Gian Francesco Malipiero may be considered the most original and inventive of the generation of Italian composers born around 1880 (the so-called “generazione dell’Ottanta”). This second Naxos issue of the cycle of 11 numbered and 6 unnumbered symphonies features the largest and most ambitious of the early “symphonies”, the turbulent and at times macabre Symphonies of Silence and Death. At the heart of Symphony No. 1, in Four Movements like the Four Seasons, is the autumnal third, rich in radiantly melancholy sonorities. Symphony No. 2 “elegiaca” is notable for the plaintive beauty of its two slow movements, especially the exquisite closing pages of the second, which also conclude the work.