Simonetti: Madrigale
Jakob Lehmann and Imke Lichtwark
Achille Simonetti was born in Torino in 1857 and studied violin from a young age with a list of illustrious teachers including Paganini’s last pupil, Camillo Sivori - who was also a composer, and whose works Teatro Nuovo will include later in our video series. Simonetti and Sivori - like Paganini and his protégé Antonio Bazzini, also featured here - belonged to the era in which any virtuoso was expected to show his mastery not just by playing his instrument but by adding to its repertory.
In his thirties Simonetti joined the centuries-long procession of Italian musicians to the British Isles, where he established himself as a soloist, teacher, and chamber musician. (His own playing can be heard, dimly and briefly, on three discs made by The London Trio in 1904.) Meanwhile he published dozens of compositions, mostly for violin, between his teens and his death in London in 1928. The Madrigale heard here has been the most popular of them, but many are worthy of revival.
Album autograph by Simonetti with opening notes of the “Madrigale.” Photo by courtesy of Tamino Autographs.