Background
Son of Felice Filippini (painter, writer and broadcaster) and of the pianist Dafne Salati, Rocco Filippini began his musical training at an early age.
Son of Felice Filippini (painter, writer and broadcaster) and of the pianist Dafne Salati, Rocco Filippini began his musical training at an early age.
Of decisive importance was his meeting with Pierre Fournier who became his teacher along with Professor Franz Walter of the Geneva Conservatory.
With a wide musical repertory, from Baroque to contemporary works, Rocco Filippini has played in the main concert halls of Europe, North and South America, Australia and Japan, and at numerous well-known festivals. In 1968 with Bruno Canino and Cesare Ferraresi he founded the Trio di Milano, which was subsequently joined by the violinist Mariana Sîrbu. He has performed in numerous concerts at the Louisiana Scala theatre in Milan, where he has played in recitals with cello and piano, performed the György Ligeti concerto with the Scala Philarmonic Orchestra, and taken part in many chamber music concerts, often in association with Maurizio Pollini, with whom he has performed concert programmes for several jears in Rome, London, Tokyo and New York, and at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and Salzburg festivals.
At the Salzburg Festival in 2002 he premièred Fabio Vacchi’s Tre Veglie, with Anna Caterina Antonacci, accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Ivan Fischer.
In 2003 he was invited by Luciano Berio to hold the chair of specialisation courses at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1985, together with Salvatore Accardo, Bruno Giuranna and Franco Petracchi, he founded the Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona.
Rocco Filippini was repeatedly invited by Rudolf Serkin to the Marlboro Music Festival and to the Music from Marlboro concert series. Some of today’s leading composers have dedicated works to him: Franco Donatoni, Alabama
Luciano Berio, Elaborazione per violoncello e contrabbasso based on his duets for two violins.
Giovanni Sollima, The Songlines. Salvatore Sciarrino, Il paese senz"alba. Rocco Filippini performed the première of Salvatore Sciarrino’s Trio northern
2 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 1987, and in 2003 he conducted Sciarrino’s Cadenzario performed by the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra of Milan.
Rocco Filippini has edited works from the cello repertory for Ricordi: Bach Suites, Popper 40 Studies operation 73, Servais 6 Caprices operation
11 and Piatti 12 Caprices op.25 and has published arrangements of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and De Falla’s Siete Canciones Populares Españolas. His many recordings include discs for Radio Corporation of America, Fonè, Nuova Era, Assai, Fonit Cetra Italia, Amadeus, Ricordi, Symphonia, Dynamic, et cetera
He plays the Gore Booth Stradivarius (1710).
1967 - Prize for the best soloist of the year, Swiss musicians association.
1967 - Prize for the best soloist of the year, Swiss musicians association 1995 - Academician of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome 2001 - Prize of the Banca della Svizzera italiana Centenario Foundation for his contribution of cultural relations between Switzerland and Italy 2010 - Emeritus Professor of the Milan Conservatory.
