Bidspirit auction | [MUSIC AUTOGRAPHS] - GIAN FRANCESCO

[MUSIC AUTOGRAPHS] - GIAN FRANCESCO MALIPIERO (1882-1973) - Remarkable autograph score of Malipiero’s Violin Concerto No. 1 - GIAN FRANCESCO MALIPIERO (1882-1973) Remarkable autograph score of Malipiero’s Violin Concerto No. 1, repeatedly signed and dated 1932. Dedicated to the Italian writer and critic Paola Ojetti (1911-1978), as token of friendship “omaggio di un amico”). In very good condition. In-fol., pp. ???. The Violin Concerto No. 1 was composed in 1932 and dedicated to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. It received its first performance in Amsterdam on 5 March 1933, with the celebrated American violinist Viola Mitchell and the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Eduard van Beinum. Cast in three movements — Allegro con spirito, Lento ma non troppo and Allegro — the work calls for a relatively large orchestra, with a particularly substantial percussion section. The concerto has no stated key, reflecting Malipiero’s rejection of conventional harmonic structures in favour of a freely modal and linear musical language. Rather than treating the concerto primarily as a vehicle for virtuoso display, Malipiero conceived the form as a kind of musical oratory, in which the solo instrument engages with the orchestra almost as a speaking voice. Malipiero’s relationship with Paola Ojetti formed part of the extensive network of intellectual and artistic connections surrounding the Ojetti family and, in particular, their cultural circle at Villa Il Salviatino in Florence. A translator and critic in her own right, Paola Ojetti was a valued interlocutor whose cultural sensitivity Malipiero held in high esteem. Their relationship extended well beyond formal acquaintance: Malipiero presented her with copies and arrangements of his works, sometimes accompanied by personal autograph dedications, tangible evidence of their friendship and shared musical interests. The present autograph manuscript is written in a notably clear and controlled hand, with comparatively few corrections. Of particular interest is a series of annotations in green pencil — 11, 5, 6, 10, 11, 2, 3 — placed principally beneath individual passages of the score. These appear to record the counting and division of bars or phrase-units, perhaps representing a practical analysis of the work undertaken in preparation for performance. Prepared by Malipiero for Viola Mitchell, the concerto’s first interpreter, the manuscript provides a particularly compelling link between composition and first performance. Its unusually clean presentation, together with the analytical annotations, suggests a working score intended to facilitate Mitchell’s study of the concerto and its complex linear structure. As such, it provides direct material evidence of Malipiero’s concern that his musical intentions should be clearly understood from the earliest stages of rehearsal.