Description

LEO PETRONI (RIO MARINA, 16 JUNE, 1903 – BOLZANO, 5 SEPTEMBER, 1988)

 

 

 

 

Leo Petroni was an Italian violinist, chamber musician, and pedagogue.

He studied in Livorno with Adolfo Martini and Tignani, and graduated in violin in 1922 from the Conservatorio “G. Rossini” of Pesaro, where he studied with Rémy Principe. After further advanced studies with Carl Flesch, Petroni embarked on a brilliant concert career beginning in 1925, performing both as a soloist and in duo with distinguished pianists including Sandro Fuga, Otto Schulhof, Elisabetta Sangursky, and Michael Raucheisen.

Together with Raucheisen, he presented an ambitious cycle of eight concerts devoted to the violin sonata from Corelli to Hindemith, first inaugurated in Berlin in 1934 and subsequently performed in major European musical centers such as Milan, Zurich, Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Cologne, Leipzig, and Frankfurt. He performed with leading European orchestras under eminent conductors including Willem Mengelberg, Bruno Walter, and Wilhelm Furtwängler, and German critics famously dubbed him “Die Sänger auf der Geige” (“the singer on the violin”) for his expressive, vocal style of playing.

In the 1920s, Petroni was a member of the Petroni–Deflorian–Rebora–Mascagni Quartet, and in the 1930s he performed with the Italian–German Trio, alongside Paul Grümmer (cello) and Germano Arnaldi (piano). Following a surgical operation, he was forced to withdraw prematurely from an active concert career.

Alongside his performing activities, Petroni pursued an extensive teaching career. From 1921 he taught at the Conservatory of Pesaro, from 1927 to 1934 at the Liceo Musicale of Bolzano during the directorship of Pietro Mascagni, with whom he also performed in a string quartet. He taught at the Conservatory of Cagliari from 1934 to 1949, and from 1949 to 1965 at the University of Córdoba (Argentina), where he also served as first violin of the Quartetto Italiano, which he founded. From 1965 he returned to teaching at the Conservatory of Bolzano, where his pupils included Carlo Maria Giulini.

A founding member of Renato Fasano’s Collegium Musicum Italicum, Petroni participated in the ensemble’s earliest concerts in 1948. He played a Paolo Antonio Testore violin dated 1728.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Lied Ohne Worte in F, Op. 2, No. 2 (Tchaikovsky) 2RA 3608 EH 1236 HMV, 1939

Menuett in E flat major (Haydn, arr. Petroni) 2RA 3607 EH 1236 HMV, 1939

Violin Sonata in a minor Op.105

Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck (mtx 2RA 3603-1 / 2RA 3604-1)

Allegretto (mtx 2RA 3605-1 /

Lebhaft (mtx / 2RA 3606-1)

Leo Petroni (violin)

Michael Raucheisen (piano)

Recorded: January 1939, Berlin

Format: coarse-groove, 78 rpm, 12” / 30 cm, electrical

Matrices: as above

Issued (Great Britain): early 1950

Catalogue numbers: EH 1237, 1238