Da Sophie de Fagan a Charlotte Cobenzl: un percorso musicale attraverso gli spartiti dell’Archivio Coronini Cronberg

Michele Coronini Cronberg was married to Sophie de Fagan, a noble Frenchwoman and owner of a rich musical collection that was kept in the Kronberk Castle library and listed in the publication of Tammaro De Marinis in 1919. Only five of these scores are now kept in the Coronini Cronberg Archive and are dated to the second half of the 17th century. These are probably the only documents of the collection that survived the fire during World War II. The composers were all connected to the court of Governor Charles duke of Lorraine and Bar, in Brussels, where Charles Cobenzl served as minister plenipotentiary. Therefore, it is possible that his daughter Charlotte inherited these documents, as she was a musician and Mozart’s pupil. The scores could have been passed down through Charlotte’s heirs and eventually reached Sophie de Fagan, whose grandmother was in fact a member of the Cobenzl family. The surviving parts, mostly incomplete, belong to six sonatas for harpsichord or fortepiano with violin and cello accompaniment, Opus 1 and 2, by Ferdinand Staes; three trios for harpsichord, violin and cello, Opus 7, by Pierre Van Maldere; and three sonatas for fortepiano with violin accompaniment, Opus 5, by Eugène Godecharle.