05/09/2026
Meet the composer! Did Cambini get captured by pirates? Did he really play in a quartet with the famous Luigi Boccherini, Pietro Nardini, and Filippo Manfredi? Maybe!
Alyssa Campbell tells us more: "From a biography by Francois Fétis and Cambini’s own autobiographical account in a German newspaper, we are immediately confronted with conflicting pieces of information, perhaps best described as rumors. Apparently, the Italian composer was captured by pirates following his disastrous operatic debut in Naples, only resurfacing a year later when rescued by a Venetian aristocrat. This story is so similar to one found in a French poetry periodical that it’s hard to say what is true, and what is a convenient cover for what today might be considered a ‘gap year’ after his ill-fated debut.
In Cambini’s own words, following his rendezvous with the pirates, he played viola in a string quartet with the famous Luigi Boccherini, Pietro Nardini, and his former teacher Filippo Manfredi. Again, it’s difficult to discern what is true and what is embellished, but if his membership in this quartet is true, it would mean that he was a part of the first significant string quartet formed in Europe. What we do know for certain, however, is that Cambini was a highly prolific composer of over 600 published works, and was particularly important to the development of the string quartet (he wrote 149 quartets and 110 string quintets, more than double Haydn’s output!).
Cambini enjoyed great success with the genre, even leading to a jealousy-fueled altercation with Mozart himself, who accused Cambini of obstructing the premiere of his Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds due to its apparent ‘perfection.’ "
