Sinfonia in re maggiore BI 535

The symphony in D major BI 535 was composed in 1796 for the Bourbons in Parma by Alessandro Rolla, one of the most outstanding Italian figures in the field of music between the end of the 18th and start of the 19th century. He was an exceptional player of the violin and viola, famous throughout Europe, a prolific and acclaimed composer, conductor of the La Scala orchestra from 1802 and the first to hold the professorship of violin at the Milan Conservatory in 1808.

More than twenty years later his son Antonio, teacher of violin at the Liceo Filarmonico in Bologna, revised his father’s composition, modifying the orchestration and some passages to adapt it to the new taste of instrumental music in the 19th century.

One symphony and two composers: a previously untold story of performance and composition to be rediscovered through the two versions of the symphony, both presented for the first time in a critical edition with historical and critical notes.