distinguish the ensemble from another "Quartetto Italiano", which had been founded at the beginning of the twentieth century by the violinistRemigio (Remy) Prìncipe) before dropping the "Nuovo" tag in 1951. They are particularly noted for their recording of the complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets, made between 1967 and 1975.[1] The quartet disbanded in 1980.
The secretary and historian of the Quartet was Guido Alberto Borciani (Reggio Emilia, 20 October 1920 – 4 April 2008), brother of Paolo Borciani, the quartet's founder and player of the 1st violin part. A mechanical engineer and talented pianist, Guido Alberto founded in 1987 thePremio Paolo Borciani.[2]
Borciani, Pegreffi and Rossi met in 1940 at the Concorso Nazionale inLa Spezia. In summer 1942 they met again at theAccademia Musicale Chigiana inSiena, where the cellistArturo Bonucci (Sr.) (head of the chamber class, husband ofPina Carmirelli) put them together with the viola player Lionello Forzanti for the study session. They worked together on theDebussy quartet and performed it in September 1942.[3]
In August 1945 the group began to study together again at the Borciani house inReggio Emilia.[4] Their debut followed on 12 November 1945 at the Sala dei Mori inCarpi, as theNuovo Quartetto Italiano, in the inaugural concert of the Società degli Amici della Musica. By the end of the year they had also performed in Reggio Emilia and inMilan. In March 1946 they were winners at the Concorso of theAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and also in the Concorso of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. A performance for the Milan Quartet Society followed, and the first foreign engagement was at theZürichTonhalle.
In February 1947 Piero Farulli replaced Forzanti at the viola desk, and the first performance in the new (and permanent) company was inMantua. Debuts followed that year inAustria,England, at theVenice International Festival, and at theEngadin Konzertwochen (where their collaboration with clarinettistAntoine de Bavier in theMozart Quintet K.581 occurred - recorded also for Decca label). They also gave the world premiere of theHeitor Villa-Lobos workQuartet No.9 at theAccademia Filarmonica Romana.
Appearances in Italy, England, Scotland, Spain and France followed in 1948, totalling 63 concerts, and the group began recording forDecca Records. Concerts rose to over 100 in 1949, with visits to Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. At Stockholm Royal Academy they gave a series of lecture-recitals with Gerda Busoni, widow ofFerruccio Busoni. Another century of concerts was given in 1950.
In 1951 (having dropped the word “Nuovo” (i.e.,new) from their name) the Quartet performed at theEdinburgh Festival and at theSalzburg Festival. It was at Salzburg that they had a long and very influential interview withWilhelm Furtwängler, who urged them to work towards a much greater freedom of expression which would access for them the world of GrandRomanticism. This was much later acknowledged as a critical turning-point for the group.
In November they made their first U.S. tour, which was repeated in approximately alternate years until 1977.Virgil Thomson pronounced them “The finest string quartet, unquestionably, that our century has known.”[5] In 1953, the year in which they transferred their recording programme toColumbia Records, they gave 59 concerts in the U.S. and Canada. In that year also, Elisa Pegreffi married Paolo Borciani.
Recordings which followed included (1954) theDarius Milhaud Quartet No.12, and (1956) the Debussy Quartet, whichRobert Kemp described as “miraculous”.[6] The group was then studying the sixMozart Quartets dedicated toJoseph Haydn, and performed them at venues including Milan and Fiesole. Important Festival appearances continued, at Lucerne (1955), theMaggio Musicale Fiorentino (1959), thePrague Spring Festival (1961) and the Berlin Musikwochen. In 1977,NASA launched the twoVoyager space probes. Each carried aGolden Record, bearing images and sounds to represent the Earth and mankind. One of the images was aphotograph of the Quartetto Italiano.
Through the later 1960s and early 1970s the group toured further afield, to Yugoslavia (1966), to South America (1968), to South Africa and Zambia (1970),[7] and toPoland, theU.S.S.R. andJapan in 1973. Meanwhile, their recording projects forPhilips Records, begun in 1965, were coming to fruition, with the Mozart integrale finished in 1972 and the Beethoven in 1973.
In this later period their collaboration withMaurizio Pollini took place. The completion of their recording work inSchubert did not occur until 1977. In their late concerts the group focussed especially upon Beethoven and Schubert, often devoting a recital to two works, a single masterpiece by each composer. In December 1977 Piero Farulli was obliged to retire from the group owing to illness, and was replaced byDino Asciolla. Dino Asciolla was an eminent viola maestro with many recordings, including 'Le sonate per Pianoforte ed Archi (Doppio CD)' with Corrado Galzio (pianoforte), Dino Asciolla (viola),Salvatore Accardo (violino) and Francesco Maggio Ormezowski (violoncello).[8]
However, following a tour ofIsrael it was decided to bring the Quartet to an end in 1980.
Paolo Borciani (Reggio Emilia, 21 December 1922 – Milano, 5 July 1985) devoted his later years toJ.S. Bach'sThe Art of Fugue (his last recording was made in Bergamo at Sala Piatti on 3 May 1985) with his wife, Pegreffi and two pupils of Farulli and Rossi (Tommaso Poggi, viola and Luca Simoncini, cello).Elisa Pegreffi (Genova, 10 June 1922 – Milano, 14 January 2016) devoted herself to teaching;Piero Farulli (Firenze, 13 January 1920 – Fiesole, 2 September 2012) found his place in the school of Fiesole;Franco Rossi (Venezia, 31 March 1921 - Firenze, 28 November 2006) returned to the performance of chamber music. All four were awarded the Gold Medal of theBenemeriti della Scuola, della Cultura e dell'Arte by the Italian PresidentFrancesco Cossiga.
The Quartetto Italiano have recorded the complete quartets byBeethoven,Mozart,Schumann,Brahms andWebern. They rarely collaborated with external members, but two notable recordings are Mozart's Clarinet Quintet withAntoine-Pierre de Bavier (Decca, early 1950s), and Brahms's Piano Quintet Op.34 withMaurizio Pollini (Deutsche Grammophon, 1979). They also planned to play Schubert's String Quintet withPierre Fournier, and Mozart's Quintet with two violas (K.516) withMilan Škampa, violist of theSmetana Quartet, but neither project was realized, the first due to the impossibility of finding a concert date, the second due to a visa refusal from the Czechoslovakian authorities.[9] Their complete recordings for Decca, Philips and Deutsche Grammophon were released in a 37-disc set by Decca in 2015.[10]
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