Bruno Maderna composed his monumental Requiem in 1946. Long thought to have been lost, it has now been musicologically “exhumed” in a facsimile version of a manuscript score found in a US library in September 2006. In his introductory note to the facsimile score, Veniero Rizzardi relates how the manuscript was lost and found. Rizzardi also reconstructs the genesis of the composition, mainly by considering the composer’s correspondence. Bruno Maderna (1920-1973) wrote the Requiem just after the Second World War, when he was already seen as a leading member of “that young Italian school”, whose main reference point was Gian Francesco Malipiero. Indeed it was Malipiero who introduced the young Maderna to the American composer and critic Virgil Thomson on a visit to Venice. Greatly struck by the young Venetian’s score, Thomson wrote an enthusiastic article in the International Herald Tribune and made efforts so that the work would be performed in the United States. Maderna prepared a copy of the manuscript for Thompson but when the attempts to perform the Requiem on the other side of the Atlantic came to nothing, he did not bother to recover it. Written for four soloists, a double choir and large orchestra, Maderna’s Requiem may be considered not only a valuable contribution to the artist’s biography but, most importantly, a highly significant posthumous addition to the symphonic-choral repertoire of the 20th century.

Information
e-mail: ufficio.editoriale@cini.it