Franco Casavola - Futurlieder

28 tracks. LTM is proud to present Futurlieder, the very first dedicated album of music by the leading Italian Futurist composer, theorist and writer Franco Casavola. Born near Bari in 1891, Franco Casavola was invited to join the Futurist movement by F.T. Marinetti in 1922. Casavola wrote a number of scores for theatre productions, including the mechanical ballets Anihccam del 3000 and Fantasia Meccanica. He also wrote a number of essays and manifestoes on future music, and Futurist novel, Introduction to Madness. Casavola broke with Futurism in 1927, and afterwards scored movies. He died in Bari in 1955. Although Franco Casavola claimed to have destroyed all his Futurist scores in 1927, recent research has proved otherwise. Futurlieder gathers together short Futurist pieces such as Dance of the Monkeys (Hop Frog), Zoological Foxtrot, Epileptic Cabaret and Campari (one of the first published advertising jingles). in addition the 66 minute CD includes longer song cycles such as Tankas, Liriche, La sera and Gioielleria notturna, all of which are later works (though still avowedly Modernist), and include settings of lyrics by the poet Gabriele d'Annunzio. All 28 tracks on Futurlieder are previously unreleased and were recorded by virtuoso Italian duo Daniele Lombardi (piano) and Susanna Rigacci (soprano) between 1994 and 2004. The tracks were produced by Carlo Piccardi for Radio Svizzera/Rete-Due, with whom this CD is a co-production. The cover art is based on a 1932 design by Fortunato Depero.