Alfredo Casella

Italian composer Alfredo Casella (1883-1947) led the charge for early modernism in Italy and was admired by musicians ranging from Ottorino Respighi to John Cage. A superb pianist, a chamber musician with the Poltronieri Trio, and conductor, Casella established an international reputation through concerts, leading the Boston Pops for a time, and through his insightful work as a writer and theorist on music. Casella's return to Fascist Italy to support Mussolini in 1938 has overshadowed his legacy, but his orchestral pastiches Scarlattiana and Paganiniana are still played; pieces like his Pezzi infantili for piano are considered more typical of Casella's futuristic style.