Fabio Vacchi (; born February 19, 1949), is an Italian composer.

Biography

Training and debut

Fabio Vacchi studied at the

Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini The Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini (previously known as the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, and sometimes referred to in English as the Bologna Conservatory) is a college of music in Bologna, Italy. The conservatory opened on 3 December 180 ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

with

Giacomo Manzoni Giacomo Manzoni (born Milan 26 September 1932) is an Italian composer. He studied composition from 1948 in Messina with Gino Contilli, and continued his studies from 1950 to 1956 at the Milan Conservatory. In 1955 he obtained a doctorate in ...

and Tito Gotti. In 1974 he participated in the courses of the

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

Festival in the United States, where he was awarded the Koussevitzky Prize in Composition. In 1976 he won first prize at the Gaudeamus Composition Competition in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, with the work ''Les soupirs de Geneviève'' for 11 string soloists. In the same year, he wrote ''Sinfonia in quattro tempi'', conducted by

Giuseppe Sinopoli Giuseppe Sinopoli (; 2 November 1946 – 21 April 2001) was an Italian conductor and composer. Biography Sinopoli was born in Venice, Italy, and later studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice under Ernesto Rubin de Cervi ...

for 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 ...

Festival, which thereafter dedicated to him two monographic concerts in 1979 and 1981. In

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, where he lived from 1984 to 1992, he met and was supported by

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono beg ...

, who invited him at the Experimentalstudio der Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung, Freiburg.

From the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino to the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berliner, the Gewandhaus and the Carnegie Hall

Vacchi made his debut at the

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (English: Florence Musical May) is an annual Italian arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival, under the auspices of the Opera di Firenze. The festival occurs between late April into June annual ...

Festival in 1982 with ''Girotondo'', an opera whose libretto was adapted from

Arthur Schnitzler Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. Biography Arthur Schnitzler was born at Praterstrasse 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire (as of 1867, part of the dual monarchy ...

. Following this opera came ''Il Viaggio'' (

Teatro Comunale di Bologna The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season. While there had been various theatres presenting opera in Bologna since the early 1 ...

, text by

Tonino Guerra Antonio "Tonino" Guerra (16 March 1920 – 21 March 2012) was an Italian poet, writer and screenwriter who collaborated with some of the most prominent film directors in the world. Life and work Guerra was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna. Acco ...

), – in the same year, 1990, when he attended the New York Festival of Contemporary Music with ''L'usgnol in vatta a un fil'' - then ''La station thermale'', with a libretto by Myriam Tanant from Goldoni - produced at

Opéra de Lyon This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...

(1993), afterwards at La Scala and Opéra Comique de Paris (1995). He also wrote ''Sacer Sanctus'' (1997) for chorus and instruments, text by Giuseppe Pontiggia, "a work commissioned by La Scala (1997) and repeated at the Festival of Ravenna (1998), the Festival Présence 2002 in Paris and S. Cecilia in Rome in 2003", ''En Vinternatt'' (for a tournée - October–November 2001 - of the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sir Neville Marriner). For the musical theatre he has subsequently written ''Les oiseaux de passage'' (

, 1998–2001) and, in 2003, ''Il letto della Storia'', with a libretto by Franco Marcoaldi and stage direction by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. For this opera, he received the Abbiati Prize from the National Association of Italian Critics for the best new work of the year. The partnership with Marcoaldi has continued, bringing about such works as ''Terra comune'' (which, at the request of

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled '' Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

, inaugurated Rome's Auditorium Parco della Musica in 2002), ''Tre Veglie'' commissioned by the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...

(conducted in 2000 by Ivan Fischer, with Anna Caterina Antonacci), and the second opera for the Teatro alla Scala, ''Teneke'' (2007, chosen for the ''That's Opera event'', on the occasion of the bicentennial of Ricordi, curated by

Jean-Jacques Nattiez Jean-Jacques Nattiez (; born December 30, 1945 in Amiens, France) is a musical semiologist or semiotician and professor of musicology at the Université de Montréal. He studied semiology with Georges Mounin and Jean Molino and music semiolog ...

) conducted by

Roberto Abbado Roberto Abbado (born 30 December 1954, Milan) is an Italian opera and symphonic music conductor. Currently he is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed music director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia ...

, stage direction by Ermanno Olmi, with set design by

Arnaldo Pomodoro Arnaldo Pomodoro (born 23 June 1926) is an Italian sculptor. He was born in Morciano, Romagna, and lives and works in Milan. His brother, Giò Pomodoro (1930–2002) was also a sculptor. Pomodoro designed a controversial fiberglass crucifix fo ...

. Vacchi's music was again heard at the

in 2006, during the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, with a performance by

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra The Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; german: Wiener Philharmoniker, links=no) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its ...

under

Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti, (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He currently holds two music directorships, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale ...

of ''La giusta armonia'', a melologue with narrator and orchestra based on a text by the proto-socialist Franz Heinrich Ziegenhagen, who was a friend of Mozart. Worthy of mention is ''Voci di notte'' (2006), commissioned by the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, on the occasion of the 70th birthday of their conductor

Zubin Mehta Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta's father was the fou ...

. Mehta is one of many conductors, such as Berio, Chung, Harding, Marriner, Pappano, and, as already mentioned

Muti Muthi is a traditional medicine practice in Southern Africa as far north as Lake Tanganyika. Name In South African English, the word ''muti'' is derived from the Zulu/Xhosa/ Northern Ndebele ''umuthi'', meaning 'tree', whose root is ''-thi''. ...

and

Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...

, who have conducted Vacchi's music a number of times. In 2009 Riccardo Chailly conducted the symphonic melologue ''Prospero o dell’Armonia'' (by

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, Filarmonica della Scala) and in 2011 Tagebuch der Empörung (Leipzig, Gewandhaus Orchestra). Both the symphonic ''Mare che fiumi accoglie'', conducted by

Antonio Pappano Sir Antonio Pappano (born 30 December 1959) is an English-Italian conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Royal Opera House and of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He is scheduled to become chief c ...

at the

Parco della Musica Parco della Musica is a public music complex in Rome, Italy, with three concert halls and an outdoor theater in a park setting. It was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Jürgen Reinhold of Müller-BBM was in charge of acoustics for the h ...

in Rome, and the opera ''La madre del mostro'', based on a libretto by Michele Serra, date back to 2007.

Amos Oz Amos Oz ( he, עמוס עוז; born Amos Klausner; 4 May 1939 – 28 December 2018) was an Israeli writer, novelist, journalist, and intellectual. He was also a professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 1967 onw ...

wrote the libretto of the opera ''The Same Sea'' for Vacchi, from the novel of the same name, staged at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, with scenery by

Gae Aulenti Gaetana "Gae" Aulenti (; 4 December 1927–31 October 2012) was an Italian architect and designer who was active in furniture design, graphic design, stage design, lighting design, exhibition and interior design. She was known for her contrib ...

, in 2011. Again in collaboration with Amos Oz, he composed the melologue ''D’un tratto nel folto del bosco'', based on a text by Michele Serra from the novel of the same name (''Nestled deep in a thick forest'') by the Israeli writer, for the Festival Mito (which dedicated a monograph - the first Italian - to Vacchi, in 2014) of 2010. The melologue also travelled to Paris, in 2014 and in a French version (''Soudain dans la forêt profonde'', Comédie française, Salle Pleyel), with a CD by the Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, designed for schools in France. In 2015, he composed a symphonic poem, ''Der Walddämon'', again inspired by ''Nestled Deep in a Thick Forest'' by Amos Oz and commissioned by Riccardo Chailly, who conducted it at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In the same year, Vacchi directed the Atelier ''Opéra en création'' at the

Aix-en-Provence Festival The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental ...

, where his works were performed between 2014 and 2015, among which ''Dai calanchi di Sabbiuno'' conducted by P.Järvi in a concert dedicated to the memory of P.Chereau. In 2016 his ninth opera came out, ''Lo specchio magico'', based on a text by Aldo Nove (staged at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, conducted by John Axelrod) and ''Vencidos'' for voice and orchestra commissioned by the

Festival Internacional Cervantino The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), popularly known as ''El Cervantino'', is a festival which takes place each fall in the city of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico. The festival originates from the mid 20th century, when short play ...

, in Mexico, for the

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best kno ...

celebrations. In 2018 the

Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent ...

put on ''Eternapoli'', at the request of

Toni Servillo Marco Antonio Servillo (), known as Toni Servillo, is an Italian actor and theatrical director. He has won the European Film Award for Best Actor twice, in 2008 for both '' Gomorrah'' and ''Il Divo'' and in 2013 for ''The Great Beauty'', as wel ...

. Again in 2018, after the Concerto for violoncello at Petruzzelli di Bari, the Concerto for violin ''Natura naturans'' had its European première at the Opera of Budapest and its American première at the Carnegie Hall in New York, (conductor Balázs Kocsár, soloist Haruka Nagao). In February 2019 the Orchestra laVerdi of Milan devoted four monographic concerts to him, including the Italian première of Natura naturans.

Works of social commitment

Riccardo Muti conducted ''Diario dello Sdegno'' (Teatro alla Scala, 2003), written by Vacchi in the emotional aftermath of

11 September 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

and the international conflicts that followed. After its première in

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 ...

(2002), this piece was performed in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

(2003) and Bruxellels, during Italy's turn of holding the presidency of the European Union. Ethical themes have great significance for Vacchi and they are evident in other compositions of his, such as ''Irini'', ''Esselam'', ''Shalom'' (2004) for voice, violin and orchestra, which deals with the theme of religious tolerance. Another similar piece was ''Dai calanchi di Sabbiuno'' for chamber ensemble, which was composed for the Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the

Italian Resistance The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Socia ...

(Teatro alla Scala, 1995) and which has been performed more than 100 times around the world, also in the version for full orchestra requested by Claudio Abbado. Ethical themes are still central in other recent works. In 2017 the melologue ''Veronica Franco'' was performed at Teatro la Fenice in Venice, about the great Venetian poet, courtesan, and proto-feminist who defeated the Inquisition of the 16th century with her free spirit. The Teatro alla Scala will be staging in May 2020 the premiere of ''Madina'', Theater-Dance (whose text of Emmanuelle de Villepin focuses on the theme of terrorism), for actor, soprano, tenor, choir, orchestra and dance troupe with

Roberto Bolle Roberto Bolle (born March 26, 1975 in Casale Monferrato) is an Italian danseur. He is currently a ''principal dancer'' with the American Ballet Theatre and a principal dancer ''étoile'' at La Scala Theatre Ballet. Bolle also dances regularly ...

étoile, ''Was Beethoven African?'', inspired by Nadine Gardimer's anti-racism novel and commissioned by the

Philharmonie de Paris The Philharmonie de Paris () ( en, Paris Philharmonic) is a complex of concert halls in Paris, France. The buildings also house exhibition spaces and rehearsal rooms. The main buildings are all located in the Parc de la Villette at the northeaste ...

and the Paris Mozart Orchestra had been performed at the Philharmonie, Paris, on 18, 19, 20 September 2020, obligatory piece in the international competition ''La Maestra''. The mock-heroic opera ''Jeanne Dark'', from Voltaire's ''Pucelle d’Orléans'', that will be staged at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 22–26 May 2021, reflects his rebellion against dogmatic thinking. Again in May 2021, the melologue ''Beethoven l’Africain. Lettres de Prison de Nelson Mandela'', commissioned by PMO, will be performed at Philharmonie de Paris and then at Festival Internacional Cervantino, in Mexico

Chamber works and soundtracks

On a commission from Abbado, Vacchi composed ''Briefe Büchners'', a Lieder cycle which was performed by the

Berliner Philharmonie The Berliner Philharmonie () is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany, and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is o ...

in 1998. For the Hilliard Ensemble and the Barrow River Art Festival, he composed ''Memoria italiana'' in 2013. ''Luoghi immaginari'' were composed between 1987 and 1992 for various instrumental formations - performed many times, conducted also by

Daniel Harding Daniel John Harding (born 31 August 1975) is a British conductor. Biography Harding was born in Oxford. He studied trumpet at Chetham's School of Music and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra at age 13. At age 17, Harding assembled ...

in Salzburg Mozarteum or in the Festival of Italian Contemporary Music in Beijing - and was included, along with other works by Vacchi, in the soundtrack to ''Il Mestiere delle Armi'' (''The Profession of Arms'') by Ermanno Olmi. For this movie Vacchi was awarded the David di Donatello prize in 2002. 2005 saw him honoured again at The Albo D'Oro RDC Awards, for his music in

Patrice Chéreau Patrice Chéreau (; 2 November 1944 – 7 October 2013) was a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer. In France he is best known for his work for the theatre, internationally for his films '' La Reine Margot'' and ...

’s film Gabrielle. Also by Vacchi is the soundtrack to Olmi's latest works One Hundred Nails (2007), and ''Vedete, sono uno di voi'' (2017). The

Quartetto di Cremona The Quartetto di Cremona ( en, Cremona Quartet) is an Italian string quartet founded in Cremona and considered one of the best of its generation. Origins and activities The most recent incarnation of the quartet was formed in the year 2000, whi ...

has performed his four String Quartets many times. The ''Third String Quartet'' (2002), written for the Tokyo String Quartet, was awarded the Annual Lully Award in 2003 for the best new work of the year performed in the United States, and the ''Fourth Quartet'' (2004), was commissioned by RAI Radio for the 80th anniversary of Italian radio) and asked him to write the sixth, which will be performed at Società del Quartetto di Milano, 9 February 2021.

Other news

Worthy of mention is the recent ''Voci di notte'' (2006), commissioned and performed by the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, on occasion of the 70th birthday of their conductor

. For Beethoven celebrations of 2020, Vacchi has written ''Beethoven e la primavera ritrovata'' for orchestra, commissioned from Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and conducted by

Poetics

As Peter Korfmacher wrote in the Lepiziger Volkszeitung about his ''Tagebuch der Empörung'' at Gewandhaus, focusing on the events of 11 September 2001, "Vacchi does not describe any attack, nor war. His metaphysical approach is certainly comparable to that of Gustav Mahler: very diverse material is inserted into a broad range, so that meanings which may be felt on an emotional level but not expressible with words are revealed".

Style

Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...

defines his style "complex and not derivative, and capable of reaching the listener" and Jean Jacques Natties declares that his music "can furnish a sense of direction for composers in this new century. Thanks to Fabio Vacchi for having known how to chart – for the music enthusiast and the composer alike – an innovative course». So, "Vacchi’s music is characterized in particular by its quality of sound; fluid, refined and shimmering, subtly nuanced and suggestive of echoes and reverberations. The rigour of compositional procedures is tied to a concern to create a communicative idiom which takes into consideration the listener’s perceptive ability".Voice Fabio Vacchi in The New Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online: https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.44150

Prizes and acknowledgements

*Koussevitsky Prize in Composition (

, 1974) *The

Gaudeamus International Composers Award The Gaudeamus International Composers Award is made by the Gaudeamus Foundation. The prize is awarded yearly, to a young composer at Dutch music concert, ''Gaudeamus Muziekweek''. The Gaudeamus Foundation had held an annual music week of Dutch c ...

for the entry ''Les soupirs de Geneviève'' (

, 1976) * David di Donatello for Best Score of the year, for Ermanno Olmi’s The Profession of Arms (Rome, 2002) *Annual Lully Award for the best new work of the year performed in the United States, for the ''Third String Quartet'', commissioned by the

Tokyo String Quartet The was an international string quartet that operated from 1969 to 2013. The group formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music. The founding members attended the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where they studied with Professor Hideo ...

(2002) *The Abbiati Prize from the Associazione Nazionale Critici Musicali for the best new work of the year for the opera ''Il letto della storia'' (2003) *RDC Award for the best soundtrack, for

’s '' Gabrielle'' (2005) *Active Member of the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia ( en, National Academy of St Cecilia) is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints pro ...

*Honorary Member of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna