Luchesi authorship controversy

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The Luchesi authorship controversy concerns a claim by the Italian scholar G. Taboga that many of the most celebrated works by the famous composers of the Classical era Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were actually written in secret by Andrea Luchesi, a rarely mentioned Italian composer (1741-1801) who worked in Bonn during the same era. Among the works reattributed by Taboga to Luchesi are the symphonies 31, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41 of Mozart; the last twelve symphonies (the "London" symphonies") of Haydn; and also the early piano quartets WoO36 of Beethoven.

This portrait, in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, is represented as being of C. G. Neefe. Luchesi advocates have proposed that it is actually a portrait of Andrea Luchesi.
This portrait, in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, is represented as being of C. G. Neefe. Luchesi advocates have proposed that it is actually a portrait of Andrea Luchesi.

For biographical information concerning Luchesi, see Andrea Luchesi.

Contents

[edit] Preamble

Luchesi’s musical output was very consistent, but most of it had apparently vanished, although according to contemporaries his works were in great demand in Germany[1]. Taboga considers this “disappearance” to be a consequence of a combination of eighteenth century habits (and events) and concerted cancellation.

A general habit was the standard practice for Kapellmeister works to be considered as anonymous and free compositions till the Kapellmeister death or resignation, when they were credited to him. In fact, very few works carry Luchesi’s name after his nomination in 1774 (an exception is e.g. the opera Ademira composed during his leave period in Venice in 1783-84). The French invasion was an event that brought the collapsing of the existing order and rules. In October 1794 the court musical archives were transferred eastwards to Bad Mergentheim castle to save them from approaching French troops. Most of the documents eventually ended up by 1836 at the Estense Library (Biblioteca Estense) in Modena; till the late twentieth century they were generally mentioned as copies of the original documents.

In the eighteenth century, it was also not unlawful to purchase a work from a composer with the right for the purchaser to mention it as its own work. From 1763 onwards several Luchesi symphonies (recorded as being Joseph Haydn’s) have reached Prince Esterházy’s court[2].

Publishers also sometimes printed works of less known composers under the name of famous ones, but whether this practice has affected or not Luchesi’s works is still a question mark.

Based on documents still available, Taboga has worked out a reconstruction of Luchesi’s relationship with the Electors of Cologne:

  • With Maximilian Friederich he apparently reached an agreement in connection with his nomination in 1774 and his related naturalization (which implied a consistent reduction of his previous salary, as foreigners were paid more than state nationals): besides providing works to the chapel, he had the right to create compositions (paid to him from outside) under the name of Haydn and Captain Ferdinand d’Anthoin (his brother in law). This arrangement worked till 1784, when the Elector died.
  • The successor Max Franz tried to replace Luchesi with his friend and protégé Mozart (e.g., he drastically reduced his salary), but he couldn’t succeed. Inter alia, Max Franz required an inventory of the works kept in the court musical archives. Neefe completed the inventory in May 1784, just before Luchesi return from Italy. It looks like a new arrangement was eventually found with Max Franz, with the “outside” works being delivered under Mozart name. At Mozart’s death in 1791, the d’Anthoin name re-appeared (until d’Anthoin’s death at the end of 1793).
  • Max Franz was also the brother of the Emperor. It seems realistic to consider that he, as well as the Imperial establishment, was interested into promoting the idea of an Austria/Habsburg related musical supremacy, thus upgrading the role of musicians like Joseph Haydn, Mozart and later Beethoven while downgrading the foreigners’ (and particularly Luchesi’s) one. Various evidence leads to support the idea that Luchesi’s disappearance in the history of music wasn’t a casual matter, but a consequence of vested interests. The fact that the archives were not returned to Bonn at the end of the French period is part of such evidence, as well as the existence of documents with title pages torn up or with author’s name deleted and replaced.

Luchesi's own archive seems lost: it was probably partly sold by his daughter Caterina, with the remaining documents auctioned after her death in 1826.

So today we may consider the following groups of Luchesi’s works:

[edit] Works officially known as Luchesi’s

  • L’isola della fortuna, opera buffa with libretto by Giovanni Bertati, performed at the Hoftheater, Vienna, in 1765; also in Venice (1765) and at the Royal Theater in Lisbon (1767).
  • Ademira, opera seria, for the Ascension Day in Venice (1784), to honour the visit of king Gustavus III of Sweden
  • Other operas: Il marito geloso (1766), Le donne sempre donne (1767), Il giocatore amoroso (1769), Il matrimonio per astuzia (1771), Il Natal di Giove, L’inganno scoperto ovvero il conte Caramella (1773, with libretto from Carlo Goldoni), L’amore e la misericordia guadagnano il gioco (1794).
  • Oratorio Sacer trialogus (1768)
  • Stabat Mater (about 1770)
  • Requiem (1771) in F, for the state funeral of the duke of Montealegre in San Geremia’s.
  • Various Masses and sacred works, including: Mass for San Lorenzo in Venice, Mass for the "Festa della concezione di Maria" in Verona, Te Deum for the Incurabili conservatory in Venice
  • Passione di N.S. Gesù Cristo (1776), on a text from Metastasio
  • Many organ works, including:
    • 12 sonatas known as Donelli Collection (completed by 1764), now at the Naples Conservatory
    • 6 sonatine and 8 divertimenti, now at the Library of Congress, Washington
    • 2 sonates pour l’orgue in the 'Menus plaisirs du Roi', Paris
  • Celebration music for the feast of San Rocco in Venice (1769)
  • Serenata for the duke of Brunswick (1764)
  • Cantata for the duke of Wurttemberg (1767)
  • 2 Symphonies (by 1768)
  • 6 Sonatas 'per il cembalo con l’accompagnamento di un violino' Op.1 (Bonn, 1772)
  • Sonata in fa ‘per il cimbalo’ (1771-73?), now at the University of Muenster
  • 3 Symphonies op. 2 (Bonn,1773) - lost
  • Concerto for harpsichord (Bonn,1773) – four more concertos/trios are lost
  • Cantata for the election to Bishop of Archiduke Max Franz (1785 – attributed to Luchesi in the Bonn Stadtarchiv)
  • Sonate facile for cembalo and violin (Leipzig,1796)

[edit] Anonymous works and works known as d’Anthoin’s

Many works composed as Kapellmeister are in the archive documents in Modena. Some works (almost certainly Luchesi’s [3]) without author name in the 1784 inventory showed up with a registration name Mozart or Haydn in Modena (v. group 3 here below). Some documents from the Bonn archive have not reached Modena; e.g. 100 works for entr’actes mentioned in the inventory. The works issued under d’Anthoin’s name have disappeared.

[edit] Works re-ascribed to Luchesi by Taboga

[edit] Works normally attributed to Mozart

Mozart started his own catalogue of works in 1784, in coincidence with the supposed Max Franz/Luchesi arrangement. How many works of post-1784 Mozart are actually from Luchesi will be probably a matter of debate for the coming . However G. Taboga claims that at least 10 symphonies mentioned as ‘of different authors’ in Neefe inventory and marked later ‘Mozart’ in the documents arrived in Modena are from Luchesi. They include Symphonies Nos. 31, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41 (this last one -Jupiter- is still registered as ‘anonymous’ in Modena; it is to remark that Mozart inserted this composition is his catalogue as composed in 1788). A copy of symphony No. 31 Pariser now kept in Regensburg has the name ‘Mozart’ added over an erased ‘Lucchese’[4].

Another open question concerns the “Luchesi music content” in Mozart’s operas Don Giovanni, Il Flauto magico and the Marriage of Figaro: further studies and debates will hopefully bring to a consensus among musicologists. Regarding the Marriage, it’s worth mentioning that his first performance took place in Vienna in May 1786, while an “anonymous” Singspiel Figaro (Der lustige Tag oder Figaros Hochzeit) had been performed in Frankfurt in April 1785 by the G.F.W. Grossmann theatre company, i.e. the Cologne principality court theatre company for the previous ten years.

[edit] Works normally attributed to Haydn

Several musicologists believe today that many Haydn symphonies and other works are actually from different composers, like Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Luchesi and others. According to Taboga, 28 symphonies in the Neefe inventory and marked later ‘Haydn’ in the documents now in Modena are from Luchesi. The Hob. No. of some of the symphonies sent to the Esterházy court from Venice is also known (e.g. Nos. 22, 24, 28, 31, 41, 55). Furthermore Taboga deems it likely that Haydn received from Luchesi the “London” symphonies when he travelled to Bonn before going to London, in 1790 (with J.P. Salomon) as well as in 1792 (alone). Actually, the first six ones had been previously delivered to prince Oettingen-Wallenstein.

[edit] Works attributed to Beethoven

A few WoO works attributed to Beethoven, but with disputes on the attribution, could be from Luchesi, like the 3 quartets with piano WoO36 (their attribution to Beethoven was already excluded by Ferdinand Ries).

[edit] Other views

As far as this encyclopedia's editors have been able to determine, there has been no effort by other scholars either to confirm or refute Taboga's claims concerning authorship. For instance, they are not discussed in the New Grove's article on Luchesis, nor have they been assessed in any biographical work on Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven.

[edit] References

  1. ^ J.B. de La Borde, Essai sur la musique, Paris 1780
  2. ^ G.Taboga, Andrea Luchesi – L’ora della verità, Ponzano Veneto 1994, pages 80-89 (in Italian)
  3. ^ Claudia Valder-Knechtges, Die weltliche Werke A.Luchesis, Bonner Geschichtsblätter, xxxvi, 1984 (in German)
  4. ^ G.Taboga, E se non tutto Mozart fosse di Mozart, Storiainrete, No.3, 2006, page 12 (v. colour picture)

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Other bibliographic references (in English [E], German [G] or Italian [I]):

  • G.Taboga, A case of damnatio personae - Andrea Luchesi, and his role in the birth of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven myths, Episteme No. 4, September 2001 [E] (Previously published in: Quaderni del Dipartimento di Matematica Statistica, Informatica ed Applicazioni, Serie Miscellanea, Anno 2000 No. 4 – University of Bergamo, under the title: Andrea Luchesi, misunderstood genius between Riccati and Beethoven)
  • G. Taboga, A. Luchesi, Maestro di cappella del principato di Colonia a Bonn, Restauri di Marca n.3 (special issue), Villorba/Treviso April 1993 [I]
  • G. Taboga, L'assassinio di Mozart, Lucca 1997 [I]
  • C. Valder-Knechtges: Die Kirchenmusik Andrea Luchesis (1741-1801): Studien zu Leben und Werk des letzten kurkölnischen Hofkapellmeisters (Berlin, 1983) [G], with first catalogue of Luchesi’s sacred works.
  • C. Valder-Knechtges: Andrea Luchesi: Verzeichnis der Instrumentalwerke, Mitteilungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für rheinische Musikgeschichte, lxxvi (1989) [G]
  • C. Valder-Knechtges: Ein Jahrhundert der Musik in Bonn, Bonn als kurkölnische Haupt- und Residenzstadt: 1597-1794, Geschichte der Stadt Bonn, iii (Bonn, 1989), pages 471-515 [G]
  • C. Valder-Knechtges: Andrea Luchesi: ein Italiener im Umkreis des jungen Beethoven, Bonner Geschichtsblätter, xl (1990), pages 29-56 [G]
  • L.della Croce: (Italian translation of the paper Der junge Beethoven und “sein" Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi at the 1999 Beethoven congress at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin), Rassegna Musicale Italiana, anno IV No.15 July/September 1999 pages 13-16.
  • Fausto Torrefranca: Le origini italiane del romanticismo musicale, Torino 1930, pages 557-558 [I]
  • T.A.Henseler: Andrea Luchesi, der letzte bonner Kapellmeister zur Zeit des jungen Beethovens, Bonner Geschichtsblätter, Bonn 1937, pages 225-364 [G]

[edit] External links

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