Two new volumes have been added to the Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Collection, a project undertaken by Edizioni Curci in collaboration with CIDIM, with the support of the composer’s family. These works were edited by Angelo Gilardino, the eminent composer and scholar who passed away in January of 2022.
Works for piano: Fantasia e fuga sul nome di Ildebrando Pizzetti e Mi-La
The piano “diptych” Fantasia e Fuga sul nome di Ildebrando Pizzetti [Fantasia and Fugue on the Name of Ildebrando Pizzetti] was written in 1930 to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of his revered mentor. The piece opens at full throttle with the eloquence of the contrapuntal discourse in which Castelnuovo-Tedesco demonstrates all his mastery and also displays the inventive agility and flair that had already made him one of the most respected Italian composers of that time. In this composition, Castelnuovo-Tedesco uses for the first time a framework he invented in which he connects each letter of the last name of the dedicatee to a musical note on the chromatic scale: twenty-four notes for the twenty-four letters of the alphabet. He would use this framework again in his series of fifty-one Greeting Cards, which he composed between 1953 and 1967. The volume also includes the short piano work Mi-La, the motif of which is based on the surname of the honoree, the music historian Massimo Mila (1910-1988). More information about this edition is available here.
First String Quartet, op. 58
With its crisp, classic form, the first of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s string quartets reflects the positive state of mind of the composer at the time he wrote it in 1929. It is one of his most cheerful works of the Italian period, and it brims with the vitality that he gained from time spent in his favorite places in the Tuscan countryside. Parts are available and may be ordered from the publisher. The first String Quartet joins the Florentine composer’s Second Quartet op. 139 and Third Quartet op. 203, which are already available from Edizioni Curci. More information about this latest edition is available here.
Edizioni Curci’s Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Collection today comprises piano works, chamber music, songs, orchestral music and operas. Its aim is to bring out editions based on original manuscripts for all of the currently unpublished works preserved in the composer’s archive at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. This vast editorial project is making a crucial contribution to the revitalization of the composer’s music in the world’s most prestigious theaters and concert halls.