Arti musices, Vol. 53 No. 1, 2022.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/ygjwrcpody
Nannette Streicher’s Fortepiano in the Korčula Town Museum
Vilena Vrbanić
orcid.org/0000-0003-1635-6784
; Knjižnica Muzičke akademije Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The Korčula Town Museum houses a fortepiano, a historic wing-shaped piano with hammers of great significance. It was produced in Nannette Streicher’s workshop in Vienna in 1819 under number 1319. Angelo Boschi (1790-1854) bought it in 1839 for his son Ivan (Giovanni; 1821-1902), who used it to perform a diverse musical repertoire in the salon of the family palace in Korčula. This is evidenced by the Collection of Music Materials in the Korčula Town Museum, which, for the most part, consists of music owned by Ivan Boschi. The Collection includes, among others, numerous piano exercises, sonatas, opera excerpts, dance and chamber music, as well as Boschi’s own compositions. It confirms that Boschi was conversant with current music trends, his role in the development of musical life of Korčula, and his desire to introduce and bring closer the culture and practice present on the other side of the Adriatic. Nannette Streicher’s fortepiano is notable not only for being one of the few preserved fortepianos from the fi rst quarter of the 19th century in Croatia, but one of the few that have been restored (which was done in 2019). For now, it is the only known Nannette Streicher instrument in Croatia. It can be considered as one of the most valuable fortepianos made at the end of the 18th and the first third of the 19th century that are kept in the holdings of Croatian museums, alongside fortepianos made by Anton Walter (Cultural History Museum of Dubrovnik Museums, c. 1790), Michael Rosenberger (Varaždin City Museum, c. 1810), and Conrad Graf (Castle Trakošćan, 1835; Museum of Slavonia in Osijek, 1838 or 1839). This paper presents the first systematic analysis of the instrument in musicological and cultural contexts.
Keywords
Korčula Town Museum; fortepiano; Nannette Streicher; Ivan (Giovanni) Boschi; the Boschi family; primary sources; Croatian musical culture
Hrčak ID:
280380
URI
Publication date:
14.7.2022.
Visits: 645 *