<<  -- 6 --  Roderic Dunnett    LUCIANO CHAILLY

Some of his anti-war works are a real cri-de-coeur : the Serenata a Mauthausen for mandolin and piano, the Liriche della resistenza Vietnamica for baritone and eleven instruments and the striking ballet Anne Frank (Verona, 1981) all reflect Chailly's deeply humanist concerns. So, especially, does the poignant Kinder-Requiem, first heard in Turin in 1979 -- a Mahlerian funeral lament for Italian children slaughtered in front of their parents' eyes as a wartime Nazi reprisal for partisan activity, akin to the massacres of Lidice (in Czechoslovakia) or Oradour (in France). Chailly's wife and family held this to be his finest work. The later De Profundis di Cefalonia is dedicated to five thousand fellow Italian soldiers massacred during World War II on the Greek island.

Other large works included the substantial Es-Konzert (Berlin, 1984), a double concerto (Triplum) for violin, piano and orchestra, and the Newton Variations, premièred in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in June 1981 by the London Sinfonietta.

Continue >>