With the exception of a few works by Ottorino Respighi, and for reasons which are relatively obscure, the orchestral concert music of the generation of Italian composers to which Ildebrando Pizzetti belongs has—so far as international acceptance is concerned— remained little-known outside Italy.
It can be claimed that this relative disregard surely has more to do with fashion and performing circumstance than with the quality of the music, and, of these undoubted masters, it is the art of Ildebrando Pizzetti which is perhaps most in need of reassessment and revival, for original music of this self-evident quality—music which was performed and recorded by, among others, Arturo Toscanini, Yehudi Menuhin, Nathan Milstein and Tullio Serafin—manifestly does not deserve to remain unknown.
Pizzetti’s music clearly declares him to have been a Latin composer, traditional in approach and general manner, yet always refined and polished by his mastery of a stylization which combined lyrical elements of late-Romanticism (in technique, not ethos), the clear structure of early Italian masters, and a tonal fluidity which may initially have owed a little to César Franck. His music is imaginative and strikingly beautiful, from the music he composed for theatre (La Pisanella) to the mood pictures (Tre Preludii Sinfonici): all are sure to delight listeners and show that he is a composer who should be neglected no longer.
“This well-filled programme makes an excellent introduction to Pizzetti...Vanska conducts with authority and flair, and obviously believes in these all too rarely performed scores.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition
