# Franco Donatoni



## Guest

RE: Mauricio Kagel - ...and just one more new guestbook for now...

_Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 - 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer.

Born in Verona, he started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local Music Academy. Later he studied at the Milan Conservatory and Bologna Conservatory.

He taught composition at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Milan Conservatory, and several other Academies and summer courses such as Darmstädter Ferienkurse and Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena.

His compositions have been conducted by Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Bruno Maderna, Salvatore Accardo, Alain Meunier and many others.

At least three generations of composers studied with Donatoni. Among his Italian pupils were Sandro Gorli, Matteo D'Amico, Roberto Carnevale, Giulio Castagnoli, Ivan Fedele, Luigi Manfrin, Giorgio Magnanensi, Luca Mosca, Riccardo Piacentini, Fausto Romitelli, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Alessandro Solbiati, Piero Niro, Giovanni Verrando, and among his foreign pupils Michael Dellaira, Pascal Dusapin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Magnus Lindberg, Katia Tiutiunnik, Javier Torres Maldonado, and Juan Trigos.

Donatoni died in Milan in 2000, wishing to work in his second book of his monumental "Arte della Fuga", for large orchestra, based on the original work of Johann Sebastian Bach._

Now here's a composer I haven't listened to much but would simply like to hear more about. He seems to have a pretty large catalog of works, but I mostly hear about him as a teacher of other composers (only just started listening to him after seeing his name one too many times with inaction - in the bio of Pascal Dusapin). Some of his works for chamber ensemble felt slightly unfulfilling for the mere fact that I felt like I could get a very similar vibe from various Boulez ensemble works. However, after pressing play on a volume of three orchestral works, including *In Cauda* for chorus and orchestra, *Portrait* for harpsichord and orchestra, and *Duo Pour Bruno* (simply for orchestra), I am finally convinced that I should persist.

Thoughts on Franco Donatoni?


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## dgee

I like Donatoni. He seems to me to have a delicate, playful but precise sensibility. I've enjoyed his piano works (like "Rima") and chamber works most (over orchestral works) with the jazzy "Hot" probably my favourite - here's a snippet, there's a great performance on spotify:






Here's a lovely link about him: http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/hot-franco-donatoni


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## Torkelburger

He was a wonderful composer. I don't know how much his popularity has dropped off since his death but his music deserves to be in the repertoire. I enjoy everything I've ever heard, my favorite probably being "Esa". I found his voice especially unique in the texture music style, somewhat refreshing in one of the more overexposed and saturated styles of the second half of the 20th century.


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## proclo

Spiri it is a joyful work by Donatoni.
In the 2nd link a nice and rare documentary on him ...in some footage the young Lindberg wen was his pupil.


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## starthrower

This cat wrote a lot of music. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Franco_Donatoni


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