Conference For Francesco Degrada: Music Criticism and Italian Musicology in the Militant Years
Coordinated by Gianmario Borio, Adriana Guarnieri and Franco Piperno, this study day is the third stage in the series Musicology: Criticism, Philology and History: Remembering Francesco Degrada, jointly organised by the Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini, the Centro Studi Pergolesi and the University of Milan, to commemorate the Italian musicologist who died in 2005. Held in collaboration with the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello, the Venice meeting will cast light on the role played by Degrada in diffusing musical knowledge through his work at the Teatro La Scala, his relations with avant-garde composers and his organisation of festivals and concerts, seen through concert programmes and communications on the media – the subjects of papers by Cesare Fertonani and Alessandro Turba.
Degrada’s role in mediating between academic work and civic education took place in a politico-cultural context which may be described as militant. Papers by Carla Cuomo on Massimo Mila and Angela Carone on Roman Vlad will fill out this context and outline a season of great vitality for Italian culture. The conference will also include a talk by Mercedes Viale Ferrero and will begin with a round table on changes in music criticism over the last three decades, with Angelo Foletto, Mario Messinis, Giorgio Pestelli and Paolo Petazzi.