This Week in Classical Music: July 22, 2024. AlfredoCasella. About this time last year, we planned to celebrate Italian composer Alfredo Casella’s 100th anniversary but got involved with the lives of two German composers of the Nazi era and their very divergent paths: Carl Orff and Hanns Eisler.Eisler’s life is so fascinating that we returned to it this year with some added color provided by Hanns’s brother, a Comintern agent, and sister, one co-founder of the Austrian communist party and co-leader of the German one.But let’s get back to Alfredo Casella who was born on July 25th of 1883 in Turin.Not unlike Orff and Eisler, he lived through one of the most turbulent periods in modern history: the First World War, Mussolini’s fascist regime, and then the Second World War. Casella entered the Paris Conservatory in 1896 to study piano and composition, and while there he met "everybody": Debussy and Ravel, Stravinsky and Enescu, de Falla and Richard Strauss. He returned to Italy during the Great War and for some time taught at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He became involved in the new "futurist" music and even wrote a "futurist" piece, Pupazzetti (Puppets), here. But Casella’s interest in historical Futurism was fleeting. In 1917 he, together with composers Ottorino Respighi and Gian Francesco Malipiero founded the National Music Society to perform new Italian music and to "resurrect our old forgotten music." In 1923 Casella, the poet and playwright Gabriele D'Annunzio and the same Malipiero organized Corporazione delle nuove musiche (CDNM), again with the goals of promoting modern Italian music as well as reviving the old. CDNM brought to the then-provincial Italy a number of new composers, including Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith; CDNM’s concerts also featured music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Kodály and other contemporaries.
The 1920s was a time of great interest in European musical patrimony, the interest often tinged with nationalism. Like Respighi, who wrote The Birds and Ancient Airs and Dances, and Stravinsky (Pulcinella), Casella created pieces that echoed the music of his predecessors, in his case Scarlattiana (1926), an orchestral piece based on Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas. And so, it was only natural that Casella became involved in the research and promotion of the music of Vivaldi. Ezra Pound and the violinist Olga Rudge, Pound’s companion, were also actively involved in reviving Vivaldi’s music. Pound at that time was a strong proponent of fascism; Casella too was a follower of Mussolini, especially his effort to create a national, state culture based on Italian cultural “self-sufficiency.” Casella of course was not the only one being seduced by fascism: most of the Italian cultural elites of the time, from D'Annunzio to painters Filippo Marinetti, Mario Sironi and even to some extent De Chirico, were either supporters of Mussolini or were strongly influenced by fascist ideals.
Casella’s wife was Jewish of French descent (they married in 1929), and when in 1938 Mussolini, under pressure from Hitler, passed racial laws, the life of the pro-regime Casella turned upside down.He lived in constant fear that his wife would be deported; at some point they split and Yvonne, Casella’s wife, went into hiding.On top of that, in 1942 he became seriously ill.Casella continued composing and teaching into the 1940s; his last composition was written in 1944, while Italy was a battlefield. It was called Missa Solemnis Pro Pace – a mass for peace. Among his many students was the composer Nino Rota, who wrote Cantico in memoria di Alfredo Casella.And a note for cinephiles: the Italian actress and filmmaker Asia Argento is Casella’s great-granddaughter.
Here's Casella’s Scarlattiana for piano and a small orchestra.Martin Roscoe is on the piano, Gianandrea Noseda conducts the BBC Philharmonic.
Alfredo Casella, 2024
This Week in Classical Music: July 22, 2024. AlfredoCasella. About this time last year, we planned to celebrate Italian composer Alfredo Casella’s 100th anniversary but got involved with
the lives of two German composers of the Nazi era and their very divergent paths: Carl Orff and Hanns Eisler. Eisler’s life is so fascinating that we returned to it this year with some added color provided by Hanns’s brother, a Comintern agent, and sister, one co-founder of the Austrian communist party and co-leader of the German one. But let’s get back to Alfredo Casella who was born on July 25th of 1883 in Turin. Not unlike Orff and Eisler, he lived through one of the most turbulent periods in modern history: the First World War, Mussolini’s fascist regime, and then the Second World War. Casella entered the Paris Conservatory in 1896 to study piano and composition, and while there he met "everybody": Debussy and Ravel, Stravinsky and Enescu, de Falla and Richard Strauss. He returned to Italy during the Great War and for some time taught at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He became involved in the new "futurist" music and even wrote a "futurist" piece, Pupazzetti (Puppets), here. But Casella’s interest in historical Futurism was fleeting. In 1917 he, together with composers Ottorino Respighi and Gian Francesco Malipiero founded the National Music Society to perform new Italian music and to "resurrect our old forgotten music." In 1923 Casella, the poet and playwright Gabriele D'Annunzio and the same Malipiero organized Corporazione delle nuove musiche (CDNM), again with the goals of promoting modern Italian music as well as reviving the old. CDNM brought to the then-provincial Italy a number of new composers, including Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith; CDNM’s concerts also featured music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Kodály and other contemporaries.
The 1920s was a time of great interest in European musical patrimony, the interest often tinged with nationalism. Like Respighi, who wrote The Birds and Ancient Airs and Dances, and Stravinsky (Pulcinella), Casella created pieces that echoed the music of his predecessors, in his case Scarlattiana (1926), an orchestral piece based on Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas. And so, it was only natural that Casella became involved in the research and promotion of the music of Vivaldi. Ezra Pound and the violinist Olga Rudge, Pound’s companion, were also actively involved in reviving Vivaldi’s music. Pound at that time was a strong proponent of fascism; Casella too was a follower of Mussolini, especially his effort to create a national, state culture based on Italian cultural “self-sufficiency.” Casella of course was not the only one being seduced by fascism: most of the Italian cultural elites of the time, from D'Annunzio to painters Filippo Marinetti, Mario Sironi and even to some extent De Chirico, were either supporters of Mussolini or were strongly influenced by fascist ideals.
Casella’s wife was Jewish of French descent (they married in 1929), and when in 1938 Mussolini, under pressure from Hitler, passed racial laws, the life of the pro-regime Casella turned upside down. He lived in constant fear that his wife would be deported; at some point they split and Yvonne, Casella’s wife, went into hiding. On top of that, in 1942 he became seriously ill. Casella continued composing and teaching into the 1940s; his last composition was written in 1944, while Italy was a battlefield. It was called Missa Solemnis Pro Pace – a mass for peace. Among his many students was the composer Nino Rota, who wrote Cantico in memoria di Alfredo Casella. And a note for cinephiles: the Italian actress and filmmaker Asia Argento is Casella’s great-granddaughter.
Here's Casella’s Scarlattiana for piano and a small orchestra. Martin Roscoe is on the piano, Gianandrea Noseda conducts the BBC Philharmonic.