Rota was arguably the most important film composer of the 20th century, Federico Fellini’s friend and in many ways his co-author. At the age of 12 this wunderkind wrote an oratorio which was instantly performed in Rome and Paris but by the middle of the 20th century, with the triumphant avant garde on one side and bloodless traditionalism on the other, there was no place for a second Puccini and Rota’s ten operas (the first written in 1942, the last in 1977) were always overshadowed by his film music. Neither Rota nor Desyatnikov has ever been part of any musical movement and they have written no theoretical tracts, as was all the rage in the 20th century but we can still see their music as a riposte to contemporary isolationism, arrogance and fear of the listener.Īt the conservatoire in Rome the student Rota was groomed to become the next Puccini. An odd combination? – actually, no, Rota (1911-1979) lived entirely in the 20th century Desyatnikov was born in 1955 but what these composers have in common is not just the century they lived in but the way their work challenges what academic music had become.
This disc of pieces played by the pianist Polina Osetinskaya brings together the music of Giovanni (“Nino”) Rota and Leonid Desyatnikov. Nino Rota and Leonid Desyatnikov: a riposte to the 20th century
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