Alessandro Bonelli
Although Italy occupies the important position that everyone knows in the field of music and of musical activities generally, I have noticed that outside her boundaries, whilst the names of great Italian musicians such as Vivaldi and Verdi, Toscanini, Giulini and Muti, Pavarotti and the "Virtuosi di Roma", are famous; little or nothing is known of the Italian musical world, with its history and its traditions, its conservatories and its orchestras. Believing, as I do, that one of the fundamental reasons for the existence of IDRS is that of increasing and improving the knowledge and experience of its members, also through the exchange of news and information, I have therefore decided to offer my little, but at the same time useful, in my opinion, contribution towards a knowledge as full as possible of the history of the oboe and of oboists.
Rather than of a "national school", as in the case of France, England and now also of the USA, in the case of Italy one should speak of schools. In fact, the political divisions which lasted until the end of last century, when the Italian peninsula was made up of larger and smaller states more or less bound to the foreign powers of the time, resulted in the fact that even in the mode of playing the oboe the styles were many, many were the ways of making the reeds, many the types of sound preferred, many and diverse the instruments used. But many are also the illustrious oboists we must remember, also because many of them have been too often unjustly forgotten.
First, in order of time. the brothers ALESSANDRO, ANTONIO and GAETANO
He also founded the firm of the same name, maker of cane, reeds and accessories which, on his death, passed to his son SILVANO PRESTINI (himself an excellent oboist) who in the Seventies began to make also instruments.
The latter are so beautiful that, in my opinion, they might very well be performed as concert pieces.
Many Italian oboists have been active abroad, among them
About sixty state music schools exist nowadays in Italy, going under the name of conservatories. Some are the direct descendants of the famous conservatories of 1700. Others can boast solid traditions having been founded in the course of 1800. In the conservatories all instruments of the modern orchestra are being taught and in the larger conservatories the teachers for any single instrument are more than one, with a maximum of 10 pupils each. Consequently there are many conservatories where we can find two or three professors of oboe. The oboe course lasts a minimum of seven years. The study programmes vary from one conservatory to the other and also from one teacher to the other, with the utmost liberty. At the end of the 5th year and at the end of the 7th there are two exams (respectively "esame di licenza" and "esame di diploma"), whose programme is fixed by the Ministry of Education and, therefore, is the same for all conservatories in Italy. These exams are always attended, within the examining board, by an oboe professor coming from a different conservatory.
There exist in Italy several permanent symphonic orchestras. Four are run by the RAI (Italian Radio-Television) and are situated in Turin, Milan, Rome and Naples. Thirteen are dependent upon the opera houses which are financed by the government, and are those of Turin, Milan, Genoa, Trieste, Venice, Verona, Bologna, Parma, Florence, Rome, Naples, Palermo and Catania. Other permanent orchestras, whether symphonic or chamber orchestras, are to be found in Milan, Rome, Bolzano, Padua, Bari, Palermo and Cagliari. Admission to any of these orchestras is obtained through a national, and sometimes international, competition. Once admitted, it is possible to remain in the same position until retirement (at the age of 65). The oboe section usually consists of the following: two first oboes which alternate, two second oboes which alternate and, when necessary, play as third, one cor anglais.
Once the Italian oboe declined, around 1920, and the "Lorée type" was adopted by all oboists, including the Italians, the Italian oboe makers who produce this type of oboe with the keys of the "Prestini system" are:
Italian oboists usually play much more opera music than foreign oboists. In this respect, it is interesting to note that this is not at all a "handicap" in that the oboe scores in the operas by Rossini, Verdi or Puccini are technically much more difficult than may be deemed by musicians who have never had the opportunity of playing Aida and Othello, or Boheme and Turandot. Many are the young Italian oboists who have studied abroad with such oboists as PIERRE PIERLOT, HEINZ HOLLIGER, LOTHAR KOCH, HAROLD GOMBERG etc., and consequently the styles and techniques, as well as the reeds and instruments which co- exist, side by side, in the conservatories and in orchestras, are also many. As a result, our music world is most attractive and varied, full of excitement, always changing and progressing. In this connection it is also interesting to note that it was from Italy that sprang those new performing techniques which were first illustrated by BRUNO BARTOLOZZI in his book New Sounds for Woodwinds of 1967 (Ed. Oxford University Press), and it is significant that some modern composers who have written oboe music in the most "demanding" fashion are the Italian:
Sistiana (Trieste), 12.6.1982
Alessandro Bonelli was born in Venice and studied there at the Venice Conservatorio with T. Riedmiller and R. Zanfini.
He has played as Principal Oboe, Oboe and Cor Anglais Soloist with the chamber orchestras of Naples, Florence and Como, as well as with the "Virtuosi di Roma$quot;, the "Gulbenkian" Chamber Orchestra of Lisbon and the Orchestra of the theatre "La Fenice" in Venice.
From 1970 to 1977 he was Oboe Soloist with the "Solisti Veneti"; he played in the principal cities and festivals of Europe, United States, Canada, in Radio and Television programmes and records.
He taught at the Conservatorios of Venice, Bolzano, Padova, and Trieste.
At present he plays in the Orchestra of the "Teatro Verdi" in Trieste and with the Chamber Ensemble of the Theatre.
My greatest thanks are due to Sergio Penazzi without whose help this book could never have been written. Professor Penazzi who is first bassoon player at the Teatro alla Scala and teacher at the Milan Conscrvatoire showed me how multiple sounds could be played on the bassoon as long ago as 1960 and since then has given me full collaboration in evolving new techniques. Later, Lawrence Singer confirmed that similar results arc possible with the oboe and also conducted experiments in methods of quarter-tone production. The validity of these techniques for all other woodwind instruments was then confirmed with the help of players in the Maggio Musicale Orchestra of Florence.
My most sincere thanks are therefore due to Sergio Penazzi and Lawrence Singer for their untiring assistance and collaboration and to those players of the Maggio Musicale Orchestra who helped me so much particularly the flautist Pierluigi Mencarelli and the clarinettist Detalmo Corneti. Finally, I would like to thank Reginald Smith Brindle for his precious contribution in preparing this book in an original version in English.
Bruno Bartolozzi
