Maximilian Joseph Leidesdorf, born on July 5, 1787 in Vienna, died on September 27, 1840 in Florence, was the son of the wholesale merchant Joseph Leidesdorf. He studied with Albrechtsberger, Salieri and E. A. Förster, and also studied piano and guitar. In 1803 he published his op. 1 in Vienna, where he lived as a respected pianist and teacher of piano and guitar. Together with Ignaz Sauer he founded a music publishing house in 1822 and became its sole owner as of May 9, 1827; the rights passed to Diabelli by about 1835. In 1827 he moved to Florence, where he was appointed Court and Chamber Virtuoso by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. There he also served as a professor at the conservatory and remained until his death.
Sonata in E flat major for Piano and Horn or Violoncello, op. 164
The Sonata in E flat major was published by Sauer & Leidesdorf in December 1823 under plate number 697. The composers are given as “Bellonci & Leidesdorf”.
Camillo Bellonci was born around 1781 in Italy and appears to have received his musical training in France and Germany. In the literature his name appears in a variety of spellings (Belonci, Bellunghi, Belouci). Bellonci is first mentioned in 1811, appearing at the wedding celebrations of Prince Lobkowicz’s daughter in Raudnitz, Bohemia.
In April 1818, the “Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung” carries a reference to a concert on March 25, 1818 at the Vienna Court Theater am Kärntnertor, where Mr Bellonci, together with the pianist J. Preisinger, performed the “Variations for Piano and French Horn” by M. J. Leidesdorf with great success.
Ziegler’s Vienna Address Book lists Bellonci in 1822 as a horn player at the Kärntnertortheater and the Hofballorchester. After 1823, his trail is lost.
Two sources were used for the present edition: the print mentioned above, and a later edition “Sonata / pour / Piano & Violoncello / composée / par M. J. Leidesdorf / Oeuvre 164”, published after 1827 by the Leidesdorf publishing house in Vienna. The piano part is identical to the first edition; the cello part carries the plate number A 697. Bellonci is no longer named here, which generally suggests a more advisory role on his part in this sonata.
