"Bellezza" come imperativo pedagogico nell'Album für die Jugend, op. 68 (PDF)

Massimo Di Gesu, composer (1970)

Di Gesu gained the Diploma in Composition at the Milan Conservatory in 1995, where three years before had attained the Diploma in Piano after studying with Jole Mantegazza and Anita Porrini (pupil of Cortot and Benedetti MIchelangeli), and where refined his piano skills under the guidance of Valerio Premuroso.

In Massimo's research the attention to the avant-garde movement is filtered through the quest for a music syntax the organicity of which is synonymous with "perceptible necessity" of any element generating the symbolic dynamics of sound images.

So far, inestimable and inspirational collaborators in this pursuit of his have been such artists as La Scala String Quartet (La Scala Theatre, Serate Musicali di Milano), Peter Bradley-Fulgoni (St.Martin in the Fields - London, Salle Cortot - Paris, Skrjabin Museum and Richter Memorial Apartment- Moscow), Wiener Virtuosen (soloists from the Wiener Philharmoniker), Maurizio Simeoli, Ensemble Strumentale Scaligero (soloists from La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra), Duo Costa-Filistovich (Amici del Loggione della Scala - Milano), Trio Dansi (Bocconi University, Radio3RAI), Mariangela Vacatello (Carnegie Hall-New York), Duo Favalessa-Semeraro (Società Filarmonica di Trento), Arcturus Trio, I Virtuosi Italiani (University of Nottingham), etc.

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni, in the liner notes to the CD "PianOLYPHONY" (Foxglove Audio, spring 2012), wrote: "Di Gesu's music stands out in the doldrums of our present musical and cultural malaise."

From Quirino Principe's review of La Scala Theatre world premiere of "Verdigo" (Sole 24 Ore, 2/6/2013): "He is a composer working in a stylistic perspective of refined cultural reflection, focusing on the symbols hidden in the sound and in the musical syntax. [...] His work impressed the audience, even the youngest members of it, who are seldom used to "strong" music (which in this case, due to its emotional dramatic contrasts, was of the