I can say that, at the beginning, the authors who most influenced my compositional path have been composers such as Ligeti, Messiaen, Lutoslawski… but, from the beginning, my greatest musical emotions are linked to Impressionism and, in particular, to the music of Maurice Ravel.

What is your musical aesthetic?
Difficult to say…

Who inspires you?
Everything around me: I live in a place where nature is really alive and intense. I was always surrounded by these elements and very often I find them in what I write

What attracts you to rarescale as an ensemble?
What at first attracted me to rarescale was their great interest in finding new music without preconceptions of musical genre: their attention to the different ways of expressing the contemporary is great.

Tell us a little about your experience of working with rarescale
I found in rarescale interpreters of rare sensitivity in the research of the meaning of the original idea of my music. In their work it is clearly perceived the proper sense of being interpreters: that in seeking the real space and scope for interpretation of music without transforming its nature.

Tell us about the background of E tu, in triste ombra – how did it come to be written and what’s it all about?
The work E tu, in triste ombra was born from the inspiration given to me by a sculpture created by an artist friend of mine: it was a person sitting in sad attitude whose shadow overhung him.

How does this work relate to your other compositional output?
I don’t know…

What are your plans for the future?
For more than a year I have been working on a large symphonic work divided in many “pictures”; It will still take a long time ...

What have been your career highlights so far?
Sincerely, I’ve had many important moments in these 30 years of composing and conducting; I can only say that I’m really satisfied and that I’ve been also very lucky in having had great performers and great musicians with whom I could collaborate.

How do you see the role of new music in modern society?
It is difficult to answer this question because there isn’t only one "new music": there are so many ways that compositional art has taken in the years since the war. I think that the social role of music has never changed, only the various societies have had metamorphoses, and the music, as human expression, has followed the course.

What made you become a composer?
Until I was 25, I worked exclusively as a pianist and, in the Conservatory, studying Composition. One day a composers competition attracted my attention and I tried to write something of my own. With that work, I won my first international competition and I realised that that road had to be travelled.

Is classical music dead?
No. Conversely this question would not arise.

If you could choose three pieces of your music that have had a big impact on your life or musical development, what would they be and why?
Tremiti for string quartet: it is the second work I wrote in 1988. In this work, I think, it is revealed my personal compositional nature.
E piove in petto una dolcezza inquieta for soprano ad ensemble: dedicated to my parents, is my only work with a solo singer.
E fu sera, e fu mattina for symphony orchestra inspired by Genesis: this work is for me to reach a deep understanding of orchestration symphony.

Massimo's website

rarescale performs Massimo's piece E tu, in triste ombra for flute and guitar at The Forge in Camden on 30th September 2015