Niccolò Castiglioni was one of the most singular figures on the Italian music scene of the latter half of the 20th century. Including world-première recordings, Volume 1 of this complete edition reveals the exceptional quality of Castiglioni’s early piano works, the cantabile solemnity found in his exploration of twelve-tone techniques, and the quest for simplicity in later pieces that include the Seconda sonatina discovered among the composer’s papers after his death. The acclaimed pianist Aldo Orvieto has recorded and performed extensively throughout his career and is a specialist in Italian 20th-century repertoire.

Aldo Orvieto studied at the Venice Conservatory. He owes much of his musical development to Aldo Ciccolini, with whom he recorded Busoni’s Fantasia contrappuntistica, released by Naxos (8574086). Orvieto has recorded programmes and concerts for the main European radio broadcasters, including the BBC (UK); RAI (Italy); Radio France; WDR, SDR and SR (Germany); RTBF (Belgium); RSI (Switzerland – Italian), DRS (Switzerland – German) and Swedish radio. He has more than 90 albums dedicated to 20th-century composers in his discography. Orvieto has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, and has given many world-première performances, in particular of works by Maderna, Togni, Clementi, Sciarrino, De Pablo, Claudio Ambrosini, Stefano Gervasoni, Luca Francesconi, Azio Corghi and Fabio Nieder.