A New Italian Renaissance

A New Italian Renaissance By Leon Botstein Written for the concert A New Italian Renaissance, performed on April 18, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Commenting on the death of Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), Alfredo Casella (1883-1947) observed that despite the different musical paths they had taken, which led to a breach in their…

Gian Francesco Malipiero, Pause del Silenzio I By Harvey Sachs, writer, journalist, and music historian Written for the concert A New Italian Renaissance, performed on April 18, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. “The 1880 Generation:” thus musicologist Massimo Mila dubbed Ottorino Respighi, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Alfredo Casella, and Gian Francesco Malipiero, collectively, because all…

Giuseppe Martucci, Symphony No. 2 in F, Op. 81 By Harvey Sachs, writer, journalist, and music historian Written for the concert A New Italian Renaissance, performed on April 18, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. In late nineteenth-century Italy, the word “music” was practically synonymous with the word “opera.” During the single decade of…

 Ildebrando Pizzetti, Per L’Edipo Re di Sofocle: tre preludii sinfonici (Three Preludes to Sophocles’ Oedipus) By Frank J. Oteri Written for the concert A New Italian Renaissance, performed on April 18, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Although he lived well into the twentieth century, Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968) created music which was…

Alfredo Casella, Italia, Rhapsody for Orchestra, Op. 11 By Adrian Corleonis, Fanfare Magazine Written for the concert A New Italian Renaissance, performed on April 18, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. In the early 1920s, the Sphinx-like Ferrucio Busoni noted of Alfredo Casella that he was “very adroit in conversation, but not so adroit…

Ottorino Respighi, Fontane di Roma (The Fountains of Rome) By Fred Kirshnit Written for the concert A New Italian Renaissance, performed on April 18, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. In 1830 Mikhail Glinka traveled from St. Petersburg to Milan and upon journeying home brought back to his native land the bel canto sensibilities…