DE CRESCENZO, Constantine
by Mauro Macedonio - Biographical Dictionary of Italians - Volume 33 (1987)
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DE CRESCENZO (Crescenzo, de), Constantine . - He was born in Naples on the 24th of August. 1847 by Gaetano and Luisa Riccardi.
Pianist and composer, he was initiated at a very young age to study music at the S. Pietro a Maiella conservatory, of which S. Mercadante was then director. Here he perfected himself in piano under the guidance of F. Valente and then in composition with C. Conti, also called, the latter, to assist the now blind Mercadante in the direction of the college.
After completing his studies, the D. went in 1868 to Alexandria in Egypt where, albeit for a short time; he took on the role of conductor at the local Zizinia theater. Returning to Naples in 1869, he was able to make himself appreciated by the public of his city by producing in numerous concerts as a pianist and enjoying great success. During one of them, at the Hôtel de la Ville, he was induced by the princess of Galitzine, who had admired his talent, to move to Russia where he went the following year.
In Moscow he remained about eight years; here, comforted by the encouragement and sympathy of Nikolaj Rubinstein, he performed, often together with this one, also receiving the congratulations of Tsar Alexander II. In that same period he alternated his activity as a pianist with that of a teacher of specialization at the imperial college of S. Nicolò and at the Evenius institute. Also in Russia he met his future wife, Catherine Voljensky, with whom he will have numerous children.
Returning to Italy in 1878, not wanting to move away from his old mother, he devoted himself entirely to teaching and composition, commitments which he maintained with great credit until a few days before his death, which took place in Naples on 29 June 1911.
Almost the same age as FP Tosti, the D. is part of that large group of authors, more or less illustrious, who in those years of the turn of the century composed with a particularly lyrical and effusive vein, providing the repertoire to singers like Lina Cavalieri. Many of those pieces represented the link between the late romantic nineteenth-century manner and the more recent Italian-inspired "song". In the middle, the "Neapolitan song", to which D. himself did not neglect to carve out a space within his own production, flourished from the very soil of the great local melodramatic tradition.
We have a testimony of his prolificacy as an author with his many works for piano, "of an easy and melodic genre, very original, of good effect and useful in teaching" (Schmidl). In this purely piano repertoire, we find numerous serenades, romances without words, nocturnes, capricci, barcarole, idylls, divertissements , often with eloquently illustrative titles, such as the famous Prima carzza (of which he also edited a reduction for a small orchestra and a version for piano with four hands), Retour des hirondelles , End of a dream , Gentle butterfly , In the gulf of Naples , Pecché m'o ' ffaje , Desiderio ,Cielo argento , and many others, mostly published in the Ricordi editions, but also in those of Cottrau, Maddaloni, Izzo, Schmidl, Perrone.
There is also a transcription for piano for four hands of the Scherzo d'un Songe d'une nuit d'été by S. Thalberg and various elaborations on themes from Verdi's Aida.
Appreciated also in the vocal genre, the D. wrote numerous romances for voice and piano, with refined and elegant cantability, mirror of a society and an era.
Sources and Bibl .: Obituary in Ars et Labor ( Music and Musicians ), 15 Sept. 1911, p. 721; Il Mattino , 4-5 July 1911; The Catal . of Printed Music in the British Library to 1980 , London 1982, p. 240; C- Schmidl, Diz . univ . of the musicians , I, p. 419; The MacMillan Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians , London 1938, p. 397; E. De Mura, Encicl . of the Neapolitan song , I, Naples 1969, pp. 467, 472.
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/co ... ografico)/
attached "the First Caress", nocturne, op. 104-1.
Di Crescenzo Constantin- La primera Caricia. Op. 104-1- ilu.pdf
N.B. There is another edition of this nocturne in Petrucci, my intention to include it is to make their life and work known and, if possible, to contribute with more of their compositions. Thanks.
P.S. The orchestral version sung by Enrico Caruso can be found at
"Petrucci Music Library".