New York City
Program
Giuseppe Verdi -Triumphal March from Aida (1871)
Gian Francesco Malipiero -Pause del Silenzio I (1917)( U.S. Premiere )
Giuseppe Martucci -Symphony No. 2 (1904)
Ildebrando Pizzetti -Three Preludes to Sophocles’ Oedipus (1903)( U.S. Premiere )
Alfredo Casella -Italia, Rhapsody for Orchestra (1909)
Ottorino Respighi -Fountains of Rome (1914-16)
The music of Italy is almost exclusively associated with Verismo opera, but early in the twentieth century a New Italian Renaissance entered the concert hall. Malipiero and Casella were modernists in step with Stravinsky, a mode first rejected but then embraced by Pizzetti. The traditionalists Martucci and Respighi had Arturo Toscanini as their advocate. This concert concludes with Respighi’s thrilling Fountains of Rome, which Toscanini made one of music’s most popular showpieces.