Mario Pilati (2 June 1903 – 10 December 1938) was an Italian composer. Pilati was born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, and his natural musical talent showed itself when he was very young. He entered the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella at the age of fifteen, studying under

Antonio Savasta Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...

. In 1925, on the advice of

Ildebrando Pizzetti Ildebrando Pizzetti (20 September 1880 – 13 February 1968) was an Italian composer of classical music, Musicology, musicologist, and Music criticism, music critic. Biography Pizzetti was born in Parma in 1880. He was part of the "Generation ...

, he went to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, where he worked as a teacher, music critic and an arranger of vocal scores for

Casa Ricordi Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Ro ...

until 1930, when he moved back to Naples to take up a professorship at the conservatory where he had been a student. In 1933 he accepted a post at the conservatory in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, returning to Naples in 1938, where he became ill and died just before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Works

Pilati's output is considerable given his few years of compositional maturity, and includes a Concerto for Orchestra (1932), premiered by

Dmitri Mitropoulos Dimitri Mitropoulos ( el, Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος; The dates 18 February 1896 and 1 March 1896 both appear in the literature. Many of Mitropoulos's early interviews and program notes gave 18 February. In his later interviews, howe ...

at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 1938, which shows modal influences of Respighi as well as a Mahlerian ländler in the finale. Other compositions include a Suite for Strings and Piano of 1925 and several chamber works. At his death he was working on an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, , to a libretto in Neapolitan dialect. Only the first act was completed. His work continued to be popular for some time after his death, but gradually waned until its rediscovery in the 1950s, when his long-lost was published for the first time. In 2001 the Swiss conductor

Adriano Adriano or Adrião is the form of the Latin given name ''Hadrianus'' commonly used in the Italian language; the form Adrian is used in the English language. Notable people with the name include: * Adriano Banchieri, Italian composer, music theori ...

released a series of Pilati's orchestral works, including the Concerto for Orchestra, with the

Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra ( sk, Symfonický orchester Slovenského rozhlasu, link=no), previously known as Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and CSR Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony radio orchestra based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Fo ...

and pianist Tomáš Nemec. on Marco Polo Records.

References

Sources

*Adriano (2001). Liner notes to Naxos 8.570873.

External links

Biography on naxos.comOfficial website (mainly in Italian)
1903 births 1938 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century Italian male musicians Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Musicians from Naples {{Italy-composer-stub