Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Vittorio Rieti

Suite champêtre for 2 pianos

 

Vittorio Rieti, an Italian composer who appeared on the musical scene in the immediate post-First War years, was noteworthy for having energized a generation that had emerged from the war as if reborn and that had abandoned old ideologies. His music gave voice to the technological and urban-oriented aspect of modern life; it was based on mechanical movements and on the dynamism of driving rhythms, and it was often influenced by the cheeky, irreverent side of the Parisian avant-garde. On the other hand, it also demonstrated devotion to the eighteenth-century Italian instrumental tradition, wich was called upon to help point the way towards an objective, unsentimental twentieth-century musical language. The dramatic events of the following period, and specifically the fascist government’s racial laws, force Rieti to seek exile in the United States, but his vital, basically tranquil mode of expression, based on the recognition of intrinsic power of formal considerations, remained untouched. The Suite champêtre of 1948 (dedicated to the famous duo-piano team Gold and Fizdale), bears witness to his fact: it takes his name from the pastoral atmosphere of the lively, folk-like Écossaise that is its middle. In the long, opening Bourrée, the composer gives vent to his constructivist side by employing a type of counterpoint that flirts with Bachian style via the inventive spirit of the melodic voices, whereas in the final Giga the Italian touch is more obvious, thanks to traces of the transparency and ease of Scarlatti’s sonatas.

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