La (ri)nascita dei Giusti nell’«opera della felicità»: intorno alla genesi del Settimo Concerto di Petrassi

Abstract

The essay reconstructs the genesis of Goffredo Petrassi’s Settimo
Concerto (1964) from the study of the manuscripts and sketches kept in the Fondo
Petrassi (FP) at the Campus Internazionale di Musica di Latina: the autograph
manuscript of the Prologo e cinque Invenzioni (1962) and the notes for the Prologo;
the draft of the theatrical score from Camus’ Les Justes. Taking into account the
author’s testimony about the Settimo Concerto and its abandoned antecedent (the
Prologo e cinque Invenzioni), as well as the special friendship between Petrassi and
Massimo Mila, it has been possible to highlight the rescue of at least part of the
material preserved in the ’62 manuscript within the sketch of I giusti (1962) and
subsequently the score of Musica di ottoni (1963), before the final landing within
the penultimate concerto of Petrassi’s successful series. The essay is completed
by three appendices, each containing the relevant correspondence preserved in
Petrassi’s Epistolario and all the press reviews relating to the first performances of
the Settimo Concerto in the two-year period 1965-66.