Viaggio In Italia: Italian Reflections In German Lieder – Lucio Gallo

This Da Vinci Classics album is a musical Grand Tour, inviting the listener to contemplate the beauty of Italy through the “musical eyes” of great Romantic and post-Romantic composers of art songs. Starting with Franz Liszt’s Sonnets of Petrarch, which the composer would later transcribe for solo piano, the collection opens with the majestic and touching accents of Liszt’s vocal style. Hugo Wolf set to music the German translations of six anonymous early poetic works; they mirrored his own experience of Italy, between fascination and grief. Two works on lyrics by Michelangelo recount the Italian experience by Richard Strauss (Madrigal) and Wolf again (Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo). Finally, three art songs written by Franz Schubert on Italian lyrics by Metastasio reveal the Austrian composer’s skill in setting to music the Italian language and also in adopting the style and conventions of coeval Italian opera.