Felice Lattuada: Violin Sonatas, 12 Piano Preludes – Pirro Gjikondi

Felice Lattuada was a composer born in the 1880s, and belonging in a generation (appositely called “the Generation of the Eighties”) which had to find a language of its own in reaction and/or continuity with the great operatic tradition of the Italian Romanticism. His E-minor Violin Sonata is a masterpiece of the early twentieth century, uniting a respect for the traditional forms and genres with an innovative perspective, nourished by the composer’s inclusion of extramusical suggestions. Similarly, his language reveals his reverence toward the Romantic language and style, but also his perceptive and original appropriation of Debussy’s novel ideas. An Impressionist vein is particularly discernible in the Twelve Piano Preludes, also recorded here, to which a Romanza and a one-movement, youthful Sonata for violin and piano (recently rediscovered) are juxtaposed.