Paolo Chimeri: Brescian pianist and composer

Life

Trained during the final phase of Romanticism, his long career led him to reach full maturity in the early 20th century, an era of avant-gardes where the aestheticism of Decadentism, the suggestions of Symbolism, and the radical disruption of Futurism coexisted.

Born in Lonato in 1852, he learned the basics of music from his musician father, later perfecting his skills in Brescia. A precocious talent, at seven he performed in a concert for those wounded in the Second War of Independence, and at ten he performed Thalberg's Fantasia on Norma.

At only fourteen, he was appointed chorus master of the Teatro Grande in Brescia, enough to catch the attention of Franco Faccio, who proposed him to Verdi for La Scala. He refused out of modesty but became a central figure in Brescian musical life, directing seasons at the Teatro Grande and the Guillaume Theatre.

In 1869, while still very young, he founded the Brescian Concert Society with Antonio Bazzini, serving as its conductor and advisor for decades. He collaborated with Faccio and conducted numerous concerts, but preferred to dedicate himself to composition and teaching, also serving on the commissions of the Milan Conservatory.

He composed piano music, choral works, and parlor romanzas in a style similar to Paolo Tosti. He had illustrious pupils like Carlo Capra, Giacomo Benvenuti, Giovanni Tebaldini, Isidoro Capitanio, and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. In his later years, he taught at the Rossini Institute, writing music on texts by Angelo Canossi. He died in Brescia in 1934.

Works

He composed numerous piano and choral pages, including highly regarded parlor romanzas. He wrote pieces for the orphans of the Rossini Institute on texts by Angelo Canossi. His compositions, though not extensive, reveal a refined melodic taste and were an integral part of Brescian musical life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.