Nino Sanzogno was an Italian conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

He studied the violin with Guarneri and composition with Agostini at the Venice Liceo Musicale, and later conducting in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 with Hermann Scherchen

Hermann Scherchen

Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...

. He conducted the Gruppo Strumentale in concerts in Italy and abroad before becoming resident conductor at La Fenice

La Fenice

Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...

 in Venice in 1937, and the RAI

RAI

RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

 Milan Symphony Orchestra soon afterwards. He first conducted at La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

 in Milan in 1939.

A specialist of contemporary works, he conducted at La Scala the premieres of Milhaud

Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...

's David, Poulenc

Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...

's Dialogues des Carmélites, Walton

William Walton

Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...

's Troilus and Cressida

Troilus and Cressida (opera)

Troilus and Cressida is the first of the two operas by William Walton. The libretto was by Christopher Hassall, his own first opera libretto, based on Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde...

, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Berg

Alban Berg

Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...

's Lulu

Lulu (opera)

Lulu is an opera by the composer Alban Berg. The libretto was adapted by Berg himself from Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora .-Composition history:...

, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)

A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...

, Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, while abroad, notably in Britain, he introduced several works by Italian composers such as Malipiero

Gian Francesco Malipiero

Gian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.-Early years:Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gian Francesco Malipiero was prevented by family troubles from pursuing his musical education in...

, Dallapiccola and Pizzetti. He conducted the premiere of the final revised version of Karl Amadeus Hartmann

Karl Amadeus Hartmann

Karl Amadeus Hartmann was a German composer. Some have lauded him as the greatest German symphonist of the 20th century, although he is now largely overlooked, particularly in English-speaking countries.-Life:...

's First Symphony

Symphony No.1 (Hartmann)

The First Symphony of the German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann was completed in 1955.Subtitled Versuch eines Requiem , the piece began life in 1936 as a cantata for alto solo and orchestra, setting translations of poetry by Walt Whitman...

 in 1957.

In 1955, he inaugurated the Piccola Scala, where he conducted several revivals of 18th century works by composers such as Piccinni

Piccinni

Piccinni may refer to:Tribe of American woodpeckers Picini of the subfamily Picinae-music:*Teatro Piccinni, Italian theater in Bari, Apulia, named after*Niccolò Piccinni, Italian composer and grandfather of...

, Paisiello, Cimarosa, etc. He appeared with this company at the Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...

 in 1957.

Sanzogno was admired for his precision and firm discipline marked by outward charm and elegance. His compositions include two symphonic poems, I quattro cavalieri del'Apocalisse (1930) and Vanitas (1931), and concertos for viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

 (1935) and cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 (1937), as well as music for chamber ensembles. In later years, he taught conducting in Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

.

He conducted Joan Sutherland

Joan Sutherland

Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....

's first complete opera studio recording (Rigoletto

Rigoletto

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...

) with Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

in 1961.

Selected recordings

• 1956 - Cimarosa - Il matrimonio segreto - Eugenia Ratti, Graziella Sciutti, Ebe Stignani, Luigi Alva, Carlo Badioli, Franco Calabrese - La Scala Orchestra - EMI
• 1959 - Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor - Renata Scotto, Giuseppe di Stefano, Ettore Bastianini, Ivo Vinco - La Scala Chorus and Orchestra - RICORDI

Opera films

• 1954 - Verdi - La traviata - Rosanna Carteri, Nicola Filacuridi, Carlo Tagliabue - Rai Milan Chorus and Orchestra - BELCANTO
• 1956 - Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro - Heinz Rehfuss, Marcella Pobbe, Rosanna Carteri, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Dora Gatta - Rai Milan Chorus and Orchestra - VAI

Sources

• Le guide de l'opéra, Roland Mancini & Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (Fayard, 1989) ISBN 2-213-01563-6
• Grove Music Online, Leonardo Pinzauti, July 2008.