The pianist, conductor and composer Giuseppe Martucci was an exceptional creator of Italian music active in the late 19th century. His student Ottorino Respighi declared that Martucci was the father of the renewal of Italian music, or, as he put it in his own words: "One might say that the new Italian school of music was founded by Giuseppe Martucci.” The second work of the evening is the series of variations composed in 1934 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, considered one of the most important pianists of the time, to commemorate the world's most virtuosic violinist, Niccolò Paganini. The programme concludes with a ‘postcard' from Richard Strauss's 1886 tour of Italy in the form of his symphonic poem Aus Italien, which also incorporates a treatment of Luigi Denza's popular Neapolitan song Funiculì, Funiculà.

Presented by: Hungarian Radio Art Groups