Alfredo Casella - Harp Sonata, Op.68

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Intro : [0:00]
I. Allegro vivace [0:05]
II. Sarabanda: Grave, solenne [6:35]
III. Finale: Tempo di marcia vivo e festoso [13:40]
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Harp : Alessandra Ziveri
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Alfredo Casella was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor. Alfredo entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1896 to study piano under Louis Diémer and composition under Gabriel Fauré; in these classes, Lazare-Lévy, George Enescu and Maurice Ravel were among his fellow students. During his Parisian period, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla were acquaintances, and he was also in contact with Ferruccio Busoni, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.
Casella developed a deep admiration for Debussy's output after hearing Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune in 1898, but pursued a more romantic vein (stemming from Strauss and Mahler) in his own writing of this period, rather than turning to impressionism. His first symphony of 1905 is from this time, and it is with this work that Casella made his debut as a conductor when he led the symphony's premiere in Monte Carlo in 1908.

[@aleksm.1863]

I'd never heard of either the piece or the composer. Wonderful music.