In spite of the predominance of the opera in Italy during the nineteenth century, chamber music and symphonic music had never died out in the musical world. The "father of the opera" had a mastery of instrumental effects and a command of formal balance that made it possible for him to nourish his music with instrumental inspiration coming from chamber music. And the succession of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi, side by side with the new generations of Ponchielli, Catalani, Mancinelli, down to Puccini, Perosi and Mascagni, created the preconditions for the birth and development of the chamber-music genre. This was strengthened also by some chamber-music and vocal influences that had even antagonised the domination of belcanto and operatic singing. Though never actually becoming an attention-seeking attitude, creativeness, a majestic jargon that appeared in many composers ranging from Corelli to Paganini, from Scarlatti to Clementi and many others, became such a noble, brilliant language as to stand out as an original, lofty expression in the crowded maelstrom of operatic theatre. As admirable examples of this we can mention the quartets of Cherubini and Donizetti, that were splendidly assimilated by Bazzini, reaching the original examples of the contributions of Sgambati and Martucci, which appeared a few decades before the creative works of Marco Enrico Bossi.

Giulio Giurato and Roberto Noferini conclude with this production the complete publication of Marco Enrico Bossi's

chamber music (Tactus tc 822704, 822606, 822707).