Ildebrando Pizzetti

Ildebrando Pizzetti (September 20, 1880–February 13, 1968) was an Italian composer of classical music.

Pizzetti was part of the "Generation of 1880" along with Ottorino Respighi and Gian-Francesco Malipiero. They were among the first Italian composers in some time whose primary contributions were not in opera. (The instrumental and a cappella traditions had never died in Italian music and had produced, for instance, the string quartets of Antonio Scontrino (1850-1922) and the works of Respighi's teacher Martucci; but with the "Generation of 1880" these traditions became stronger.)

Ildebrando Pizzetti was born in Parma, the son of Odoardo Pizzetti, a pianist and piano teacher who was Ildebrando's first teacher. At first Pizzetti seemed headed for a career as a playwright -- he had written several plays, two of which had been produced -- before he decided in 1895 on a career in music and entered the Conservatorium of Parma.

There he was taught there from 1897 by Giovanni Tebaldini and gained the beginnings of his lifelong interest in the early music of Italy, reflected in his own music and his writings.

He taught at the Conservatory in Florence (directed from 1917 to 1923, directed conservatory at Milan from 1923 onwards.) His students included Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Olga Rudge and Franco Donatoni. Also a music critic, he wrote several books on the music of Italy and of Greece and co-founded a musical journal.

A disciple of poet, playwright and revolutionary Gabriele D'Annunzio, Pizzetti wrote incidental music to his plays, and was highly infuenced by D'Annunzio's dark neoclassic themes. One of Pizzetti's later operas is a setting of D'Annunzio's La Figlia Di Jorio.

As noted in the article linked among External links, his relations with the Fascist government of the 1940s were often positive, sometimes mixed; he received at one point high awards, and the one symphony of his mature years was the product of a commission from their Japanese allies to celebrate the "XXVI Centennial of the foundation of the Japanese Empire" (Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem was also commissioned for this event, though it was rejected on account of its finale; its original finale was rediscovered after Britten's death and only premiered then. The Pizzetti Sinfonie in la was premiered, as noted in the article, and recorded - its only recording as of 2005 - on December 7 1940.)

His works have not been frequently performed; their less than emotional, almost minimalist quality has made them difficult to appreciate.

He died in Rome.

Selected Works

Orchestral Music

Symphony in A in celebrazione del XXVIo centenario della fondazione dell'Impero giapponese. written around and pub. 1940
Incidental music, especially to plays by d'Annunzio
Harp concerto in E-flat (pub. 1960)
3 Sonetti del Petrarca
Tre composizioni corali
Other vocal works, e.g. Epithalamium (1939? 1940, played at a Library of Congress concert in April 1940 and again in 1977)
Violoncello concerto in C pub. 1935
Violin concerto in A, pub. 1946
Canti della stagione alta : concerto for piano and orchestra
Sinfonia del fuoco (from music for the silent film Cabiria)
Rondo veneziano (1929)
Concerto dell'Estate

Operas

Sabina (1897)
Il Cid (1903)
Aeneas (1903)
Mazeppa (1905, unfinished)
Gigliola (1914, unfinished)
Fedra (Milan, 1915)
Debora e Jaele (Milan, 1922)
Fra Gherardo (Milan, 1928)
Lo Straniero (Rome, 1930)
Orsèolo (Florence, 1935)
L'Oro (Milan, 1947)
Vanna Lupa (Florence, 1949)
Cagliostro (RAI, 1952 - Milan, 1953)
La Figlia di Jorio (Naples, 1954)
Povera gente (1956, unfinished)
Assassinio nella cattedrale (Milan, 1958)(with Nicola Rossi-Lemeni and Leyla Gencer in the first cast, conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, staged by Margherita Wallmann, La Scala)
Il calzare d'argento (Milan, 1961)
Clitennestra (Milan, 1965)

Chamber Music

Violin sonata in C minor (1900)
String Quartet n.1 in A major (1906
Violin sonata in A (championed by Yehudi Menuhin) written 1918–9, pub. 1920
Cello sonata in F 1921, pub. 1922
Tre canti for cello and piano
Piano sonata pub. 1942
Piano trio in G minor (1900)
Piano trio in A (from 1925)
String Quartet n.2 in D (written 1932-33, pub. 1934.)

Sacred Music

Messa di Requiem

External links