Pratella Ensemble - Pratella: Opere da camera (2022)

Francesco Balilla Pratella, one of the most important and eclectic figures of the early-twentieth- century cultural scene in Italy, moulded his life to the constant pursuit of spiritual ascension and the quest for the essence of man. For him, these conditions were indispensable for achieving the 'humanised re-creation of the world', the primary, essential goal of an artist-creator: 'Creation, in an absolute sense, is not a human faculty; we cannot add or remove anything in the universe. But we can humanly re-create the universe, that is, translate it and re-express it with images and values that are essentially human. This is what art is, and this is what life is: a human re-creation of the world in its terms and values, and only for man: a humanisation of the world.' So he re-created the world, his world, untiringly dividing himself between musical composition, teaching, the passionate study of folk traditions, and the writing of hundreds and hundreds of theoretic, critical, musical-aesthetic and philosophic texts. The Pratella Ensemble is the interpreter of this production that collects a varied anthology of the composer's chamber production: lieder, instrumental and choral pages that reflect the work and life of a highly original author, protagonist of a historical and cultural moment - that of the futurism - of great experimentation and artistic travail.