Gian Carlo Menotti: Orchestral Discoveries – Francesco Cilluffo

Gian Carlo Menotti was born in Italy in 1911, the sixth of ten children. A child prodigy, he started composing at the age of seven, and was encouraged and supported by his mother, who was a keen and talented amateur musician. Following the unexpected death of his father, Menotti’s mother moved the family to Colombia to help with their coffee importing business, and sent Giancarlo to the Curtis Institute of Music, in Philadelphia. The composer made his life in America, although he never gave up his Italian citizenship. Best known for his twenty-seven operas, Menotti also composed a good deal of orchestral music, as featured on this album. The Lewisohn Stadium, the athletic field of the City College of New York, was also used as an outdoor arena for the summer concerts season of the New York Philharmonic, and Menotti’s Fanfare was commissioned to open the forty-seventh season, and is recorded here for the first time. Also receiving its first recording is the original score of Menotti’s first (and only) symphony. The programme is completed by suites from the ballet Sebastian and the opera Goya, a third world premiere recording.