Hee You:Os Roma:La Vecchia - Casella: Symphony No.2

From the very first notes, with their tolling bells, Casella's Symphony No. 2 is deeply indebted to its model, Mahler's own Symphony No. 2, whose Parisian premiere was championed by Casella during his years in the French capital. A notte alta ('In deepest night'), which Casella described as 'the only piece of programme music I have ever composed... inspired by emotional events in my personal life' (Casella's love for his Parisian student Yvonne Muller), is a work of intimate self-revelation and sombre meditation on 'the utter indifference of Nature to human passions'.