Wolf-Ferrari, Ermanno

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari – Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra op. 31, Invocation

(b. Venice, 12 January 1876 – d Venice, 21 January 1948)

Preface
The repertoire for violoncello and orchestra is mainly associated with works of the late 19th century, such as the compositions of Schumann, Dvorak or – in the case of the Double Concerto in A Minor op. 102 – of Johannes Brahms; among the most famous works for this instrumentation is also the Concerto in E Minor op. 85 by Edward Elgar. A concerto that is more in the shadow of these compositions that dominate concert life is the work of a composer who is generally associated mainly with the opera repertoire: The Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra “Invocation” op. 31 by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was published posthumously only six years after the death of the Venetian in 1948, that is, in 1954.

Hermann Friedrich Wolf was born in Venice on January 12, 1876, the son of a Venetian and the German painter August Wolf, and grew up in Italy until the age of 15. His great talent for painting led to his first training at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome and later at the private painting school of Simon Holosy in Munich, where he finally passed the aptitude test at the Königlichen Akademie der Tonkunst in 1892 and was able to develop his second talent: Wolf-Ferrari (who took this name from a student concert in 1894) studied with Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, the highly sought-after teacher of composition at the Munich Academy in the second half of the 19th century, as well as conducting with Ludwig Abel. …

Read full preface > HERE