Camillo Sivori, considered Paganini’s only pupil, was the most illustrious member of the Genoese violin school. He was also a significant composer whose Piccolo tema con variazioni is both polyphonically rich and operatic, while the Rondò in D major is flecked with virtuoso panache. His teacher in the city had been Giovanni Serra who dedicated his subtle String Quartet in F minor to Sivori. The third Genoese composer is Carlo Andrea Gambini whose String Quartet in E minor was much admired by Rossini.

“This project was born by chance in the fall of 2019, when Quartetto Ascanio was invited to Genoa to perform Carlo Andrea Gambini’s Quartet in E minor on the bicentenary of the composer’s birth. That composition had not been performed for a very long time; indeed, its last performance is presumed to have been that of Sivori in Paris in 1862, in the home of Gioachino Rossini. Following the success of the performance of Gambini’s quartet, we were given the score of the fourth string quartet by Giovanni Serra, a Genoese violinist who received Paganini’s praise and was first violinist and conductor at the Teatro di S. Agostino and then at the Carlo Felice theatre. He gave Sivori lessons in harmony and counterpoint and was an active chamber musician, playing with Camillo Sivori to whom he dedicated the last of his string quartets, in F minor. In July 2020 we completed our project and recorded it at the beautiful Monte Corona abbey in the Umbria region. This programme exclusively consists of world première recordings and has recovered part of the 19th-century Italian chamber repertoire worthy, indeed, of rediscovery.” – Quartetto Ascanio