Click to copy, then share by pasting into your messages, comments, social media posts and websites.
Click to copy, then add into your webpages so users can view and engage with this video from your site.
Report Content
We also accept reports via email. Please see the Guidelines Enforcement Process for instructions on how to make a request via email.
Thank you for submitting your report
We will investigate and take the appropriate action.
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 26
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948)
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 26
I. Fantasia: Molto tranquillo - piu mosso (Andante animato) - Allegro - Vivace 0:00
II. Romanze: Adagio 11:21
III. Improviso: Agitato, con passione 20:01
IV. Rondo-Finale: Allegro assai, poi sempre più animato 24:55
Ulf Hoelscher, violin
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Alun Francis, conductor
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876 - 1948) as an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as Il segreto di Susanna (1909). A number of his works were based on plays by Carlo Goldoni, including Le donne curiose (1903), I quatro rusteghi (1906) and Il campiello (1936). Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was born in Venice in 1876, the son of German painter August Wolf and Emilia Ferrari, from Venice. He added his mother's maiden-name, Ferrari, to his surname in 1895. Although he studied piano from an early age, music was not the primary passion of his young life. As a teenager Wolf-Ferrari wanted to be a painter like his father; he studied intensively in Venice and Rome and traveled abroad to study in Munich. It was there that he decided to concentrate instead on music, taking lessons from Josef Rheinberger. He enrolled at the Munich conservatory and began taking counterpoint and composition classes. These initially casual music classes eventually completely eclipsed his art studies, and music took over Wolf-Ferrari's life. He wrote his first works in the 1890s. At age 19, Wolf-Ferrari left the conservatory and traveled home to Venice. There he worked as a choral conductor, married, had a son called Federico Wolf-Ferrari, and met both Arrigo Boito and Verdi. In 1900, having failed to have two previous efforts published, Wolf-Ferrari saw the first performance of one of his operas, Cenerentola, based on the story of Cinderella. The opera was a failure in Italy, and the humiliated young composer moved back to Munich. German audiences would prove more appreciative of his work; a revised version of Cenerentola was a hit in Bremen in 1902, while the cantata La vita nuova brought the young composer international fame. Wolf-Ferrari now began transforming the wild and witty farces of the 18th-century Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni into comic operas. The resulting works were musically eclectic, melodic, and utterly hilarious; every single one became an international success. In fact, until the outbreak of World War I, Wolf-Ferrari's operas were among the most performed in the world. In 1902 he became professor of composition and director of the Liceo Benedetto Marcello. In 1911 Wolf-Ferrari tried his hand at full-blooded Verismo with I gioielli della Madonna; a story of passion, sacrilege and madness. It was quite popular in its day and for a period after, especially in Chicago, where the great Polish soprano Rosa Raisa made it a celebrated vehicle. Maria Jeritza (and, later, Florence Easton) triumphed in it at the Metropolitan Opera, in an all-out spectacular production in 1926. World War I, however, was a nightmare for Wolf-Ferrari. The young composer, who had been dividing his time between Munich and Venice, suddenly found his two countries at war with each other. With the outbreak of the War, he moved to Zurich and composed much less, though he still wrote another comedy, Gli amanti sposi (1916). A new melancholy vein appeared in his post-war work; his operas grew darker and more emotionally complex. He did not really pick up his rate of output until the 1920s, when he wrote Das Himmelskleid (1925) and Sly (1927), the latter based on William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. In 1939 he became professor of composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1946 he moved again to Zürich before returning to his home city of Venice. He died in Venice at Palazzo Malipiero and is buried in the Venetian cemetery Island of San Michele.
Category | None |
Sensitivity | Normal - Content that is suitable for ages 16 and over |
Playing Next
Related Videos
Dorothy Howell: Piano Concerto in D minor (in one movement)
2 years, 11 months ago
Max d'Ollone: String Quartet in D Major
2 years, 11 months ago
Louis Théodore Gouvy: Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 9
2 years, 11 months ago
Théodore Dubois: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor
2 years, 11 months ago
Christian Barnekow: Piano Trio in F-sharp minor, Op. 1
2 years, 11 months ago
Zygmunt Stojowski: Concertstück for Cello and Orchestra in D Major, Op. 31
2 years, 11 months ago
Warning - This video exceeds your sensitivity preference!
To dismiss this warning and continue to watch the video please click on the button below.
Note - Autoplay has been disabled for this video.