Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882 - 1973), Preludi autunnali for solo piano (1914) Performed by Stefano Ligoratti 00:00 - No. 1 Lento, ma carezzevole 03:41 - No. 2 Ritenuto, ma spigliato 06:52 - No. 3 Lento, triste 11:38 - No. 4 Veloce Born in the same year as Igor Stravinsky, Malipiero shares with him the creative power to absorb elements of historic styles and compound them into a contemporary idiom. In Malipiero's case, the artistic stance as well as the characteristic and individual approach to composition grow out of a much-reflected opposition to German and Italian traditions of the nineteenth century. In his view, the German symphonic concept of thematic unity runs counter to the Italian spirit. Hence he considers the musical tradition of Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi a dead-end; instead, his guiding figures are Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, and Antonio Vivaldi. However, Malipiero's personal integrity prevents him from mere stylistic imitation. He attempts to penetrate to the very essence of his given models, of which the most stimulating aspects are formal design based on free association rather than on abstract schemata, harmonic progressions that follow acoustic rather than theoretical necessities, and – on a more metaphysical level – the beauty of polyphonic textures and the discipline of language. These stimuli provide a basis for creative adaptation and transformation in which antiquity is mirrored in a modern spirit. While Malipiero undoubtedly has strong links to the past, he has equally strong connections with his own generation's notions of the "present" and "new music." One of his preferred compositional techniques is the use of the fourth to build motives and harmony. From this starting point Malipiero proceeds to a remarkable augmentation of harmonic framework, passing from expanded tonality to bitonality, linearly conceived textures, and the primacy of melodic line over orchestral color. Harmony and articulation are employed with emotional restraint, and instrumental color is almost never used for its own sake. Malipiero abandons the the nineteenth-century inclination toward blending orchestral color in favor of Baroque principles of contrasting registers. In his works dating from the twenties, both timbre and harmonic detail occasionally recall Stravinsky.

• published: 05 Jan 2016
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