User:Jacqke/Pietro Vimercati

Pietro Vimercati (1779-1850) was a mandolin virtuoso, musical director, teacher, composer. and one of the first generation of Italian mandolinists that toured Europe, spreading knowledge of the Italian classical mandolin by performing in concert halls. Coming from an established musical family, he played a folk-instrument that was new to the concert halls of the aristocracy. He played violin music with his mandolin, the important concertos of the period and won over the music critics with his artistry. He was also a friend to two of the composers of his day, Gioachino Antonio Rossini and Ignaz Moscheles.

Background
Pietro Vimercati was the son of a musician who imparted to him the elements of the art at an early age. His ancestors had been established in Milan for two generations as musical instrument makers, principally engaged in the construction of mandolins, guitars and lutes. Prior to Pietro, the most celebrated member of this family being Gaspare Vimercati.

Pietro, the mandolinist, did not attract public notice until he was about twenty-eight years of age, when he made his first appearance as mandolinist outside his native city in Florence, December, 1808.

According to Philip J. Bone, an early biographer for Vimercati, his success was instantaneous, and his reputation spread throughout northern Italy. "Such brilliant execution on the mandolin was seldom heard."

Vimercati went on tour for six months, performing in important Italian cities, after which he returned to Milan. There he was engaged as soloist to play during the entr'act in the Theatre Re.

European tours
He spent much of his life touring Europe, including the years 1823, 1829, 1831, 1835, 1836, 1837 and 1840.

In 1829 Vimercati toured Germany, playing "innumerable" concerts. He also toured Austria, stopping in Vienna, where "his appearances were veritable triumphs". From Germany he travelled through France on his way to Spain. He visited Paris, for the second time, for in 1823 the correspondent of the Harmonicon had written, " M. Vimercati, a remarkable phenomenon on the mandolin."

Vimercati remained some months in Spain, but in 1835 he was receiving the applause of musicians in Holland, and the following year that of Berlin and Weimar.

He undertook an extended tour through Russia in 1837, and in 1840 was again in Vienna where he resided for a period.

When he was through with touring, he returned to days his native land in Genoa to live his final years. He took active an active part in the musical affairs of the city in spite of his age. He died in Genoa, July 27, 1850, at the age of seventy-one, after having attended a concert only a few days earlier.

Reaction to Vimercati in the music journals
The music journals said of Vimercati : "He had already astonished Italy and Germany by the rapidity and grace with which he executed violin concertos on his instrument. The French connoisseurs who were led by curiosity to visit him found themselves irresistibly detained by admiration," and "In January, 1831, the well-known virtuoso on the mandolin, Vimercati, gave a concert at the Theatre Argentine which was well attended. This artist is an example of what genius and perseverance may effect upon the least promising of instruments." . . . "Vimercati, the celebrated virtuoso on the mandolin, and his wife, who is an excellent singer, have been performing at the Theatre Re, Milan, between the acts with unbounded applause."

Mendel states that his execution and performances were quite inconceivable to those not privileged to hear him. He was the author of several compositions for his instrument which remain in manuscript.

Friendships with classical composers
Vimercati was a friend of Rossini, who had heard him perform upon many occasions, and styled him the "Paganini of the mandolin". Bone thought that Vimercati was "perhaps the earliest of innumerable mandolinists who have been compared with the incomparable violinist!"

The wife of Vimercati, the prima donna Bianchi, performed the principal role in Rossini's operas in Mantua, Berlin and Weimar during 1834.

Moscheles had also been amazed at his virtuosity, and a conversation between Moscheles and Rossini, concerning Vimercati, is recorded by Philip J. Bone, in which Rossini as Moscheles agreed that both Vimercati and a guitar player named Sor "proved the possibility of obtaining great artistic results with slender means." Bone p212