Rights list FRANKFURT 2014
ilSaggiatore: since 1958, enlightenment and cosmopolitanism in publishing
Luca Formenton Chairman and Publisher, ilSaggiatore
Karl Polanyi
FOR A NEW WEST and other essays edited by Giorgio Resta e Mariavittoria Catanzariti with a preface by Kari Polanyi-Levitt
Knut Løvås - Knugunn@online.no
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“T About the Author Kar l Polanyi (1886-1964) was a Hungarian Jewish economic historian and social scientist, best known for being the author of the Twentieth Century classic The Great Transformation, written during his exile in London.
he e conomic histor ians’ message to philosophers today should be: we can afford to be both just and free.” This is the message that Karl Polanyi has always tried to send throughout his life and which was one of the main themes of his unfinished book on the “New West”. The author of The Great Transformation strongly believed in the value of freedom; at the same time he rejected the tendency of the Old West to reduce freedom to the guarantees of free enterprise and private ownership. The current economic crisis has proven once again that his powerful critique of “market fundamentalism” was well founded.
Published in March 2013 | € 20,00 | pp. 288 - Rights available: World rights Rights sold: UK Polity Press, Turkey Bilgi University Press, Korea Greenbee Publishers Co, Japan Chikuma Shobo. Material available: English manuscript NON-fiction
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Liliana Rampello
Six Perfect Novels I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or at other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. 4
About the Author Liliana Rampello is a literary critic and author of Il canto del mondo reale. Virginia Woolf, la vita nella scrittura (Il Saggiatore 2005).
With Jane Austen, there are no half measures. Her work has divided critics and readers for more than two centuries: Was she just a great author of women fiction, with little literary value, or can we see “the streak of marvelous genius” that Nabokov wrote about? Is Austen “the most perfect artist among women” just as Virginia Woolf puts it? Liliana Rampello analyzes her “six perfect novels” ( Sense and Sensibility , Pride and Prejudice , Mansfield Park , Emma , Northanger Abbey and Persuasion) and identifies the structure of Austen’s superb invention: the female Bildungsroman in which the protagonist is a young woman whose pursuit of a husband is less important than that of happiness. A rather confined geography contains a vast moral geography, and the “light-hearted” dialogues mask the powerful voice of an inspired master of women’s liberation. And that is the secret behind the success of Jane Austen, who can still infuse passion and enthusiasm in the heart of contemporary readers.
Published in September 2014 | € 18,00 | pp. 200 Rights available: World rights
Danilo Dolci
rural conversations I beg you not to offend each other, we are here to reflect, not to do propaganda, so I ask you to use respect when you talk to each other. 5
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About the Author Danilo Dolci (1924-1997), poet, pacifist and teacher, has devoted his life to a vast work of moral and social redemption throughout We st e r n S i c i ly, r e p o rt i ng t h e unfair and tragic conditions of the depressed southern lands.
s it fair to kill? What makes a man a man? Are there legittimate wars? Or the very idea of conflict is absurd? What is the meaning of life? And that of death? These are some of the questions that Danilo Dolci raises with the peasants of Partinico, a remote village in the heart of Sicily. The old barrack where they gather for these interview sessions has no windows but the door always remains open: air, ideas and people can circulate freely. Each one is called to contribute with critics, opinions and views. Men and women without discrimination. The dialogue – open, free and careful – is the essential tool for Dolci, who peruses and investigates the malaise of the lower class in Italy right after the World War II, without addressing abstract ideas but focussing on specific issues emerging in day-to-day life. Moral and material needs are exposed as a first step towards an authentic and just community free from the “evils of the past”: ignorance, misery and war. It is a work of striking modernity because the answers of the peasants from Partinico are the answers of any other human being.
Published June 2014 | € 16,00 | pp. 244 Rights available: World rights NON-fiction
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Emilio D’Alessandro and Filippo Ulivieri
DRIVING MISTER KUBRICK A Legend Unveiled Emilio D’Alessandro’s memoir: a unique fairytale, told with devotion, respect and freedom. 6
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ondon, end of the swinging 60’s. Emilio D’Alessandro is just another Italian minicab driver. He’s young and ready to do almost anything for money. Even driving around a giant phallus and a weird-looking man with a black beard. Emilio is honest, reliable, and manages to find a special place in Stanley Kubrick’s neurotic, obsessive heart. Emilio is the silent guy in the room where the script of The Shining is discussed. Emilio still wears at home the robe that Jack Nicholson used in the movie. Emilio was an extra in Eyes Wide Shut. Emilio knows actors, producers, he knows Kubrick’s directing method down to the smallest detail. And yet he knows nothing about cinematography, which gives the book a completely fresh outlook on one of the most captivating and talked about filmmakers ever.
Stanley Kubrick died fourteen years ago while finishing the shooting of Eyes Wide Shut. All the memoirs about him conveyed the portrait of a man of genius so obsessed with his work to shut himself off. But who really was Stanley Kubrick? Emilio D’Alessandro lived side by side with the director for 30 years – from A Clockwork Orange until his death. A collection of private memories that offers a completely different perspective on an extraordinary modern artist. The books also contains 50 photos including private snapshots and pictures taken from various movie sets.
More than 50 pics never seen before! Published in September 2012 | € 17,00 | pp. 360 Rights available: World rights Rights sold: Germany Aufbau Material available: Full English manuscript
Giancarlo Liviano D’Arcangelo
let us now praise the heroes of our dreams
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«The final. The show that is about to explode on the screens is the result of world wars, industrial revolutions, scientific discoveries, enormous developments in the fields of medicine and anatomy, and if it’s not a miracle that the reality filmed in Berlin from a scrap iron box goes up to the outer space, bounces on a satellite and spreads like sunshine all over the planet, well, then miracles simply don’t exist.»
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About the Author Giancarlo Liviano D’Arcangelo (1977) published Andai, dentro la notte illuminata (Pequod) and Le Ceneri di Mike (Fandango 2011). He belongs to the literary movement called New Italian Epic. He is editor at Nuovi Argomenti and columnist of L’Unità.
he best game in the world. Competition, fame, delusion, hope, sudden turns of events. Intense emotions saturated in ninety minutes, the green field pulsating with the energy of life and death. Soccer is an epic world with mighty heroes. Some of them are demigods, like Pelé or Maradona. Others are knights in shiny armors, like Captain Scirea, the most noble and fair player of them all. Not to mention the eleven Italian soldiers that conquered the World Cup in 2006. Through the eyes of a child and the wit of a wise man, Giancarlo Liviano D’Arcangelo shares his most intimate memories connected to the magical world of soccer and yet manages to describe the contemporary world through the symbolic universe of soccer. A world once dominated by unpredictable heroes.
Published May 2014 | € 16,00 | pp. 244 Rights available: World rights NON-fiction
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Niccolò Capponi
A MAGNIFICENT MYTH The Life and Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici
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n good or evil, Lorenzo de’ Medici has been lionized by historians for his political ability and contribution to the world culture. But how much of all this is true? This book will attempt to shed light on the real Lorenzo, only one of the many political players and art patrons in Renaissance Italy. And the carrying theme of the book will be the Luck that accompanied Lorenzo throughout his life, only to betray his successor. To be published in 2015 Rights available: World rights Material available: extensive English proposal
About the Author Niccolò Capponi is a historian, extensively published in English and Italian. A former fellow at the Medici Archive Project, Capponi is a descendant of Niccolò Mac hiavelli, about whom he wrote the compelling biography An Unlikely Prince (Da Capo Press, US 2010).
THE DAY THAT SAVED THE RENAISSANCE The epic battle that inspired Leonardo da Vinci.
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he battle fought on 29 June 1440 set the course for Italian and western cultural development, the victory of the anti-Milanese league determining the survival of the artistic and philosophical tenets we associate with the Renaissance. Thus, this book in not simply the account of a blood-splashed afternoon, but rather a composition on 15th century Italy, with Leonardo da Vinci’s lost masterpiece as its leitmotiv.
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Published in 2011 | €19,00 | pp. 240 Rights available: World rights Rights sold: US Melville House Material available: provisional English chapters
KILL THE MEDICI! Florence and the Pazzi Conspiracy
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he murderous attempt against Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, on 26 April 1478, is a well-known story. Less familiar are the intricacies of 15th century Italian political and military affairs, when Italy was teaching the world
how to rule and how to fight. By analyzing this seminal moment in history, Niccolò Capponi will also describe the highly sophisticated and brutal environment of Renaissance Italy, as its inhabitants danced with their doom.
Published in March 2014 | €22,00 | pp. 360 Rights available: World rights NON-fiction
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Anthony Majanlahti, Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi
THE ROME TRILOGY Itineraries, stories and images from a dramatic era of the Eternal City. VOL. I - OCCUPIED ROME, 1943-1944 VOL. II - DIVIDED ROME, 1919-1925 VOL. III - FASCIST ROME, 1925-1943 10
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imilarly to a traditional tour guide, the Trilogy describes the trails and landmarks of Rome during the tumultuous years from the beginning of Fascism, throughout World War II, until the end of Nazi occupation. The authors take us through an amazing historical journey that uncovers the invisible scars and the atrocious stories hidden behind the glorious façade of the Italian capital city. Vol. I published in 2010 | € 17,00 | pp. 318 Vol. II published in 2014 | € 19,50 | pp. 304 Vol. III to be published in 2015 Rights available: World rights except English
About the Authors Anthony Majanlahti is professor of Roman History at Northwestern University and Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi teaches Modern Italian History at Università La Sapienza, Rome.
Benedetto Saraceno
Global Policy, Local Maladies
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etween 1999 and 2010 Benedetto Sareceno was Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization: his book is an unconventional take on global mental health. The book combines recent history of the global mental health movement, starting with the publication of the first report by the Harvard Group of Social Medicine in 1995, as well as personal memories and critical analysis. It describes the recurrent violations of the human rights of people having mental disabilities, the common features that mental disorders share with other chronic diseases, and the innovative implications of organizing and providing health care across the whole spectrum of chronic diseases.
Published in 2014 | € 15,00 | pp. 256 Rights available: World rights
About the Author Benedetto Saraceno, formerly Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization, Geneva, is Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK. During many years as advisor to WHO and to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), he has assisted policymakers in the reform of mental health services in Latin America, including countries like Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil, Chile, and Cuba.
Giovanni Dall’Orto
HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALITY
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vast historical account of h o m o s exua l ity c o mb i n e d with commented original literary passages. From ancient Egypt to World War II : rare greek poetry, Middle Age trial documents for s o d o my, c o r r e s p o n d e n c e s of M i c h e l a ng e l o a nd D o nat e l l o , lively libertines during Illuminism, 19th Century gay tourism and the still unpublished National Archive documents concerning homosexuals exiled during Fascism.
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About the Author Giovanni Dall’Orto is an Italian journalist, writer and gay militant since 1976. Dall’Orto was the Editor in Chief of the monthly Pride. He was twice chairman of Arcigay Milan and national secretary of Arcigay Italy. He published Figli Diversi ( Mom, dad, I have to tell you something) about coming out and Manuale per coppie diverse (Handbook for different couples).
To be published in 2015 | € 25,00 | pp. 500 Rights available: World rights Material available: English proposal NON-fiction
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Norberto Bobbio
IN PRAISE OF MEEKNESS Essays on Ethics and Politics
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A great philosopher, a classic in modern thought
I About the Author Norberto Bobbio (1909 - 2004) was an Italian philosopher of law and political sciences. He also wrote regularly for the national daily La Stampa. A liberal socialist, Bobbio is one of the most important historians of political thought.
n this important volume, the political philosopher Norberto Bobbio confronts some of the most enduring moral questions of our time. Written over the last two decades of the Twentieth century, the essays in this volume develop some of the central themes in Bobbio’s moral and political philosophy. They also reflect his longstanding commitment to liberty, democracy, peace and equality. The opening essay, «In praise of meekness», analyses the virtue of meekness in its individual and social aspects. It identifies the meek person with the nonviolent, and meekness with the refusal to exercise violence against anyone. Meekness, therefore, is the antithesis of politics. In this new expanded edition, Bobbio proceeds to construe a political theory of non-violence.
Published in 2014. Previously published by Polity Press in 2000. Rights available: World rights
What really matters to us is to provide storytelling that is ultimately, as Kafka would say, the assault that each human being brings to himself and to the world
Giuseppe Genna Fiction Editor, ilSaggiatore
FICTION & poetry
Andrea Gentile
THE EMPIRE OF FUTURE DARKNESS
The apocalypse of a mind holding on to the remote edges of the human phenomena.
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he Pope R. just had a stroke. The TV broadcasts his agonized body 24/7. The world is watching him with growing anxiety. Meanwhile, Maria’s mother has left her house. Nobody knows where she’s gone. She could be dead by now. Maria is looking for her. She walks through the village of Masserie di Cristo, looking for a dead body. Hoping it’s not a dead body. She slowly acknowledges that her surroundings are not the same. Maria walks into a café, it’s deserted. Only a television buzzing, showing the agony of Pope R. Maria walks into a church and finds nothing but cattle chewing hay. iPhones are out of service, the internet doesn’t work. The world itself, maybe, doesn’t exist. The road surface cracks open, the soil breaks.
About the Author Andrea Gentile (1985) lives in Milan. This is his first novel. He published his new novel, I wanted everything with Rizzoli in September 2014.
What happened to the Pope? What happened to her mother? Whatever happened to Maria?
Published in September 2012 | € 14,00 | pp. 167 Rights available: World rights
Arrigo Arrigoni
AN INFORMED SOURCE As it is, the city belongs to rats, although I believe rats claim exactly the opposite: that the city is ruled by men, a greedy species, unpredictable, without law. The purpose of my journey – I think – has to do with rats...
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About the Author Arrigo Arrigoni is an Italian writer and a great expert in Jazz Music. For il Saggiatore he published Jazz Foto di Gruppo.
ncyclopedic by nature, the novel is a relentless account testifying the tormented decaying of memory: obsessive visions and sudden analogies interlace past, present and future with undeniable awareness. «I see disorder rising: that which crowded the innocent white pages» whispers the narrating voice, surrendering to the slithering chaos tearing down, one by one, the protective barriers «of the interweaving plots». Thus the thoughts are meddled and looking back it seems that everything happens simultaneously, that one can talk about today with the ghosts of yesterday. And yet, even if retracing the past is a costly and straining process, the narrator endures: intimately convinced that History is redacted, classifed, hidden, he fights against those who want to deny the facts, to strip the collective memory of important events. So he runs and reruns with stubborness some of the key moments of the Twentieth century: the purges under Chiang Kai-Shek, Mao Tse-Tung’s invasion of Tibet, and the war in Afghanistan among others. One voice is not enough to convey so many threads: the novel therefore relies on many voices, many «informed sources», each investigating and shedding light on the dark corners of our recent history. More often than not these voices are not what they say they are: self-appointed spies, terrorists, revolutionaries, alleged clairvoyants; all the voices belong to one entity, who admits being addicted to pseudonyms and fake identites. Who is he then? Anglochinese, South-american, Italian, secret agent and subversive, journalist and man of theatre, the narrator is unreliable, but he speaks the truth.
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Published in March 2014 | € 17,00 | pp. 238 Rights available: World rights FICTION & poetry
FICTION & poetry
Vittorio Giacopini
the map
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About the Author Vittorio Giacopini is an Italian novelist. He writes on Lo Straniero and Sole 24 Ore. He is the author of Re in fuga. La leggenda di Bobby Fischer (Mondadori 2008).
he map – an historical novel and a requiem for historical novel at the same time – is the ambitious attempt to describe an unstable period, mostly defined by men’s desire and sheer fate. It’s 1793: the revolutionary French troops are stuck against the loyalits in Tolon. Against the rough coasts a young captain, Napoleon Bonaparte ,meets a cartographer and painter from Grenoble, Serge Victor. There they devise the right plan to win the siege, after months. The paths of these two men merges from then on: one driven by the will to turn Europe upside down, the other pursuing the illuminist dream of a global comprehensive mapping of Europe. Serge and Napoleone are together in the Italian campaign. For a quick change of fortune Serge is no longer welcome in the Campaign. They will meet again in Germany and Russia where the clear project of Serge is unsettled by fairytales, dark sagas, misteries, hallucinations, poets and buffoons, offering an anti-world before his eyes. The two will find a sad ending, one exiled on Saint Elena, the other painting History on Sevres pottery. Once again Giacopini masters the ability to merge history, fiction and geography and deliver a modern perfect perspective on ancient entropy. To be published in January 2015 Rights available: World rights
THE mirror of cagliostro A
n historical novel about the alchemist Cagliostro, a mithical con-man active in Europe during the 19th century. A mason, an alchemist, an expert of occult matter, a forger, a Casanova from deep Sicily, Cagliostro was wellreceived – and subsequently dismissed - by the French and the Russian court. His supposed abilities were the tale of European bored aristocrates. His life, a puzzling and picaresque set of trips, escapades, adventure and mischief. Told by the masterful historian and fiction writer Vittorio Giacopini, this historical novel has narrative grip and an absolute care for historical details. Published in May 2013 | € 16,00 | pp. 352 Rights available: World rights
Filippo Tuena
LAST PARALLEL
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obert Scott and his group of explorers are rushing through the South Pole with the absolute conviction of being the first to reach the edge. The ship is fully stocked with everything that is necessary to survive extreme climate conditions: furs, snow shoes, dogs, sledges, food, cameras, notebooks and even a ball to play soccer on ice. Only five will reach destination. But there they’ll find out that someone has preceded them 33 days before. And more troubles are about to happen. The fictionalised account of the real – and unfortunate – expedition led by Robert Scott between 1911 and 1912. Last parallel is a novel that talks about hope, challenges and crushing defeat. A sublime atmosphere of misty melancholy and existentialist depth. Awarded with Viareggio Literary Prize 2007.
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Published in January 2013 | € 16,00 | pp. 352 Rights available: World rights
THE madness of schumann
About the Author Filippo Tuena (Roma 1953) is an Italian author awarded with Premio Grinzane-Cavour (2000) and Premio Bagutta (2006).
The letters from Endenich
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he book recalls through various coeval documents the last years in the life of Robert Schumann – from the first hallucinations until his final year in the clinic in Endenich where he was admitted in 1854
To be published in 2015 Rights available: World rights FICTION & poetry
FICTION & poetry
Pier Paolo Pasolini
BEFOGGED
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UNP UBLI SHED !
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About the Author Pier Paolo Pasolini was a poet, a journalist, a director, a screenwriter and a writer, before being murdered in 1975. He is considered one of the most influential intellectuals of the 20th century.
ilan, 1959. A mob of teens act as bullies in town. Self-styled teddy boys, they armwrestle, they rob, flirt and fight; Milan is in the background, a brutal city that becomes alive at night. Befogged is the tale of a night of desperate and cruel bravado: it begins with the assault of a man in his car, continues with a theft committed in a church at the outskirts of Milan, and finally culminates with the aggression of a gay man. This stark tale was made into a movie in 1963, which was never released. It’s a faithful portrait of the Northern metropolis in the years of the industrial miracle, with its cast of petty bourgeois and immigrant proletarians, naively braggart and unrelentlessly violent.
Published in October 2013 | â‚Ź 12,00 | pp. 160 Rights available: World rights Rights sold: France Grasset, Spain Gallonero, Portugal Antigona
Milo De Angelis
MILLIMETERS Within us, the Universe will come That head-on silence where we already were
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After Andrea Zanzotto and Franco Fortini, Milo de Angelis is one of the most important voices in contemporary Italian poetry. Since 1983 Millimeters has been a milestone and a term of comparison for young Italian poets. The ability to penetrate abysmal images, the unspecified sense of loss, his inclination for abstraction, the description of daily situations ascending to a metaphysical stillness are the main features in De Angelis’ poems, yielding a profound emotion with firm, dry words. About the Author Milo De Angelis is one of the greatest contemporary Italian poets. He lives in Milan where he teaches in a public prison.
Published in May 2013 | â‚Ź 13,00 | pp. 160 Rights available: World rights FICTION & poetry
I don’t play rock. I play black.
Miles Davis
Enrico Merlin, Veniero Rizzardi
BITCHES BREW
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70 original photographs and 90 original documents, never before published.
B About the Authors Enrico Merlin, musician, published in the USA the first complete catalogue of Miles Davis (recordings, interviews, television performances, etc). He also collaborated to the making of the Miles at Isle of Wight DVD by Oscar winning director Murray Lerner. Veniero Rizzardi teaches at the Universities of Venice and Freiburg.
itches Brew, Miles Davis’ great double album, was recorded in three days (from the 19th to the 21st of August 1969) and created a new style: Fusion. Its success was enormous and it sold more than half a million copies, making it the second greatest success in the history of jazz, after Kind of Blue (1969), also by Davis. This book is the fruit of years of research in the Columbia archives and dozens of interviews with the protagonists of the time. It tells the story of the epic days in that summer of ’69, when Davis and his genial producer Teo Macero constructed the album, mixing and remixing tapes: the story of three days of messy and uninterrupted sessions which end up becoming one of the most radical events in the history of contemporary music.
Published in August 2009 | € 35,00 | pp. 318 Rights available: World rights, Spain Global Rythm Music
Music
Enzo Restagno
RAVEL AND THE SOUL OF THINGS
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The pleasure of life is all about… uncovering the secret quiver of life.
R About the Author We l l k n own mu si c c r it i c a nd historian, Restagno is the director of Mito, Milano Torino Settembre Musica. He is the Author of many books on contemporary composers such as Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio, Alfred Schnittke, Steve Reich, Gyorgy Ligeti and Hans Werner Henze. With il Saggiatore he published Arvo Pärt and Ravel.
Published in 2009 | € 35,00 | pp. 676 Rights available: World rights
avel’s music expresses an elegance that finds no comparison among composers. His kindness made him a perfect dandy, but the ironic levity of his attitude and his work are a far cry from the cliché of creative struggle. An unbearable perfectionist according to his enemies, a composer of magnificent talent for his lovers, Ravel revealed his emotional qualities only through his music. Obsessed with giving voice to «the soul of things», Ravel spends his lifetime trudging the road towards an ever-shifting horizon. Through accurate archive analysis, Enzo Restagno delivers an extensive and touching portrait of this delicate composer.
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Schönberg e Stravinsky
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hrough their long life Schönberg and Stravinsky only met once in 1912 at the Krolloper in Berlin. It was an encounter filled with mutual esteeem, on one side Petruska, on the other Pierrot Lunaire, that Igor attended after a few days at the Choralion Saal. Years went by and the two became, with due differences, celebrities, but they never met again. They brush against each other, catching a glimpse of the other from afar, but contacts shrank to a couple of allusive statements, amplified by the press and turned into downright hostility by fan on both sides. The moment has come to shed some light on the relationship between these two extraordinary musicians. Their life unfolds between Vienna, Saint Petersburg, Berlin, Paris and then New York and Los Angeles. On these new and ancient backgrounds we hear the echoes of Strauss, Busoni, Hofmannsthal, Kandinskij, Zweig, Rilke, Werfel, Thomas Mann, Picasso, Gide, Valéry, Auden. Music, painting, architecture, poetry and religious meditations spread through the pages along with the scenarios from the exile, the impact of social developments, racial persecutions and war.
Published in April 2014 | € 25,00 | pp. 452 Rights available: World rights Music
Previously sold Elogio della mitezza Norberto Bobbio Polity (UK), Editora Brasil (BR), Patakis (GR) Terra del rimorso Ernesto de Martino Synthélabo (FR), Ediciones Bellaterra (SP) Breve storia della Musica Sacra Luigi Garbini Les éditions Bayard (FR), Alianza Editorial (SP) Questo è stato Piera Sonnino Athenaeum (NL), Armand Colin (FR), Rowohlt (DE)
Foreign Rights Sarah Victoria Barberis barberis@ilsaggiatore.com via Melzo 9, 20129 Milano, Italy tel +39 02 2023210 mob +39 334 7407801 fax +39 02 29513061 www.ilsaggiatore.com
via Melzo 9, 20129 Milano, Italy tel +39 02 202301 fax +39 02 29513061 www.ilsaggiatore.com