Enzo Muccetti

Enzo Muccetti (born June 29, 1912 in Corfinio; died March 24, 1977 in Parma) was a great Italian classical bassoonist and pedagogue. He studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin, originally with the intention of learning the cello but shifting to the bassoon which was more suited to his small hands. Although he started out with the Buffet system, he switched to the German system. His work improving the mechanics of the bassoon was readily accepted by Heckel, which eventually designed and dedicated a special model of bassoon to him, "Model 41, Special E.M." Heckel built bassoons with three different styles of bells, one of which, the Muccetti bell (also known as the Italian bell), was named after him. He served as principal bassoonist at La Scala from 1947 to 1971. After conducting a La Scala concert, Paul Hindemith wrote in his programme "if all bassoonists were so marvelous, life, and especially writing for the bassoon, would be more of a joy than it usually is." Similarly, Herbert von Karajan wrote after a series of concerts at La Scala, "I'm pleased to have found a bassoonist of such stature that in almost all European orchestras there is no one to be compared with you." Muccetti was a professor at the Parma Conservatory, where his students included Evando Dall'Oca (his eventual successor at La Scala), Romano Santi, Michael Chapman and Wendy Philips.