• Date: 1909
• Main Performer: Alfredo Casella
• Genre: Orchestral
• Period: Modern (1870-)

Review

Alfredo Casella composed his rhapsody for orchestra, Italia (1909) with the goal of creating a work that was "at once Italian in spirit and contemporary in its sonorous language." Casella was born in 1883 in the city of Turin, Italy, but at the time of Italia, he lived in Paris. He had exiled himself to the French capital in his early adolescence. In actuality, the young composer could not have been in a better location than Paris during this period. The spring of 1909 was witness to the inaugural season of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In the coming years, the ballet and opera impresario would present music by such composers as Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy, and Richard Strauss. Casella would also be influenced by the group of nationalist composers whose works were performed by the Ballets Russes, such as Borodin, de Falla, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov. This nationalistic influence was the primary stimulus for Casella's writing of Italia, along with another orchestral piece composed in the same year, the Suite in C Major. Casella's first impulse in the pursuit of the Italian sound was to integrate folk music from his home country into the work. Casella later described his decision as "the first steps of a personality who is trying to create a national style."

Italia was composed in only 15 days as Casella spent the summer of 1909 in Piedmont. At the time, Casella was only 26 years old. The composer presented Italia, along with the Suite in C Major, to the music publishers of Paris at the beginning of 1910. The composer suspected that his status as a foreigner was the reason for the "polite refusals everywhere." Casella then decided to contact Mahler and ask for his help in showing his works to German publishing houses. Upon receipt of a letter from Casella accompanying the two scores, Mahler immediately went to the director of the Viennese publishing house, Universal-Edition, and convinced him to accept the two works for publication. In gratitude, Casella worked diligently to arrange for a concert featuring Mahler's Second Symphony (1888) in Paris, which would take place on April 17, 1910. This would be the first performance of any of Mahler's music by a French orchestra. Less than a week later, on April 23, Casella himself conducted the premiere of Italia, in a concert also including the first performance of the Suite in C Major, at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. Italia found favor with the audience as well as the musical critics. ~ All Music Guide

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
A. Casella: Italia; Respighi: La Boutique Fantasque	1995
Italia- La Boutique Fantasque	2000