Ferrero and Ricordi: a 30 year long journey

Lorenzo Ferrero, composer, organiser, teacher is one of the protagonists of Italian musical life over the last 30 years. Along with a group of other composers born in the 1950s, he belongs to a generation that of musicians that struggled with finding a balance between the past and the future of music. It is for 30 years now that Lorenzo Ferrero have shared his artistic journey with Casa Ricordi. To mark this milestone, the Ricordi Committee decided to ask him a few questions on his musical career and how his profession has changed over the years.

- How and when did you decide to become a composer?

In a very simple way. At home there was a pianoforte. I was made to take piano lessons, but I was an awful student: as soon as I learnt something new, I would start “inventing” other things rather than studying. This was when I was six and seven. At middle school I used to write notes all the time, even if it made no sense, just because I enjoyed doing it. I continued in such a disorganised manner until I went to grammar school. It was there that I grabbed the attention of a person (a pastor from Valdese) who showed me his notes on composing music. It was at that time that I realised that this was what I was destined to do and so I abandoned my other great passion – painting. Later I met many important people like Massimo Bruni, Enore Zaffiri (one of the fathers of electronica music in Italy), Massimo Mila, Gianni Vattimo (who at the time was teaching at Estetica) and many others like Josef Anton Riedl (Orff’s apprentice) to the king of Baviera, who completed this journey.

- How did your meeting with Casa Ricordi come about?

My first meeting was in the autumn of 1975 at Stiriano with Ludwig Hinterschweiger, who was then the head of Ricordi Monaco. One of my pieces for vocals and the synthesiser had attracted his attention. The following meeting I had was in Italy with Francesco Degrada, followed by another with Mimma Guastoni. The first piece was an uncertain piece called Ellipse II, for the clavichord, an instrument that found again during a forced break after a car accident in Alsazia. Since then I have published nearly everything with Ricordi.

- What was the contemporary music arena like in Italy, 30 years ago?

A particular thing about my debut was that I started first in France, Austria and Germany rather than in Italy. There were contemporary music festivals springing up everywhere, and the avant-garde performers presented their freshly printed work. It was extremely stimulating in a very cosmopolitan environment. The very fact of being young gave you credibility and made you be heard by critics. If I remember well, one of my pieces was presented at the 1976 biennial and was reviewed by at least 30 international heads of state. I was only 25 years old.

- What do you deem to be the biggest changes between now and then?

Almost everything is worse: resources, opportunities, media attention, availability for young people. There is however the growth of a new reality, many confident with mixed programmes (classical, jazz, ethnic, pop), they do present a solution, because there is still confidence and the availability of resources from big institutions, even like the corrective and excessive market, transient mode dominates the big companies.

- What advice would you give to a young person who want to become a cult music composer?

Seek to write good music above all, "regardless”, with a good understanding of aesthetics. Learn languages. Gain experience from everything even if it is organised, to understand the world in which you live in. After all it is life, the occasions and affinities that decide to place them in the “cult music” box or another. We live in a time where everything is fast changing and technological. Almost always, history has created its own duties mixing opinions and the contemporary resulting at times in surprising results.

- What in, your opinion, will the role of publishers be in the future?

I have been in time to see the almost handmade editor-printers. Today the situation has completely changed. I see publishers of the future have to spend more efforts on promotion, whilst composers particularly the younger ones will be releasing their music on the internet in real time. I believe that this is a process that commenced 30 years ago, when publishers, like during Verdi’s time, sent paper on which one was supposed to write. But humanity, heat, trust will not all be lost, the guidance that this old type of publisher knows to give you is a particular type of profession that is a bit like “mission impossible”, that has not adapted well to change and that has all to loose, through a rigid application of a managerial recipe that has gained value in other fields.

- Biography

Born in Turin in 1951, he studied music with Massimo Bruni and Enore Zaffiri and philosophy (aesthetics) with Gianni Vattimo at the University of Turin.

The predominant part of his creative activity has been dedicated to the opera: at Rimbaud, a three act opera, following Marylin at the Rome Opera in 1980, The Wizard’s Daughter, an opera for kids, Our Sea, a funny opera, Night at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Salvatore Giuliano at the Rome Opera in 1986, Charlotte Corday, a three act opera at the Tome Opera in 1989 and Le Bleu-blanc-rouge et le Noir, a puppet opera, based on Anthony Burgess’ text, at the Autumn Festival, Paris, 1989 and the Birth of Orfeo, a theatrical action in one act, which was commissioned by the Verona Arena - 1996. His latest opera L’ultima opera, La conquista (the Conquest) is on the tragic end of the Aztecs, and was shown at the Prague National Theatre in 2005. His works are continuously shown at theatres in Italy, Germany, France, Finland and the USA. In Italy La Scala, the Rome Opera Theatre, San Carlo Theatre Naples, Teatro Comunale Florence, Staatstheater Kassel, Bayerische Staatsoper, Helsinki National Theatre, Palm Beach Opera, etc. are some of the theatres that his work has been staged at.

He collaborated with Carmelo Bene to create the music and stage for the Biennial Teatro.

He has written several compositions for orchestras, the pianoforte, and other arrangements. Amongst the works that he has written for other instruments: concerto for the piano and orchestra, concerto for the pianoforte, cello, violin, pianoforte and orchestra, love songs for vocals and nine instruments, music for quartets and even string quartets, parody for 14 instruments, La Nueva España, six symphonic poems for orchestras.

In 1993 he along with six other composers wrote a Requiem for the victims of the Mafia, which was performed at the Palermo Cathedral and broadcast on Rai Tre.

In 1994 he completed the instrument section of the third version of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Rondine, which premiered at the Turin Regional Theatre.

In 1997 he wrote the music for the inaugural ceremony of the Skiing World Championships at Sestrières.

He has even dedicated himself to the organisation of musical events taking over the role of artistic director at the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago, Turin Musical Union and the Arena Verona. In 1999 he was director of music 2000, at the Turin music exhibition. From 1999 to 2003 he was the co-founder and artistic coordinator of the Milan Music Festival. Since 2003 he has been the director general and later also the artistic director of the symphonic section for the Ravello Festival.