The Composer

Alfredo Casella was born in Turin on 25 July 1883 and studied with Fauré in Paris. In 1912 he began teaching piano at the Paris Conservatory of Music and became director of Concerts Populaires du Trocadéro.

When he returned to Italy in 1915 he was already a sophisticated composer who committed himself to promote contemporary music. As professor at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Casella was one of the leading promoters of modern Italian music which attracted young composers and annoyed the conservative audience. His early works were romantic in style: the orchestra work Italia (1909) gained international success.

Subsequently, he developed an atonal style which in Elegia [...]