Nicola Campogrande “Urban Gardens” with Abbado/Arciuli is sublime! If all new music is this exciting and full of joy, bring me more!”
– Alison Young, Classical Minnesota Public Radio / Twitter, September 13, 2014

 

Campogrande’s music sparkles with wit and energy but displays, too, a rich vein of melancholy in the bluesy tune that permeates the second movement (of  his pianoconcerto”Urban gardens”). There are touches of Ravel in the writing for piano, but the sound and style is something new and original. The composer, a bearded, lanky 45-year-old, was present. He joined the musicians onstage at the end and received a rousing ovation
– The Star Tribune, Minneapolis

 

But the strongest impression came from the program’s newest work, an intriguing jazz-flavored, pseudo-piano concerto by Italian composer Nicola Campogrande (…) It sounded something like a modernist homage to George Gershwin with its bluesy, slow movement and evocation of urban landscapes. Arciuli handled its ample demands impeccably, whether scurrying about the keyboard hyperactively or laying florid lines atop the orchestra in a style reminiscent of Oscar Peterson’s orchestral excursions
– The Pioneer Press, St Paul (Minnesota)

 

Campogrande’s premiere, which served as the centerpiece of the program, was a largely impressive contribution from a composer who has not attracted much attention on this side of the Atlantic. The music was accessible while still full of complexity and individual character (…) The second movement, “In a Jazz Club Courtyard,” proved to be the most memorable, beginning with a jazz-tinged dialogue between piano, winds and percussion that built to a clangorous climax, followed by the entry of the strings in one of the most successful efforts I have heard to integrate the swing and syncopation of jazz with an orchestra
– Eric Prindle, Bad Entertainment.net, September 15, 2014