Franco Faccio
Quartetto per archi in sol maggiore
edited by Ivano Bettin and Giacomo Fossa

(Intrumental Music, 23)

29,7 x 21 cm; XXXII, 68 pp.
Intro and Apparatus in Italian and English

Franco Faccio was to become a most faithful interpreter of Verdi’s music and main conductor at La Scala, where he premièred Otello on 5 February 1887. But, as a young man, he had been involved in the Milanese Scapigliatura movement, seeking a musical renovation vis-à-vis Verdi’s musical theater. In those early years he focused on composition, entered Giulio Ricordi’s circle, and made his operatic debut in Milan in 1864 with I profughi fiamminghi, a “lyric drama” on Emilio Praga’s libretto, followed in 1865 by Amleto, his masterpiece, set to Arrigo Boito’s libretto and staged at the Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa. These were his only operas. Between them, he composed his String Quartet in G major, awarded second prize at the 1864 Milan Società del Quartetto competition. This work shows his interest in Viennese Classic and German Romantic models, reinterpreted in a personal way.

Ivano Bettin graduated in 2004 in Modern Literature at the Milan University, where he then got his Ph.D. in History and Criticism of Art and Environment Heritage (Music area). An active researcher, mainly on 17th- to 19th-century Italian music, he produced scholarly editions such as Vivaldi’s La Dorilla and Pergolesi’s Il Flaminio, both for Ricordi, wrote essays issued by Lim, Led, Ets, SEdM, Pàtron, Centro Studi Antoniani, and others, as well as encyclopedia entries for the Dizionario biografico degli italiani and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. A professional journalist, he is also editor in the Classical Music Division of Hal Leonard Europe.

Giacomo Fossa, was born in Parma, graduated in cello (with top marks) and composition at the city conservatory, studied at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, followed advanced courses with David Geringas and Georg Öquist (Royal College Stockholm), and was awarded at the prestigious “Mario Benvenuti” national string festival, Vittorio Veneto. He performed in major Italian cities, such as Rome and Milan, as well as in prestigious halls and institutions, including the Teatro Regio in Parma, the Festival Verdi, the Festival Ponchielli, the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, the Amici di Verdi in Busseto, and the Villa Verdi in Sant’Agata. He plays cello in the Luigi Magnani Quartet and oversees the Pomeriggi musicali at the Magnani Rocca Foundation, Mamiano di Traversetolo. He published for Ricordi a scholarly edition of Francesco Cilea’s Cello Sonata, Op. 38, as well as books on Verdi and Puccini, with Sandro Laffranchini, first cello at La Scala.