The first recording in more than 40 years of Ildebrando Pizzetti’s masterpiece Concerto dell’estate (‘Summer Concerto’) took place between the 16th and 21st of January at the Aristotle University Hall, Thessaloniki, performed by the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Myron Michailidis. Pizzetti himself described this work as his ‘pastoral symphony’ and considered it to be his most important work.

Prior to the Concerto dell’estate sessions the orchestra recorded Pizzetti’s Tre Preludii Sinfonici per L’Edipo Re, written to accompany a production of Sophocles’ L’Edipo Re in Milan in 1904. An ardent admirer of Greek music and drama, Pizzetti had previously written an Ouverture per l’Oedipo a Colono, his first orchestral work, and in 1914 he published a critical study “The Music of Greece”.

This recording will be completed in May 2008 with the world première recording of Pizzetti’s Violin Concerto with Italian violinist Fulvio Luciani as soloist.

Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Myron Michailidis
Recording sessions, January 2008
Photos courtesy of Matt Bromley