The personality and the creative work of A. Pasculli in the context of the West European music art of the 19th century

Abstract

The authors of the research focus on Antonio Pasculli, a famous Italian virtuoso oboe player and composer of the late 19th - the early 20th century, whose name had long and undeservingly been in the wilderness. In the last two-three decades, his legacy has been getting a new lease on life. Pasculli’s compositions are on the concert list of oboe players all over the world. Despite the performance popularity, the personality and creative work of the outstanding Italian musician are still on the periphery of the research focus of Russian musicologists. All valuable information is contained in rare foreign researches. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to reconstruct the artistic portrait of Antonio Pasculli in the context of time. This research is the first in Russian musicology to introduce into Russian scientific discourse the data from foreign sources revealing the peculiarities of Pasculli’s creative life. Based on the analysis of the collected data, the authors conclude about the necessity to revise the role of Pasculli’s work and legacy in the context of European music culture of the 19th century. It is believed that familiarization with the information about the Italian musician, unknown to the Russian audience, will help to not only dive deeper into the specificity of Pasculli’s compositions, but also to reinterpret his place and role in the evolution of playing woodwind instruments.