VINCENZO CILIBERTI

CD 1 – I CLASSICI

Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti) 1835

Norma (Vincenzo Bellini) 1831

 La forza del destino (Giuseppe Verdi) 1862

Cavalleria Rusticana (Pietro Mascagni) 1890

CD 2 – LE NOVITA’

Attila (Giuseppe Verdi) 1846

Don Checco (Nicola De Giosa) 1850

Vespri Siciliani (Giuseppe Verdi) 1855

Mefistofele (Arrigo Boito) 1868

Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo) 1892

Marcette

CD 3 – LA TRILOGIA POPOLARE

Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi) 1851

Il Trovatore (Giuseppe Verdi) 1853

 La Traviata (Giuseppe Verdi) 1853

CD 4 – PUCCINI

Manon Lescaut (Giacomo Puccini) 1893

Bohème (Giacomo Puccini) 1896

Tosca (Giacomo Puccini) 1900

Turandot (Giacomo Puccini) 1924…

All recordings by Domenico Fiore except with * by Aldino Miceli and with ** by Domenico Spagnoli.

Raffaele Miglietta was born in Francavilla Fontana on February 21, 1919. He graduated in Clarinet, Composition, Banda Instrumentation and Choral Singing from the “S. Cecilia” Conservatory in Rome. Initiated to the banda direction by maestro Antonio D’Elia (among other things, historical adapter of Respighi’s Pini di Roma for Banda), he began his career as a banda conductor conducting in Carosino (Taranto). Later he moved to Tuglie (Lecce) to lead the local banda. After the Second World War in 1951 he profitably got on top of the Banda di Corato. It is said that in 1961, on the occasion of the election of President J.F. Kennedy, Miglietta wrote and recorded a march titled Kennediana, which he then sent to the United States. Vincenzo Ciliberti says: “The luck was that in the summer of ’62 Mrs. Kennedy came to Italy on vacation and our banda was on the Amalfi coast for a party. In agreement with the committee we went to Ravello where the First Lady was staying and we played the composition live. Then the greeting from the lady, with the promise of organizing a tour in America. Everything went up in smoke for the assassination of the President”. However, the experience of Corato lasted until 1972 and then he moved in the following two years to lead the Banda di Montefalcione (Av) taking the position of Vincenzo Alise. In 1975 the Maestro recomposed the Banda di Acquaviva delle Fonti without the patronage of the municipal administration, to direct it also in the years ’77 and ’78 spaced out with a brief return to Corato in 1976. The future stop was in his Francavilla Fontana, where it seems he brought a large number of instrumentalists from Ruvo di Puglia and Corato and where he remained until 1982 before being replaced by Michele Santaniello. Later he directed the Banda di Trani which had Vito La Selva as tour representative and coordinator. Nino Farì wanted him in 1987 as the master of the reconstruction of the “Classico Concerto Bandistico Schipa – D’Ascoli Città di Lecce”. He was a conductor in Lecce until 1988 and then moved to the podium of the Banda di Bisceglie. The association with the soloists Vincenzo Ciliberti, sopranino flugelhorn, Cataldo Valerio, tenor flugelhorn and Cataldo Maggiulli on the baritone flugelhorn, nicknamed in the squares “Trio delle Meraviglie” [trio of wonders], in the same years as the homonymous football trio Gullit-Rijkaard-Van Basten, is historic. The pieces he usually preferred to conduct in the cassarmonica were the “Preludes” by Liszt, “Gioconda”, “Lucia di Lammermoor” and the symphonic poem “Carri Armati” by Giulio Andrea Marchesini. Finally, among other works, he instrumented for banda Don Checco, comic opera by Nicola De Giosa and Verdi’s Attila. He died on December 5, 1994.

Nicola Centofanti was born in Lanciano in Abruzzo on April 16, 1913 from a long line of musicians. He first studied composition in Pescara with Michele Muzi and then in Rome with Riccardo Storti and Cesare Dobici at the “S. Cecilia “, where he graduated in Banda Instrumentation, Composition and Conducting. He began his activity as a banda conductor in 1937 in Cepagatti (Pescara) and then Atessa (Chieti) until 1940. Following the liberation of 1945, he reorganized the Banda di Chieti. In 1946 he returned to Atessa, whereas  in the two-year period 1947-48 it was the turn of Lanciano. In 1951 he returned to Chieti, perhaps the best band of his long artistic career. From 1952 to 1957 he stood on the podium of the Banda di Carovigno (Brindisi), and the following year he went back to Abruzzo, taking the reins of the Banda di Casalincontrada (Chieti) until 1960. In 1961 and 1962 he directed the Banda of Martina Franca (Taranto) and then to make return to his native Lanciano, until 1967. The following year he returned once again to Puglia, first with the Banda di Castellana Grotte (Bari) and then from 1970 with the renowned Banda di Conversano (Bari). In 1974 he was called to the direction of the Banda di Foggia. In that year there was the desire to innovate the band reality, and a lyric-symphonic concert was organized with the presence of singers. The experiment opened debates between those who hoped for this “innovation”, and those who defended the tradition and regretted the “solos” of the various solo flugelhorns. Nicola Centofanti, driven by family tradition and not very convinced of the new formula, in 1976 would go to direct the Banda di Benevento. In 1977 and 1978 he directed the Banda di Lecce, in 1979 the Banda di Conversano again. From 1980 to 1984 he was in charge of the dawning Banda di San Giorgio Jonico (Taranto). From 1985 to 1988 he got back to Abruzzo where he led the Banda di Chieti. After the ’88 season in Chieti the maestro was invited to direct the Band di Lucera (Foggia) but the maestro gave up due to a health problem. Continuously urged by the authorised personnel, the call of his audience, convinced him to return to the scene and for the 1991 artistic season; he was called by the manager Don Vito La Selva to direct the second Banda of Conversano to be followed by those of Mottola (Taranto) in 1992 and Gravina di Puglia (Bari) in 1993. At the age of 81, he directed the Banda di Chieti for the last time in 1994. Maestro Centofanti can rightly be considered one of the highest representatives in the field of symphonic transcriptions. His artistic vein was also evident in the production of music for bandas, in which themes linked to the Abruzzo region, and references to the cities in which he conducted also find space. He died on December 24, 1997 in Pescara.

Pietro Marmino was born on 29 June 1915 in Salerno. After a few years spent in an institute, he was adopted by a family from Sarno (Salerno), quickly showing his musical tendencies which he developed when he graduated very young in clarinet at the recognised school of music annexed to the “Umberto I” Orphanage, just in Salerno. However, his skill did not earn him enlistment in the Navy band, due to his height. Finally one day he was noticed by Maestro Giuseppe Piantoni who appreciated him and took with him to Conversano (Bari). In a short time he became solo clarinet and later artistic band leader, as it appears written in an advertising brochure of the band for the 1949 artistic season. Following the worsening of Maestro Piantoni’s  health conditions, Gioacchino Ligonzo was entrusted the band conduction; in this regard, the story goes that, as a result of this change, a heated rivalry was born between Marmino and the new conductor. His qualities brought him the acknowledgement and eligibility, by the Ministry of Public Education, Inspectorate for Artistic Education, to be a band conductor, which soon earned him the Bandas of Castellana Grotte, Taranto “S. Cecilia ”, Cervaro del Lazio, Canosa di Puglia, Martina Franca “Mondial”, Gioia del Colle, Abruzzo Region, Conversano, Montemaggiore, S. Giorgio Jonico and Sarno (where he founded the Anbima school). His  fondness, in cassarmonica, was  focused on works such as “Cenerentola”, “Tosca”, “Turandot”, “Lucia di Lammermoor”, “Trovatore” but particular attention was paid to the symphonic poem “Holland”, composed by the Sarnese violinist Raffaele Vincenti, who was brought to the forefront by the master Marmino in 1978, when he was conductor of the Banda della Regione Abruzzo. After his death no band performed the aforementioned symphonic poem, as only Marmino was in possession of the score. He died in Vicenza on January 6, 1994 but rests in the Sarno cemetery.

Gioacchino Ligonzo was born on 2 June 1910 in Bari. After studying in situ, in 1930 he obtained a diploma in piano from the “San Pietro a Majella” Conservatory in Naples, at the time directed by Francesco Cilea, with the examination board composed of renowned teachers including Florestano Rossomandi, Achille Longo, Camillo De Nardis, Luigi Finizio, Carmela Gubitosi and Guido Pannain. Soon enough, he was called by the Petruzzelli Theater in Bari as opera coach. His baptism as conductor took place in July 1931 at the “Giuseppe Verdi” Theater in Brindisi with the opera Lucia di Lammermoor. His conducting career took him to numerous theaters all over the peninsula as well as abroad: Benghazi, Johannesburg, Athens … In 1933-34 he continued training at the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory in Turin with conductor Franco Alfano, graduating in composition with Ulisse Mattei in 1934. Nevertheless, in his career, Ligonzo’s talent would have turned on conducting and not on composition. As it happens, he used to say “I’m an orchestra conductor, I don’t compose music”. With Mattei he was also able to graduate in organ, therefore we should not be surprised to find him shortly after in Bari as the official organist of the religious solemnities of the pontifical “Schola Cantorum” of the Basilica di San Nicola. During the war period (1940-1943) he conducted concerts in Germany with the philharmonics of Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna. In July 1946, as a consequence of the disastrous post-war events and the resulting state of crisis which the opera house went through, urged by friends who considered him an excellent conductor, accomplished to work for the rebirth of bandas, he preferred this kind of activity. So he took on the task of directing the Banda di Noci,  at that time considered to be of great prestige. After a brief interlude in Mesagne in 1949 he alternated his band activity with that of conductor; in the following years he was at the helm of the prestigious band concerts of Conversano, Squinzano “Ernesto and Gennaro Abbate”, Manduria, Mottola, Benevento, Conversano and Squinzano again, Ceglie Messapica, Francavilla Fontana to finish his career for the umpteenth time time in Conversano in 1992. Critical for the condition of the bandas, especially if compared to the quality of the past, in 1988 on the occasion of a Seminar of Studies on Bands in Roccanova (Potenza) he denounced the difficult situation of the musical bands of Southern Italy regarding inappropriate masters, with little knowledge of harmony and counterpoint, too often “conceited that, just because trumpet or clarinet players, they consider themselves masters”. He also added “After me, the deluge”. He died in Bari on November 27, 1992.