The Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola was born and spent his childhood in Istria, now part of Croatia. One of his most important musical influences was his first experience of Wagner during his family's internment in Graz in 1917. He later studied music in Trieste, and concert tours took him to Vienna and to London, leading to connections with Schoenberg and his circle. But it was during studies in Florence that a performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire influenced him to focus on composing rather than a career as a pianist. He later became one of the first Italian composers to absorb the principles of Schoenberg's 12-tone method of composition.
In Germany and later in Italy, Dallapiccola met with political opposition to his works, although his opera Volo di notte (Night Flight), based on Saint-Exupery's Vol de Nuit, had performances in both countries. After the war his Canti di prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment), with texts based on Mary Queen of Scots, Boethius and Savonarola, was performed in London. In 1950 his most famous work, the opera, Il prigionero (The Prisoner) was staged in Florence, then in Germany, boosting Italy's position in contemporary music. In the 1950s, Dallapiccola undertook teaching assignments in the United States, where his works were increasingly performed. He died in Florence in 1975.
His Tartiniana seconda (1956) is his second work based upon themes by Tartini. An earlier work, Sonatina canonica for piano (1946) is based on themes by Paganini. These works represent his interest in music of the past and his ability to reinterpret it in a modern context.
-- Kendall Briggs