Portrait of the clarinet player Ernesto Cavallini (1807-1874)

The clarinettist Ernesto Cavallini (1807-74) was the brother of the more famous Eugenio. Like his brother, who was principal violinist for more than 20 years, he played in the orchestra at La Scala and taught at the Conservatoire. This portrait is by an anonymous
painter. There is also a curious caricature of him in the archive. His place is here next to Verdi because the composer actually wrote the clarinet part for him for the première of La Forza del Destino in St Petersburg in November 1862. In the Museum’s collection, there’s an interesting photograph dating from the composer’s time in Russia.
Cavallini played an instrument with only six keys, but this did not stop him from being labelled the “Paganini of the clarinet”. He composed numerous pieces for his instrument and the first method published in Russia.
The parallels between Verdi and Mozart in their love of the clarinet are interesting. We’ve seen the long solo passage from La Forza del Destino written for Cavallini. It’s worth a reminder here of the friendship and artistic fellowship that linked Mozart and Anton Stadler, for whom he composed (besides the pages of solos in La Clemenza di Tito) the beautiful clarinet concerto and quintet. Not just any pieces, but true and proper masterpieces from the height of his artistic maturity.
Until only recently, composers wrote music for particular performers, creating bespoke pieces adjusted to the strengths and also limitations of a particular player. Whilst today the skill of a performer is measured by their capacity for technical mastery of their instrument’s repertoire, in the past the skill of a composer was also measured by their capacity to “tailor” their musical creations to fit a particular player’s physical capabilities.