Youthful Composers

The international music press very seldom deals with contemporary music in Italy, even though (on a yearly basis) as many hours of contemporary music are performed in Rome as in Berlin, and since 1930 Venice has featured a festival of contemporary music. Historians say that the then head of government, Benito Mussolini, was a fan of contemporary music and intended to challenge Salzburg with the Venice festival where all the composers disliked by Hitler and Goebbels were routinely invited. In this magazine, contemporary music in Italy is occasionally reported on. Recently, reviewing European contemporary music at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest (Trends and Tendencies, 15 September 2013), I noticed a change in orientation from the Second Viennese School and Darmstadt to minimalism...