Donizetti: String Quartet No.7 in F minor (1819)
Allegro vivace
Adagio, ma non troppo
Presto
Marcia Lugubre: Maestoso
It is well known the extent to which Donizetti’s fame rests on his prowess as a composer of operas – over sixty of them crammed into a surprisingly brief career lasting barely a quarter of a century. But what is less familiar is quite how active he was in other areas of composition, particularly chamber music. Indeed, at the age of 24 he could already claim to be a highly prolific composer of string quartets, with a total of sixteen to his credit – far outnumbering his operatic output at that stage (only two more quartets followed, once he had become established in the theatre). This unusual phenomenon in nineteenth-century Italy is explained by the fact that the current maestro di capella at Santa Maria Maggiore, in Donizetti’s home town of Bergamo, was a Bavarian composer and eclectic, Johann Simon Mayr. His profound knowledge of the quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as his ability as a viola player, made him a valuable contributor to the accademie – chamber music evenings – which were held at the homes of such local enthusiasts as Alessandro Bertoli. The young Donizetti was encouraged by Mayr to involve himself in these events, where he occasionally played the viola himself. And it was to Bertoli that the present work was dedicated. It is in fact a set of four programmatic pieces, completed on 5th May 1819, following the death – the previous day! – of the Marchese Terzi. The movements (as originally inscribed in the autograph) depict “his illness, prayers for his wife and sons for recovery”, “his death”, “his wife’s desperation”, and finally a funeral march. Donizetti’s intuitive feeling for the more dramatic aspects of his subject, not to mention his wonderful gift for melody, reveal more than a hint of where his success would ultimately be found. He was evidently pleased enough with the work to make an arrangement for two pianos.
© Alan George
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