Lucca, city of music

F. Xaverio Geminiani

His Violin Sonatas and Concerti Grossi are still considered today a model of excellence in European instrumental music.
his interpretation of “Madness” inspired the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon.
It's Francesco Xaverio Geminiani.

Son of an artist, he was born in Lucca in 1687 and began his musical studies with his father Giuliano, a violinist at the Cappella Palatina in Lucca.

From 1707 to 1710, now a virtuoso violinist, he played for the Palatine Chapel in Lucca.
In 1711 he was first violin and conductor of the Naples Opera House and in 1714 he moved to London where, thanks to the fame as a violinist he acquired with his brilliant performances, he carried out an intense activity as a concert performer and teacher and devoted himself to composition, publishing two collections of violin sonatas, one for cello, two for harpsichord, three Concerti Grossi and his best-known work, the incidental music for “The Enchanted Forest”.

Inspired by one of the cantos from Torquato Tasso's literary work Jerusalem Delivered, The Enchanted Forest was first published in Paris in 1754 and recounts the siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, recalling the clash between Count Godfrey of Bouillon and the sorcerer Armida.

In addition to being a great performer and composer, Geminiani has been an important teacher and theorist. His treatise, "The Art of Playing on the Violin, Op. 9," is available online at the Luigi Boccherini Study Center in Lucca. www.luigiboccherini.it

Luigi boccherini

Boring concerts in stuffy halls? Of course not.
Many cartoon characters have moved to the tune of one of his famous minuets.
In 2003 we see him appear with the poignant violins and Adagios of the Quintet op.30 n° 6 – The Night Music of the Streets of Madrid from the soundtrack of Master & Commander, a film directed by Peter Weir.
In 2009 Angelo Branduardi dedicated an interpretation of the same piece to him in the song La Tempesta.
It's Luigi Boccherini.

Lucca 1743- Madrid 1805) was born into a family of musicians and was immediately introduced to the musical world. His father, a double bass player, gave him his first lessons on the cello. The boy's exceptional talent was so evident that in 1751 he participated as a boy's voice in the solemn musical service that annually celebrates the traditional Feast of the Holy Cross.

After a period in Rome, Boccherini returned to Lucca to continue his studies and made his debut as a solo cello in the Monastery of San Domenico. In 1764 he was first cellist in the Palace Chapel and founded, with other musicians, Manfredi, Nardini and Cambini, the first historically confirmed stable quartet.

With the quartet and violinist Manfredi alone, Boccherini gave numerous concerts in Italy and other European countries. He then began a period of travel abroad and diverse experiences that took him to France, Vienna, and Spain. In 1768, he moved permanently to Madrid with his friend and colleague Manfredi at the invitation of the Spanish ambassador in Paris, leaving his hometown forever.

The symphonies, in particular, are among his most accomplished and appreciated works, even today. Solidly constructed and rich in a typically Italian, never sentimental, melodic vein, they are among the first valid examples of a genre that was just beginning to flourish in those years.

A victim of uncertain times, he spent his last years in abject poverty, struck by a serious circulatory disease.
Afflicted by the loss of his three daughters and his second wife, Luigi Boccherini died on May 28, 1805, and since 1927 his remains have been in the Church of San Francesco.

Lucca has never forgotten him and his artistic greatness, recognizing his merits and counting him among the city's glories. The Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali, one of Italy's oldest music schools, located in Lucca's historic center, is dedicated to Luigi Boccherini.

Alfredo Catalani

He is undoubtedly the representative of the Romantic century of composers of his generation.
Despite his melancholic nature, for Artuto Toscanini he is “the most sympathetic of the composers”.
It's Alfredo Catalani.

Born in Lucca in 1854, his father Eugenio was a musician, teacher, and musical organizer. Alfredo began his musical studies in 1863 at the city's Music Institute, a student of Fortunato Magi, uncle of Giacomo Puccini.

Like Puccini, to obtain his diploma he composed a Mass for four voices, choir and orchestra, which received flattering reviews from critics and the public.
He studied in Paris and Milan, where he came to prominence with “La falce”, a cantata for two voices and choir with a libretto by Boito who would soon write for Verdi.

He continued his musical studies of the works of Liszt and Wagner, becoming acquainted with the most cutting-edge Italian artists. In 1886, he finally staged Loreley, and in 1891, his other great opera, La Wally, dividing contemporary critics. Toscanini performed it to great acclaim. Gustav Mahler conducted it in Hamburg, calling it "the best Italian opera." Puccini praised it. Verdi disliked it: "It's a German opera, devoid of heart and inspiration," he wrote.

Amidst this widespread travel, Lucca remained a place to spend time relaxing. In 1892, La Wally was performed at the Teatro del Giglio, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, one of his most important supporters. It was thanks to him that Catalani's works gained international recognition. The city honored him fittingly.

Of a melancholic temperament, his life was marked by family losses and a love affair that would have an unhappy ending. His brother and sister died of tuberculosis, and he himself suffered from it. In the summer of 1893, he left for Switzerland in an attempt to recover, but did not get beyond Chiasso. Stricken by a severe hemorrhage, he returned to Milan, where he died, at the age of 39, on August 7th.