Catalog of the Works of Francesco Pollini (AndP) Works of F. Pollini (AndP)

Origin and context

The thematic catalog is usually one of the most important references for the work of artists and for their documented compositions: its usefulness for research and for the public is undeniable. Interest in Pollini, which intensified in the 1990s thanks mainly to studies by musicologists in Italy and Slovenia, amply justifies the compilation of a catalog of his works.

In 1969, Gilda Grigolato was the first to describe the history of Pollini’s collection, which arrived at the library of the Milan Conservatory in 1850, listing the manuscripts preserved there in an appendix and resolving a case of homonymy with a younger Francesco Pollini (1832–1871) from Mendrisio, Switzerland. A partial thematic catalog, containing only the works for piano, was compiled in Joseph Kotylo’s thesis in 1972. The printed editions preserved in Italy were listed in the appendix to an article by Elena Biggi Parodi published in 1996. The list of works published by the same author in the New Grove includes all musical genres and all types of sources but presents only a selection of compositions.

While it is possible in most cases to date the printed editions by referring to publishers’ catalogs or press announcements, there are few reference points for undated manuscripts. A first clue may be the title preceding the composer’s name. In Vienna, Pollini bore the noble title of baron, inherited from his father. Mozart also calls him baron in the two replacement numbers of Idomeneo written for him in 1786. We can therefore consider the term “baron Pollini” to support a dating back to the ancien régime, if not to his Viennese years. With the founding of the Cisalpine Republic, however, Pollini began to be referred to as “citizen”, in accordance with revolutionary custom. After 1805, with the Kingdom of Italy, the name Francesco Pollini appeared without any titles, or at most preceded by a modest “signore”.

Musical sources containing Pollini’s compositions are scattered across more than one hundred different libraries throughout Europe, as well as in some in the United States. In total, there are just under five hundred copies of printed editions and more than two hundred manuscripts. His fame is based mainly on the success of certain editions: more than 30 copies of the Metodo (F.201) and the six sonatas op. 26 (A.19a-f) have been preserved, and more than twenty copies of the Variations & rondeaux (A.7) and the toccata op. 42 (A.31). The national libraries of Paris and London hold many much rarer printed titles, reflecting the rich publishing activity in the two capitals.

However, the two main collections in terms of number and importance are preserved in the two centres where Pollini was active as a musician and most appreciated as such. A copy of almost all printed editions and a vast collection of autograph manuscripts are preserved in the Library of the Milan Conservatory (I-Mc). This concentration of sources can be explained by the donation, in 1850, of the entire musical heritage then owned by Antonio Gasparini, Pollini’s nephew and sole heir, and his second wife, the harpist Marianna Gasparini, who was also a doctor at the Conservatory. Many sources are also found in Vienna, in the library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (A-Wgm). The manuscripts include some of Pollini’s earliest compositions, while the printed editions come largely from the collection of Archduke Rudolf of Habsburg.

Biographical note

Francesco Pollini was born in Ljubljana on 26 March 1762 to Johann Chrysostomus, Baron Pollini, and Maria Elisabetta Posarelli, and died in Milan on 17 September 1846.

We know nothing specific about Pollini’s musical education. He was probably introduced to music at a young age, through his family and friends who were connected to the Zois family. After moving to Vienna, he met W.A. Mozart and performed as a tenor in private performances of Mozart’s music (a teacher-student relationship suggested in Pollini’s obituary is not substantiated by contemporary documents). In Vienna, he married Josepha von Bernrieder in 1788, who died only four years later. By 1791, his musical education had already reached such a level that he could describe himself, if only jokingly, as a “maître de chapelle” when signing a thank-you note sent to an unknown recipient. His first experiments as a composer probably date back to this period, while he was still in Vienna. Although the foundations for Pollini’s career were laid by his musical experiences in Ljubljana, Vienna and and presumably during his travels abroad as a young man, he only began to work regularly and document his work as a composer after moving permanently to Milan around 1793.

In Milan, he met his second wife, Marianna Gasparini, whom he married in 1799, and probably through her also Niccolò Zingarelli, who became his composition teacher. Zingarelli, after returning to Naples, later recommended the young Vincenzo Bellini to his two Milanese friends, and he remained always grateful to the Pollinis for the support they offered him during his stay in Milan and bound to them by affectionate friendship.

Pollini’s artistic production can be divided into two periods of about twenty years each. The first twenty years – from his early compositions to the Metodo (F.201) and the six sonatas op. 26 (A.19) – was Pollini’s experimental period, during which he wrote in a wide variety of genres and for different ensembles, also trying his hand at dramatic compositions for the theatre and sacred works for the liturgy. His very brief theatrical experiment was limited to a period of four years (1798–1801). In the years after 1812, he wrote only compositions intended for private listening or for the limited audience of salons and noble academies, most of which were published by Ricordi.

The publication of musical works by a composer working in Milan in the early decades of the 19th century – a particularly vibrant period in the history of music publishing – reveals a complex network of commercial and clientelistic relationships. Starting with his first experiences outside Italy, the author began a twenty-year collaboration with Ricordi in 1812. Sporadic foreign editions only interrupted this relationship in appearance: most of them were unauthorised pirate editions, while for some it can be assumed that there was an agreement between Ricordi and his colleagues (especially German ones) to produce parallel editions in their respective countries.

The dedicatees reveal a dense network of family and social relationships. In most cases, the dedications on the printed works reflect a relationship between teacher and (mostly female) pupil.

Production in genres and for instruments other than solo piano gradually declined until it disappeared completely in the early 1820s (as far as can be gleaned from dated compositions). In the last decade of his life, Pollini, now over seventy, stopped composing altogether. We have no way of knowing the reasons for this; we can only speculate that he found it difficult to keep up with the evolution of style (his last publication, Op. 58, A.47, from 1833, preceded Liszt’s visit to Milan by only a few years) or that he was simply tired of old age.

Although he had stopped composing, Pollini’s fame as a pianist and composer remained alive. This is evidenced by the sincere appreciation of such diverse personalities as Michail Glinka, Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann.

Catalog structure

The numbering given by the composer himself to his works cannot be used for a modern thematic catalog. Pollini assigned opus numbers only to the compositions he considered most important (mostly piano works), and only starting from Op. 10 of 1808 (A.13). The opus numbers from 1 to 9 therefore remain implied and ex post. Similarly, some subsequent opus numbers remain implied. In particular, no solution has been found for the large gap between Op. 13 (A.16, dated 1809) and Op. 26 (A.19, dated 1812): it seems unlikely that such a large number of publications would have been produced and lost in just three years. Later, only opus numbers 27, 33, 35–36, 46 and 52 are missing. The Scherzo, variazioni e fantasia (1830, A.44) is a case of parallel editions in Milan by Ricordi and in Leipzig by Breitkopf & Härtel. The Milan edition does not bear any opus number, while the Leipzig edition bears the number op. 56. Two years later, Ricordi attributed this opus number to the Saggio di una toccata (1832, A.45), while in the numerical catalog published in 1857 (see Zecca Laterza 1984), Ricordi himself used the Breitkopf numbering. In this catalog, we therefore use the opus numbers 56a and 56b for compositions A.44 and A.45. Pollini, however, has always published compositions without opus numbers, perhaps considered more occasional and less demanding.

The identification code for each composition in this catalog consists of a letter and a number. The letters indicate the type of composition. The numbers are sequential and, as far as possible, follow an order by date and, if this is unknown, by key (ascending by degrees from C major). Additions and corrections after 2023 are numbered from 220 onwards.

A. Piano works

Given the vastness of his output in this field, its distribution throughout the composer’s artistic life and the importance of its reception, it is undeniable that Francesco Pollini was, first and foremost, a composer of works for piano. It is true that his compositions also cover various other genres: instrumental chamber music, sacred music and musical theatre, but his experimentation in these fields remains, all things considered, episodic.

The corpus of Pollini’s piano compositions that has come down to us is quite substantial. Thirty-nine publications have been identified with various European publishers, with and without opus numbers. His manuscript compositions include 32 sonatas with one or more movements (most of them unpublished) and some album leaves.

Pollini’s first creative phase, which lasted from around 1789 to 1812 and coincided with his final years in Vienna, his permanent move to Milan and his first publishing successes, produced the 32 sonatas with one or more movements that have come down to us in manuscript form (FPC A.1-2, 6, 8-9, 17-18, 48-60, 62-73), and his first publications with or without opus numbers (A.3-5, 7, 10-16) up to the sonatas op. 26 (A.19) annexed to the Method (F.201). The second phase covers the following twenty years, from 1812 to 1834, and is characterised by the production of variations, rondos, fantasies on opera themes and toccatas, published almost exclusively by Ricordi. The sonatas Op. 26 act as a bridge between these two periods: on the one hand, they represent the culmination of Pollini’s sonata writing and the last cycle he dedicated to this instrumental genre; on the other, they mark the beginning of his long-lasting collaboration with Ricordi.

An explanatory note is necessary for the numbering of the Dodeci monferrine A.15. Although they are numbered from 1 to 12 and are also transmitted separately (for example, in the Choix de danses for the Congress of Vienna, printed by Artaria in Vienna), the original edition prescribes that they be performed in pairs: the second monferrina of each pair is followed by a repetition of the first. In the catalog, they are numbered as follows: A.15a indicates monferrine 1 and 2, A.15b indicates monferrine 3 and 4, and so on up to A.15f for monferrine 11 and 12.

B. Other instrumental works

There are only about ten compositions for instruments other than the piano. Most of these are linked to the harp, an instrument played by his second wife, Marianna Gasparini. Chronologically, they range from the Air varié pour la harpe (B.74) published by the Érard sisters in 1802 – one of Pollini’s very first publications – to the Sonata facile per cembalo od arpa con violino obbligato op. 38 (B.77) published by Ricordi in 1817 (incorrectly as opus number 33). It is easy to imagine Marianna and Francesco playing together the Grande sonate, caprice et variations for harp and piano of 1807 (B.75). Two sonatas for violin and piano remain undated and are preserved in manuscript form (B.78, B.83).

The only known source for the instrumental piece B.82 is an autograph manuscript preserved in a private Italian collection. The composition has no title. The instrumentation for a single string instrument and a wind ensemble is unusual for the period and unique in Pollini’s oeuvre.

C. Chamber vocal music

Vocal chamber music is a multifaceted genre (for one, two, up to five voices – among the lost compositions – with or without piano accompaniment) and predominantly private, but not necessarily secondary. While some songs are undoubtedly undemanding from a compositional and aesthetic point of view, all of them reflect Pollini’s network of personal and cultural relationships through their textual and intertextual choices. His vocal chamber music production can thus be seen as the product of multiple collaborations.
The large number of secular chamber songs saw the light at different moments in his life. The confirmed dates range from 1803, for the Tre canzonette (C.85) published by Nägeli in Zurich, to 1823, for the sonnet Vile un pensier mi dice published by Ricordi (C.96).

D. Other secular vocal works

The only musical theatre composition by Pollini performed in a public theatre was La casetta nel bosco (D.167) in 1798. The following year, Pollini composed the cantata Il genio insubre (D.169), and in 1801, the cantata Il trionfo della pace (D.173) was finally performed at La Scala, of which only the libretto has been preserved. While the 1799 cantata celebrated the return of the Austrians in April of that year, the one performed on 30 April 1801 celebrated, with the opposite political orientation, the Treaty of Lunéville of the previous February between the Cisalpine Republic and the Austrian Empire and the laying of the foundation stone of the Foro Buonaparte. Pollini was commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior to compose Trionfo della pace.

While La casetta nel bosco was performed at the Canobbiana theatre, extensive excerpts from Ines de Castro (D.175: a duet and a sextet), Il ripudio fortunato (D.171: introduction, duet, two quartets and finale) and Le convenienze teatrali (D.173: introduction, aria, trio, quartet and sextet) are probably attributable to private performances in semi-staged or concertante form. Finally, the texts of many individual pieces are borrowed from the librettos of operas performed in Milan in the very years when Pollini was experimenting with large-scale compositions of public resonance. These isolated numbers can perhaps be considered replacement arias for private “academies”, or compositional exercises under the aegis of Zingarelli.

E. Sacred music

Only a few compositions based on Latin liturgical texts are known, conceived to be performed in church during religious services: the Te Deum (E.185), the acclamation Vivat rex dating from 1805 (G.213, lost), and the Requiem (E.190), undated.

A sacred genre of a private nature, on the other hand, is the composition of Italian paraphrases of sacred texts, such as the successful Stabat mater published in 1821 on a translation by Evasio Leone (E.187). Pollini also set spiritual poems to music, such as the Via crucis (E.184), which bears the date 1800 on the autograph, and the sonnet Io chiedo al ciel by Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni (E.191).

The numbering of the lamentations dating from 1823 (E.188, E.189 and E.190), referred to as the first, fifth and last lamentations in the autograph, may seem unusual when considering their liturgical use. However, it actually reflects the titles given by the translator Evasio Leone to his collection Lamentazioni di Geremia adattate al gusto dell’italiana poesia (Lamentations of Jeremiah adapted to the taste of Italian poetry), first published in Turin in 1798.

F. Pedagogical works

Pollini’s educational output can essentially be summarised in his Metodo pel Clavicembalo (F.201, from 1812), commissioned by the newly founded Milan Conservatory for use in piano classes. The treatise reveals an aesthetic background that illuminates the points of contact between Pollini’s aesthetics and those of the main piano schools of the early 19th century. In the early nineteenth century, the interpretation of touch, rubato and the use of pedals was still, as in the previous century, “intuitive” in nature, i.e. left largely to the performer’s understanding. From this perspective, the Metodo – the first piano treatise published in Italy and in Italian – has been invaluable to generations of pianists, from its time to the present day. The Metodo pel Clavicembalo saw the light of day at a time of great organological changes in the construction of keyboard instruments and great creative ferment in the literature that exploited the rich possibilities offered by the piano. At the same time, there was a sharp increase in the amateur market, which led to a growing demand for instructions on how to play correctly, and the emergence of the first state institutions for music teaching, which required approved teaching texts based on rational principles.

G. Appendix

The appendix contains works considered lost, as recorded in historical catalogs, and Pollini’s arrangements of compositions by other composers.

Bibliography

The bibliography relating to individual compositions is mentioned in the respective catalog entries on RISM Online. Here is a selection from the general bibliography concerning Francesco Pollini and his compositions.

Secondary literature

  • Andreacchio, Sara e Bacciagaluppi, Claudio. “Prospettive di ricerca sull’attività compositiva di Francesco Pollini e appunti per un catalogo delle opere”, in: Francesco Pollini e il mondo musicale milanese di primo Ottocento, ed. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Gabriele Manca, Leonardo Miucci and Claudio Toscani. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2024, pp. 37–60.
  • Andreacchio, Sara. Francesco Pollini: pianista, compositore e didatta. Uno studio della produzione pianistica sotto la prospettiva delle sue tre personae, PhD thesis, Université de Genève, 2025.
  • Andreacchio, Sara. “Virtuosity in Francesco Pollini’s Piano Works: Issues of Genre, Piano Writing and Performance Practice”, in: Virtuosität und Innovation: Symposium zur Klaviermusik im brillanten Stil, ed. Stephan Lewandowski. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2025, pp. 155–200.
  • Antolini, Bianca Maria. “Francesco Pollini e i suoi editori: alcune osservazioni”, in: Francesco Pollini e il mondo musicale milanese di primo Ottocento, ed. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Gabriele Manca, Leonardo Miucci and Claudio Toscani. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2024, pp. 61–72.
  • Bedina, Katarina. “Klavirske sonate Franca (Francesca) Pollinija”, in: Muzikološki zbornik/Musicological annual, 18 (1982), pp. 43–52.
  • Biggi Parodi, Elena. “Il Metodo pel clavicembalo di Francesco Pollini, ossia il primo metodo pubblicato in Italia per il pianoforte”, in: Nuova rivista musicale italiana, 25 (1991), pp. 1–29.
  • Biggi Parodi, Elena. „Francesco Pollini e il suo tempo“, in: Nuova rivista musicale italiana, 30 (1996), pp. 332–365.
  • Biggi Parodi, Elena. “Pollini, Francesco [Franc, Franz]”, in: Grove Music Online, version of 13.1.2015, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.22029
  • Buompastore, Angela. “Francesco Pollini e il mondo aristocratico dell’epoca”, in: Francesco Pollini e il mondo musicale milanese di primo Ottocento, ed. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Gabriele Manca, Leonardo Miucci and Claudio Toscani. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2024, pp. 73–114.
  • Costa, Henrik. “Ein Porträten-Album aus dem vorigem Jahrhunderte”, in: Mittheilungen des historischen Vereins für Krain, 18 (1863), p. 52.
  • Di Nubila, Renato. „Il metodo per pianoforte di Francesco Pollini“, MA thesis, Università di Napoli, 1984.
  • Grigolato, Gilda. “Francesco Pollini e i manoscritti delle sue composizioni”, in: Annuario del Conservatorio di Musica “G. Verdi” di Milano, 161 (1968), pp. 205–224.
  • Klemenčič, Ivan. “Variacija kot skladateljsko načelo Franca Pollinija [Variation as principle in the works of Francesco Pollini]”, in: Muzikološki zbornik 25 (1989), pp. 41-53.
  • Klemenčič, Ivan. “Rod in Ljubljanska leta Franca Pollinija [The lineage and Ljiubljana years of Francesco Pollini]”, in: Muzikološki zbornik 28 (1992), pp. 73–91.
  • Klemenčič, Ivan. “Franc (Francesco) Pollini’s Ancestors and His Early Career in Ljubljana”, in Off-Mozart. Glazbena kultura i ‘mali majstori’ Srednje Europe 1750.-1820. / Musical culture and the ‘Kleinmeister’ of Central Europe 1750-1820, ed. Vjera Katalinić. Musikoloski Zbornici, 3. Zagreb: Croatian Musicological Society, 1995, pp. 139–151.
  • Klemenčič, Ivan. “The song creations of Franc Pollini”, in: Zagreb 1094–1994. Zagreb i Hrvatske Zemlje Kao Most Između Srednjoeuropskih i Mediteranskih Glazbenih Kultura : Radovi s Međunarodnog Muzikološkog Skupa Održanog u Zagrebu, Hrvatska, 28.09 – 1.10.1994 = Zagreb and Croatian Lands as a Bridge between Central-European and Mediterranean Musical Cultures : Proceedings of the International Musicological Symposium Held in Zagreb, Croatia, on September 28 – October 1, 1994, ed. Stanislav Tuksar. Zagreb: Croatian Musicological Society, 1998, pp. 319–336.
  • Kokole, Metoda. “The Ljubljana Singer and Virtuoso Pianist Francesco Pollini and the Two Key Women of his Youth”, in: Music, Migration and European Culture. Essays in Honour on Vjera Katalinić, edited by Ivano Cavallini, Jolanta Guzy-Pasiak and Harry White (Muzikološki zbornici 22). Zagreb: Croatian Musicological Society, 2020, pp. 501–518.
  • Kokole, Metoda. “Francesco Pollini between Ljubljana and Vienna (1762–1793)”, in: Francesco Pollini e il mondo musicale milanese di primo Ottocento, ed. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Gabriele Manca, Leonardo Miucci and Claudio Toscani. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2024, pp. 11–36.
  • Kotylo, Joseph A. A thematic catalog of the solo piano music of Francesco Pollini, tesi di laurea, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1972.
  • Miucci, Leonardo. “Francesco Pollini (1762-1846): Aggiornamenti biografici e nuovi documenti”, in: Fonti Musicali Italiane, vol. 21 (2017), pp. 165–186.
  • Miucci, Leonardo. “Il Metodo pel clavicembalo e il pianismo di Francesco Pollini”, in: Francesco Pollini e il mondo musicale milanese di primo Ottocento, ed. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Gabriele Manca, Leonardo Miucci and Claudio Toscani. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2024, pp. 129–150.
  • Sala, Massimiliano. “Francesco Pollini: Capostipite della scuola pianistica milanese”, in: Hortus musicus 1 (2000), pp. 61–63.
  • Salvetti, Guido. “Forse non ci fu una ‘scuola pianistica milanese’”, in: Guide-mains : contexte historique et enseignement du pianoforte au XIXe siècle = Klavierspiel und Klavierunterricht im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Leonardo Miucci, Suzanne Perrin-Goy and Edoardo Torbianelli (Musikforschung der Hochschule der Künste Bern, vol. 11). Schliengen: Argus, 2018, pp. 124–144.
  • Salvetti, Guido. “Teoria e pratica pianistica nella Milano di primo Ottocento: Il caso Pollini”, in: Tasti neri e Tasti bianchi. Pianoforte, organo e attività musicale in Italia nel XIX e XX secolo, ed. Anelide Ruggeri and Marco Nascimbene. Lucca: LIM, 2011, pp. 85–96.
  • Steffan, Carlida. “Francesco Pollini: musica vocale da camera e reti filarmoniche”, in: Francesco Pollini e il mondo musicale milanese di primo Ottocento, ed. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Gabriele Manca, Leonardo Miucci e Claudio Toscani. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2024, pp. 115–128.
  • Toscani, Claudio. “Intorno al Metodo per clavicembalo: uno sguardo sulla trattatistica coeva per strumenti da tasto”, in: Francesco Pollini e il mondo musicale milanese di primo Ottocento, ed. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Gabriele Manca, Leonardo Miucci and Claudio Toscani. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2024, pp. 151–164.
  • Zecca Laterza, Agostina. ˆIl ‰catalogo numerico Ricordi 1857: con date e indici. Roma: Nuovo istituto editoriale italiano, 1984.

Critical editions

  • Miucci, Leonardo (ed.). Metodo per pianoforte = Piano Method [1812]. Roma: Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2016.
  • Škrjanc, Radovan and Kokole, Metoda (eds.). Tre sonate op. 26. (Monumenta artis musicae Sloveniae, vol. 59). Lubiana: Muzikološki inštitut ZRC SAZU, 2014.