Alessandro Rolla (1757-1841)
- Divertimento à Violino con Grande Orchestra, BI 482
Performers: Bеttina Mussumеlli (violin); I Solisti Vеnеti; Claudio Scimonе (1934-2018, conductor)
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Italian composer, violinist and viola player. He studied counterpoint in Milan with G.A. Fioroni, a pupil of Leonardo Leo. Having decided to devote himself to the viola, he performed a viola concerto of his own in the church of S Ambrogio at some time between 1772 and 1774, probably under the direction of G.B. Sammartini, and in 1778 he played the viola in the orchestra for the inauguration of the Regio Ducal Teatro alla Scala. In 1782, possibly thanks to Sarti, he was appointed first viola player in the Parma orchestra, becoming its leader and conductor in 1792. In 1802, on the death of the Duke of Parma, he was summoned by the impresario Ricci to conduct the La Scala orchestra, where he remained until 1833, directing operas by Mozart, Mayr, Paer, Rossini, Bellini, the young Donizetti and Mercadante. He also served as first violinist and conductor of the court orchestra of Viceroy Eugenio di Beauharnais from 1805, and from 1808 to 1835 he was first professor of violin and viola at the newly opened Milan Conservatory. Rolla's conducting style was described by some of his contemporaries: Spohr (1860-61) praised his ‘force and precision’, while Stendhal (1816) mentioned that Rolla lacked ‘brio in the virtuoso pieces’; similarly the journal I teatri (1828), having defined him as ‘supreme in controlling orchestras’, attributed to him ‘a certain predilection for the old style and old music’. It is safe to say that the widely praised string sound of the La Scala orchestra in the period of Bellini and Donizetti was the fruit of Rolla's school. Many young musicians who went on to become famous had connections with him: Paganini played for Rolla in 1795 and later gave concerts with him (many of them in 1813-14) and remained a close friend, and in 1832 Verdi consulted Rolla when looking for a private teacher in Milan. Continuing the northern Italian tradition of Sammartini and others, Rolla was very active in the field of instrumental music. In 1813 he performed excerpts from Beethoven's Prometheus music at La Scala and gave private performances of Beethoven's fourth, fifth and sixth symphonies in Milan, and in 1823 he gave the first public performance of a Beethoven symphony at La Scala. After retiring from the conservatory he began private performances of chamber music in his own home; here too he was a pioneer in his emphasis on Beethoven. One of those involved, from 1840 onwards, was the young Antonio Bazzini, later the leading Beethoven interpreter in Italy.
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