Born in 1944 in Zurich and known only by his first name, Adriano was heavily influenced by the style and choreography of masters such as Joseph Keilberth and Ernest Ansermet. He fully dedicated himself to conducting having studied architecture, the dramatic arts and having gained some experience as an actor and an avant-garde writer during the 1970s. Adriano specifically dedicated himself to several recordings of film music composed by Bernard Herrmann and Arthur Honegger, to name the best-known of them. He also participated as a technician for the remastering of some historic recordings of Toscanini and Furtwängler.
The Neapolitan composer Mario Pilati is one of a rare breed of Italian composers who exclusively composed instrumental music. Dying in 1938 at only 35 years old, he left us symphonic works, chamber music and pieces for the piano. A professor of counterpoint in Naples, he also taught composition in Palermo after teaching in Milan as well. His opus began to emerge in the 1930s, particularly at the Venice Biennale under the direction of Dmitri Mitropoulos, before slowly fading into obscurity after his death.
It is thanks to Adriano’s efforts since 2001 that his music is being rediscovered… and played. This album is the result of a long-winded project aiming to record Pilati’s complete orchestral works for the label Naxos. His music appears to reinterpret folkloric and traditional music, subscribing to resolutely neo-classical and neo-romantic style, a far cry from the research of musical novelty, a radical position which, for a long time, would have ostracised those who pursued it. © François Hudry