Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1853), Gaspare Spontini (1774-1851) and others
Album containing autograph musical quotations and complete works by composers and performers of the early 19^th century, including dedications and inscriptions
62 pages in all. Bound with 19th-century boards; modern box. Provenance: Sotheby's, 21 November 1990, lot 5.

A remarkable autograph collection of short works by various important figures from the Bel Canto age, compiled in Milan, Paris and Genoa between c.1844 and 1851. The pieces seem to have been collected by pianist and composer Cirilla Branca Cambiasi, to whom much of the collected music bears a dedication. Cambiasi studied under Rossini and held concerts in her Milan home. The collection includes a short passage beginning with an autograph setting of the letters of Donizetti’s name to the notes of the C major scale, ‘Donizetti Gaetano… Milano 4 Agosto 1844’.

Perhaps the most striking item is a quotation from Vincenzo Bellini’s I Purtiani (1835) in the hand of the tenor soloist Giovanni Battista Rubini. Rubini had a significant influence on Bellini’s art. Indeed Bellini had refused to pen even a note for Arturo, whom Rubini was to perform at the premiere, before the singer had arrived in Paris and could then be consulted. The extract transcribed by Rubini in the present album is the dramatic conclusion of ‘Credeasi o misera’, including the astonishing high f’, a fourth above the top of the standard performing range of an operatic tenor.

Among the other autograph manuscripts in the album are contributions from Spontini, Cherubini, Pixis, Halévy and Heller. Spontini provides a musical setting of a text beginning ‘felicissimo viaggio’ together with a long dedication to Signora Cambiasi. A manuscript setting text beginning ‘on se presse’ by Cherubini is accompanied by a postscript by Halévy. Autograph manuscripts consisting of an impromptu by German composer J.P. Pixis, best known for his works for solo piano, and an étude by Heller are also included. The list of other contributors includes Mayr, Mercadente, Herz, Remènyi, Osborne, de Meyer, Panseron, Döhler, Sivori, Thalber, H. Panofka, Tito Mattei, A. Billet, P. Lichenthal, Gambini and others.