Roberto Trainini, Stella Ala Luce Pontoriero

A cross-section of the Italian production for cello and piano, conceived during the hazy beginning of the twentieth century, shows us how the most varied influences – coming from all sorts of styles: Gregorian, Monteverdi, operatic, German and French late-romantic, avant-gardist, Franco-Russian impressionist, French symbolist, veristic – are absorbed and remoulded, accepted and rejected, by various personalities of the world of composition. In this cultural ambience, a crucial role was played by the so-called Generation of Eighteen-Eighty, whose components, Casella, Malipiero, Pizzetti, Respighi, friends and collaborators, stood out for their pursuit of innovation and their aim to create a character peculiar to Italian music; this quest was accompanied, at least in their artistic choices, by a certain lack of political commitment. Within this recording, cellist Roberto Trainini and pianist Stella Ala Luce Pontoriero are delivering an anthology of precious musical gems as necessary testimony to the great value of some obscured and forgotten Italian early twentieth century repertoire.

Alfredo Casella (1883-1947) , Giuseppe Mule (1885-1951) , Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) , Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968)

• Casella: Sonata per violoncello e pianoforte op. 8

  Mulè: Largo per violoncello e pianoforte

  Casella: Notturno e Tarantella per violoncello e pianoforte op. 54

  Respighi: Adagio con variazioni per violoncello e pianoforte p. 133

  Pizzetti: Tre canti per violoncello e pianoforte