In the mid-1800s, chamber music was almost completely lacking in Italy. Composing a decet for winds, strings and piano meant challenging an established melodramatic tradition and identifying ten musicians capable of engaging in very complex and dense writing, which offered each one an autonomous, often even virtuosic, path. In 1858, for a series of private concerts, Mercadante completed his second Decet, an original work, not based, like its predecessor, on opera themes, which enjoyed an unprecedented success. The four movements that make up the piece (Allegro - Minuetto con trio - Adagio - Allegro brillante) are brimming with ideas interwoven with great originality and conceived in a form that exudes erudition and knowledge.
Thanks to the recent discovery of the hitherto unknown autograph separate parts preserved at the Conservatoire de la Vallée d'Aoste, it has been possible to restore the true aspect of this exquisite piece by collating it with the score preserved in autograph manuscript at the Conservatorio “San Pietro a Majella” in Naples and thus rediscover the clarity, taste, agreeability and astonishing, enthralling effect mentioned in the chronicles of the time.
