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Panis Angelicus for choir or vocal quartet and piano, op.47

don Silvano Quattrin, Theologian:
"It is a composition that finds its place in the very personal and original style of Maestro Calligaris' art, where antique music and modern sensitivity torn by dramatic events of our time blend together.[...]
I have no doubt in affirming that Maestro Calligaris, in his extraordinary artistic perception of the moment, has admirably intepreted the dramatic wait of the whole Humanity that unconsciuosly shouts for being liberated from the pain of its despair.[...]
The inspired and profound words of the Piece are a tribute of Theology that becomes poetry thanks to St.Thomas, one of the maximum theologians in all time; the composition of Maestro Calligaris is the tribute of Art that becomes music, thanks to one of the most prestigious composers in our time.[...]
I recognise in that slow march movement with dissonances, the expression of all the anguish of the Humanity, that exhaustingly advances since millennia towards its pacific reconciliation, as to an unattainable utopia.
Yet the hope does not vanish, just because the Son of God, bread of angels ('panis angelicus') becomes bread of the human being ('fit panis hominum') that feeds the human creature, eternal vagrant, made able not to get lost in this painful roam. Thus the march of the Humanity, from slow and tiring, gradually becomes light and serene, in the moving and delicate harmony of a gentle chant, that dissolves in that infinite light where the Holy Trinity dwells ('ad lucem quam inhabitas')."

Vittorio Parisi, appointed lecturer Conductor at "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory in Milan:
"This is one of the Maestro's most inspired works, outcome of his compositive rigour, of his counterpoint wisdom and pianistic writing combined with that of the choir.
If music of sacred inspiration has to be a way to elevate the spirit avoiding easy contaminations and a simplistic use good for all purposes, this Calligaris' opus is perfectly suitable for the aim in the trace of a great tradition."

Maurizio Brunetti, "Il Domenicale", 7th June 2008:
"[...] Panis Angelicus op.47 [...] shares with the Ave Maria its verticalism and its strong religious tension, but its contrapuntistic structure, its demanding pianistic writing and its harmonic elaboration are far more complex."

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15th November 2007:
"[...] Particularly arduous was the work on Panis Angelicus of Calligaris: its complex writing, contrapuntistic and in the same time intimate and painful at the end turned out in an extraordinaty musical moment where only the deep spirituality of the composer came out as if by magic.
[...] Panis Angelicus opens a new compositive scenery that, I believe, will give mature and refined outcomes, as it already happened for the great composers in the past."

Antonio Galanti, Suonare News, December 2006:
"The vocal lines are plastically tense, sometimes almost "forced" in the high-pitched register. The harmony is rich and persuasive, nostalgically romantic: recall to a world lost by this time, awareness of the time which goes by."

Luca Segalla, Musica nr.180, October 2006:
"The more evident features of this meditation in music on the text of the Panis Angelicus[...] are the severity of a contrapuntal writing dense of chromatic movements and the expressive immediacy.
[...]it seems to represent the progressive ascent, supported by a rhythm of march almost uninterrupted, towards the immobility of the pure contemplation. Emblematic are the conclusive bars, with the voices of the soprano and the tenor steady on a E-flat which vanishes in the silence, on the background of a pianistic accompaniment reduced to a light whisper.[...]
The underground presence of the tonal language, the wide recurrence to the traditional counterpoint and the regularity of the rhythm, always very regular, are the main reasons of the communicative strength of this work."

Dismamusica Magazine, 30th September 2006:
"The piece was welcome with enthusiasm both in the musical world and in the theological one. Theoloians, in particular, recognized as Calligaris' music perfectly embodies the spirit of the sacred text.
[...] it is a demanding piece, suitable for ensembles that devote themselves to sacred music with diligence and that intend to spend time and energies in searching texts of great importance and intensity."

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15th May 2006:
"It sheds light on Sergio Calligaris' inner, spiritual world. Distant from overwhelming audience with his furious and passionate finals, in this work Calligaris prays and from his prayer in music a poetry gushes, worthy of the content of Panis Angelicus, hovering on a complex harmonization. As a pianist, the author leads the piano in the foreground and this assumes a thousand colours and a thousand instruments: as the oboe, the flute, the organ or the timpani.
Calligaris internalizes the sacred text and places it on a counterpoint structure dense and effective.
The Finale, begun by the piano, concludes in a "ethereal" pianissimo that leads us in a supernatural dimension.
An example to renew and place again in the Church a sacred music inspired and of a great musical achievement, like it happened some centuries ago. This is not getting back to the past, but a great progress for the music of our time."

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15 dicembre 2005:
"The composing activity of Sergio Calligaris proceeds with a very particular piece, that is the expression of the author's sincere faith: Panis Angelicus Opus 47 (entire text in latin) for piano and mixed choir or vocal quartet ad lib, dedicated to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Eucharistic Year 2005."

Il Giorno, Suite for the childhood
for choir, piano, violin and percussions, op.45

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15th March 2004:
"Here is the delightful Suite Il Giorno [...] Also in this seemingly easy work, Calligaris doesn't think of sparing himself in harmony: he therefore manages to harmonize melodies in a refined way and his peculiar style.
Suitable for being performed in any school, this work is welcome to audience both for its melodic beauty and for its lyrics.[...]
The text is by the composer himself and helps the child to recognize the various moments of the daytime, made of work, prayer and recreation. Calligaris succeeds in musically rendering the importance of the various moments with the suitable form and harmony: Introduction, begin of a new day; March, typical of the group of people going to work; Choral, the prayer; Waltz, with the pause on the second moviment, typical of the party.
In short, there are all the ingredients to enjoy and amuse the audience of children and, I'm sure, of adults too."

Prelude and Toccata for piano, op.44

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15th March 2003:
"Reading this work at the piano, I found a very inspired Calligaris and a piano writing as usual appropriate to the dynamical and timbrical possibilities of the piano.
The Prelude is in tempo di siciliana and, together with the melody (a very important element in Calligaris), the timbrical effects obtained from its many abbellimenti recalls the mature Skriabin, where the timbre merges with colour.
The Toccata, impetuous and virtuosistic, has an Interlude in movement of Pavane inside, where a fragment of Renzo's Piano Notebook is quoted. The serene and passionate element contrasts with the virtuosistic and stormy moment that concludes the Toccata, as in the composer's own style, in a virtuosistic and impressive final that wins applauses."

Suite for two pianos and four timpani ad libitum, op.43

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15th September 2001:
"Dedicated to the memory of his beloved mother Carlota, Sergio Calligaris wrote another work of impact for his audience. The Suite is compound by three pieces: Interlude, Agnus Dei and Libera me. Who loves Calligaris' music will find once again all the moments dear to the composer: dynamic ranges from ppp to fff, moments of extreme sound violence, moments of extreme delicacy and refined poetry..."

Ave Verum for choir or vocal quartet and piano, op.42

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15th February 2001:
"In this work Calligaris is very inspired and, without revealing his creative style, impresses a solemn, noble trait... he suffers and cries, but prays and resigns himself to the most tormenting mystery of the humanity..."

Roberto Piana, "NonSoloPiano", 2002:
"Calligaris, strong in his knowledge and deep severe study of structures, also knows the value of a pure emotion. His Ave Verum Op.42 for mixed choir (or vocal quartet, ad libitum) and piano, or Ave Verum Op.42a in its piano solo version, recently composed, is a magnificient example."

Double Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, op.41

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15th February 2001:
"The Double Concerto Op.41 for two pianos and orchestra is a powerful work where the two pianos complete each other and raise in an elegant and effective formal harmony…
Since Calligaris is a pianist in career and knows his instrument in all its facets, enraptures the listener and leads his, maybe resolutely, in this virtual journey where the soul first is amazed, then sings, suffers and rejoice at the music. And when Calligaris sings in slow movements is particularly persuasive…"

"Corriere del giorno", Taranto, 22nd October 2000:
"…the Double concerto op.41, this magnificent Sergio Calligaris' work, is divided into two wide movements. The first one, Ballad, is epic and passionate in character, the second one, "Perpetual movement", percussive and relentless. Both two movements insert each other in a cyclic form, both closing with a breath-taking and heated Coda, whereas intermezzos are distinguished by a very lyric theme achieving its highest expression in the orchestra."

Rosanna D'Agostino, "Calligaris' magic", from "La provincia cosentina", 13th November 2000:
"Concerto op.41 is full of harmonic contrasts and dissonances; its theme is continuously exchanged among instruments which play to chase each other, provoking a total anxiety status, always present up to the end of the work itself. Notes sound like recalling the natural stream of a river along a tortuous path. Listening to the central part, imagination goes to an atmosphere of almost reached peace, but anxiety hangs over. The finale is violent, sudden. In suspence between dream and reality."

Gabriella Fumarola, "Nuovo dialogo", 24th November 2000:
"Contrary to what generally thought about contemporary music, still considered a far aim for many listeners, Calligaris' Concerto for two pianos op.41 gained a positive impact on audience since its first bars. Clarity of ideas, formal severity, expressiveness and equilibrium between soloists and orchestra characterize Maestro Calligaris' new work. In composer's intentions one can perceive all importance given to both the soloists in the score and his ability to entrust to the orchestra sound mixtures of great impact never secondary to soloist voices. Peculiarity mostly considerable in the role entrusted now to orchestra, now to pianos, leading the musical narration in a perpetual crescendo, till the end. There's no lack of far-reaching melodic moments, where composer's touch assumes expressive tones, making room for inventiveness faithful to the peculiar nature of music, that is to communicate values and feelings."

Carmen Montedoro, "Cittą oggi", November 2000:
"Divided into a Ballad and a Perpetual movement, Calligaris' Concerto op.41 is distinguished since its first notes by a full sound, highlighted in the emerging conflict between the pianos and the melodic breath of the orchestral part. Contemporary harmonies are woven on a solid classical plot, giving rise to "avant-garde music with poetry". Calligaris himself, who likes defining his own artistic personality "concrete and optimist and, together, indirect", gives his music a remarkable rhythmic energy which sometimes shade off into a romantic ideal of indescribable beauty. Then, he indulges in melancholy to evoke, straight away, rhythms and melodic inventions peculiar to Rachmaninov, proudly claiming his own Central European roots, beside a vigorous beethovenian sound, evident in alternated octaves, beloved to the composer in upset moments. Dialectics, finally, as highlighted by Zurletti, makes one to affirm quite rightly to be in the presence of a great author who dignifiedly draws from the past and to whom tradition pays homage consecrating him as the last classic among contemporaries."

Sonata for clarinet and piano, op.38

Prof.Raffaele Pozzi (Artistic Director of The Institute of Music "Goffredo Petrassi", Latina), personal letter to the Composer, 15th July 2001:
"[...] The concert has been a memorable event and the lively success of audience and press achieved will remain among our most beautiful musical memoirs for a long time."

Francesca Del Grande, "Latina Oggi", 30th May 2001:
"It's a contemporary work, without experimentalisms and on the same wavelength as Ashkenazy. New and unpublished, it refers to the 19th Century tradition in style and tone."

Daniela Gangale, "Giornale della Musica", n.172 - June 2001:
"This Sonata, that places its trust in the classic sonata form for its overall architecture, was composed in 1997 at Raffaele Pozzi's invitation, Artistic Director of Festival Pontino, dedicated to both Ashkenazys and conceived in a way to treat the two instruments in a concert manner, with the same importance both instrumental and expressive."

ANSA dispatch, 1st July 2001:
"[...] at the beginning Vladimir Ashkenazy spoke about Calligaris' Sonata congratulating for the sensitivity with which the author could gather the ardent and at the same time romantic fire of the piano art."

Luca Della Libera, "Il Messaggero", 2nd July 2001:
"[...] adhesion to the tradition, respect to the classical forms, «orchestral» sound and great technical difficulties are the essential features of this piece, distinguishly resolved by the performers."

Francesca Del Grande, "Latina Oggi", 3rd July 2001:
"[...] refined harmony, calm intervals to break up animated and restless themes, strong and attracting sound. Lots of applause from the audience, to determine a great, convinced, fully deserved success."

Virgilio Sanvitale, "Musica", n.129 - September 2001:
"It's about a work that refers to the classical tradition forms, recalled in their polyphonic potential, according to a neobrahmsian poetic typically of Calligaris [...]
Opus 38 shows once again Sergio Calligaris as one of the most interesting representatives of a new relationship with the tradition, inspired to an agreement between mind and nature which finds in the civilization of western polyphony its own reason for existing."

"Fedeltą del suono", n.93 - December 2001:
"It was a memorable evening.[...] among the most interesting contemporary musicians living in Italy[...] one of the most performed contemporary composers in the world."

Roberto Piana, "NonSoloPiano", 2002:
"It is a magnificient example not only of instrumental knowledge, but also of mastery of form and polyfonic employment."

Fiorella Sassanelli, la Repubblica, 14th March 2007:
"A perfect essay of 'concertante' music."

Double Concerto for flute, piano and string orchestra, op.37a

Stefano Maffizzoni, flautist dedicatee of the Concerto:
"The music literature, thanks to the Maestro's opus 37, gets rich of a new milestone. I feel this Concerto as particularly congenial to my soul: I love it for his noble weaving, for the great lirism of some passages, for the generosity of sound that always demands to the soloist, without compromise. It is a piece of great passionateness."

Elide Bergamaschi, "la Voce di Mantova", 7th May 2006:
"A score of rare passionate temperament, matter spread as with lumpy strokes of brush by an orchestra always clung to the chant now broken now extraordinarily lyrical of both the soloist instruments. The beauty of this language lies in it peremptority."

Double Concerto for violin, piano and string orchestra, op.37

Alice Bertolini, "Suonare News":
"…during the Milano Classica season… the "Double Concerto" written two years ago by Sergio Calligaris… inflamed the public. The merit was also of the brilliant soloists: the violinist Sergej Krylov and the pianist Stefania Mormone, to whom the challenging and seductive composition is dedicated… alternating pages of irresistible rhythmic propulsion with yearning lyrical passages…"

Danilo Prefumo, "CD Classica":
"As a composer Calligaris is placeable in the tonal tradition, as it is understood in a modern sense, open to polytonal combinations. His first Argentinian teacher, Luis Machado, was an admirer of Hindemith. Indeed certain characteristics easily found in the major works of Calligaris show the influence of Hindemith's style, such as the Concerto for piano and orchestra, op.29 or Symphonic Dances, op.27: for example, in the frenetic sequences of motoric rhythm or in the extremely rigorous structuring of certain pieces, worthy of a Baroque Kappelmeister. But the most genial and attractive moments, perhaps, such as in the "Double Concerto" for violin, piano and string orchestra, are the ecstatic and contemplative ones, in which, among other things, Calligaris demonstrates a melodic vein of real originality."

Georgios Leotsakos, "Difono" Atene:
"…a very intelligently organized pre-stablished design, between the dissonances of a neo-classic style and an extremely gentle romantic euphoria"

Julian Cooper, "Perfil" Buenos Aires:
"…it was possible to hear the impressive work by Sergio Calligaris… attractive, well constructed and developed with great flounce, the Concerto is built on the contrast between fire and tenderness…"

Pablo Kohan, "La Nación" Buenos Aires:
"…it has a very passionate intensity and extremely exciting ensemble combinations that makes this work most interesting…"

Napoleņn Cabrera, "La Prensa" Buenos Aires:
"…Calligaris tumultuous personality is by him very successfully directed in his musical torrent…"

Toccata, Adagio e Fuga, op.36 for string orchestra

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola", 15 ottobre 2008:
"In the days between 6th and 19th August 2008, prestigious performances of the great contemporary composer Sergio Calligaris took place. For the Rassegna Marchigiana "Armonie della Sera", the XXI Century Orchestra, prestigious Spanish chamber ensemble conducted by its founder Maestro Luis Carlos Badia, chose for its concert held on 6th August Toccata, Adagio e Fuga Opus 36 for string. The same work was performed by the celebrated instrumental ensemble I Solisti Aquilani for their concert in Rocca di Mezzo, in the Abruzzi, the 19th August, under the baton of Pasquale Veleno, conductor of the Pescara Symphony Orchestra.[...]
The same composition was read according to two different musical manners by both conductors: Wagnerian Badia, Brahmsian Veleno. The Spanish Maestro highlighted the strong rhythmic and dynamic contrasts taking out an unusual dramatic quality of the piece, that made excite the audience. The Italian Maestro, instead, dwelt upon the phrasing and the sound, exalting the deepest and most philosophical side of the composition, very appreciated."

Quartetto for clarinet quartet, op.34

Luca Segalla, Musica nr.187, June 2007:
"It presents a dense writing, both in the contrapuntal and in the timbric levels, with a first movement which is a sort of study and a second movement completely played on a low-pitched register."

Michele Gioiosa, Musica e Scuola, 15th May 2007:
"it is a contrapuntal work dense and written in the manner of a perpetuum mobile"

Sergio Calligaris:
"I composed this Quartet with the aim it to sound like an orchestra as for its sound compactness".

Sonata Fantasia for piano solo, op.32

Roberto Prosseda, "www.hi-figuide.com", 2002:
"The complex formal research finds a happy union with a deep lyric inspiration."

Luca Segalla, "Musica", September 2009:
"Definitely out of reach of young pianists, not only for its complexity but also for its type of writing demanding a certain hand extension is instead the Sonata-Fantasia Opus 32, a real and true concert piece of huge dimensions and remarkable - even if not trascendental - virtuosism."

Concerto for piano and orchestra, op.29

Vladimir Ashkenazy, personal letter to the Composer:
"…I finally had a chance to listen to your Piano Concerto… I liked it very much. I think it has a lot of imagination… a lot of it is very beautiful and real…"

Maria Tipo, personal letter to the Composer:
"…a work of notable interest and a brilliant performance…"

Eugene Skovorodnikov, personal letter to the Composer:
"…I had a great pleasure to listen to your performance of your Concerto for the piano and orchestra, and I want to tell you, what a wonderful piece of music it is.
It is a very impressive piece of music. So powerful and spirited. There are so many great qualities in this opus, like drama of apocaliptic proportions, devilish sarcasm, profound lyricism. This piece reflects life in its fullest spectrum. Thank you so much for bringing this music to the world."

Walter Tortoreto, "Il Centro":
"…The highest point of the evening was the first world performance of the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra op.29 composed by Sergio Calligaris. The Concerto, played by the author himself, won a significant success for its qualities and for the faultless and gripping interpretation of Calligaris.
Built in one movement, but subdivided in eight sections, the work alternates solid blocks with lyrical oases entrusted to aerial, steady instrumental sonorities. The piano plays a fundamental role with his powerful presence that requires steel fingers and a high degree of vituosity.
Such a Concert enriches not only the wealthy catalogue of the pianist-composer Calligaris, but also a repertoire today not often attended by the musicians."

Virgilio Celletti, "Avvenire":
"He is the living figure of the pianist-composer.
Pages of great bright and variety, where the almost absolute presence of the piano doesn't prevent the work to enrich with a sumptuous orchestral instrumentation, with a general complex dialogue including soloists interventions of other instruments too. In the same way the athletic virtuosity lives together with lyricism and singing effusiveness, with a thick and rigorous counterpoint, realizing a fascinating alternation of atmospheres, timings and colours."

Daniela Giordana, "Strumenti e Musica":
"The Piano Concerto op.29 shows clearly the composition-style feature of M° Sergio Calligaris; that means the constant research of originality and beauty in the melody, of strong singing ability and expressiveness inside a strict formal structure, full of rhythmical energy, chromatism and contrapuntual developments. It's exactly this alternation and the contraposition between elegiac moments and shaking or stronger moments that creates an erudite and graceful "play" of colours and contrasts, typical of Calligaris's composition-style. This is the reason why the admiration of the general public and critics is unanimous. The Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra op.29 is undoubtly a very complex and arduous composition that only the very brilliant, crystalline and percussive pianism of Calligaris could impeccabily express. In this occasion too, Calligaris evinced a peculiar technical and timbrical mastery of the instrument, lucidity and accuracy in phrasing and a particular musical sensibility."

Umberto Masini, "Musica":
"…It is the triumph of the pianistic sound and of rich orchestral colours…"

Michele Gioiosa, "Musica e Scuola":
"…very effective music of refined musicality that imposes itself strongly to the listener…"

"Piano Time" Roma:
"…Calligaris style is unmistakable… his melodic and sound exuberance is capable to captivate the attention of the listener…"

Due Danze Concertanti, op.22 for two pianos

Luca Segalla, "Musica", October 2010:
"The spectacular quality emerges especially from the first of the Due Danze Concertanti Opus 22, a real and true flood of notes, crescendos and fortissimos already announced by its title, Guerriera, that does not leave any doubt. More transparent and light the atmospheres of the second dance, Ideale, built on a delicate tempo of pavane."

Sonata for cello and piano, op.9

Stefano Ragni, Giornale dell'Umbria, 27th June 2007:
"An Allegro appassionato with Pavane condense a meditation cyclically structured on a instrumental gesture of great importance, with a far-reaching wide and consolidated final."

Michele Gioiosa, Musica e Scuola, 15th May 2007:
"This work is passionate and rich for the pre-eminently two romantic instruments, and it is not by chance that it is dedicated to Robert Schumann."

Ave Maria, op.8 and op.8a

Maurizio Brunetti, "Il Domenicale", 7th June 2008:
"[...] To Calligaris, moreover, it fits like a glove the description given in his days to the American composer Robert Ward: a modernist unafraid of melody. And his Ave Maria op.8 [...] is a little jewel of re-discovered mystic tension: the dramatically ascending theme with which the angelic greeting begins, carries out an experience of overwhelming love, an anxiety to overcome the boundaries of the finity.
[...] a version of the Ave Maria for piano solo, performed by Calligaris himself. Its essential sound universe seems to be filled little by little with the light of each single note."

Renzo's Piano Notebook, op.7

A composition of a genious (Giuseppe La Licata, Rome, 7th July 1979), of a standing out spell (Sanchez Pedrotte, on A.B.C. of Seville, 8th February 1979), precious piano work (El Imparcial, Madrid, 4th February 1979), of a deep cultural and musical interest (Walter Tortoreto, on Paese Sera, 19th March 1979).

Luigi Fait, "L'Osservatore romano" 7th April 1979:
"These Calligaris' ones are… elegant and evocative pages that, bar after bar, exploit the entire expressive range of the keyboard. Their titles do refer us to the past (Waltz, Elegy…), nearly evoking Schumann's or Tchaikovsky's visions; but, thanks to the counterpoint lines and the accents full of the inner vitality of the various pieces, they show us present and meaningful human experiences… We can't see even a note more than necessary: harmony and accompaniment patterns shrink to the essential, aim at synthesis and entrust themselves to the performer's hands without any virtuosistic superstructure; and yet in a dignity of "elements" gushed from doctrines and intuitions not certainly elementary."

Laura Padellaro, "Radiocorriere" 14th April 1979:
"We've recently had the opportunity to listen to a composition by Sergio Calligaris… It's called "Renzo's notebook" and it's a collection of piano pieces having as for didactics just the intention and the utility; they're pages, indeed, of an elegant and firmly structured writing, and, as pianist V.Ashkenazy remarked, "very sincere, rich of communicativeness and artistic vitality"."

"L'Unitą" 21st June 1980:
"He's an authoritative musician… The success of this Notebook lies in completeness of synthesis, apart from technical aspects. The author can indifferently use the most angelical two voices writing as well as the most diabolical virtuosistic impetuousness. In the first one there are the Andantino, … the Tempo di Valzer, staring in a bartokian way, the Andantino malinconico hinting at Mussorgsky, the Barcarole,… the Carillon… and the Acquario, fixed on varied arpeggios inside chromatic flashes. From "Ritmato e ostinato" the "Notebook" assumes another face, but with no break from what precedes: all is coherent with that solely musical proposition which leaves out of consideration the level of technical difficulty."

Carla Di Lena, "Il Giornale della Musica", September 2009:
«Written for introducing to the piano my great friend Renzo Arzeni, the Quaderno was one of my very first works and the one that started my activity as composer: in every my subsequent work I have always wanted make a quotation from this composition, that has a big symbolic worth for me.»

Luca Segalla, "Musica", September 2009:
"A greater musical substance is in the Renzo's Piano Notebook, that after some easy and pretty little page (among which a delicate waltz) offers some mundane miniatures with interesting harmonies, inclined now to the Impressionism now to a rough uprightness like Casella."

Tema e variazioni for clarinet, cello and piano, op.5a

Michele Gioiosa, Musica e Scuola, 15th May 2007:
"…it contains different moments of the Calligaris' creative activity, starting from 1957, when the Theme was written, to come to nowadays. A very expressive and dramatic work."

Marco Andreetti, "Corriere della Sera":
"…the strong piece of the program (Brahms and Bruch), was the dramatic "Theme and Variations op.5a" (for clarinet, cello and piano) by Sergio Calligaris… Variations that were lyric and undulating…"

Other Sergio Calligaris' compositions

"Il Messaggero":
"…equilibrium between the complex harmonic language and a rich melodic invention… (String Quartet no.2 op.35)"

Alessandro Zignani, "Musica", n.128 - July/August 2001:
"[...] a Sergio Calligaris' piece (Prelude, Choral and Fugue op.33) where lyricism grows excited in its search for light, as a captive Fidelio, through the tangle of polyphony, here evoked as a ghost of the tradition."

Sarah Freiberg, "Strings", January/February 1998:
"Calligaris' Suite (for solo cello, Op.28) never ventures too high on the fingerboard of the instrument but does use a lot of chromatic motions and string crossings. While the piece is straightforward, it is certainly not easy."

"La Nazione" 3rd February 1981:
"The title (Choreographic Scenes, op.12) clearly hinted at the structure of the piece developed like a suite in a sequence of musical moments thematically independent… This piece is interesting because it dissociates itself from certain avant-gardes inexorably dated by now, and because of the intense participation revisiting some typical elements of late-romanticism and certain bartokian violent mechanicism."

Luca Segalla, "Musica", September 2009:
"The small pieces of Opus 11 present a difficulty level similar to Czerny's first pieces for beginners, with the merit to be elegant and very musical. They are really fit for a teaching use, also because Calligaris' language, not tonal in a strict sense of the word, is still based on triads and its consequence is a rather marked lyricism, far from the roughness of Bartok's Mikrokosmos, for instance."