ABSTRACT
If 1941–4 were years in which Malipiero poured almost all his creative energies into dramatic and semi-dramatic vocal works, the next four years provide a striking contrast: they saw him complete few vocal compositions of any kind (and none of large dimensions), whereas his symphonic productivity suddenly increased to such an extent that by the end of 1948 he had added no fewer than five more symphonies to his total. What is more, there is good reason to regard this new batch of symphonies (numbers three to seven inclusive) as the most important group of the entire series, and as the culminating point in what Ansermet called the ‘supreme effort by this musician to give the music he carried within him a more pure and accomplished form, a true autonomy’. 1
