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News

31 Jan

Guitar Chamber Music: Stein-Erik Olsen Interview

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

As part of our occasional series of interviews with performers about their experiences recording Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s chamber music, we posed some questions to Stein-Erik Olsen, the esteemed Norwegian guitarist and professor at the Grieg Academy of the University of Bergen. He has a long-standing commitment to guitar chamber music,  demonstrated once again by his latest release: Stein-Erik Olsen: The Fifties and NOW (Simax Classics)
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10 Dec

Greeting Cards: Cristiano Porqueddu Interview

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

Cristiano Porqueddu is recognized as one of the major interpreters of 20th and 21st century guitar music. His activities encompass live performances, recording projects and composition work. In November 2022 he released his latest project, a double CD that represents the first complete recording of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Greeting Cards for guitar based on the 2019 Ricordi edition edited by Frédéric Zigante. Cristiano kindly agreed to tell us about his experiences studying and recording these intimate and sometimes illusive pieces.
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01 Dec

Newly Published: The Importance of Being Earnest

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s 1962 chamber opera The Importance of Being Earnest is now available from Edizioni Curci and ready for the stage!  This pure divertissement based on Oscar’s Wilde’s celebrated play is scored for the unusual ensemble of eight voices, two pianos, and percussion, with a libretto by the composer. Both the voice and piano reduction and the full score are available from the publisher.
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29 Nov

String Trio returns “home” to L.A.

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

The String Trio op. 147 was performed in Los Angeles, Mario’s adopted city,  on November 13, 2022 in a concert presented by the Wilshire Boulevard Temple and the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles, under the auspices of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices. This work was composed in 1950 at the composer’s home in Beverly Hills, just a few miles from the Temple. However, this concert was the first time the Trio had been heard live in Los Angeles since 1968, when it was performed at a memorial service for the composer.
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18 Nov

Musicians Against Oppression in Milan

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

Musicisti contro l’oppressione [Musicians Against Oppression] is the title of a two part concert series in Milan this month, created and led by Italian composer Carlo Boccadoro under the auspices of the Teatro alla Scala in collaboration with the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. The first concert, which took place on 6 November, featured Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Ballade op. 107, performed by Andrea Pecolo, violin and Andrea Rebaudengo, piano. The work was very well-received by the audience at the sold-out Sunday morning event.
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19 Oct

New CD: Puerta-Vázquez Duo Interview

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

—In the early 1960s, at the request of the legendary Presti-Lagoya Duo, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed his first work for two guitars,  the Sonatina Canonica, op 196 (1961). He went on to write three more: Les Guitares Bien Tempérées  op. 199 (1962), the Concerto for two Guitars and Orchestra, op. 201 (1962), and, after Ida Presti’s untimely death in 1967, he composed the Fuga Elegiaca in her memory. In 1967 he also began work on the Appunti op.210, an ambitious project dedicated to young guitarists. Conceived as a four-volume collection of solo guitar pieces based on the fundamentals of modern guitar music, only the first two books were completed before the composer’s death in 1968. On their their new recording, Appunti (Contrastes), the Arizona-based duo of José Luis Puerta and Alfredo Vázquez explore some of these late guitar works. The title of their CD reflects the heart of the project: transcriptions for two guitars by the late Prof. David Grimes of ten short pieces from the second volume of the Appunti, which Mario had based on dances of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  The Duo kindly agreed to tell us more about themselves and the realization of their recording project.
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26 May

Violin Concerto The Prophets in Rome

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

After many years’ absence, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Violin Concerto no.2 The Prophets returned to the stage in Rome on the evenings of April 28, 29, and 30, 2022. The concert on April 29 was also live streamed on Italian Radio (RAI 3) and broadcast the following day on Italian Television (RAI 5).   Congratulations to Maestro Sakari Oramo, soloist Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for their moving, unforgettable performances of this work. 

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20 Apr

New light on Intellectuals who fled Fascist Italy

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco is among those profiled in a new and fascinating digital history project, Intellectuals Displaced from Fascist Italy. Led by Patrizia Guarnieri, professor of cultural history at the University of Florence, this ambitious bi-lingual web portal focuses attention on the brain drain that took place in Italy during the fascist years, particularly after the anti-semitic laws were promulgated in 1938. 
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02 Apr

Song of Songs: A Hidden Treasure

Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco / News /

In celebration of Mario’s birthday on 3 April, we present a long-buried treasure: a recording of the world-premiere of The Song of Songs, which took place in Los Angeles on 7 August 1963. This scenic oratorio, a setting of the biblical book The Song of Solomon, was performed by a group of the city’s most gifted young musicians as part of a summer program, The Hollywood Theater Arts Workshop. Mario called these young performers “the surprise of America” and commented that this production was “one of the happiest experiences of my life”.
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