March 12, 2012. Igor Cognolato plays Casella. In one of our recent posts about Vivaldi we mentioned that Alfredo Casella played a very significant role in popularizing his music. Casella (July 25, 1883 – March 5, 1947) was a very interesting composer in his own right, even though his music is rarely played these days. He lived through one of the most turbulent periods in modern Italian 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 ahistorical 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 also "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 Italy a number of composers, including Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith; CDNM’s concerts featured music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Kodály and other contemporaries. The 1920s was also the time of great interest in the 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. It was only natural that Casella became involved in 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 elite 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 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 students was the composer Nino Rota, who wrote Cantico in memoria di Alfredo Casella.
Italian pianist Igor Cognolato was born in Treviso. He studied at the Academy "Benedetto Marcello" in Venice, and at the Academy of Music in Hanover. Among his teachers were Aldo Ciccolini and Paul Badura-Skoda. Mr. Cognolato has extensively performer throughout Western Europe and North America. We’ll hear him play three parts of the Casella’s Sinfonia, Arioso e Toccata, op.59. Sinfonia can be heard here, Arioso – here, and Toccata – here.
Igor Cognolato plays Casella
March 12, 2012. Igor Cognolato plays Casella. In one of our recent posts about Vivaldi we mentioned that Alfredo Casella played a very significant role in popularizing his music. Casella (July 25,
1883 – March 5, 1947) was a very interesting composer in his own right, even though his music is rarely played these days. He lived through one of the most turbulent periods in modern Italian 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 ahistorical 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 also "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 Italy a number of composers, including Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith; CDNM’s concerts featured music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Kodály and other contemporaries. The 1920s was also the time of great interest in the 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. It was only natural that Casella became involved in 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 elite 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 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 students was the composer Nino Rota, who wrote Cantico in memoria di Alfredo Casella.
Italian pianist Igor Cognolato was born in Treviso. He studied at the Academy "Benedetto Marcello" in Venice, and at the Academy of Music in Hanover. Among his teachers were Aldo Ciccolini and Paul Badura-Skoda. Mr. Cognolato has extensively performer throughout Western Europe and North America. We’ll hear him play three parts of the Casella’s Sinfonia, Arioso e Toccata, op.59. Sinfonia can be heard here, Arioso – here, and Toccata – here.