ABSTRACT
The story is encapsulated in the dramatic cantata Rosalba written by Vincent Novello in response to a commission from the Philharmonic Society. In 1832, when Felix Mendelssohn was the apple of the Philharmonic Society’s eye, the Directors simultaneously commissioned instrumental and vocal works by ‘resident’ composers. On 6 February 1813 Novello signed his name as a founder member of the Philharmonic Society. The buoyancy of the Philharmonic Society’s funds in the early 1830s, coupled with Mendelssohn’s popularity in England and the views of the Directors, may have led to the surge of commissioning. Despite his comparatively low public profile in Philharmonic Society affairs Novello refused to be treated as an inferior. The whole affair of bespeaking compositions of certain members of the Society, instead of proceeding upon clear, intelligible principles, appears to have been dictated by mere caprice. The Society found itself obliged to spell it out patiently for Neukomm, who sent his answer to the commission by early January 1833.
