Petrassi Goffredo

1904 Goffredo Petrassi is born on 16th July at Zagarolo, near Palestrina (Rome province).

1911 Hís family moves to Rome.

1913 Petrassi is admitted to the Schola cantorum of San Salvatore in Lauro, where he remains until the age of fourteen.

1919 He finds a job in a music store, which he keeps until 1930.

1925 Petrassi begins studying harmony wíth Vincenzo Di Donato.

1928 He passes the examination for admission to the Santa Cecilia Conservatory ín Rome, where he studies composition with A. Bustíni and organ wíth F. Germani.

1932 He completes the course in composition. His Partita per orcbestra wins an Italían as well as an international competition. Casella conducts the piece at the ISCM Festival in Amsterdam, in June 1933.

1934 Petrassí completes his first Concerto for orchestra, and starts working on Salmo IX.

1935 Casella conducts the Partita in Moscow and Leningrad. Petrassi attends Bernardino Molinari's conducting course at tbc Santa Cecilia Academy. In September of that year he conducts Introduzione e Allegro for violín and 11 instruments at the XIII ISCM Festival in Prague.

1937 Petrassi is appointed superintendent of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, a post he holds for three years. He starts working on the Magnìficat.

1942 He composes La follía di Orlando and Inni sacri.

1944 He starts working on Il Cordovano, adapted from a Cervantes intermezzo translated into Italian by Eugenio Montale.

1946 The suite from his ballet Ritratto di Don Cbisciotte is performed at the Venice music festival.

1947 In April La follia di Orlando is presented at La Scala; in November the Ballets des Champs Elysées stage Ritratto di Don Chisciotte in Paris.

1949 La Scala gives the world première of Il Cordovano.

1950 Première of Morte dell'Aria, at the Teatro Elíseo in Rome.

1951 At the Internatíonal Festival of Strasbourg, Mario Rossi conducts the premíère ofNoche Oscura. That summer Petrassí holds a course in composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

1952 Paul Sacher commissions the Secondo Concerto for orchestra, for the twentyfifth anníversary of tbc Basler Kammerorchester. Petrassi goes to London to conduct his works for the BBC.

1953 He goes on tour in Latin America, conducting, among others, a cóncert dedicated to his own work at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires. At the Festival of Aix-en-Provence Hans Rosbaud conducts the first performance of Récréation Concertante, commissioned by the Südwestfunk of Baden Baden.

1954 In honour of Petrassi's fiftieth birthday, many Italian and foreign journals publish artícles dedicated to him. He is appointed Presídent of the international ISCM, a position he holds until 1956. The Boston Symphony Orchestra commissíons the Quinto Concerto for orchestra, and the world première, conducted by Charles Munch, is given during Petrassi's first visit to the United States in 1955.

1956 Petrassi pays a second visit to the United States, invited by the Koussevitzky Foundation and the U.S. State Department to teacb a composition course at the Berkshire Music Festival in Tanglewood. He visits tbc major American cities. The first performance of the Quarto Concerto, commissioned by the Italian Television, is given in Rome.

1957 At the Albert Hall, in London, the première of Invenzione concertata, commissioned by the BBC.

1958 Petrassi ís made a member of West Berlin's Akademíe der Kùnste. World première, at the Venice Festival, of his String Quartet performed by the Parrenin Quartet.

1959 Petrassi tours Japan in the capacity of both composer and conductor. La Scala stages the second version of Il Cordovano. First performance of Serenata at the Tel Aviv Museum in January 1959.

1960 Petrassi is appoínted head of the advanced composition department at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, and occupies this position until 1978.

1961 Petrassi's String Trio, commissioned by the Library of Congress, is performed in Washington, D.C. First performance, at Hamburg, of the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, commissioned by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, and conducted bv Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt; the flutist ís Severino Gazzelloni. The Concerto will subsequently also be conducted by Pierre Boulez at The Hague and Cologne, by Zubin Mehta at Munich, and by the composer himself at Manchester and at the 1966 Venice Festiva].

1962 In April Petrassi presents Propos d'Alain at the Venice Festival. He devotes increasing time and effort to conducting, and conducts the Magnificat for the first time at the Berliner Philbarmonie.

1963 He is nominated to the Académie Royale de Belgique.

1964 For the composer's sixtieth birthday, the First Volume of the Musical Review, dedicated to the work of Goffredo Petrassi, is publísbed.

1965 Petrassi conducts his Quinto Concerto, with the Berliner Philharmoniker. In March, his Settimo Concerto is performed in Bologna, in the context of a review of music dedicated to the Italian Resistence movement.

1966 Hís Mottetti per la Passione are performed in Siena. The Hopkins Center of Hanover, U.S.A., commissíons Estri, premièred there in August 1967.

1967 World premíère, at Siena, of Tre per sette. From 1966 to 1968 Petrassi teaches the summer composition courses at the Accademia Chigiana in Síena.

1968 At the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Aurel M. Mílloss coreographs a ballet version of Estri, conducted by Luciano Berio.

1969 In April, Gazzelloni performs Souffle at the Festival of Royan. In July, Beatitudines is premíèred at Fiuggi.

1970 First performance of Ottetto di Ottoni at the Juilliard School of New York, which commissíoned the work.

1972 In Chicago, Carlo Maria Giulini conducts the première of the Ottavo Concerto, commissioned by the Chícago Symphony Orchestra. Elogio per un'ombra and Nunc are performed at the Biennale Festival in Venice.

1975 In June, Piero Bellugí conducts the Settimo Concerto at La Scala. Première, in December, of Orationes Christi at the RAI of Rome, conducted by Zdenec Macal. Petrassi ís named a member of the Akademie der Kùnste of Berlin.

1976 The University of Bologna grants Petrassi an honorary graduate degree. In April, Il Cordovano ís performed at New York's Juilliard School, and in May, Boulez conducts theSettimo Concerto wíth the New York Philharmonic.

1977 The Settimo Concerto is performed at La Scala in a ballet version coreographed by A.M. Milloss, under the títle Rivolta di Sisifo. Petrassi is named an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters of New York, and a full member of the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes of Buenos Aires. At London, Zoltán Peskó conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Petrassi's Ottavo Concerto.

1978 The Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awards Petrassi the International "Antonio Feltrinelli" prize for music. World premíère of Alias at Siena, during the Senese Musical Week. Petrassi ís made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of Boston, and a corresponding member of the Bayerische Akademíe of Munich.

1979 In October, world première, in Paris, of Grand Septuor, a work commissioned by Radio France. In December, Peskó completes bis recording of Petrassi's Concerti per orchestra (witb the Philharmonia Hungarica, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the RAI Symphony Orchestra of Milan). Petrassi is made an honorary professor of the Ferenc Liszt Musical Academy of Budapest. At Rome, Petrassi's seventy-fifth birthday is celebrated at the Campidoglio in Rome, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic.

1980 During the Sienese Musical Week, Flou for harp and Violasola are premièred. At Madrid in July, Petrassi is elected a member of the Academy de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, on the occasion of the celebration, tbere, of the composer's seventy-fifth bírthday.

1980 Poema for strings and trumpets, a work commissioned by the Radiotelevisione Italiana, is performed at the Venice Festival of the Biennale.

1982 World première at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena of Sestína d'Autunno for 6 instruments dedicated to the memory of Igor Strawinsky. During the Sagra Musicale Umbra first performance in Assísi of Laudes Creaturarum for voce recitante and 6 instruments.

1984 Inno for 12 brass instruments, written to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Latina province, has its world première at the Festival Pontino, Castello di Sermoneta. Petrassi's eíghtieth birthday is celebrated with monographic concerts embracing symphonic, choral and chamber orchestra works and stage performances in many Italian towns.

1985 He is awarded "Prince Pierre de Monaco" Prize (Principauté de Monaco).

1990 The University "La Sapienza" in Rome grants Goffredo Petrassi an honorary graduate degree.

2003 The composer dies in Rome. 

For more detailed information on the works of Goffredo Petrassi, see the Catalogo delle opere e bibliografia, edited by Lisa Monna and Claudio Annibaldi and publisbed by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, Milan.