Outside Italy, the composer Eliodoro Sollima (1926–2000) remains little known to this day – unlike his five musically successful children, most notably the cellist Giovanni Sollima.

The most substantial work on the album is Attesa (“Waiting”), a powerful seven-movement suite for piano, horns, strings and percussion. Inspired by the fate of a man executed in the US state of Virginia in 1997, Sollima uses a tonal musical language to evoke the thoughts, memories and emotions of a condemned man during the final hours of his life.

The album’s world premiere recordings include the early Ouverture da camera (1948/50) and Rondò burlesco (1951) for piano and orchestra, characterised by powerful, almost cinematic melodies. The Concerto per archi of 1968 also has a political background and was composed in response to the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

At the same time, Sollima remained closely connected to his Sicilian roots. Works such as Nenia e recitativo for cello and strings draw on elements of Sicilian folk music and translate them into a contemporary musical language.

The album thus offers an opportunity to rediscover a distinctive and still little-known voice in 20th-century tonal music.