Amazon customer review of “Italia”

November 13th, 2010 Uncategorized

5 stars – Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Expressive and Rich, October 4, 2010
By HitsToClassics
This review is of: Italia (Audio CD)

This is serious contemporary chamber music at its best. Cacioppo is a contemporary American composer who loves Italy. He writes in an idiom that sounds “modern” although I am not able to analyze what he is doing technically. There is discord and sections with unusual rhythmic intensity. But the music, evoking traditional Italian scenes, is expressive, even romantic in spots. At times busy, at times lyrical, it grows on you. At one point, in the section evoking the Piazza San Marco, a festive popular dance struggles to emerge before fading back into the denser texture. The three separate pieces all have this same quality. The first, “Impressione Venexiane,” is played by a string quartet, the second, “Sulla Via dei Sette Ponti” is played by Matthew Bengtson, piano; the third, “Colomba scarlatta della Libia” features a variety of instruments. Very fine music.