1757–1841 · Baroque
An Italian violinist, violist and composer who led the orchestra of Milan's La Scala for decades and became the first viola professor at the Milan Conservatory. He is remembered as the teacher of the young Paganini and as the source of virtuoso techniques Paganini later made famous. He left about five hundred works, including viola duets.
Alessandro Rolla was born in Pavia in April 1757. He then moved to Milan, and between 1770 and 1778 his teacher there was Andrea Fioroni, who then held the post of maestro di cappella at the cathedral of Milan — one of the most influential musicians the city had at the time. Rolla began performing in public at the age of 15.
In 1772 he appeared both as soloist and as the composer of the music performed: according to a contemporary account, the audience heard what was practically the first concerto ever written for viola. For an instrument that at the time had almost no concert literature of its own, such an appearance was a rarity.
In 1782 Rolla took charge of the ducal orchestra in Parma, serving as conductor and concertmaster while playing both violin and viola. He held the post for twenty years, until 1802.
In 1795 Rolla was approached by the father of the young Paganini, who wished him to teach his son. It was from this meeting that Rolla's reputation as Paganini's teacher grew — though his importance to violin and viola technique goes beyond that one name: left-hand pizzicato, fast chromatic scales running up and down, playing in very high positions and passages in octaves were all things he introduced, which Paganini later brought to brilliance.
After the Duke of Parma died, Rolla was offered the post of leading the orchestra of Milan's La Scala, which he took up in 1802. He remained there until 1833, formally known as the first violin and head of the orchestra. Under his direction Milan heard the first local performances of several Mozart operas and Beethoven's earliest symphonies, along with operas by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini — he himself conducted the premiere of Bellini's Norma.
Milan's new rulers — first French, then Austrian — wanted La Scala to have the finest orchestra in Italy and invited the finest musicians of the day for that purpose; Rolla's appointment as its leader was part of this policy.
Among those Rolla taught in this same period was Cesare Pugni, who later became a well-known composer of ballet music; the private lessons Rolla gave him were in composition. Later, while conducting at La Scala, Rolla also staged operas by his former pupil.
In these same years Rolla conducted about eighteen operas by Rossini, led works by Donizetti as well, and knew Bellini personally.
Among the operas Rolla later conducted at La Scala were two by Pugni himself, Il Disertore Svizzero (1831) and La Vendetta (1832) — works by his former pupil.
From the founding of the Milan Conservatory in 1807, Rolla held its chair of violin and viola and remained its professor for many years. For his pupils he wrote instructional pieces arranged in order of increasing difficulty; many of them were printed by the newly opened Ricordi publishing house in Milan.
In all, over his long creative life Rolla wrote about five hundred works — from instructional pieces to sonatas, quartets, symphonies, violin concertos and at least thirteen concertos for viola and orchestra. His trios for violin, viola and bass were highly successful with his contemporaries.
From 1811 Rolla directed one of Milan's cultural societies, where chamber music by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven was performed. In 1813 the same society gave private performances of Beethoven's fourth, fifth and sixth symphonies. Rolla did much to make Beethoven's works known in the country and was well acquainted with the Viennese music of his day.
Rolla frequented the aristocratic salons of Milan, where he met painters and poets, played for his hosts and dedicated some of his compositions to them. His deep involvement in the city's opera life also left its mark on his music: he often built his variations on themes taken from operas.
All three of Rolla's sons became musicians, but the best known of them was the youngest, Antonio — like his father, a violin virtuoso and composer.
Rolla himself went on composing and playing chamber music almost to the last months of his life. He died in Milan in September 1841, at the age of 84.
Rolla's works were printed at the same time in several countries: not only by Ricordi in Milan, but also by Artaria in Vienna, and by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. His performances and his work at La Scala were regularly noted by the Leipzig music paper Leipziger Zeitung — a sign of fame reaching well beyond Italy.
His music shows two sides: on one hand, melodic phrases, almost operatic in character and rich in ornamentation; on the other, virtuoso passages of the kind that would later make Paganini famous. A special place in his legacy belongs to pieces for viola, many of them written as duets — pieces that work equally as study material and as chamber music for two players.
Among the virtuoso devices Rolla used and passed on to his pupils were double stops and passages built on thirds and sixths. He also worked octave positions all the way up the fingerboard, paired with rapid scales — both diatonic and chromatic — and a staccato light enough to seem to fly. Such intense virtuosity was new for viola technique — almost nothing of the kind had been written before for this instrument.
Today Rolla is remembered above all as Paganini's teacher, but his own place in the history of the viola repertoire probably deserves more attention than that single line in someone else's biography gives him.
Rolla's output amounts to about five hundred works: instructional pieces, sonatas, quartets, symphonies, violin concertos and at least thirteen concertos for viola and orchestra. Much of this was written while he was also conducting operas at La Scala, and that operatic atmosphere shows in the music — themes from operas often became the basis of his own variations. His contemporaries also singled out the success of his trios for violin, viola and bass.
A practical part of this legacy is the instructional viola music Rolla wrote for his pupils at the Milan Conservatory, arranged in order of increasing difficulty. Many of these pieces take the form of duets for two violas: a format equally suited to a lesson with a teacher and to playing together with a fellow pupil, which is why it is valued by today's viola teachers as well.
In style, Rolla's music combines singing, almost operatic phrases with virtuoso episodes — double stops, fast passages, playing in high positions. It is exactly this combination that makes his duets interesting to play: alongside the melodic line there is always room for a technical challenge to grow into, rather than an exercise written only to be an exercise.
These same duets for two violas are what is available on the site today: Sei Duetti a Due Viole, from a manuscript held in Turin, at an intermediate level, and two duets from the 6 Duetti a Due Viole set — Duet No. 1 (BI 9) and Duet No. 2 (BI 19), both a notch harder. It is best to start with Sei Duetti a Due Viole: it is written more simply and lets a player settle into the duet format itself, playing as equals. From there it is a natural step to the 6 Duetti a Due Viole pieces, which call for surer command of the viola — faster passages and steadier playing in the higher positions, a reminder of Rolla's own virtuoso style.