This concert is a rare opportunity to discover—or rediscover—the music of Lino Liviabella, a cultured and passionate figure of twentieth-century Italy.
Violinist Hans Liviabella, the composer’s nephew, and pianist Gianluca Angelillo present a program that combines works by Respighi and Prokofiev with an intense chamber composition by Liviabella: the Sonata in A Minor.
A favorite student of Ottorino Respighi, author of a vast and award-winning catalogue (including second place at the 1936 Berlin Olympics), Liviabella was also an important teacher and director of the Conservatories of Parma, Pesaro, and Bologna. His music—dense, austere, and lyrical—was neglected for decades, partly because of its distance from the dominant avant-garde.
As Quirino Principe wrote, his work “exudes Italianness in terms of culture and character,” but also keeps in mind “the great experiences of other national traditions.”
The concert is part of a promotion project that includes a new recording for the Dynamic label, dedicated to his complete works for violin and piano.
