Piero Coppola
Italian conductor Piero Coppola was one of many twentieth-century baton wielders who was actually a closet composer. Like Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and more presently Claudio Abbado, Coppola's own music was and is little-known to general audiences who think of him only as a conductor. The major music references are divided as to whether he should be ranked a conductor, a conductor and composer, or a composer and conductor. There is, in fact, some question as to just how much music Coppola actually wrote during his lifetime. But there is little question that he was among the best of the "second-tier" Italian conductors (considering Toscanini to be the first tier) from World War I to his death in 1971.
Coppola was the son of tenor Vincenzo Coppola and Teresa Angeloni, a dramatic soprano. He studied music at the Conservatory in his hometown until taking his diploma (piano and composition) in 1910. It took him astonishingly little time to break into the business of conducting: In 1911 - 1912, he was already conducting at no less a venue than La Scala opera house. Just prior to the outbreak of World War I, Coppola was in Brussels conducting (opera again) and then, after a brief stay in England, he lived and worked in Scandinavia while the war ran its course. After the conflict ended, Coppola moved to France, where he became director of the recording company La Voix de son Maître (the French arm of HMV); he made a number of important records for the label during the late '20s and early '30s, including a disc of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with Prokofiev on the piano bench.
At Lausanne, from 1939 on, he distinguished himself in the conducting of French symphonic repertoire, working with l'Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the orchestra of Radio Lugano. He introduced and performed many contemporary works by diverse composers such as Arthur Bliss, Béla Bartók, André Caplet, Jean Cras, Arthur Honegger, Giacomo Puccini's Girl of the Golden West (1911), Alexandre Tcherepnin, and Edgard Varèse. He also interpreted certain classics, mainly of the Romantic period, and notably the works of Robert Schumann.
After World War II, Coppola limited his travels, and thus his conducting, to the countries immediately around France. His work conducting in opera houses moved Coppola to compose a pair of operas himself; neither, however, has ever been heard much. There is also a full-scale symphony and a handful of shorter works with his name on them.
© TiVo
Discography
14 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Conductor's Gallery, Vol. 11: Piero Coppola, George Enescu
National Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Piero Coppola, George Enescu
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 25 Aug 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto No. 3 / Vision Fugitives (Prokofiev) (1932, 1935)
Sergei Prokofiev, London Symphony Orchestra, Piero Coppola
Classical - Released by Naxos on 17 Oct 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 - Romeo & Juliet Suite No. 2
Sergei Prokofiev, Piero Coppola, London Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Symphonic Music - Released by Infinity on 8 May 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Conductor's Gallery, Vol. 10: Carlo Zecchi, Piero Coppola
London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Zecchi, Piero Coppola
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 25 Aug 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saens: Violin Concerto No. 3 / Danse Macabre / Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole / Concerto Russe (Merckel) (1930-1935)
Henri Merckel, Pasdeloup Orchestra, Piero Coppola
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 1 Apr 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Symphony No. 1 & 3 - Wagner: Parsifal - Orchestral excerpts - R. Strauss: Salome - Orchestral excerpts
Piero Coppola, National Symphony Orchestra -Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire - Orchestre des Concerts Pasdeloup
Symphonic Music - Released by Infinity on 8 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piero Coppola conducts Saint-Saens (1930-1935)
Orchestre de la Société des Conservatoires, Piero Coppola, Henry Merckel
Classical - Released by Classical Moments on 17 Jun 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Airs d'opéras et d'opéras-comiques (Mono Version)
Fanny Heldy, Piero Coppola, Piero Coppola Orchestra
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Conductor's Gallery, Vol. 10: Carlo Zecchi, Piero Coppola
London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Zecchi, Piero Coppola
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 25 Aug 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Ibéria, Estampes, La mer & Nocturnes
Classical - Released by Revolver Records on 5 Aug 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Pièces pour piano (Remastered, Mono Version)
London Symphony Orchestra, Piero Coppola, Sergei Prokofiev
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Pièces pour piano (Mono Version)
London Symphony Orchestra, Piero Coppola, Sergei Prokofiev
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Conductor's Gallery, Vol. 11: Piero Coppola, George Enescu
National Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Piero Coppola, George Enescu
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 25 Aug 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of a Legend: Sergei Prokofiev, Vol. 3
Julius Katchen, Sergei Prokofiev, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, London Symphony Orchestra, Ernest Ansermet, Piero Coppola
Classical - Released by Intense Media GmbH on 5 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo