Aldo Ortado

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, Die Schachtel is proud to present "Punctum Contra Punctum", a deluxe compact disc box dedicated to Aldo Clementi, one of the most important figures of Italian music of the 20th Century. Born in Sicily in 1925, he studied piano and later composition under the guidance of teachers such as Goffredo Petrassi and Bruno Maderna, who also introduced him to electronic music at the RAI Studio of Phonology in Milan.

This CD is going to provide unexpected delight for lovers of the Late-Romantics. Victor de Sabata is remembered as a remarkably dynamic conductor who made some stunning records with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca in the 1940s and 50s. It is not so well known that he was also a composer. Here are three ravishing symphonic poems from the early 1920s, substantial in length and gorgeously scored for an enormous orchestra. Everybody who responds to Respighi, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Strauss and Busoni is going to love this disc. The conductor, Aldo Ceccato, is de Sabata's son-in-law and has long championed these scores around the world. Here he directs de Sabata's 'own' orchestra, the LPO, in their first commercial recordings. Sonically, this disc is state-of-the-art.