The Casagrande Piano Competition that illuminates Terni
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In the era of “pianist-composers”, international piano competitions are increasingly important because they help to discern between “real” talents and media operations. Considered one of the major competitions in the world, the Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Terni has declared the winner of the thirty-second edition to the British pianist Yuanfan Yang, second place to the American Samuel Glicklich, third place to the Italian Serena Valluzzi.
The jury was chaired by Carlo Guaitoli, with Jerome Rose, Yuka Imamine, Piers Lane, Enrica Ciccarelli Mormone and other famous pianists. The competition is a member of the Alink – Argerich Foundation and has been won in the past by great artists including Ivo Pogorelich, Alexander Lonquich, Boris Petrushansky.
Terni
The Casagrande Competition has the merit not only of remembering the composer-pianist, who died at the age of just forty-two but of looking at the cultural and artistic soul of Terni: from the ancient palaces to the architecture of the Fascist period to that of the post-war period.
Music and architecture
Born one hundred years ago in Terni Alessandro Casagrande, pianist, conductor, is the author of compositions for piano still in the hall programs today; among his works the symphonic poem “14 Aminta”, among the compositions of sacred music is the elaboration of the “Psalm 121 Laetatus sum” by Pergolesi and “The Annunciation for soprano, tenor, choir of children and chamber orchestra” ; and then music for ballet including “Fantasie su Pinocchio” and soundtracks written in the 1950s such as “Penne Nere” by Biancoli and “The daughter of Mata Hari” by Nerusi-Gallone. Her hometown echoes in her music like the Zodiac fountain, in Piazza Tacito, which probably inspired Casagrande’s piano sonatas “The Signs of the Zodiac”; it is the emblem of the city’s steelworks, the stem is in stainless steel, the monument has very rigorous lines, it was built in the years of Rationalism, between 1932 and 1936, based on a project by Mario Fagiolo and Mario Ridolfi. The painter Corrado Cagli gives the fountain a soul by drawing the signs of the zodiac in the center with polychrome decorations in Venetian glass. Same style, same architect Ridolfi, protagonist of the post-war reconstruction, creating architectural jewels between the 1960s and 1980s and the Franconi, Chitarrini and Pallotta houses, the Fontana complex, the Briganti and Staderini palaces, the De Bonis houses, the Leonardo da Vinci middle school, while in Marmore, not far from Terni, he designed the Lina house.
Music and landscape
Valnerina was crossed by travelers on the Grand Tour, obligatory stops: Ponte del Toro built between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD and the Marmore Falls; places painted, among others, by Corot and celebrated by Lord Byron, The powerful and harmonious sound of the waterfall seems to resonate in “Ninfea, work in two acts and a choreographic action” by Alessandro Casagrande. The “Crying of the sung Madonna, for chorus and orchestra only” on a text by Jacopone da Todi, written by the author from Terni was performed in world premiere in 1970 at the Sagra Musicale Umbra Festival; a lofty musical testament in which the artist expresses awareness of imminent death and love for his land. Since 2008 all the material of the Casagrande Archive has been kept in the State Archive of Terni.
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