"One of the pioneers of classical music in Italy, and one of its most
talented composers of chamber music and in symphonic forms, is Giovanni
Sgambati, born in Rome, May 18, 1843," writes Edward Burlingame Hill, in
the _Etude_. "His father was a lawyer; his mother, an Englishwoman, was
the daughter of Joseph Gott, the English sculptor. There had been some
idea of making a lawyer of young Sgambati, but the intensity of his
interest in music and his obvious talent precluded the idea of any other
career. When he was but six years old, his father died, and he went with
his mother to live in Trevii, in Umbria, where she soon married again.
Even at this early age he played in public, sang contralto solos in
church, and also conducted small orchestras. When a little older he
studied the piano, harmony and composition with Natalucci, a pupil of
Zingarelli, a famous teacher at the Naples conservatory. He returned in
1860 to Rome, where he became at once popular as a pianist, in spite of
the severity of his programmes, for he played the works of Beethoven,
Chopin and Schumann, and the fugues of Bach and Handel. Many of these
works were entirely unknown to Italian audiences; he thus became an
ardent propagandist of the best literature of the piano. His next
teacher was Professor Aldega, master of the Capella Liberiana of Santa
Maria Maggiore. He was on the point of leaving for Germany for further
study when Liszt came to Rome, became interested in Sgambati and took
him in charge for special instruction in the mysteries of higher piano
playing. He soon became the leading exponent of the Liszt school of
technic and interpretation. Sgambati was the soloist in a famous series
of classical chamber music concerts inaugurated in Rome by Ramaciotti;
he was (as mentioned before) the first interpreter of the works of
Schumann, who in the years 1862-63 was virtually unknown in Italy. Later
he began to give orchestral concerts at which the symphonies and
concertos of the German masters were given for the first time. In 1866,
when the Dante Gallery was inaugurated, Liszt chose Sgambati to conduct
his Dante symphony. On this occasion Beethoven's Eroica symphony was
given for the first time in Rome.
"In 1869, he travelled in Germany with Liszt, meeting many musicians of
note, among them Wagner, Rubinstein, and Saint-Saens, hearing The
Rhinegold at Munich. Wagner, in particular, became so much interested in
Sgambati's compositions that he secured a publisher for them by his
emphatic recommendations. On returning to Rome, Sgambati founded a free
piano class at the Academy of St. Cecilia, since adopted as a part of
its regular course of instruction. In 1878, he became professor of the
piano at the Academy, and at present is its director. In 1896, he
founded the Nuova Societa Musicale Romana (the Roman New Musical
Society) for increasing interest in Wagnerian opera. Sgambati has been
an occasional visitor to foreign cities, notably London and Paris, both
in the capacity of pianist and as conductor; he has led performances of
his symphonies in various Italian cities, and at concerts where the
presence of royalty lent distinction to the audience.
"Miss Bettina Walker, a pupil of Sgambati in 1879, gives a most
delightful picture of Sgambati in her book, My Musical Experiences. A
few extracts may assist in forming an idea of his personality. 'He then
played three or four pieces of Liszt's, winding up the whole with a
splendid reading of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy. In everything that he
played, Sgambati far exceeded all that I could have anticipated. His
lovely, elastic touch, the weight and yet the softness of his wrist
staccato, the swing and go of his rhythmic beat, the colouring
rich and warm, and yet most exquisitely delicate, and over all the
atmosphere of grace, the charm and the repose which perfect mastery
alone can give'--'But to return to the relation of my studies
with Sgambati. He gave me the scales to practice in thirds, and
arpeggios in the diminished sevenths, for raising the fingers from the
keyboard--recommending these as the best possible daily drills for the
fingers. He also gave me some guidance in the first book of Kullak's
octave-studies and he tried to initiate me into the elastic swing and
movement of the wrist, so important in the octave-playing of modern
compositions. Sgambati's playing of Liszt was, now that I compare him
with many others whom I have since heard, more poetical than any. In the
sudden fortissimi so characteristic of the school his tone was always
rich and full, never wooden or shrill; while his pianissimi were so
subtle and delicate, and the nuances, the touches of beauty, were
fraught with a sighing, lingering, quite inimitable sweetness, which one
could compare to nothing more material than the many hues where sky and
ocean seem to melt and blend, in a dream of tender ecstasy, along the
coast-line between Baia and Naples.'"