Bambini prodigio: formazione e performance nei primi decenni dell’Ottocento

What could be a definition of a 'child prodigy' musician applicable to the standards of the 18th and 19th centuries? What could the public's expectations be for a 'child prodigy' in the first half of the 19th century? What specific cases can we follow over the course of an ideal 'career'? \ r\nWhat requirements did Wunderkind have to meet? Virtuoso instrumentalist, improviser, composer? Or probably an instrumentalist and composer? What was the average age of musical prodigies in the first half of the 19th century? \ r\nThe performing activities of the young talents covered by this study are followed through some testimonies from the periodical press, inspired by an article attributable to Friedrich Rochlitz (Die frühzeitige Talente [Early Talents]) published on December 1, 1813 in the “Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung” in Leipzig. Rochlitz invites readers of the magazine to reflect on the phenomenon - obviously already pervasive - of early talent, taking Mozart as a model and parameter of singular talent left free to develop 'according to nature'.