Cannizzaro, Diego
Paolina Capece Minutolo: Piano Variations And Waltzes
The figure of Paolina Capece Minutolo is very representative of Neapolitan musical life at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Like all young women of noble lineage, Paolina was educated in the liberal arts and showed a great predisposition to the study of music, revealing herself to be a skilled pianist. Between 1822 and 1824, between the ages of 19 and 21, she wrote several pieces of piano music, piano and harp and also in trio of piano, harp and natural horn. Her works of Paolina Capece Minutolo can be ascribed to the Biedermeier style, considered a "minor" style, but unequivocally influenced by the composers defined as "major" at the turn of the century. Paolina Capece Minutolo shows that she is aware of Beethoven's style and sometimes launches into Schubertian expressiveness.