Dalle Lettres d’un bachelier ès-musique
La Milano musicale di Liszt e Marie d’Agoult
Abstract
Liszt’s letters, published in the Parisian «Revue et Gazette Musicale» between 1838 and 1839, are the starting point of this research which, using diaries, private letters and memoirs, shows what kind of musical society Liszt and composers passing through Italy, such as Glinka, were welcomed into. It included professionals, amateur musicians, organizers and guests of events in which music played a very significant role. The personages mentioned by Liszt, about whom biographical and musical information is provided, include Nina Vanotti, Countess Giulia Samoyloff, the Belgiojoso, Medici di Marignano and Branca families, the Rovelli sisters, the famous pianist and composer Francesco Pollini, Countess Angela della Somaglia, Duchess Camilla Litta and Marchioness Teresa Visconti d’Aragona. The picture that emerges is that of a society in which music was an integral and substantial part of the lives of nobles and aristocrats, almost always linked by kinship, interests, dedicatees, music teachers, places frequented, and political tendencies.
