Renewed uncertainty, 1923–7; ‘Le stagioni italiche', ‘Filomela e l'Infatuato’, etc.

After the years 1917–22, which saw the births of some of Malipiero’s most durable compositions, we come now to a less satisfactory period of renewed uncertainty and imbalance: once again, as in 1911–15, his musical vision seems temporarily to have lost its clarity, and his creative impulse some of its forcefulness, so that none of his works of 1923–7 (with just one possible exception) can be rated quite on a level with his finest music of the previous six years. In retrospect his compositions of this time seem transitional, and are interesting for that very reason, even if one may remain less than wholly convinced by most of the results.