The Coronavirus did not stop the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Luciano Chailly (Ferrara, 1920 – Milano, 2002), and all the commemorative performances and events for this milestone. See this article from Casa Ricordi’s January newsletter for a brief rundown of his life and work.

It is with pleasure that we recall and now present video installments of the conferences coordinated by three institutions based in Trento – the University of Trento’s Department of Humanities and Philosophy, the Philharmonic Society of Trento, and the Pro-vincial Archives of Trento – with the support of Casa Ricordi. Musicians and musicologists take on Chailly’s polyhedric artistic personality, as they discuss the composer’s musical language, his copious output – which ranges from musical theater to sacred music, from jazz to his vast and significant production of works for piano and chamber ensembles – and his commitment to teaching and organizing musical events for prestigious Italian institutions.

The conferences put the spotlight on Chailly’s keen attention to innovation in terms of musical languages. He was as immune to avant-garde dogma as he was to facile neoclassical and neoromantic enthusiasm. Nor would he stand for crowd-pleasing simplifications. Chailly was a communicative composer, without for-going complexity. He was also an intellectual who was very much attuned to the issues and problems that rocked and shaped the world in which he lived.

Episodes in this series will be released one at a time, a new one every two weeks, on the University of Trento’s Department of Humanities and Philosophy’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Watch the full playlist on YouTube

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