This Week in Classical Music: February 26, 2024. Missed dates and Luigi Dallapiccola. For the last three weeks, we’ve been preoccupied with Alban Berg, and we feel good about it: Berg was a revolutionary composer (not by his constitution but by the nature of his creative talent) and he should be celebrated, even if our time, philistine and woke, doesn’t suit him well. The problem we have is that we missed several very significant anniversaries: for example, George Frideric Handel‘s – he was born on February 23rd of 1685; also, one of the most interesting German composers of the 16th century, Michael Praetorius, was born on February 15th of 1571. We missed the birthday of Francesco Cavalli, a very important composer in the history of opera, on February 14th of 1602. Two famous Italians were also born during those three weeks, Archangelo Corelli on February 17th of 1653 and Luigi Boccherini, on February 19th of 1743. Of our contemporaries, György Kurtág, one of the most important composers of the late 20th century, celebrated his 98th (!) birthday on February 19th. And then this week, there are two big dates: Frédéric Chopin’s anniversary is on March 1st (he was born in 1810) and Gioachino Rossini’s birthday will be celebrated on February 29th – he was born 232 years ago, in 1792. We’ve written about all these composers, about Handel and Chopin many times. Today, though, we’ll remember an Italian whom we’ve mentioned several times but only alongside somebody else; his name is Luigi Dallapiccola, and his story has a connection to Alban Berg.
Luigi Dallapiccola was born on February 3rd of 1904 in the mostly Italian-populated town of Pisino, Istria, then part of the Austrian Empire. Pisino was transferred to Italy after WWI, to Yugoslavia after WWII, as Pazin, and now is part of Croatia. The Austrians sent the Dallapiccola family to Graz as subversives (Luigi, not being able to play the piano, enjoyed the opera performances there); they returned to Pisino only after the end of the war. Luigi studied the piano in Trieste and in 1922 moved to Florence, where he continued with piano studies and composition, first privately and then at the conservatory. During that time, he was so much taken by the music of Debussy that he stopped composing for three years, trying to absorb the influence. A very different influence was Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which Luigi heard in 1924 at a concert organized by Alfredo Casella (in the following years, Casella would become a big supporter and promoter of Dallapiccola’s music).
Upon graduation, Dallapiccola started giving recitals around Italy, later securing a position at the Florence Conservatory where he taught for more than 30 years, till 1967 (among his students was Luciano Berio). In 1930 in Vienna, he heard Mahler’s First Symphony, which also affected him strongly: at the time, Mahler’s music was practically unknown in Italy. In the 1930s, Dallapiccola's life underwent major changes. Musically, he became more influenced by the Second Viennese School, and in 1934 got to know Alban Berg (in 1942, while passing through Austria to a concert in Switzerland, he met Anton Webern). The policies of Italy also affected him greatly: first, he was taken by Mussolini’s rhetoric, openly becoming his supporter. This changed with the Abyssinian and Spanish wars, which Dallapiccola protested, and then much more so when Mussolini, under pressure from Hitler, adopted racial (for all practical purposes, antisemitic) policies: Dallapiccola’s wife, Laura Luzzatto, was Jewish. They married on May 1, 1938; the racial laws were adopted in November of that year. Here, from 1938, is the first of the three Canti di Prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment), Preghiera di Maria Stuarda (A Prayer of Mary Stuart) written, in part, as a protest against Mussolini’s racial laws. The New London Chamber Choir is conducted by James Wood, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, by Hans Zender. We’ll continue with the life and music of Luigi Dallapiccola next week.
Luigi Dallapiccola, Part I, 2024
This Week in Classical Music: February 26, 2024. Missed dates and Luigi Dallapiccola. For the last three weeks, we’ve been preoccupied with Alban Berg, and we feel good about it: Berg was a revolutionary composer (not by his constitution but by the nature of his creative talent) and he should be celebrated, even if our time, philistine and woke, doesn’t suit him well. The problem we have is that we missed several very significant anniversaries: for example, George Frideric Handel‘s – he was born on February 23rd of 1685; also, one of the most interesting German composers of the 16th century, Michael Praetorius, was born on February 15th of 1571. We missed the birthday of Francesco Cavalli, a very important composer in the history of opera, on February 14th of 1602. Two famous Italians were also born during those three weeks, Archangelo Corelli on February 17th of 1653 and Luigi Boccherini, on February 19th of 1743. Of our contemporaries, György Kurtág, one of the most important composers of the late 20th century, celebrated his 98th (!) birthday on February 19th. And then this week, there are two big dates: Frédéric Chopin’s anniversary is on March 1st (he was born in 1810) and Gioachino Rossini’s birthday will be celebrated on February 29th – he was born 232 years ago, in 1792. We’ve written
about all these composers, about Handel and Chopin many times. Today, though, we’ll remember an Italian whom we’ve mentioned several times but only alongside somebody else; his name is Luigi Dallapiccola, and his story has a connection to Alban Berg.
Luigi Dallapiccola was born on February 3rd of 1904 in the mostly Italian-populated town of Pisino, Istria, then part of the Austrian Empire. Pisino was transferred to Italy after WWI, to Yugoslavia after WWII, as Pazin, and now is part of Croatia. The Austrians sent the Dallapiccola family to Graz as subversives (Luigi, not being able to play the piano, enjoyed the opera performances there); they returned to Pisino only after the end of the war. Luigi studied the piano in Trieste and in 1922 moved to Florence, where he continued with piano studies and composition, first privately and then at the conservatory. During that time, he was so much taken by the music of Debussy that he stopped composing for three years, trying to absorb the influence. A very different influence was Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which Luigi heard in 1924 at a concert organized by Alfredo Casella (in the following years, Casella would become a big supporter and promoter of Dallapiccola’s music).
Upon graduation, Dallapiccola started giving recitals around Italy, later securing a position at the Florence Conservatory where he taught for more than 30 years, till 1967 (among his students was Luciano Berio). In 1930 in Vienna, he heard Mahler’s First Symphony, which also affected him strongly: at the time, Mahler’s music was practically unknown in Italy. In the 1930s, Dallapiccola's life underwent major changes. Musically, he became more influenced by the Second Viennese School, and in 1934 got to know Alban Berg (in 1942, while passing through Austria to a concert in Switzerland, he met Anton Webern). The policies of Italy also affected him greatly: first, he was taken by Mussolini’s rhetoric, openly becoming his supporter. This changed with the Abyssinian and Spanish wars, which Dallapiccola protested, and then much more so when Mussolini, under pressure from Hitler, adopted racial (for all practical purposes, antisemitic) policies: Dallapiccola’s wife, Laura Luzzatto, was Jewish. They married on May 1, 1938; the racial laws were adopted in November of that year. Here, from 1938, is the first of the three Canti di Prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment), Preghiera di Maria Stuarda (A Prayer of Mary Stuart) written, in part, as a protest against Mussolini’s racial laws. The New London Chamber Choir is conducted by James Wood, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, by Hans Zender. We’ll continue with the life and music of Luigi Dallapiccola next week.