Saturday, May 28, 2011

Alfredo Casella

Casella (1883-1947) is another one of my cherished finds from IMSLP.  His use of modes and colorful pianistic style make him a unique find from the era immediately surrounding 1923 - the beginning-date of copyright, the end-date of free public domain music.  Casella was also a theorist and talented orchestrator, and I own a copy of his treatise on orchestration. His piano works vary from miniatures "for children" to vignettes in the style of various contemporaries or predecessors- Brahms, Debussy, Wagner, Strauss. The  children's pieces are a joy and cover various levels of technical skill, all in Casella's unique style and mixing in various influences and modes. The vignettes demonstrate the composer's sense of reverent and not-so reverent humor towards his fellows - in each piece, both the title and the use of the piano are pitch-perfect to the composer they evoke.  His orchestral music represents different periods of his career, from the early influence of Impressionism (A Notte Alta is a good example), to the "second generation" (Puccini being the first) of lush pieces like Resphighi's Pines of Rome, to angular, chromatic works of the later years. 

Here is a recording from YouTube of the first 6 of the Children's pieces: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXG8A8NPp5g&feature=related  part 2

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