Riccardo Brengola
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist.
Brengola was born in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. A child prodigy, he made his first studies with his father, and got his violin diploma in the Casablanca
Casablanca
Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...
Conservatory at the early age of 11. returning to Italy, he studied violin with Arrigo Serato and orchestral conducting with Paul van Kempen
Paul van Kempen
Paul van Kempen was a Dutch conductor.Van Kempen was born in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands, and later studied at the Amsterdam conservatory from 1910 to 1913, including composition and conducting with Julius Roentgen and Bernard Zweers, as well as violin with Louis Zimmerman...
in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
. He won the Geneva Violin Competition in 1936 and was finalist on the first occasion of the International Eugène Ysaye Competition, Brussels, together with David Oistrakh
David Oistrakh
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....
, Ricardo Odnoposoff and others. Between 1939 and 1966 he was first violin and leader of the Quintetto Chigiano
Quintetto Chigiano
The Quintetto Chigiano was an Italian musical ensemble comprising a string quartet with pianoforte, and was especially active during the 1940s-1960s.- Personnel :The personnel of the Quintet were made up as follows:1st violin: Riccardo Brengola...
, and later of the Sestetto Chigiano.
In his long and successful career he performed extensively around the world (in Europe, Asia and America) with these groups. He also appeared as a soloist with such illustrious conductors as Sergiu Celibidache
Sergiu Celibidache
- Biography :Celibidache was born in Roman, Romania, and began his studies in music with the piano, after which he studied music, philosophy and mathematics in Bucharest, Romania and then in Paris...
, Antonio Guarnieri
Antonio Guarnieri
Antonio Guarnieri was an Italian conductor and cellist.After playing cello in the Martucci string quartet he turned to conducting in 1904, being engaged by the Vienna Court Opera in 1912.He succeeded Toscanini at La Scala in 1929 and stayed there until shortly before his death...
, Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a mother born in Naples; but he was raised in Bolzano, which at the time of his birth was part of Austria...
, Igor Markevitch
Igor Markevitch
Igor Markevitch was a Ukrainian, Italian, and French composer and conductor.- Origin :Igor Markevich was born in Kiev, to an old family of Ukrainian Cossack starshyna ennobled in the 18th century...
, Jonel Perlea
Jonel Perlea
Jonel Perlea was a Romanian conductor particularly associated with the Italian and German opera repertories.Born Ionel Perlea in Ograda, Romania, he studied in Munich, then in Leipzig. He made his debut at a concert in Bucharest in 1919, then worked as répétiteur in Leipzig and Rostock...
, Paul van Kempen, Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
, etc., and with other equally famous instrumentalists including Andres Segovia
Andrés Segovia
Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain...
, Alain Meunier
Alain Meunier
Alain Meunier is a French cellist.Meunier was born in Paris, the third child among four siblings. Starting the cello at the age of 13 and received premier prix in chamber music at 15 and in cello at 16...
and Dino Asciolla
Dino Asciolla
Edoardo Asciolla was an Italian violin and viola solo player...
.
He was emeritus Professor at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana
Accademia Musicale Chigiana
The Accademia Musicale Chigiana is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Classes in the major musical instruments as well as singing, conducting and composition...
of Siena for 64 years, an academic of Santa Cecilia and titular professor of Musical achievement at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
in Rome. Brengola was a close friend of the famous Bolognese violin maker Ansaldo Poggi
Ansaldo Poggi
Ansaldo Poggi was born in Villafontana di Medicina , 9 June 1893 and died in Bologna, 4 September 1984.He demonstrated his talent for the making of stringed instruments at a young age...
and played his violins on a number of occasions. He also owned superb instruments: the Giovanni Battista Guadagnini
Giovanni Battista Guadagnini
Giovanni Battista Guadagnini ; was an emiliano luthier, regarded as one of the finest craftsmen of string instruments in history.-Biography:...
1747 violin known as 'Contessa Crespi'; the 1702 Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier and a crafter of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas, and harps. Stradivari is generally considered the most significant artisan in this field. The Latinized form of his surname, Stradivarius, as well as the colloquial, "Strad", is...
'Conte di Fontana' violin which had belonged to David Oistrakh
David Oistrakh
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....
and is now played by Massimo Quarta; and an excellent Roberto Regazzi
Roberto Regazzi
Roberto Regazzi is a notable contemporary violin maker and scholar who received his initiation in the craft from Otello Bignami...
instrument made in the 1980s.
He is regarded as one of the finest Italian violinists and violin teachers of the 20th Century. Among his many students a special mention goes to Luca Ciuffoletti, a violinist that developed an international career and that was one of Brengola's most affectionated student. In addition to his Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
recordings with the Quintetto Chigiano
Quintetto Chigiano
The Quintetto Chigiano was an Italian musical ensemble comprising a string quartet with pianoforte, and was especially active during the 1940s-1960s.- Personnel :The personnel of the Quintet were made up as follows:1st violin: Riccardo Brengola...
(see article for listing), in maturity he also recorded the Brahms violin sonatas with the pianist Piernarciso Masi. He died in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.