Castiglioni Cactus Planus

Niccolò Castiglioni's music has at its heart a quest for different timbres and new musical perspectives. After the neo-Classical exercises of his student years he moved towards serial techniques with explorations of contrast and transformation. Castiglioni made his name with Inizio di movimento, consolidating this with Cangianti in which the piano becomes a ‘lyrical instrument of the most tender poetry’. The award-winning Italian pianist Aldo Orvieto continues his survey of piano works by one of Italy’s most unique 20th-century composers.

Niccolò Castiglioni was one of the most singular figures on the Italian music scene of the latter half of the 20th century. Including world première recordings, this first volume of this complete edition reveals the exceptional quality of Castiglioni’s early piano works, the cantabile solemnity found in his exploration of twelve-tone techniques, and the quest for simplicity in later pieces that include the Seconda Sonatina discovered among the composer’s papers after his death. The acclaimed pianist Aldo Orvieto has recorded and performed extensively throughout his career and is a specialist in Italian 20th-century repertoire.

Colleagues who had the opportunity to hear Niccolò Castiglioni play can vouch for his excellence as a pianist, in particular his skill in performing Cangianti, a work he presented in Darmstadt in September 1959. It is a highly demanding work, not only due to its keyboard acrobatics but also because of its broad-ranging timbres. It is clear Castiglioni possessed an acute sensitivity for the instruments qualities which he developed during his studies in Salzburg under Gulda and Zecchi. His was a conscious yet primarily natural pianism, in a Chopinesque sense, endowed with precious distillations of timbre that are no longer mere ornament but a surprising and mysterious creative element. This development was to extend to Debussy; the late Debussy would not have eluded Castiglionis prehensile hands when he was attracted to the spell of Weberns labyrinths. This release collects all operas that this great author has written for piano and orchestra.

Per circa quarant’anni i diari di Ettore Castiglioni sono rimasti ignoti al pubblico. Vennero editati nel 1993, raccogliendo dal vastissimo materiale manoscritto i passaggi più significativi, con le avventure vissute sulle Alpi, in Patagonia, o durante i mesi bui dell’autunno 1943, quando l’autore si spese per condurre in salvo oltre il confine elvetico centinaia di profughi in fuga dalla guerra e dalle leggi razziali. La voce del grande alpinista ed esploratore milanese poté così rivivere in un volume, e il pubblico l’accolse riconoscendone la compostezza, il valore morale e la forza evocativa. Un testo intimo e al contempo trascinante, avvincente, quasi Castiglioni pensasse a un futuro lettore. Per questo Il giorno delle Mésules occupa oggi un posto di primo piano sullo scaffale dei classici della montagna..