Roberto Cacciapaglia
Having released albums ranging from avant-garde music to delicate solo piano to film scores and collaborations with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and from electronic experiments to structured dance music and Italian art rock, to call the output of composer and pianist Roberto Cacciapaglia wide-ranging may seem like an understatement. He began recording in the 1970s with the experimental electronic-orchestral hybrid Sonanza (1975). He released a recording of his first opera, Generazioni del Cielo, in 1986. Drawing on pop, opera, art rock, and dance music for a set of song covers, the ambitious Angelus Rock was among his releases in the '90s, and Cacciapaglia concentrated more and more on orchestral piano compositions as the 2000s wore on, as represented on his 2009 album, Canone degli Spazi. A live collection, Live from Milan, saw release in 2011, a year before his orchestral score for the historical film The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683 appeared, whereas 2015's Tree of Life fused experimental electronic music, melodic piano, and vocal music with backing from the RPO. In 2023, he paired with cutting-edge chamber ensemble i Virtuosi Italiani for Invisible Rainbows, a dynamic set of piano music that encompassed lush romantic, sentimental, and stately tracks.
Born in Milan, Italy on December 28, 1959, Roberto Cacciapaglia studied composition under the tutelage of Bruno Bettinelli at the Milan Conservatory (then known as the Conservatorio di Musica "Giuseppe Verdi"). He also studied electronic music and conducting. Cacciapaglia went on to work at RAI’s Studio of Musical Phonology and studied the use of computer applications in music in collaboration with National Research Council of Pisa.
In 1974, he recorded Sonanze for the German label Ohr. Issued in 1975, it was the first quadraphonic LP to be released in Italy. A highly inventive work, it integrated classical tradition with electronic experimentalism and brought him into contact with acts including Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream. His experimental chamber work Sei Note in Logica, featuring Ensemble Garbarino and arranged for voice, orchestra, and computer, followed in 1979 on Philips. That year also brought The Ann Steel Album, a set of electronic art pop produced by Cacciapaglia and released on Italian label Durium.
In the meantime publishing and premiering music in forms including ballet, Cacciapaglia's first recording of the '80s was 1986's Generazioni del Cielo ("Generations of the Sky"), an opera in two acts with libretto by Giada Manca Di Villahermosa. In 1988, his set of five elegies, Lamentazioni di Geremia ("Lamentations of Jeremiah") were performed at the International Festival of Tel Aviv, which commissioned the work. That year, he performed In C in concert with its composer, Terry Riley, at Italy's Aterforum of Ferrara and premiered his own ballet-pantomime, Il Segreto dell'Alba ("The Secret of the Dawn"). His second opera, Un Giorno X, was staged at the Conservatorio of Milan in 1990. A highly eclectic progressive rock album, Angelus Rock, appeared on Polydor in 1992. Subtitled A Tribute to Ten Rock Angels, it included covers of Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, and Elvis Presley, among seven others. Essentially an Italian-language pop album, Tra Cielo e Terra followed on CGD East West/Warner in 1996.
His touring schedule as well as his recording frequency picked up in the 2000s, with the dance-oriented Arcana appearing on BMG in 2001. It was composed, performed, and produced by Cacciapaglia. Released on the same label in 2003, the mercurial Tempus Fugit combined elements classical, solo piano, experimental electronic, and dance music. He followed that with the more serene, piano-centered Incontri con l'Anima in 2005. Two albums of orchestral piano music recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Quarto Tempo and Canone Degli Spazi, were released by Universal in 2007 and 2009, respectively.
He started the 2010s with the release of a third collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic, Ten Directions, issued on Glance with distribution by Sony. November of 2011 brought the double album Live from Milan (Glance/Sony), which collected live performances from between September 2007 and July 2011, both with and without an orchestra. Next up for the composer was an orchestral film score for the war drama The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683 (2012). That year, Cacciapaglia also founded the Educational Music Academy with the aim to prepare young musicians for careers in the field. In 2013, he composed "Antartica" for an expedition to the European Space Agency's Concordia base. Issued on Glance/Decca/Universal, 2014's Alphabet was recorded in the Sala Verdi of the Conservatory of Milan, having been first performed at the city's Royal Palace. His next album, Tree of Life, combined piano, electronic, vocal, and orchestral music (with appearances by the RPO) and doubled as a soundtrack to the Tree of Life EXPO 2015 in Milan. The following year's Atlas: Roberto Cacciapaglia Collection (Believe Digital) collected nearly two hours of select tracks.
In honor of Earth Day 2017, Cacciapaglia performed concerts in Rome and Bologna. That year also saw the release of a Tenth Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Quarto Tempo. Celebration Tour 2018 took the pianist throughout Russia, including stops in Moscow and Siberia, before continuing across Europe and to the U.S. and China. It included a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. That year, he recorded Diapason (Believe, 2019) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London. It was accompanied by a solo piano version of the album and followed by another worldwide tour.
Cacciapaglia emerged with his first music from the COVID-19 pandemic era in 2023. Released by the Last Music Company, Invisible Rainbows was a collaboration with i Virtuosi Italiani, an ensemble known for performing on original Baroque- and Classical-period instruments.
© Marcy Donelson /TiVo
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Days of Experience
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Tra Cielo e Terra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 05.05.1996
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Roberto Cacciapaglia: Celestial (The Lost Album)
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Sei Note In Logica (para Cuatro Voces , Grupo Instrumental Y Computadora)
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Tempus Fugit
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Atlantico
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Pop - Erschienen bei Universal Music Italia srL. am 12.01.2024
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Boy Who Dreamed Aeroplanes
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 17.11.2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Arcana
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 13.03.2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tree of Life Suite
Roberto Cacciapaglia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 01.05.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Incipit / Moz-Art K.488 ReComposed
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 04.04.2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gratitude (Piano Solo)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 18.01.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frequency of Love
Roberto Cacciapaglia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Michele Fedrigotti, Jacopo Facchini
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 18.01.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Graffi
Gio Evan, Roberto Cacciapaglia
Pop - Erschienen bei Universal Music Italia srL. am 12.01.2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Innocence
Roberto Cacciapaglia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Michele Fedrigotti, Jacopo Facchini
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 11.01.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Farthest Star (Piano Solo)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glance di Roberto Cacciapaglia am 20.12.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo